Ned Henry January 21, 2021 · nedhenry.medium.com

12:00 AM So who read the synopsis of Act 2 of the Valkyries AND saw Django Unchained? Remember Brünnhilde in Django Unchained. She was a pretty important character.

I watched more TV today than I have in months. I watched the PBS coverage of the inauguration from 10:30 AM to 10 PM (well I watched it on tape starting at 3 PM) when Katy Perry closed the show with fireworks. Great day. Great day for America. Lots of things I loved but none more than the 22 year poet and her poem that she delivered with her hands as much as her voice. This is my highlight from a day of them.

I remember an old English teacher my sophomore year in high school, Father Flynn. I was at the boarding school seminary. Fr. Flynn was sort of lazy, rolly polly old bald guy in his black cassock. He would say “Ah, Mr. Henry, Ah what is the Ah vocabulary word today?” He used a lots Ah’s for emphasis I guess. Every Monday he gave us vocabulary words to learn for the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays were study period in the classroom. He sat up front and smoked his pipe and read to himself, while we all worked quietly on our memorization or the words. Wednesday I think was the vocabulary test and Friday we recited whatever he had given us to memorize that week. So on Monday we knew the vocabulary we had to learn and we knew the poem or whatever we had to memorize and deliver in front of the entire class on Friday. Kind of a strange class. I doubt English classes are like that anymore. Memorizing stuff like the Highwayman, or Poe or the Gettysburg address. It was always something long and hard (Sometimes it was in Latin) and we all hated this boring boring class but we were stuck in it. It was English class for the year. Fridays were the worst especially if you were shaky in your presentation and got called out or yelled at for not knowing it. Can’t remember if he wrapped our knuckles with a ruler or not when we messed up. Probably not. While my generation may have been memorizing the Gettyburg Address, your generation (Gen Z) is going to be the ones to memorize Amanda Gorman’s stirring poem. (If you do memorizing at all.) That one will last in the history books far beyond the rest of the speeches and songs from yesterday. That litttle girl has talent and moxie. Listen again. I rewound 4 times yesterday when we got to her poem. Just couldn’t get enough of her words. 22 years old.

ACIM Lessson 20 — I am determined to see.

4 PM — Cancer is just not fun. Sorry about that. Spent much of the day at the cancer center waiting for them to get my chemo ready for injection into my spine. I’m more tired. Using a cane to help me walk — the one I had after my orthopedic surgeries. Decided to take the help getting around. Constipated. (• slow-moving; restricted or inhibited in some way: he’s one of those emotionally constipated, stiff-upper-lip types.
ORIGIN
mid 16th century: from Latin constipat- ‘crowded or pressed together’, from the verb constipare, from con- ‘together’ + stipare ‘press, cram’.) It sucks.

Jack and Carey sent me a book today. Anne Lamont — Plan B Further Thoughts on Faith. I wonder if I have any. I’ll take it tomorrow and crack it while I’m in my 7 hour fusion of chemo. Will let you know. Long day tomorrow. I have to get there at 7 AM. I am determined to see.

La Traviata tonight. I’m sad. Just sad. OK but sad. Gonna go sit with the weeping buddha.

Here’s today’s selfie taken this morning before I went to the cancer center for my spine chemo.