Monday, April 5, 2021

 Monday, April 5, 2021

             I spent the morning ordering copies of Mike's doctoral thesis from the dissertation publishing house. Ready for this title? "The Unity of Spiritual and Political Exercises in Simone Weil's Call for a New Saintliness: Being, Thinking and Doing in the Quest for the Good," I remember Mike speaking about it simply as Weil's Quest for the good. I ordered one digital copy and two hard copies, one for Jean and one for Damon. No, I hadn't read it yet. Reading it will probably make me feel lonely. Reading his journals is disappointing. They're all abstract and deal with functional issues. I suppose someone reading my journals, the ones I wrote from 18 to 32, would feel the same about them. However, I remember pouring out my heart and guts as I wrote them. Some people think abstract thought has no connection to feelings; geez, are they ever wrong. 

            I finally got vacuuming done in the living quarters over Yvette and Josh's. Josh had been home for four days straight with a bad back. I don't vacuum when he's in the house.

            I was supposed to have an appointment with H today. An hour before the session, I got a text from mom saying he was back in school and would no longer be working with me. The mom isn't downright arrogant, just not very thoughtful.

            I had three appointments today. First, with J.  We worked on math. A graph was provided with 100 squares. The questions ran if x is 30% of a total number, what is the total number? Or, 30% of some x is how many. The instructions were to use the graph to solve the problem. I had no idea how to do that. Finding 30% of x was easy. Finding the 100% from x is 30%, not so much. I figured out I could use ratios and get the answer. If there's another way, I don't know. I asked J," What percent is all?" He had no idea. Oh, dear. I had to say," 100%."

     J still struggled with speech. He often had problems with word recall. He'd say, 'you know' or '"What's the word?' This was not just an English language problem. He told me that he had trouble in Spanish too. Today I asked if his Spanish had improved. Yes, I asked about his English. Yes.   We still have to do more work.

            Scott and Yvette came up carrying the unwanted window. They laid it down in the guest room. I was in no hurry to do something about it. However, I was greatly relieved that Yvette didn't just make do with it since she thought it wouldn't meet her needs. There was no question that I would be able to sell it whenever ready to do so.was

            I had an appointment with my adolescent D. His mom wasn't with us today. He works hard. He reverses letters/ sounds. I asked him if the letters moved on around. He said no. That means his problem is with his audio processing. The work went slow but steady. He had trouble reading today. He asked what sound they made. Here the ey makes the long a, but the same letters make the long e sound in money. He apologized at the end for reversing the sounds. I assured him he didn't owe me an apology for that. I listed the things he could apologize for; being rude dismissive was one of them. 

            Afterward, I had an appointment with I. Her mom was supposed to get hold of me and tell me something about her teacher, but still no word. I.'s reading fluency is still halting. Also, I've been concerned about her comprehension. I started using the Drawing Conclusions D, 4th-grade level. She was in 3rd grade. She selected an answer that was never mentioned or suggested in the text. Hmm!

            I watched the end of one video Damon recommended and the beginning of another. Made You Look was the first one. It was the true story of fraud in the art world. This amazing Chinese artist was able to copy famous abstract artists, de Kooning, Motherwell, Rothko, and Pollack. People spent millions, like $30 million, on single paintings. I thought the paintings were great, but they weren't the works of famous artists. I thought the fake Rothko was better than anyone painted by the actual artist. I loved the magenta peeking from behind and through the large dark rectangle. I'd happily live with any one of those paintings. Of course, I wouldn't spend $30 million on it. I would never spend several hundred thousand, no less several million. I don't have that kind of money for art. What money I do have, I spend on solar panels.