American Gothic is the 1930 painting by Grant Wood, depicting a farm couple standing in front of their Carpenter Gothic style home. Wood’s sister was the model for the woman in the painting. The Wood family’s dentist was immortalized in painting, playing the role of the farmer. The farmer in the painting is grasping a pitchfork. Pitchforks have two to five slightly curved tines. Tools with fewer tines are used to turn bulky materials; those with more tines are best for looser materials. The three tines of the pitchfork held by the farmer in Wood’s painting suggests the tool was the type used to turn hay or straw. But a reference to a three-tined instrument elsewhere calls it a “weapon,” known by another name: trident. Three-tined pitchforks (AKA tridents) historically have been associated with religious symbolism and political rebellion. Tridents are found in connection with Greek (Poseidon) and Roman (Neptune) gods that protect the realm of the sea. Whether the etymology of the word “trident” had any bearing on Wood’s use of his family’s dentist as a model is open to discussion and debate—but the word is derived from the Latin word tridens or tridentis: tri meaning “three” and dentes meaning “teeth.” Implications like that, though, are woven through the fabric of conspiracy theories and the like. A few years ago, mi novia and I stumbled upon a sign that led us to a farmhouse in Eldon, Iowa. The place served as the setting for Wood’s painting. Such aimless road trips can yield unexpected experiences. And those adventures can serve as fodder for future fascination.
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Another impossible dream. A luxury cruise on a small (less than 300 passengers) ship around the Great Lakes. My preference, actually, leans toward a cruise on a luxury yacht; ideally, the very small list of passengers would be subject to pre-screening and my personal approval. Having never been on a cruise longer than a single night, I might discover that I loathe cruising, but I suspect I might enjoy it immensely, if I had sufficient control over the itinerary, the passengers, the qualifications of the crew, and the luxuries and amenities available during the cruise. Unless and until I am offered a guaranteed “dream” excursion, though, I have no immediate plans to begin making arrangements for the experience. Except in my over-active imagination.
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My white blood cell count (WBC) continues to be low (at 1.7) and dropping, though before the recent downward trend it jumped into the normal range briefly. The lowest point of 0.5 was labeled “critical low,” considerably lower than the bottom end of the “normal” range of 4.2 to 10.0. The oncologist prescribed an injection yesterday to address the low white blood count. I think her decision was based in part on the advisability of getting various vaccinations, including COVID, flu, etc., etc. I’ll see about getting the vaccinations next Monday. A low WBC is one of many reasons to avoid crowds and cruises. Perhaps I could actually entertain the possibility of a sub-ideal version of a Great Lakes cruise if I could get my WBC back in “healthy” territory. Hope (AKA fantasy) springs eternal. My ongoing weight issues (latest figure: 147 pounds) continue to be worrisome. No matter how obvious it is that I need to eat more, I rarely can force myself to consume more than a little bit at a time. The reality of malnutrition shows up from time to time in the form of increasingly obvious weakness. The WBC and weight issues probably would be addressed completely if I were to stop chemo, but that might bring on an entirely new set of concerns, such as triggering a rapidly accelerating rate of cancer cell growth. Virtually everything in my life seems to remain on “pause.” An argument could be made that “pause” is more appealing than “stop” or “fast forward to the end of the file.”
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