A book and some thoughts

I'm about to read this study about one of the most interesting books I've ever come across.  I've found this copy in an old box with my first hardcover copy.  It was published a hundred years after the book came out.

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind ~ by Richard Maurice Bucke, 1900, consciousness, 121 pages

Bucke explores the concept of cosmic consciousness, which he defines as "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man."  This is a scientific study of illuminated individuals.  Bucke provides three dozen very consistent examples of  "cosmic consciousness."  These enlightened figures, he says, are evolutionary jumps, the predecessor of a more advanced species.

Back in 2012, I shared stories about some rather clueless folks.  When I happened to run across them the other day, I decided to share some of those stories (and laughs) again.  My readers have probably changed since then, and they were funny to me when I re-read them, too.  Here's one of those stories for you to laugh a little with me:

Customer:  "I've been calling 700-1000 for two days and can't get through; can you help?"

Operator:  "Where did you get that number, sir?"

Customer:  "It's on the door of your business."

Operator:  "Sir, those are the hours that we are open."

When packages are delivered to our building, this is where they are left by delivery drivers, even those that should have been taken to someone's apartment door, like food deliveries.  So there's a jumble this time of year, when folks are sending Christmas gifts.  That rumpled white-plastic thing in the middle is my package.  It's simply some wafers I ordered, but notice the two big delivery containers below the counter!

Added later:  I told a friend that today is my grandmother's birthday, then I had to try to remember what year she was born.  Inez Geneva Underwood Reynolds (my mother's mother) was born December 22, 1880, and died about a week after my third birthday in 1943, when she was only 62 years old.  She's the second person from the left on the front row, standing next to my grandfather.  It was about 1928, and my mother (the tall girl on front row) was about 12 years old.  The six brothers and two sisters of the Reynolds family are lined up by age.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.