Lo que hay

Learn something new every day.  Well, I post poetry all the time, but here's an old familiar friend:

( The Hollow Men - T.S. Eliot, 1925 )

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known. - Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

1. The Amores, book I, poem III

Fair's fair now, Venus. This girl's got me hooked. All I'm asking from her
Is love - or at least some future hope for my own
Eternal devotion. No, even that's too much--hell, just let me love her!
(Listen, Venus: I've asked you so often now.)
Say yes, pet. I'd be your slave for years, for a lifetime.
Say yes--unswerving fidelity's my strong suit.
I may not have top-drawer connections, I can't produce blue-blooded
Ancestors to impress you, my father's plain middle-class,
And there aren't any squads of ploughmen to deal with my broad acres -
My parents are both pretty thrifty, and need to be.
What have I got on my side, then? Poetic genius, sweetheart,
Divine inspiration. And love. I'm yours to command -
Unswerving faithfulness, morals above suspicion
Naked simplicity, a born-to-the-purple blush.
I don't chase thousands of girls, I'm no sexual circus-rider;
Honestly, all I want is to look after you
Till death do us part, have the two of us living together
All my time, and know you'll cry for me when I'm gone.
Besides, when you give me yourself, what you'll be providing
Is creative material. My art will rise to the theme
And immortalise you. Look, why do you think we remember
The swan-upping of Leda, or Io's life as a cow,
Or poor virgin Europa whisked off overseas, clutching
That so-called bull by the - horn? Through poems, of course.
So you and I, love, will enjoy that same world-wide publicity,
And our names will be linked, forever, with the gods.

-- Ovid (trans. Peter Green)



My American Gods - Rika Youngblood

Monteleone Chariot

Ancient Tomb Found in Greece

Saturn's Hexagon

SH has been trying to get me over my math block.  I never had any trouble with getting good grades in math - I can manipulate those little bastard numbers and get the desired results - and I fully understand the usefulness of math - it's just always seemed to me that you can only, functionally use and understand math (past arithmetic) after years and years and years of rote memorization and meaningless formulas.  I've never been interested enough in say, power engineering, to spend 12 years reciting meaningless strings of letters until someday, suddenly, I can say 'Aha!  And this is what it means!'  Not worth the payoff, right?  But I get very very frustrated with my ignorance on the subject, because I can see the usefulness and importance of it.  I snarl a lot over math.

So I asked SH to explain what the hell trigonometry is to me, and we went around and around and around most of the day ('Well, see, a sine is the ratio of...' 'Goddamit, I know that.  But what the hell is a sine?') until we hit a few points where I actually understood, in the sense of getting the concept and being able to relate its derivation and use to other facts in the world, of a couple of puzzlers.  SH has patience coming out of every orifice, I swear.  We never did come up with a good definition of trigonometry, but at least I can understand why someone would want to have a sine wave hanging around.  I had little triangles dancing through my head all afternoon.

So we decided to try to get ahold of the Saxon math course textbooks, and work our way through them.  We'll have to wait until after SH passes his PE, though, because he's got enough to study at the moment.

We also had a huge long rambling discussion on literature, symbolism, mythology, and Christianity in relation to Spencer's Fairy Queene which I enjoyed immensely.  Much of what we talked about related to how Spencer could (as many writers of the time did) so blithely mix Greek and Christian mythology.  But most of what we object to in the mix comes from an entirely foreign mode of thought, the idea that logic and/or scientific verification should apply to that kind of poetic theology.  Whether the Greek gods were past indulgences of God, or misleading metaphors, or active daemons (depending on the writer's bent), the idea that Greek mythology directly conflicts with Christianity is reserved for today.  In part it is perhaps the modern habit of thinking in terms of things that can be proved or disproved, perhaps recognizing the utility of critical thought and applying it broadly, perhaps simply the wider exposure that communication has brought to history and theology.  In previous centuries, when knowledge was more difficult to get at, why explain to the masses what was the province of poets and scholars?  No doubt Spencer understood his own approach to metaphor; the church was by and large unaffected; there was no need to codify or defend it on the level of the general public.

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

I'm re-reading Post Captain for fun after finishing Nelson's Trafalgar.  I might re-read Israfel, too, to brush up on Poe's life, but I probably shouldn't indulge too far since I tend to get caught up in re-hashing old thoughts instead of experiencing new ones (lazy).  Speaking of which, Mom nearly had a cow when SH bought an audio copy of a book by Oliver North.  She's definitely of the opinion that no one should pollute their minds by listening to/reading anything that they don't know is totally in agreement with what they think beforehand.

Mom's so deep in that Egyptian river right now that I hardly know what to say to her.  She's not retiring, because she's decided that's not what she wants to do.  Nothing to do with having a huge tax bill to pay.  Nope, uh-huh.  She's having panic attacks and being sick because she doesn't like her house, or because she's afraid of SH's health problems, or because school is busy.  Nothing to do with grief, or financial pressure, or overstraining herself because she needs to keep from thinking.  Nope, if SH would just stop mentioning any health problems, she'd be fine.  And Lizzie's getting better.  (Going on forty years now, but that turn around is going to happen any day.  Yep.)  To be honest, that bit of denial's been going on so long it's hardly news, but at this rate there won't be a topic out there that isn't verboten one way or another.  Molly's in tax trouble too, which is why she wants to buy Mom's house - more of a tax break than renting in California.  More power to them, I guess.

We watched MirrorMask last night.  Much better than I expected!  Although, with Gaiman as a writer, it had to be better than the movies Henson wrote himself.  It never ceases to amaze me that creative people think writing is something anyone can do.  The main actress was very good, the story was well-paced and interesting, the fantasy was fun, the artwork was great.  It wasn't an all-time favorite, but I'll watch it again.

Two of Wands
Personal power, boldness, originality.

(170.5)  Did not do well this weekend, haven't done particularly well today.  But still, no candy and no soda.  Need to keep that up for at least two weeks, then I'll worry about making a new rule.  Making a new habit, really.

King of Cups
Wise, calm, tolerant, diplomatic, caring.

SH came home dead tired last night, apparently he didn't sleep all that well at Mom's.  She seems to be doing OK, though.  Work has turned pretty depressing and stressful for SH, because there's someone there who's trying to discredit SH and the engineer he's working with, in order to cover up an illegal bid grant he wants to pull.  No fun at all, especially since all the information on the shady deal going on is hearsay and innuendo - nothing SH can act on.  He's just trying to watch his back, document everything, and make a lot of noise every time something weird pops up.  It's a pain, and he's not enjoying it.  Hopefully it will clear up once the bid gets granted.

Three more weeks of work.  Also, I've basically promised to play for the Palm Sunday and Easter services down in town and here, so two Sundays full of driving.  Then probably out to see Mom the next week.

Saw two Spider-Man previews.  Got my teeth gritted against them screwing up the series.  But it's fun to have the movie coming out, reminds me why I've always loved that comic. It looks from the previews that they're going to have too many villains and too little story, that Harry is definitely going to go bad (dammit). They might or might not do OK with Venom - not my favorite character, but they might change some of the more objectionable bits for the movie. Also, Gwen Stacy?! Please tell me it's not so.

I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. - Em

(171.0)