Bluebird

Bluebird, by Charles Bukowski.

Magic Carpets Made of Steel

And the sons of Pullman porters / And the sons of engineers / Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel. / Mothers with their babes asleep / Rockin' to the gentle beat / And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

This life is so beautiful it could bring a tear to your eye. (But it didn't! Self-control prevailed.)

Song link here.

Lots of love to you this late January day in 2014.

Safe Harbor

To be a safe harbor for the hungry by sharing food with a genuine feeling of hospitality.

To be a safe harbor for the cold by sharing warmth with a genuine feeling of hospitality.

To be a safe harbor for those who feel inadequate by sharing genuine appreciation.

To be a safe harbor for the lonely through friendly, sincere, and nonjudgmental listening.

To be a safe harbor for the grieving by being at their side without interrupting their grief with my trite words.

To be a safe harbor for the guilty by not participating in condemnation.

To be a safe harbor for the stressed out by being calm, smiling, and restraining my reaction.

To be a safe harbor for those who made a mistake by being patient and not responding until I can view the situation from a broader perspective.

To be a safe harbor for all people, with or without afflictions: Everyone needs a  person whose presence is a safe, warmhearted place to be in. Everyone likes to feel that they are "on their way back home".

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

1. I borrowed the phrase "safe harbor" from this awesome link.

2. I borrowed the phrase "on our way back home" from this video. 

Prayer for Marlise Munoz

The news reports that a woman in Texas, Marlise Munoz, is brain dead and a judge has ordered that she be taken off life support.

Prayer to the gods of Rome for Marlise Munoz, her family, the hospital, the court, the lawyers, and the legal staff.

Photograph from 1897

The Library of Congress photographic archives contains this image, dated 1897, of children purportedly sitting on the steps of the Temple of Vesta, in Rome.

Prayer for Those Who Judge Themselves Harshly

Prayer to Vesta for those who are trapped in feelings of inadequacy and self-judgment.

Prayer for Kiev

The news reports at least four protesters in Kiev, Ukraine, killed in clashes with the police.

Prayer to the gods of Rome for the protesters, the police, and for the city of Kiev.

Prayer for Victims of Prejudice

Prayer to the gods of Rome for victims of prejudice around the world.

The Passage of Time

"Those words which once were common and ordinary, are now become obscure and obsolete; and so the names of men once commonly known and famous, are now become in a manner obscure and obsolete names. Camillus, Cieso, Volesius, Leonnatus; not long after, Scipio, Cato, then Augustus, then Adrianus, then Antoninus Pius: all these in a short time will be out of date, and, as things of another world as it were, become fabulous. And this I say of them, who once shined as the wonders of their ages, for as for the rest, no sooner are they expired, than with them all their fame and memory. And what is it then that shall always be remembered? All is vanity. What is it that we must bestow our care and diligence upon? Even upon this only: that our minds and wills be just; that our actions be charitable; that our speech be never deceitful, or that our understanding be not subject to error; that our inclination be always set to embrace whatsoever shall happen unto us, as necessary, as usual, as ordinary, as flowing from such a beginning, and such a fountain, from which both thou thyself and all things are. Willingly therefore, and wholly surrender up thyself unto that fatal concatenation, yielding up thyself unto the fates, to be disposed of at their pleasure."

                         --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV, Section XXVIII

Prayer for Elma Marcha

Prayer to Vesta for Elma Marcha, who lost her parents in Typhoon Haiyan.

Yellow Flowers

'Butterfly Waltz', by Brian Crain.

Prayer for Storm Victims

Prayer to Vesta for people in the path of a winter storm in the eastern U.S.

A River Flows in You

Sungha Jung plays, on acoustic guitar, 'A River Flows in You', by Yiruma.

Picture taken at Gaya Mountain National Park, Korea, September 2013.

Empathy

There are a lot of Facebook memes. Some are not so insightful; others, very much so. There was one awhile back that really struck me: "Can't find a nice person in the world? Then be one yourself."

In some ways, the person who is routinely denied empathy (or who is denied empathy at a far higher rate than other people) is the person who perhaps, above all, could be said to have a duty to show the most empathy. After all, they have something--an insight--that most people don't: They know what it's like. That sounds prosaic in the saying. In the living, it's extraordinary. The insight is not accessible to other people if only obtainable through correspondingly inaccessible experience.  

A year or so ago, I had a personal policy that for every cruel thing someone said, I would pick up 100 pieces of garbage. That way, I could convert hurtful words into flowers. Lately, I've begun to think the response need not be so strictly quantified. Nor need it be framed as a heavy moral duty. It does just fine as a guiding principle: When no one else is willing to extend empathy or understanding, how about you (me) doing so? You don't really have an excuse.You, more than anyone else, know what it's like.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a person who poured love into others. I will be that person this week. 

Saint Daria, Vestal & Christian Martyr

This deserves a comprehensive, researched blog post. Unfortunately, I'm pressed for time; for now, the National Geographic article.

Purpose

I always forget my purpose in life: To make the person standing at my side happy.

두 가지 마음

요즘은 두 가지 마음이 있어요. 그 두 가지 마음이 서로 반대해요. 한 편에는 하고 싶은 것이 많이 있어요. 다른 한 편에는 연기 하는 걸 괜찮다고 하는 생각이 많이 나요. 하고 싶어도 스트레스를 받기 싫어요.

*     *     *     *     *

아침에 일어나서 은행에 갔다 왔어요. 돌아왔을 때 왠지 구십년 대에 자주 듣던 Kpop가 떠올랐어요. 집에 들어가서 유투브에 이 노래를 찾았어요. 구십년 대 이 노래를 자주 들었어요. 인생처럼 행복과 슬픔이 섞이는 것인데 아주 상쾌한 느낌이 들어요. 구십년 대의 Kpop에는 깨끗하고 상쾌한 느낌이 자주 들어요:

전 세계 모든 사람 위해 기도해요. 

Plutarch on Eating Flesh

Plutarch's brilliant discourses on eating meat. Perhaps the most interesting part is the discussion of the blinding power of convention on the human mind. 

There is also discussion of the Pythagorean theory of the migration of souls. One wonders if such a belief is necessary as a sort of precursor worldview, on top of which and from which later generations can extract and retain the element of compassion while questioning the metaphysical basis. 

Saturnian Ideal

From Bullfinch's Mythology:

Saturn was an ancient Italian deity. It was attempted to identify him with the Grecian god Cronos, and fabled that after his dethronement by Jupiter he fled to Italy, where he reigned during what was called the Golden Age. In memory of his beneficent dominion, the feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter season. Then all public business was suspended, declarations of war and criminal executions were postponed, friends made presents to one another, and the slaves were indulged with great liberties. A feast was given them at which they sat at table, to show the natural equality of men, and that all things belonged equally to all, in the reign of Saturn. 

Please Don't Kill Me

"None is so near the gods as he who shows kindness." (Quote attributed to Seneca.)

Please don't kill me.

Seneca On the Humanity of Slaves

Seneca's letter on slavery, from www.stoics.com. There are so many good lines, it's hard to choose which part to quote:

Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies. It is just as possible for you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave.

And:

[The ancestors] established a holiday [Saturnalia] on which masters and slaves should eat together, - not as the only day for this custom, but as obligatory on that day in any case.

Keep Calm and Stoic On

I can't remember where I got this. I found it while cleaning out some files on my computer. I hope whoever made it doesn't mind if I post it on my blog. 

Prayers & Lots of Love

I took this photo last spring before the leaves were out at higher elevations. This is looking back along the ridge that you walk up to reach the summit of this particular mountain.

Prayers for all humans and lots of love to you this day in January 2014. Enjoy this youthful, energetic, upbeat song, by Kpop group Glam! Life is beautiful.

Tango Dance in Buenos Aires to 'Graj, Skrzypku, Graj'

The uploader of this YouTube video says this is a recording from a dance event in Buenos Aires in April, 2013, last year. A couple is dancing the tango to 'Graj, Skrzypku, Graj'. Just gorgeous. It starts at 0:25. 

Graj, Skrzypku, Graj

The Washington Times had two articles on the tango in its January 13, 1914 edition.

The first, on the front page, reports that the tango would be allowed at a White House event:

Pass Christian is a city along the Gulf coast, in southern Mississippi, west of Biloxi.

Woodrow Wilson sent a nice letter to Pass Christian when he was invited back the following year, which the current mayor had framed and hung in the new city hall.

The second article, on an interior page, reports the American ambassador to Argentina at the time, John W. Garrett, as saying, upon arrival in New York, that the tango was unknown in Argentina:

According to Wikipedia, John W. Garrett's family was involved in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The mansion that he retired to after his career in diplomacy later became a museum and library owned by Johns Hopkins University. 

I looked for tango dance videos on YouTube, and I ended up listening to this hauntingly beautiful song from 1930s Poland, called 'Graj, Skrzypku, Graj', which the uploader says means 'Play, Fiddler, Play', apparently sung by a singer named Marian Demar Mikuszewski, for which the Internet provides no readily available biographical information in English. 

I understand that tango music and tango dance are traditions that have a strong connection to one another, but do not precisely overlap. 

Patience with People

Meditations Book VII, Section XLI:

"Can the gods, who are immortal, for the continuance of so many ages bear without indignation with such and so many sinners, as have ever been, yea not only so, but also take such care for them, that they want nothing; and dust thou so grievously take on, as one that could bear with them no longer; thou that art for a moment in time? yea thou that art one of those sinners thyself? A very ridiculous thing it is, that any man should dispense with vice and wickedness in himself, which is in his power to restrain; and should go about to suppress it in others, which is altogether impossible." 

I understand this to be saying, rendered into contemporary English: The gods are immortal and age upon age have patience with people's shortcomings and failings. Yet you (i.e., me), who exist only for a fleeting period of time, don't have patience with them. Even more absurd, I lack patience despite having failings and shortcomings myself. Worse still, I grant myself an exemption for my own failings and shortcomings, over which I have control, yet I try to correct others regarding their failings and shortcomings, over which I have no control. 

The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon

By William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Notes:         

1. A "lea" is a pasture or grassland. It is pronounced "lee" or "lay".

2. This poem is from 1806.

St. Jeanne Jugan

At this link is a short biography of St. Jeanne Jugan, founder of Little Sisters of the Poor.

Cult of Vesta & Roman Catholic Church

There is an interesting paper at this link, called From Vestal Virgins to Brides of Christ, by Ariel E. Bybee, in a journal called Studia Antiqua, that demonstrates extensive similarities between Vestal Virgins and Christian female monasticism by way of a gender and power analysis. 

Language & Nuance

All of my conversations in English take place with people whose first language is not English, and I haven't lived in a country where English is the first language for years. So sometimes it takes me a moment to remember the particular nuance with which a word or phrase is used by native speakers, especially where the word or phrase is often used differently by the people with whom I interact daily. Below, in the previous post, I changed "I think not" to "I think it wouldn't be like that" because after posting, I remembered that "I think not" sounds somewhat blunt and cocksure to native speakers. 

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

In On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, written in 1629, John Milton envisions the arrival of Christ as toppling the world of pagan spirits and deities. Each stanza describes the fall of a different regional or national paganism. Two stanzas are devoted to Roman religion: 

The lonely mountains o'er,

And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;

Edged with poplar pale

From haunted spring, and dale

The parting genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn

The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

 In consecrated earth,

And on the holy hearth,

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;

In urns and altars round,

A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;

And the chill marble seems to sweat,

While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

With flower-inwoven tresses torn / The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

I think it wouldn't be like this. The nymphs of the twilight forest edges would be too pure-hearted to do anything but celebrate too, on the morning of Christ's nativity. 

Teen Music Addicts in 1914 Omaha, Nebraska

The New York Times article archive now seems to be behind the paywall. The Library of Congress had a copy of the Omaha Daily Bee for January 11, 1914. I found this article on the ninth page. I wasn't able to find any candidates on YouTube for the song referred to as "You Little Rag Doll", but I did find a song called, "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland". The YouTube poster says it is from 1913. Perhaps that's the song. 

Check out Henry Burr, one of the performers in "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland", singing the future Elvis hit, "Are You Lonesome Tonight", recorded, according to the uploader, in 1927. Gentle & soaring. 

This Wonderful World into Which We're Born

I went to the bookstore today and happened across A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster, so I picked it up. There is a wonderfully humane paragraph in the first chapter. 

In the opening scene, an older woman and a younger woman from England are on a trip to Italy. They are staying at a pension, with other travelers & vacationers, also from England, not all of whom are of the same social class. The pension guests are gathered in a dining room or lobby of sorts. A conversation occurs between the two women and two men--a father and son--who happen to be in proximity to the women. The older man's bluntness and apparent clumsiness in conversation reveals that the two men aren't members of the social class to which the women belong. This is followed by a rapid conversation among all the pension guests in which everyone shows fluency and facility with the interpersonal style and conversational conventions of the women's class, creating the feeling of exclusion regarding the two men. Then, this (emphasis mine):

The young man named George glanced at the clever lady, and then returned moodily to his plate. Obviously, he and his father did not do. Lucy, in the midst of her success, found time to wish they did. It gave her no extra pleasure that anyone should be left in the cold; when she rose to go she turned back and gave the two outsiders a nervous little bow. 

E.M. Forster seems to have been a completely lovely human being. In this interview, he says, "And anyone who's cared to read my books will see what a high value I attach to personal relationships. And to tolerance ... But if I have had any influence, I should be very glad that it had induced people to enjoy this wonderful world into which we're born and of course to help others to enjoy it, too." 

Plutarch's Life of Numa, Part II

Important points from Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius, an early king of Rome:

1. The number of Vestal Virgins was initially two. Later, two more added. Then, under Servius Tullius, two more were added. The number remained six up to Plutarch's era. 

2. The period of celibacy was 30 years: ten to study, ten to perform, and the remaining ten to teach and pass on the knowledge to the new Vestal Virgins. 

3. After the thirty year period, "any of them who wished might marry and cease to be priestesses; but it is said that very few availed themselves of this privilege, and that those few were not happy, but, by their regrets and sorrow for the life they had left, made the others scruple to leave it, prefer to remain virgins till their death."

4. If a criminal on his way to be executed happened to meet a Vestal Virgin, he was not to be put to death, but the Vestal Virgin had to swear that the meeting was by chance.

5. The Temple of Vesta was round to reflect the shape of the universe. The earth is "not in the center of the universe".

6. Libitina was the goddess associated with funerals. 

7. There were priests called Salii. Their job was to protect a shield that had fallen from heaven to protect Rome during a plague that occurred during Numa's reign. Numa had eleven replicas of the shield built, that no one would know which was the original. 

8. There was a well in the meadow where Numa would meet Egeria. The well was considered a source of holy water, with which the Vestal Virgins were to sprinkle the Temple of Vesta to purify it.

9. Three theories as to why worshipers should turn around one revolution while worshiping:

     a. It reflects the rotation of the earth.

    b. In order that worshipers who had entered a temple that faces east, with their back to the sun, might turn and supplicate the sun god as well.

     c. My favorite: Nothing human is constant; it is therefore our job to be content. 

10. Two theories as to why worshipers should sit after a prayer:

      a. To punctuate good prayers.

   b. As way of marking an interval between prayers, and that they not be said or performed  hurriedly or in the course of doing something else.

11. The first temples that Numa founded were to Fides and Terminus. Sacrifices to Terminus were originally "bloodless": "Numa argued that the god of boundaries must be a lover of peace, and a witness of righteousness, and therefore averse to bloodshed."

12. March was originally the first month when the Romans had ten months. Numa made it the third. Some people say Numa created January and February. March was said to have been in honor of Mars.

13. February means the month of purification, in which the dead are honored (Parentalia?). Lupercalia resembles a purification ceremony.

14. January is named after Janus. Plutarch thinks Janus was a great king lost to history, who was known for good governance, and Numa wanted the populace to honor "good governance before war". 

15. Section XX deserves to be quoted in full:

There is a temple to [Janus] in Rome, which has two doors, and which they call the gate of war. It is the custom to open the temple in time of war, and to close it during peace. This scarcely ever took place, as the empire was almost always at war with some state, being by its very greatness continually brought into collision with the neighbouring tribes. Only in the time of Caesar Augustus, after he had conquered Antonius, it was closed; and before that, during the consulship of Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius, for a short time, and then was almost immediately reopened, as a new war broke out. But during Numa's reign no one saw it open for a single day, and it remained closed for forty-three years continuously, so utterly had he made wars to cease on all sides. Not only was the spirit of the Romans subdued and pacified by the gentle and just character of their king, but even the neighbouring cities, as if some soothing healthful air was breathed over them from Rome, altered their habits and longed to live quiet and well-governed, cultivating the earth, bringing up their families in peace, and worshipping the gods. And gay festivals and entertainments, during which the people of the various states fearlessly mixed with one another, prevailed throughout Italy, for Numa's knowledge of all that was good and noble was shed abroad like water from a fountain, and the atmosphere of holy calm by which he was surrounded spread over all men. The very poets when they wrote of that peaceful time were unable to find adequate expressions for it, as one writes: "Across the shields are cobwebs laid / Rust eats the lance and keen edged blade / No more we hear the trumpets bray / And from our eyes no more is slumber chased away."

No war, revolution, or political disturbance of any kind is recorded during Numa's reign, neither was there any envy or hatred of him or any attempt by others to obtain the crown; but either fear of the gods who visibly protected him, or reverence for his virtues, or the special grace of Heaven, made men's lives innocent and untainted with evil, and formed a striking proof of the truth of what Plato said many years afterwards, that the only escape from misery for men is when by Divine Providence philosophy is combined with royal power, and used to exalt virtue over vice. Blessed indeed is the truly wise man, and blessed are they who hear the words of his mouth. Indeed his people require no restraints or punishments, but seeing a plain example of virtue in the life of their chief, they themselves of their own accord reform their lives, and model them upon that gentle and blessed rule of love and just dealing one with another which it is the noblest work of politicians to establish. He is most truly a king who can teach such lessons as these to his subjects, and Numa beyond all others seems to have clearly discerned this truth.

Correction

In this post, I wrote that I had difficulty disposing of physical objects as a child because "they were loyal to me", and "they had suffered for me".  

It's been bothering me ever since because although that's what I wrote, that isn't really what I felt. It's almost as if I let what I'm supposed to say lead me in setting down words, instead of an authentic description of my own feelings.

I was going to change it to, "They had been my friends," but that's not really it, either. What I was trying to say was that they were valuable & precious in their own right, as independently-existing things in the world. Their value wasn't bestowed upon them by me nor did it derive itself from their proximity to me. It was part of them and part of their nature, as if they were alive, completely without reference to me.  

I changed the words in the post.

Tuccia-Inspired Portrait of Elizabeth I

In this portrait of Elizabeth I, by George Gower in 1579, she carries a sieve. The sieve was inspired by the story of Tuccia, the Vestal Virgin who had been accused of breaking her vow. To prove her innocence, Tuccia carried water in a sieve from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta.

By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. 

Meditations, Book I, Section XII

"From Claudius Maximus [I learned], in all things to endeavor to have power of myself, and in nothing to be carried about; to be cheerful and courageous in all sudden chances and accidents, as in sicknesses, to love mildness, and moderation, and gravity, and to do my business, whatsoever it be, thoroughly, and without querulousness. Whatsoever he said all men believed him that as he spake, so he thought, and whatsoever he did, that he did it with good intent. His manner was never to wonder at anything, never to be in haste, and yet never slow, nor to be perplexed, or dejected, or at any time unseemly, or excessively to laugh, nor to be angry, or suspicious, but ever ready to do good, and to forgive, and to speak truth; and all this, as one that seemed rather of himself to have been straight and right, than ever to have been rectified or redressed; neither was there any man that ever thought himself undervalued by him, or could find in his heart, to think himself a better man than he. He would also be very pleasant and gracious." 

querulous: grumbling; habitually complaining.

The Zabern Affair

An article appears in the New York Times archive, titled "Guns to Stop Laughing" and dated January 7, 1914, just over 100 years ago this week, related to the Zabern (Saverne) Affair, a conflict that arose in Alsace-Lorraine, between a Prussian military unit and the local population. The conflict was initially over a second lieutenant's use of an ethnic slur to refer to Alsatians. It then escalated. False arrests ensued, as well as highhandedness and oversensitivity on the part of the military: "Col. von Reuter in court twice admitted that he had machine guns brought out from the barracks into the streets of Zabern in readiness for use against the citizens." The Zabern Affair sparked protests against militarism around Germany. 

References:        

1. This article at Mental Floss is a nice summary of the Zabern Affair, in social and historical context. It also reprints a contemporary political cartoon.

2. The Wikipedia entry is detailed and includes a photo purported to be of Prussian soldiers on the streets of Zabern in December of 1913. In the photo, the soldiers seem to be in good spirits. They are accompanied by a boy, who also seems to be in good spirits. To the left, a dog can be seen trotting away from camera, in the opposite direction of the soldiers and the boy. (Who are all of you? What were your lives like? What did you hope for? What did you dream about?)

Our Breathtakingly Beautiful World

I took this picture with my cell phone camera a few weeks ago, at the top of a mountain, about an hour before sunset. Much love to you and your family on this January day in 2014.

Cannonball

The Carter Family's other cannonball song (alongside the more famous "Wabash Cannonball"), known as "Cannonball", "The Cannonball", or "Cannonball Blues". 

Both the music and the lyrics are partly derived from "White House Blues", by Charlie Poole (1892 - 1931).

But whereas the lyrics of White House Blues--about the McKinley assassination--treat McKinley's death flippantly, or with "brutal jocularity"(1), the Carter Family's version renders it into a soft-spokenly powerful, pathos-filled song about the separation of two lovers.

From "White House Blues":

McKinley hollered, MicKinley squalled / Doc says, "McKinley, I can't find that ball." (2)

From "Cannonball":

You can wash my jumpers, starch my overalls. / Catch the train they call the Cannonball. / From Buffalo, to Washington. / Yonder comes a train, coming down the track. / Carry me away, but it ain't gonna carry me back. 

"Cannonball" retains the references in "White House Blues" to Buffalo (the site of the McKinley shooting) and the trip being between Buffalo and Washington. In "Cannonball", the train trip carries the feeling of irrevocable finality, which is hard not to wonder if also derived from the subject of "White House Blues".   

"White House Blues" was recorded by Charlie Poole in 1926.(3) "Cannonball" was recorded by the Carter Family twice, once in 1930 and again in 1935.(4)

I much prefer "Cannonball" to "White House Blues". 

Notes:              

1. Cohen, Norm. Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong, page 417.

2. Cohen, page 413.

3. Cohen, page 418.

4. Cohen, page 419.

On Not Being Forgiven

A nicely-written essay at Patheos, by a blogger named M. Horatius Piscinus. I don't understand the quotation marks in the first sentence to be scare quotes. I understand them to be functioning according to the original purpose of quotation marks--to mark off another person's speech.

This is the best part at the beginning:

As Cultores Deorum Romanorum, we are not forgiven. We are responsible for all of the actions we take and all of the words we speak aloud. We are responsible for not taking action when we ought, and for words left unspoken when we should. We can try to make amends. We can try to correct wrong. We may ever afterwards do right. But we are always responsible for our words and deeds. This is required by Virtus of all those who worship the Goddesses and Gods.

This is the best part at the end:

With clear judgment we do not shrink from doing what ought to be done. Acting rightly, we are not swayed by the censure of others, but remain steadfast in our resolve to do right. At the end of each day we examine the actions we took, judging what were done rightly, what were amiss, what was left undone, faulting the wrong we do and rejoicing in the right. Each day brings new adventures, new challenges, and more decisions to make.  

Jahi McMath

Jahi McMath, a 13 year-old girl in California, entered a hospital in December for tonsil surgery. There were complications, and she was left brain dead. This is a link to a CNN article about her. 

No chance to grow up. No chance to fall in love. No chance to experience all the things that life has to offer. 

Please pray for her and her family or keep them in your thoughts, in your tradition.

Meditations, Book VI, Section XXXV

An older translation of the first lines of the thirty-fifth section of the sixth book of Meditations: "Fit and accommodate thyself to that estate and to those occurrences, which by the destinies have been annexed unto thee; and love those men whom thy fate it is to live with; but love them truly."  

This quote seems often to be rendered into a more modern English style as, "Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." 

Posting

I reread my posts and deleted any that were unsatisfactory.

Two of the reasons for being unsatisfactory were:

1. The post was incautiously worded.

2. The post was incautiously personal.

I hope to have a sober & compassionate blog.

Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell

Johnny Cash as a guest on Glen Campbell's TV show, "Live Goodtime Hour", the two of them together playing 'Folsom Prison Blues'. It's the best recording of this song that I know of. A few years ago, I looked up the date of this show. I think it was 1970. Both look so vibrant and young.

"Play it, Glen!"

Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton

Really fun YouTube video for Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton, done as an Old West spoof with what I think is classy clothing. Wikipedia says the song was written by Hank DeVito and released in 1979 by another singer, but its greatest success came with the release of the 1981 recording by Juice. 

On Not Being Baptized

I'm the only one among my three siblings and me who hasn't been baptized.

My mom baptized my older brother and older sister when they were young. She was also planning to do so with my next older sister and me. She would remark periodically that we hadn't been baptized and that it ought to be done. However, life got in the way; people were busy; there were too many things to do. Eventually time passed and I was old enough that doing so would seem to require my consent, which I withheld. 

My next older sister has since gotten baptized and become a Christian. I'm truly glad for her. Her life has been entirely too difficult. I hope beyond anything that she finds peace through it.

I tried at various times to practice Christianity, and during those times now and then the subject of getting baptized would come up, but each time I balked; somehow it was a step too irrevocable. 

I would argue otherwise, but someone could argue convincingly that if I wasn't willing to take that step, then indeed I hadn't tried hard, not deep down in my heart, to become a Christian.

In any case, because Christianity--as beautiful as it is--is not I think the most likely account of how reality actually works--as opposed to the Religion of Numa--I'm relieved that I did not. 

Even Emperor Julian himself was baptized, by his mom. 

He Walked by Night

I saw the 1948 film noir, He Walked by Night. It was very well done. 

It stars Richard Basehart as Roy Martin, a former police radio specialist who becomes a burglar in post-war Los Angeles. It also stars Jack Webb, as the police lab scientist, and a very convincing performance by Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves, the owner of an electronics leasing business through whom Basehart is leasing his stolen goods. 

The film opens with Richard Basehart attempting to pick the lock on the door of an electronics shop. He is discovered by a police officer returning home. A confrontation ensues in which the police officer is shot and shortly thereafter dies from his wounds. 

This film was the basis of all the incarnations of Dragnet, which Jack Webb was instrumental in the creation of. There was apparently a 1950s radio version of Dragnet, as well as a 1950s television version, prior to the 1960s series starring Harry Morgan. 

The entire film is here on YouTube.

I Love a Rainy Night

I went hiking today in a place near my house. 

I live on a triangular peninsula that points south. The peninsula is formed by the ocean on the eastern side, and a bay into which a large river empties on the western side. Portions of the peninsula--along the waterfront--are densely urban and densely industrial. This industrial and urban zone is somewhat wider on the eastern side. On the western side, it occupies only a narrow strip of land along the lowest elevation. The remaining portion of the peninsula--the western central part--forms a large park, with peaks and valleys, wide hiking trails, narrow footpaths, lookouts, and so on. I would guess it is about 10 square kilometers in size--pretty big for a city park. It abuts an even larger tract of undeveloped land to the north, perhaps twice as large. 

When I set out, I could see a large, rather majestic-looking cloud bank over the ocean, to the east. When I finally got up on a lookout on one of the small peaks within the park, there was the most wonderful rainbow arcing down between the cloud bank and the water. It was much brighter than my cell phone camera is able to show, but this is the picture I took:

To be privy to this view--the combination of pure blue sky above, the detail in the cloud bank, and (what it looked like with the naked eye) vibrant rainbow underneath--was like a gift.

Later, just after sundown, as I walked along the path that runs down the western side of the peninsula, looking out over the bay, the cloud bank had finally arrived over top of me, and it started to rain, a little bit at first, then more heavily. I was able to stop and take this picture:

You can see the leading edge of the cloud bank at the top of the picture. The view was enchanting--the lights from the ships, the shape and texture of the cloud along the horizon, the lights from the oil refineries on the far shore, and the whole scene cast in the special quality of diminished light that only dusk can produce.  

I walked back an hour in the dark, in the chilly rain. When I was young, sometimes my mom, dad, and I would have an outside chore to do on a cold winter afternoon. Our hands would get pleasantly numb from the cold. We would often finish well after sundown. Then we'd go inside to the warm kitchen to eat a delicious meal together, listening to big band or country music on my mom's cassette recorder--tired and cold, but happy.

When I got back home this evening, I made myself a tasty omelet with onions and Laughing Cow cheese. I turned on Eddie Rabbit's "I Love a Rainy Night".

Me, too--I love a cold, rainy winter night!

People from the South

In an earlier post, I wrote that I was thankful to my mom for teaching me not to "engage in any kind of regional negativity". This is actually more abstract than what she taught me. Her specific point was not to think or say things that would hurt the feelings of people from the South. For some reason, when I was writing that post, I abstracted it in my mind to a broader principle, perhaps because things don't seem valid unless they are an application of a universal idea. But abstracting it and generalizing it could make it sound unclear, possibly judgy, like I was condemning expressions of regional pride or something, which I was not. I hope there aren't any misunderstandings.

Simple Home Altar

I made a home altar--a lararium. It isn't exactly right, but that's okay. My primary concern was that it not be grand, that it be simple. 

The picture is a representation of Vesta that I found on the web. It's not clear if it incorporates a photographic image of a real person. I don't mind if it does or doesn't. She's sitting by a fire in classical architecture.  There's a tree in full blossom outside. It's beautiful. My initial thoughts were to include Janus and Jupiter, but, as I said, I wanted to keep it simple, so just Vesta. 

One of the dishes is for receiving a food, milk, or wine offering. The other dish is for burning incense. I'm not sure I like that big candle next to the wallpaper. I'll have to watch that. 

The lararium will be a good place for a morning prayer to start the day and an evening prayer before going to sleep. Prayers for the well being and happiness of all humans. 

Lateness and Procrastination

Tarditas et procrastinatio odiosa est!

Debates with My Sister

When I was a little kid, my sister and I would always have debates. Long, extended debates that took place over months or years about things we liked. They were good natured and friendly, but sometimes intense. 

I always lost. 

One of our debates was between my preference for Paul McCartney and her preference for John Lennon. Another of our debates was my preference for Rome and her preference for Greece. This segued into Rome versus Carthage after she became interested in the Carthaginians. I had books on Rome from the elementary school library, and I loved to draw Roman architecture, but when she went and borrowed an adult-level biography of Hannibal from the town library, there was just no way to compete with her factual knowledge! I remember once riding with her in the back seat of our parents' car. To annoy me, she looked out the window, stared into the distance wistfully, and said in a quiet voice, "Hamilcar Barca". 

She also challenged me to a reading race through a set of books called The Junior Classics. I was thoroughly trounced. I actually gave up before the finish because she got so far ahead of me so quickly.

Now my lovely sister is sick. I hope I can be a good sibling for her and take care of her. I must try harder.