🗓️ 25-07-14-M | 10:14 PST | 🌤️ Sunny | 🌡️88° – 61° | Northridge, CA | 🌖 Waning gibbous moon is in ♓ | Week 29 | Day 195/365 | 170 Days Remaining
National Day 🍴 Mac and Cheese Day
✍🏾 MOOD
Agitated at the edges. I woke knowing a long strategic call with Steve Harrison of Amazon KDP lay ahead, and anticipation kept tugging at the sleeve of my calm.
🧭 THEME
Preparation commands the next best thing: poise.
🗝️ KEYWORD
Deliberateness
RMSDJ
Sleep score: 75. Not glorious, not grim. Yet I rose lighter than the number suggested. The morning unfolded with an almost ceremonial grace: kettle to flame, chamomile to cup, linens drawn smooth. That cup was a boîte of calm—a small vessel whose warmth held intention as surely as liquid. I will not tarry past 9:30 again if I can help it; early rest remains the hinge upon which good mornings swing. I suspect the chamomile conspired with that early hour to lengthen my sleep and soften my waking.
At 09:00 I entered the pool for forty-five steady minutes. Water accepts truth; it does not negotiate. My usual post near the Jacuzzi was littered with small stones. Some encourageable spark—a parvenu of disruption—had scattered them across the floor like improvised stars. I chose not to inveigh against the mischief. I shifted lanes and kept rhythm.
Jacuzzi after. Heat imperfect but kind enough. I listened to a Great Courses lecture on Descartes and the rationalists, and the material split my thinking like a perspectival prism—angles, refractions, reconsiderations. Then memory opened: Blake—To see the world in a grain of sand…—a line I once copied to my grandmother forty-five years ago. Memory keeps longer than we deserve.
Late morning I prepared for the 15:00 call with Steve Harrison. Outline first. Then a SimpleMind Pro map that looked like stained glass on the tablet—arched panes of sequence and intent. When the call ended (just under an hour), I routed the Otter transcript through Maestro. In minutes: summary, structure, strengths, weaknesses. Otter, once a bromide of routine, is reborn when paired with analysis.
I built yet another map from the call. Most people diagram; I build cathedrals. This living exchange between human intent and machine structure—this is the ground of the book taking shape in my head: AI Dialectic.
Late afternoon walk through Cal State Northridge. Wide paths. Quiet trees. Twain in one ear, Elizabeth Taylor in the other. The ignominy of the day’s heat began to fall away by 17:30, like a disgraced monarch backing down the marble steps.
Evening closed with The Gilded Age on HBO Max. Episode three. Gilt, ambition, social climb. Parlors as moral laboratories. Every scene an acrostic of intention—letters of wealth, class, and hunger forming words no one dares to pronounce aloud.
📖 WORDQUEST
(Each word: IPA • definition • etymology • memory hook • literal use sentence + explanation • figurative use sentence + explanation.)
boîte
/bwaːt/
Small box; by extension, an intimate room or container. French: box.
🧠 Imagine a velvet jewelry case that opens to release steam and violin music.
The chamomile cup was a boîte of calm, a small container holding warmth, scent, and composure.
🔎 Shows boîte as a literal vessel that contains something tangible.
Her one-bedroom apartment became a boîte of survival, tiny yet packed with resolve.
🔎 Recasts boîte figuratively as any tight space storing emotional energy.
Bromide
/ˈbroʊ.maɪd/
Trite remark meant to soothe; from sedative bromide salts.
🧠 Picture a dusty bottle labeled Comfort Phrases—expired.
Otter once sat in my toolkit like a bromide: familiar, dull, barely effective until paired with Maestro.
🔎 Demonstrates bromide as something overused and weak.
He offered bromides about patience while deadlines burned around us.
🔎 Figurative: empty comfort replacing action.
parvenu
/ˈpɑːr.və.nuː/
Newcomer who has gained status but lacks acceptance. French: arrived.
🧠 A gold watch worn over a garden glove.
The child tossing rocks was a parvenu of disruption, new to pool etiquette and rank.
🔎 Uses parvenu literally-as-metaphor: newcomer to a social order.
Tech money made him a parvenu in old publishing circles—present, not yet admitted.
🔎 Figurative social outsider newly elevated.
tarry
/ˈtɑː.ri/
To delay; linger. Middle English tarien.
🧠 A carriage waiting after the gates have shut.
If I tarry past 9:30, morning clarity leaves without forwarding address.
🔎 Directly shows tarry as dangerous delay.
He tarried at apology’s edge until friendship cooled.
🔎 Figurative emotional hesitation.
inveigh
/ɪnˈveɪ/
To protest or speak vehemently against. Latin invehere, carry in violently.
🧠 A storm of words slamming a door.
I did not inveigh against the stones in the pool; I changed lanes and kept my peace.
🔎 Demonstrates choice not to launch a verbal attack.
Critics inveighed against the new edition, but readers kept buying.
🔎 Figurative public denunciation.
conspired
/kənˈspaɪərd/
Secretly agreed or acted together toward a purpose. Latin conspirare, breathe together.
🧠 Two candles leaning to share a flame.
The early bedtime and chamomile conspired to gift me deeper rest.
🔎 Shows cooperative cause leading to good effect.
Circumstance and silence conspired to teach me patience.
🔎 Figurative forces aligning unseen.
encourageable
/ɪnˈkɝː.ɪ.dʒə.bəl/
Capable of improvement through guidance; heart may be strengthened. From Latin cor (heart) via encourage.
🧠 A young vine soft enough to train along wire.
That pebble-throwing swimmer is encourageable; show him the lanes and he’ll respect them.
🔎 Literally: behavior can be shaped.
A discouraged writer proved encourageable once given one good reader.
🔎 Figurative growth under support.
ignominy
/ˈɪɡ.nə.mɪ.ni/
Public shame or humiliation. Latin ignominia.
🧠 A crown turned green with tarnish.
By 17:30 the ignominy of the heat—heavy, oppressive—slid off the pavement.
🔎 Maps public discomfort of weather to shame.
He carried the ignominy of failure like mail he refused to open.
🔎 Figurative persistent humiliation.
perspectival
/ˌpɜr.spəkˈtaɪ.vəl/
Relating to perspective or viewpoint. From Latin perspectiva (optics).
🧠 A rotating kaleidoscope of angles.
The Descartes lecture split my thinking into perspectival panes—each view altering the last.
🔎 Demonstrates multiple angles of thought.
Grief shrinks under perspectival time; distance reframes loss.
🔎 Figurative shift in emotional scale through viewpoint.
Bromide of routine
Otter was a bromide of routine—reassuring but worn—until analysis gave the old tool reason to matter.
🔎 Uses bromide as tired comfort revived through function.
🏛️ APHORISM
Augustine of Hippo: Patience is the companion of wisdom.
🔎 COMMENTARY
Wisdom seldom travels alone; it walks beside restraint. Augustine reminds us that understanding ripens only when given time—and that impatience is ignorance dressed for speed.
❓ QUESTIONS OF VALUE
If we cannot control the outcome, can preparation still rescue the dignity of the effort?
🔎 Preparation honors the self even when the results belong to chance.
🪶 POEM
Preparation Is a Candle
I set the cup, I smooth the sheet,
I draw a lane through shallow heat,
I mark the hour before the ring—
Preparation does the humbling thing:
It lights the wick before the dark can speak.
🛠️ PRINCIPLE IN PRACTICE
Before any consequential call, create a written outline and a visual map. When conversation wanders, return to the map. Clarity is recoverable if anchored.
✍🏾 ELEGANT TURN OF PHRASE
Boîte of calm
The chamomile cup was a boîte of calm, a small box of steam and steadiness that steadied the rest of me.
🔎 Demonstrates boîte as a container; shows mood held within vessel.
Bromide of routine
Otter was a bromide of routine—reassuring but worn—until analysis gave the old tool reason to matter.
🔎 Uses bromide as tired comfort revived through function.
Parvenu of disruption
The pebble-flinging swimmer was a parvenu of disruption, newly arrived in my lane hierarchy and unaware of its laws.
🔎 Parvenu signals newcomer lacking standing.
Tarry with truth
When I tarry with truth—stay past the hour of rest—the morning’s edge dulls and discipline frays.
🔎 Tarry = to linger too long; consequence shown.
Inveigh no more
I could have inveighed against the rocks, but silence conserved energy for the work that mattered.
🔎 Inveigh = attack verbally; restraint illustrated.
Conspired with stillness
Early sleep and chamomile conspired with stillness to smuggle rest into my bones.
🔎 Conspired = joined forces, quietly purposeful.
Encourageable spark
That child’s mischief is an encourageable spark; a word of guidance could turn it toward grace.
🔎 Encourageable = improvable under guidance.
Ignominy of heat
The ignominy of heat lay over the campus like public embarrassment—felt by all, owned by none.
🔎 Ignominy = shared discomfort/shame.
Perspectival prism
The lecture turned thought into a perspectival prism; shift the angle and a new color of reason appears.
🔎 Perspectival = dependent on viewpoint.
Acrostic of intention
My mapped day formed an acrostic of intention—each first act spelling discipline across the hours.
🔎 Acrostic = hidden structure carrying message.
INTERPRETIVE SUMMARY
When words teach as they move, memory keeps them.
🏛️ STILLPOINT
The Stoic prepares not to guarantee success but to be unbroken by surprise. If the pool is cluttered, change lanes. If the call runs long, return to the outline. Sovereignty lives in the response, not the condition.
🔎 Preparation is interior armor; circumstance bends around it.
🧎🏾♂️ REFLECTIONS OF GRATITUDE
For the boîte of calm that morning tea became.
For the pool that received me even when my place was taken.
For outlines that tame agitation.
For memory that returns Blake when I need him.
For tools—old bromides—made new by use.
🪔 AFFIRMATION
I prepare in small acts so the large hours cannot scatter me.
Title: Preparation is a Candle (2025)
Medium: Digital Art
Reflecting Randy Sydnor’s application of his unique technique, Mnephonics, this medium blends visual storytelling with symbolic language to evoke memory, learning, and reflection.
Style of Art: Symbolist Realism with Quiet Mysticism
Dimensions: 1024 x 1024 pixels
Copyright: Randy Sydnor, The Mnephonist
—
Description:
To prepare is not merely to plan, but to light something within—a flame against the formless dark. Preparation is a Candle invites the viewer into a meditation on readiness: not as performance, but as ritual. The scene breathes with stillness. It glows, not with spectacle, but with intention.
This digital rendering—honed through Sydnor’s distinctive Mnephonics technique—uses visual metaphor as mnemonic cipher. The medium’s smooth gradients and subtle light textures allow the symbolic elements to whisper rather than shout. The work doesn’t just show; it reminds. The candle, in its singular glow, serves as both anchor and whisperer—an image meant to etch itself into the mind.
At the center, a modest candle burns atop an open book. This is no flamboyant centerpiece. It is quiet and exact. The wick stands straight, its flame teardrop-shaped, unwavering. The book beneath it rests open—pages splayed, words partially visible, as if learning itself has paused mid-breath. The candle becomes a figure of discipline. This is not illumination for illumination’s sake. It is earned light—deliberately positioned, quietly authoritative.
Scattered shadows and the blurred earth-toned background lend further resonance. There are no other figures here because none are needed. The viewer is the second presence in the room, asked only to witness. The interplay between text and flame becomes metaphor: we read by light, but we also prepare the light by what we read.
Drawing on the tradition of Marcus Aurelius and Hesiod, the work echoes an ancient refrain: he who prepares is he who governs. In the Stoic tradition, preparation is virtue in motion—ordered, modest, and eternal. The book beneath the candle becomes a perspectival prism—holding both the burden and blessing of anticipation.
Compositionally, Sydnor leans into chiaroscuro—a classical technique that marries dark with light not to dramatize, but to direct. The eye is drawn, not by color, but by glow. There is only one source of light in the image, and that is the flame of Preparation itself. The surrounding darkness is not menace but contrast—a visual bromide that places intention at its brightest.
The colors are sparse: umber, parchment, wax. But they sing in their simplicity. This is not a palette of variety, but of necessity.
Preparation is a Candle reminds us that readiness is not flash, nor performance. It is quiet decision—lit early, held long.
—
© Randolph M. Sydnor
Prints and digital sale of work is available
email for more information: rsydnor@mnephonics.com
🪶 POETRY ANALYSIS
Poem Title: Preparation Is a Candle
I set the cup, I smooth the sheet,
I draw a lane through shallow heat,
I mark the hour before the ring—
Preparation does the humbling thing:
It lights the wick before the dark can speak.
📖 Part I: Line-by-Line Analysis
Line 1: “I set the cup, I smooth the sheet,”
1. Literal meaning: The speaker performs quiet, intentional acts—placing a cup, smoothing bedding.
2. Implied meaning: These gestures are symbols of emotional readiness and the calm before a storm.
3. Tone or voice shift: Quiet intimacy—there’s reverence here, a whisper rather than a declaration.
4. Philosophical gesture: Meaning lives in small rituals. Order is a prelude to clarity.
Line 2: “I draw a lane through shallow heat,”
1. Literal meaning: The speaker begins swimming or exercising, carving movement into water warmed by the sun.
2. Implied meaning: The “lane” becomes metaphorical—a path of intention cut through resistance.
3. Tone or voice shift: Movement enters. Stillness gives way to quiet momentum.
4. Philosophical gesture: Progress requires movement within boundaries; even effort can be graceful.
Line 3: “I mark the hour before the ring—”
1. Literal meaning: The speaker prepares mentally and physically before an appointment or call.
2. Implied meaning: This is emotional girding—the discipline of anticipating responsibility.
3. Tone or voice shift: There’s tension beneath this calm—a flicker of anxiety.
4. Philosophical gesture: True preparation acknowledges time’s presence but is not ruled by it.
Line 4: “Preparation does the humbling thing:”
1. Literal meaning: Preparing brings the speaker into a posture of humility.
2. Implied meaning: The phrase suggests submission—not to fear, but to purpose.
3. Tone or voice shift: A sober insight enters, almost proverbial in delivery.
4. Philosophical gesture: Humility is not defeat—it is a position of strength earned through readiness.
Line 5: “It lights the wick before the dark can speak.”
1. Literal meaning: A candle is lit—symbolically, preparation is completed before danger or confusion arises.
2. Implied meaning: Preparedness is silent courage. It anticipates uncertainty and meets it with grace.
3. Tone or voice shift: Poetic finality—the metaphor crystallizes. A gentle triumph is declared.
4. Philosophical gesture: Wisdom is foresight in action. Darkness need not be feared if light is kindled early.
✒️ Part II: Literary Devices — Defined and Illustrated
1. Metaphor
Definition: A direct comparison between two unrelated things without using “like” or “as.”
Example: “Preparation does the humbling thing: It lights the wick before the dark can speak.”
Function: Frames preparation as a candle—elevating it from action to illumination. The metaphor deepens the theme of mental and emotional readiness.
2. Symbolism
Definition: The use of a symbol to represent ideas or qualities beyond the literal.
Example: “The wick” and “the dark”
Function: The candle wick symbolizes readiness and inner light; the dark symbolizes uncertainty or fear. Preparation becomes both shield and signal.
3. Imagery
Definition: Descriptive language that appeals to the senses.
Example: “I set the cup, I smooth the sheet,”
Function: Creates a tactile, visual intimacy. These domestic gestures suggest emotional ritual and grounding.
4. Alliteration
Definition: Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.
Example: “shallow heat”
Function: Enhances rhythm and fluidity. The softness mirrors the calm pacing of the poem.
5. Personification
Definition: Assigning human qualities to non-human things.
Example: “before the dark can speak.”
Function: The dark is imagined as an entity with a voice. Preparation silences it—not through force, but light.
6. Anaphora
Definition: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines.
Example: “I set… I smooth… I draw… I mark…”
Function: Establishes rhythm, builds momentum, and emphasizes the intentionality of each action.
7. Enjambment
Definition: The continuation of a sentence without pause beyond the end of a line.
Example: “Preparation does the humbling thing: / It lights the wick…”
Function: Carries meaning over the line break, mimicking how preparation bridges thought to action.
8. Isocolon
Definition: A rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases, or clauses of equal length.
Example: “I set the cup, I smooth the sheet”
Function: Emphasizes balance and routine. Reflects the measured grace of preparation.
9. Tone Shift
Definition: A change in the speaker’s attitude or emotional register.
Example: From tactile calm (“I set the cup…”) to philosophical insight (“It lights the wick…”)
Function: The poem evolves from domestic ritual to symbolic meaning, guiding the reader toward reflection.
10. Juxtaposition
Definition: Placing two contrasting elements close together for effect.
Example: “before the dark can speak”
Function: Contrasts preparation (light) with darkness (uncertainty), suggesting the silent triumph of readiness.
🪞 Part III: Final Reflection
This poem is not merely a meditation on tasks—it is a devotion to presence. Preparation Is a Candle reminds us that greatness rarely arrives in grand gestures; it is birthed instead in measured movements, in quietly drawn lanes through warmth, in anticipation that honors what is coming without fear.
The flame we tend is not reaction—it is readiness. As Marcus Aurelius might say, we are not shaken by events when we have made peace with discipline. The speaker does not merely light a candle—they become the keeper of it, ensuring it burns before the dark ever arrives.
What are we kindling each day before uncertainty enters the room?
And can we learn to trust the small acts enough to silence the dark before it speaks?
RMS INSIGHTS ✍🏾 