Head-dibs

The last five months, I’ve utilized this first volume reading guide published in 1951, navigating through all or portions of selected readings from: Plato’s “Apology,” Crito,” and “The Republic”; Sophocle’s “Oedipus The King” and “Antigone”; Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” and “Politics”; Plutarch’s Lives “Lycurgus,” “Numa Pompilius,” “Alexander,” and “Julius Caesar”; The Book of Job; Augustine’s “Confessions”; Montaigne’s “Essays”; Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”; Locke’s “Concerning Civil Government”; Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” America’s Founding Documents, namely, “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Constitution,” and “The Federalist Papers”; concluding with “The Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engles. All this after my 10 chapters per day Bible reading. I did not read every single day, but I managed to complete the curriculum of Volume 1.   Of all I’ve touched so far, Sophocles and Job capture the human situation best, and spoke...

It was actually yesterday, but you know how these calendars work.  Things to do today: 1) ponder the error of your ways; 2) take a moment to dance a little; 3) have a snack; 4) enjoy a makeover (if applicable); 5) be specific when describing the ruckus. 6) Don’t forget about me.

  “We often make judgments about other people. We call one person kind, the other stupid, the third evil, the fourth clever. But we should not do so. A man changes constantly; he flows like a river, and every new day he differs from what he was before. He was stupid and became clever; he was evil and became kind at heart; and so on. You cannot judge another person. The moment you blame him, he becomes someone different.”     (Tolstoy, after The Talmud) Lev Tolstoy  (1828-1910) in an 1884 portrait by Nikolay Ge (1831-1894)

“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”

March 6, 1831 was the day Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point. The story is that before he left, he managed to secure a financial sum from fellow cadets to underwrite a new publication of poetry that, once published, was not well received. The light, humorous fellow known among his friends was not found in the pages, so they collectively threw the book into the river. “The Raven” was published in 1845 and, despite its popularity, did not help him financially. The short work is better read aloud.   After this last reading of “The Raven,” I remembered a Prog album released in 2013 by Steven Wilson titled, “The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories).” Or TRTRTS, for short. The concept album seems to capture or suggest tones of Poe’s stories and poems while telling some its own ghost stories: of invisible people (everyday people that go unnoticed); of watching a loved one die and learning to move on; of the destruction of an outwardly “perfect person” with a private, s...

  A group of artists were challenged to depict greatest personal fear on the canvases of their own faces. One made his face like that of a spider, another into a collage of monsters, another as a an old lady, depicting her fear of aging. Why do you think people fear growing old? “In the way”; loss of resourcefulness or respect; letting go; the wish to live life over; guilt; becoming bitter, resentful over family matters; feeling unsupported, that life was a raw deal; self-pity; fear of finances, illness, loneliness, senility.  How many of these fears might be similar to the vanities Solomon has written about?  Is growing old without difficulty?  Does this mean that we cannot with grace and without knowing our worth in God’s eyes? How might this change our lives in the coming years?  I just finished reading Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12:1-8 presents a realistic picture of the aging process and couples it with some down-to-earth advice.

  Finished reading the adventurous prison escape that was Ch 7-11 of The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) Italian goldsmith and sculptor. This guy is worth further research!  

Edward  Gibbon published his multi volume work, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in 1776. This particular reading focused on Volume 1, Chapters 15-16, “Progress of the Christian Religion”, From 258-313 AD. While Gibbon cannot argue with the Divine source of the Christian faith in the context of historical Judaism, he is more interested in exploring “the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church” that impacted Rome and the world at large. The secondary causes are divided into five: 1) inherited zeal; 2) the future life; 3) miracles; 4) morals; 5) unity that gradually formed into an independent state in the heart of the Roman Empire.   Gibbon reports on the miraculous powers of the early church, but concludes by virtue of his status as historian that he has no opinion on the subject opinion. This non-opinion is underscored by his curious claim that miracles ceased when man embraced reason, that it “is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible ...

“My God, where is that ancient heat towards thee, Wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did burn, Besides their other flames? Doth poetry Wear Venus' livery? only serve her turn? Why are not sonnets made of thee? and lays Upon thine altar burnt? Cannot thy love Heighten a spirit to sound out thy praise As well as any she? Cannot thy Dove Outstrip their Cupid easily in flight? Or, since thy ways are deep, and still the fame, Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name! Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might Each breast does feel, no braver fuel choose Than that, which one day, worms may chance refuse. Sure Lord, there is enough in thee to dry Oceans of ink; for, as the Deluge did Cover the earth, so doth thy Majesty: Each cloud distills thy praise, and doth forbid Poets to turn it to another use. Roses and lilies speak thee; and to make A pair of cheeks of them, is thy abuse Why should I women's eyes for crystal take? Such poor invention burns in their low mind Wh...

  March started without me! Got caught up with work and did not have time to prepare my journal as usual. Ok, now I’m ready. . . Not too entirely satisfied with it, but I’m ready.