Calendar challenged on the train

It's time to play What's Wrong With This Picture?, boys and girls! Got a calendar for Dad's room at the nursing home.  Last year he was stuck with a bees 'n' butterflies perky calendar that we both grew to detest, staring at it through each evening's supper.

Now we are staring at this more graphic design.  It wasn't until I punched out the circle for January fifth that I understood the problem.  Just when we think life is too short and the weeks are too long, it turns out to be the other way around.

Dad's weeks are not a whirlwind of parties, meetings, campaign appearances, and doctor appointments.  It won't matter to him that the weeks have only six days.  Sunday won't be on the left.  Saturday won't be on the right.  For Dad it's pretty much all the same day anyway.  And so, I am having a Janis Joplin "Ball and Chain" moment. *Beware a curse word below.

Dad's vision is poor, and his depth perception is way off. Maybe the high contrast calendar will be a cheering image for him.  Looking ahead, I have a grandchild arriving just a few months from now. What can newborns see?  I bet a baby would like this calendar, and not care much about the short week.**

*"I don't understand how come you're gone, man. I don't understand why half the world is still crying, man, when the other half of the world is still crying too, man, and it can't get it together. I mean, if you got a cat for one day, man - I mean, if you, say, say, maybe you want a cat for 365 days, right - You ain't got him for 365 days, you got him for one day, man. Well I tell you that one day, man, better be your life. Because, you know, you can say, oh man, you can cry about the other 364, man, but you're gonna lose that one day, man, and that's all you've got. You gotta call that love, man. That's what it is, man. If you got it today you don't want it tomorrow, man, 'cause you don't need it, 'cause as a matter of fact, as we discovered on the train, tomorrow never happens, man. It's all the same fucking day, man."



**A newborn infant can easily see many of the things most important to him or her: your eyes, your lips and smile, your nose, and his or her own hands, fingers, feet and toes...Infants reflexively prefer to look at high-contrast edges and patterns. Large black and white patterns present the highest possible contrast (100%) to the eye and thus are the most visible and attractive to babies. 


© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder