A word about the blog title

Recently I was showing a few friends some of the pictures we have taken since we've been here and I was a bit surprised about how they kept commenting on the quality of the photography. Now, the ones taken by our daughter Mary really are amazing, and the quality of the photography can legitimately be attributed to her skill as an artist and a photographer.  But the rest ... well, that is just one of the "blessed accidents" of the current state of technology which can produce a reasonably priced, good quality camera that is basically idiot proof.  

Do you remember the those little "instamatic" cameras?  You could just point and shoot.  They were great when used to capture interesting moments with friends, but they never were able to capture what you really saw when standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon so as to reproduce the memory with the accompanying emotion.  I was always disappointed when I finally got the pictures back from the photo lab.  

My command of the English language is a great deal like those little cameras.  I desire so much to be able to "capture" life here, to describe what we see and hear and feel so as to reproduce what it is really like.  But I'm afraid that, as Flaubert indicated, my words will not achieve the desired end.  

For my philosophically minded friends who may be concerned about some of my basic assumptions about reality because of my use of this quote (and those who have already voiced concern) .... all I can say is, "good grief, dude! Lighten up".  Nevertheless, let me state that I believe in the commonsense notion that reality is objective in essence, and able to be meaningfully comprehended and communicated in language.  "A cracked kettle" seemed like a novel title, not because it represented my philosophy about the nature of language, but because it seemed to capture the fact that I'm a Louisiana/Mississippi redneck, a carpenter ... not a Tolkien or Lewis.  The "cracked kettle" refers to this blog and my limitations in the artful use of language to accomplish all that I desire, not the limitations of language to meaningfully describe what is real.  I'm convinced that you will get the picture as I present things, but most likely it will be like those "instamatic" photos that never quite captured the majesty of the moment.