Don't Forget to Read

"If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads." Robert Pattison

As I was taking a break from reading Calasso and Fowles, even though we don't have to have The Magus read for a bit I figured I would get a jump start, I came across this quote online and quoted help but smile.

The Hummingbird

My mother's birthday is coming up and whenever I think of the women in my family, I can't help but picture a hummingbird for a number of reasons. Growing up, all of my grandmothers had hummingbird feeders around their homes and absolutely loved watching them flutter by their windows. While searching for a card for my mother, I came across a card company called Papyrus that uses the hummingbird in their logo. On the back of the cards I came across a beautiful quote that made me love the association with these beautiful birds even more. The following is from their website explaining why they use the hummingbird. "Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration. Hummingbirds open our eyes to the wonder of the world and inspire us to open our hearts to loved ones and friends. Like a hummingbird, we aspire to hover and to savor each moment as it passes, embrace all that life has to offer and to celebrate the joy of everyday. The hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation."

Why People Choose What They Choose?

I decided to explain a little about why I chose the creation myth that I did. It has always been more interesting to me to know the why behind the what. I really struggled between this myth and Hesiod's Theogony simply because I loved the beauty that could be found in both of them. Hesiod's description of Chaos birthing all the gods and the interactions between them as they tried to usurp each other was full of life and color. However, I kept coming back to that last sentence of the myth I chose where upon taking your last breath in this world, "you will be covered by her flesh as a blanket, under which your bones will rest in peace." It just created such a warm and comforting image of the one thing that seems to frighten nearly everyone, that unknown that is death and will he will come for you.

Creation Story

A Thompson Indian Myth on the Creation of Man

Before the world was formed, Stars, Moon, Sun, and Earth lived together (as people). Earth was a woman, and Sun was her husband. She was always finding fault with him, saying he was nasty, ugly, and too hot. At last the Sun grew weary of this scolding and left her. The Moon and the Stars went away with him. Earth-Woman was very sad.
The Old One appeared and transformed these people into their present forms. The Sun, Moon, and Stars he assigned to the sky, commanding them never to desert the earth again. Earth-Woman became the solid land: her hair became trees and grass, her flesh day, her bones rocks, her blood springs of water. 'You will be as the mother of people, for from you their bodies will spring, and to you they will go back. People will live as in your bosom, and sleep on your lap. They will derive nourishment from you, and they will utilize all parts of your body.'
After this the Earth gave birth to people who were very similar in form to ourselves; but they knew nothing and required neither food nor drink. They had no appetites, desires, or thoughts. Then Old One traveled over the world and among the people, giving them appetites and desires. He caused all kinds of birds and fish to appear, to which he gave names and assigned functions. He taught women to make birch baskets, mats, and lodges, and how to dig roots, gather berries, and cure them. He taught men how to make fire, catch fish, trap and shoot game, etc. He instructed couples how to have intercourse and how to give birth to children.
When he had finished teaching the people, he bade them goodbye, saying, 'I now leave you; but if you . . . require my aid, I will come again to you. The Sun is your father, the Earth is your mother's body. You will be covered with her flesh as a blanket, under which your bones will rest in peace.'

Tree Hugging

When we were told to go hug a tree I couldn't help but feel like an environmentalist out there trying to find the perfect tree to embrace. This is not me of course, technical failures, however I absolutely fell in love with the simplicity of this picture. And I couldn't help be reminded of one of my all time favorite books The Giving Tree. Now it is not necessarily about tree hugging by any means but the way in which the simple interactions with a tree explain a far more important story in the long run made me wonder what other stories we may be missing out on by simply trying to impress the wrong people.

A Moment to discuss Adding Blogs

"It was just that she slipped his mind for a moment, a moment that might be any moment." (Calasso 16)

So in class on Thursday it most definitely slipped my mind on how exactly to have links to everyone's blog right on your page that were functional, meaning one click and your to someone else's blog rather than having to find them in your favorites section. However, I have taken a moment and now remember how easy it really is:) For those who use a blog where you can edit the design of your blog, blogger for sure but I am sorry I am really not familiar with that many, it is just one click away. Well literally its like five but still really easy. On the same page where you can publish posts, there should be tabs that mention things along the lines of settings, design, and stats. Under design there should be an option to add a gadget around near where followers is listed. Click on the add a gadget section and under there is a long list of extras to add to your blog to "beef" it up. The best one to use for the purposes of this class would be, in my opinion of course, the one designed specifically for blog lists. I like this one because you can chose to have the list updated by most recent posts on the blogs you list there so it is easy to keep up with what classmates are talking about. When you click on this option, you can add a blog which simply involves typing in the url for the blog you want to add and then it is added to your list to easily be accessed by simply one click. I wish you would be able to use mine to see how easy it is to access other blogs but I am unfortunately one of the class members how mysteriously did not make it on to the list serve. However, my section for fellow classmates does exist it is simply waiting to be populated. Good luck and I hope this was helpful:)

And so it begins...

..."But how did it all begin?" (Calasso 4).

Definition of myth - precedent behind our actions. From The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony p. 383 "For the first time she felt pricked by a goad that would not leave her be. In her mind she began to say words of farewell....And all at once she understood what myth is, understood that myth is the precedent behind every action, its invisible, ever-present lining. She need not fear the ncertain life opening up before her. Whichever way her wandering husband went, the encircling sash of myth would wrap around the young Harmony. For every step, the footprint was already there." Destiny appears in the footprint that Harmony need only to step into to fulfill.

There is no beginning or original to myth. Calasso reiterates and narrows this notion to not only all of myth, but to mythical figures as well: "Mythical figures live many lives, die many deaths, and in this they differ from the characters we find in novels, who can never go beyond the single gesture. But in each of these lives and deaths all the others are present, and we can hear their echo. Only when we become aware of a sudden consistency between incompatibles can we say we have crossed the threshold of myth" (22). Ariadne for example died at least five different ways. So which is the original? Which is true? In myth, Ariadne is not Ariadne without acknowledging all of her deaths. Original and true simply don't exist or matter (23).

Mythos-story: Some of my favorite quotes so far from Calasso just happen to pertain to what we have been discussing so bare with me:) "Stories never live alone: they are the branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward" (10). So as we uncover these myths or stories, it is important not to think of them in a linear fashion but as a more fluid intermingling tangle of braches as Calasso points out as a way to better understand them. That is way I love the way Calasso starts out in the middle, then traces back with the question "But how did it all begin?" It emphasizes this idea while simultaneously reiterating how many times this question really can be asked because the "beginning" persay does not exactly exist.

Origin myths: How we came to be: So we were instructed to find Eliade's From Primitives to Zen online and read the chapter on creation stories and find one we really like. I may be a little biased being that I have already read the work for another class but Hesiod's Theogony is really one of my favorites. The language and imagery of the creation of the first generation of gods is really intriguing. I also enjoyed the Thompson Indian myth of the creation of man. Once again the beautiful imagery captivates me and leaves me wanting to hear more. "When he had finished teaching the people, he bade them goodbye, saying, 'I know leave you; but if you ... require my aid, I will come again to you. The Sun in your father, the Earth is your mother's body. You will be covered with her flesh as a blanket, under which your bones will rest in peache.'"

Disney's Aladdin: Yes we did briefly talk about this wonderfully accurate and incredibly important tale of the Arabian nights. It was mainly brought to life how the genie proclaims at the end of the movie "I'm not history, I'm mythology" or something along those lines:) Calasso too addresses the difference between history and mythology. Rather, he finds the history in the mythology. "If it is history we want, then it is a history of conflict. And the conflict begins with the abduction of a girl, or with the sacrifice of a girl. and the one is continually becoming the other....Out of these events history itself was born: the abduction of Helen, the Trojan War, and, before that, the Argonauts' expedtion and the abduction of Medea--all are links in the same chain." (7-8)

Things to look forward to!: Prompted by a passage read on pg. 122 in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony where we learn of a plot to go down into Hades by Theseus and Peirithous, we have been promised the answer to a question I am sure we have all been dwelling on for some time now: Why do Greek men have such small bottoms?