A book is not shut in by its contours, is not walled-up as in a fortress. It asks nothing better than to exist outside itself, or to let you exist in it. In short, the extraordinary fact in the case of a book is the falling away of the barriers between you and it. You are inside it; it is inside you; there is no longer either outside or inside.
Georges Poulet
Phenomenology of Reading
31st October is considered by most Wiccans to be the most important of the four Greater Sabbats. Many see it as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited, but not conjured, to attend the festivities.
“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that’s the way new leaves grow.”
By Amit Ray.
Artist Luke Lankaster
Text and image source: Snowwolfs Woodland Nook https://www.facebook.com/531188960392510/posts/1679545538890174/
Good one!
June 13, 2015
One day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it. Spent a little extra time in New York City. Man … uh, God … I love that place.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my white evangelical servants? There is no one on earth like them; smug and self-centered, folks who fear anyone unlike them and who shun compassion.”
“Yeah, I know them well; they’re easily duped. I rarely bother with them any longer; there’s little challenge in deceiving them.”
“Well then, Satan, how’d you like an opportunity to put their gullibility and insincerity to the ultimate test? A do-or-die challenge of their true loyalties.”
“Well then, Satan, how’d you like an…
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This is VERY interesting. Take a read!
A recent article in Current Biology, which you should be able get for free by clicking on the screenshot below, describes sequencing the entire genome of an extinct saber-toothed cat, thereby gaining some insight into its evolutionary history. (You can get the pdf here, and the full reference is at the bottom. If you can’t see the piece, make a judicious inquiry.)
The cat is Homotherium latidens, also known as the European saber-toothed cat (it’s also called a “scimitar-toothed cat” because its teeth were smaller than true sabertooths like Smilodon), and it probably lived from a few million years ago until fairly recently (the late Pleistocene, about 12,000 years ago). It may thus have encountered modern humans. It was about the size of a male African lion, and a reconstruction from Prehistoric Fauna looks like this (note the saber teeth and very short bobtail).
The species…
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Another one from The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology, edited by Edward Hirsch & Eavan Boland. This poem is written by Alice Notley.
References.
Hirsch, Edward & Eavan Boland, editors. The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology. NY: W.W.Norton & Company, 2008. this poem is found on page 275.
The story of my life, right here. At age sixty, still trying to cope.
Originating in Cambodia the Go Vat became popular among French poets in the late 1800s. It consists of a couplet which sets the rhyme of the subsequent stanzas, and a third line that repeats either in total, a phrase, or the last word throughout the poem. This gives the following structure and schema
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxB
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxB
and so on.
Example
My Spirit by Terry Clitheroe
My spirit is no longer part of me
I gave it away to you most willingly
Together with my heart.
I would share it all with thee
And boast for all the world to see
Willingly giving you my heart.
Tell me of your love I will agree
And share my life to infinity
See again I offer you my heart.
Isn't love the most simplistic plea
Showing you are open and free
Infinity calls let's share one heart
One of my favorite blogs.
An idea that well-meaning people with no background in medieval history often bring up to me when attempting to relate is that the medieval period was certainly a glowing time for civilization – if one is explicitly and only discussing the Arab world. This idea gets hurled at me when I am pointing out what the term Dark Ages means, or discussing the bathing habits of medieval Europeans, or just trying to have a quiet pint in peace for the love of Christ. As I say, I do think it comes from a place of wanting to correct an inaccurate and overly European historiography. People want to prove that they understand there is more to the world than one peninsula and that multiple histories are available. They want to show that they understand that non-White people are capable of innovation. They also want to show that they have learned…
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silverapplequeen 