turns of phrase

Posted September 26th, 2006 by Michelle

It’s been a rough few months. One of my coaches keeps reminding me that I’ll never have to slay that particular dragon again, but if so, why does the dragon still hold so much sway? I’m breathing easier, though, a little better every day, and sleeping just a little better every night. I wish I could say more about this; indeed, I think I should write at length about it, but I can’t here. But suffice to say that I had to do battle with dragon that was at one moment the friendly beast in that terrible movie with Sean Connery and Kurt Russell, and the next a balrog from where the dwarves dug too deep.

Anyhoodle, these last couple of weeks, when I’ve gotten home from work, I’ve taken to going on long walks around my neighborhood. Which means I have to leave work at a reasonable hour, since by 7:30 it is seriously considering being all the way dark. But these walks are just wonderful. It’s one of the few times during a work day that I listen to a lot of music, and there are still roses in bloom just about everywhere, and I live on the outskirts of a beautiful downtown historic district. Indeed, many of the homes boast plaques that tell the reader when it was built (by hand in 1886), by whom (John C. Coombs and John C. Delaney), and how many times it has flooded (too many to count). I can’t get enough. And this afternoon in particular, I swear a memo went out to every single neighborhood cat, because they were out in force, and in full repose. Every column, every stoop, every grand chair was graced by un gato, still as a statue and grand as a Sphinx, except for the lazy blinking of their eyes when I’d look at them. Fat cats, scrawny cats, mutts and Persians and everything in between. It’s almost as if they know the rains will come and they best soak up the day’s heat from the pavement while they have the chance.

So eventually I’m going to come to the point of this blog. I was walking through the neighborhood, unabashedly staring at the houses and the yards still filled with tomatoes and sunflowers and poppies and I was reminded of one of my favorite literary phrases: nodding flowers. I know it’s overused, but it’s just so apt, and I love it. Because I was breezing by and the flowers were nodding at me, agreeing with me that it was a lovely evening. I thought also of “kids sawing away on violins”, another overused phrase, but how perfect! If you’ve ever seen a young youth orchestra, that’s exactly what it looks like: little ones, frowning with determination, Charlie Brown-esque tounges poppped out the sides of their mouths, furiously sawing away at their poor little wooden instruments. I think it’s my sis-in-law Jordana who in band practice always found satisfaction if she got to the end of her music “first”. I just love it.

I know that there are horrid and banal over-used phrases in literature (“his eyes slid down her dress” comes to mind) but sometimes the genius of a phrase, or a turn of music, is undeniable, no matter how often it’s used. American Airlines can do their best to make me forget the magic of “Rhapsody in Blue” but as long as I hear it outside of the context of a commercial, it still moves me, and it always will.