Three things from DAH. 

DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. I can't remember if I remember properly.

First up this week, Elephants …  
There's something about elephants. Something that draws me. It's always been there. Perhaps because I grew up when elephant jokes were in vogue. 

Q: What did Tarzan say when he saw elephants coming over the hill?
A: "Here come the elephants over the hill."
Q: What did Tarzan say when he saw elephants coming over the hill wearing dark glasses?
A. Nothing. He didn't recognize them. 

I'm fascinated by real elephants, too. Since I don't live in elephant country, I look at pictures and videos and enjoy our home's elephantine decorations … meaning that elephant figures decorate our home, rather than that our home decorations are large and clumsy. And I aspire to elephantine memory. Except that an elephant brain is more than three times as large as a human brain, which would result in my having a very fat head, which could be large and clumsy.
Top 10 Facts About Elephants

Second up this week, Entropy …  
"the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity" (Merriam-Webster). I think about entropy a lot at endings: rather a December state for me, as something of a calendarist. I worry about settling into a state of inert uniformity. I'm reminded of young Thomasina addressing her tutor in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia:

In the study of physics she's touching on chaos theory, but for small brain thinkers like me, entropy and chaos both feel like being able to stir things together but not apart.
Entropy: The Hidden Force That Complicates Life

Third up this week, Eves …  
You may think Adams and. But I'm thinking the day before. The day before Christmas Day, or the day before New Year's Day, or, moving backwards in the calendar, the day before All Hallows' Day. I probably shouldn't have moved backwards … can't be stirring things apart. Eves assert a sort of primacy for the day ahead, but not every day ahead. I rather like Boxing Day, for example. Boxing Day feels less freighted with religiosity than Christmas Day, but I doubt that I'll get much support for Boxing Day Eve, given the extant Noel primacy of that day. On the other hand, I'm quite certain more people celebrate All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) than All Hallows' Day itself. Who decided these primacies? Or did they just happen, and now can't be unstirred?
Why is it called Boxing Day?

And a bit more:

Christmas, by Heather Christie

here is a piece of me it is my foot or it is my
spinal attachment they put a tree in the living
room of course you’d want to climb it only the
problem is we are not small enough and when we
were small enough we were not strong enough
it wasn’t even a question I do not want this many
parts I wish I were only one thing a kneecap
maybe or a liver if I had a real choice I would
be an analog phone then when you were with me
I would keep ringing and when you kissed me I
would hang up one man knew how to sing like a
dial tone I think he was our king unfortunately
I noticed everything today and the people won't
let me return it

And that's all for this week.
From Mary Oliver’s poem Sometimes …  

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it. 

Please share any or all of this newsletter. It's Free every Friday!
If you’re seeing it for the first time, you can subscribe and browse past issues HERE