Revolution

April 1, 2022 11:34pm

When the Revolution begins, you can be sure the people on the street will be those with nothing to lose. And don’t deceive yourself, there is a revolution coming. Those with homes, cars, investments, and insurance policies will sit at home watching the violence on TV. Those with nothing will break things and force a reset. This is the way it always has been; nothing is new. We have seen this before and the next iteration will be a variation on the eternal theme.

All of human history is repetitive – a result of the unchanging motives driving our behavior. Forces we barely acknowledge, understand, or control push us to acts we will regret in the clear light of day…then, when night returns, so do the savage impulses of our destiny.

If the poor pawns manipulated by nature and their power-hungry fellows could understand the great game, freedom might be won. But understanding eludes them and the conclusion is always the same.

Sir Gawain

April 5, 2022 1:16pm

I stumbled onto the movie “the Green Knight” at about the half-way mark. I was enthralled by the story even though I was ignorant of the beginning. This, of course, led to research into the Arthurian legends and the epic poem written in the late 14th century. This manuscript had been in the private libraries of Henry Savile and Sir Robert Bruce Cotton and so was virtually unknown until it was mentioned in Thomas Warton’s 1824 “History.” It was finally published in its entirety in 1839 when it was given the current title – “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”

The text, written in Middle English dialect (prevalent from 1066 to the late 15th c.) is unintelligible to the modern eye. The short poem “The Green Knight” by Yvor Winters, is a good introduction to the tale in the epic poem.

As a boy, I read the Arthurian legends and I may well have read of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, though I do not recall it. The slow pace and haunting scenery of the movie do justice to the spiritual undercurrents that pull Gawain into the deeper waters of Christian mysticism.

The Green Chapel

April 6, 2022 9:50am

The weather has turned cool and wet. It has rained for two days. Last night distant lights shone through a low fog, but stars were visible between clouds overhead. Now, trees on the horizon are shrouded in mist.

I linger over the meanings buried in The Green Knight and the significance of the magical green sash. Many believe themselves called to greatness but out of billions, few approach it and even they fail.

What IS our destiny?

I long for meaning and purpose but find little. Perhaps a lesson from Gawain is that we must accept vulnerability and find, each in his or her heart, our own very personal honor.

Maybe acceptance of our true place in the universe is a new religion requiring a new kind of faith and an asceticism of the spirit rather than the body.

Three questions face us all: Where did we come from, why are we here, where are we going. I do not know the answers but my fealty to the questions overshadows all else, bordering on obsession and leads down dark roads through the past, to the present where I peer into the mist and the fading light to see the road diminish to a path leading into a dark forest of wild and tangled wood, wherein I may find my own Green Chapel and what awaits there.

Duality

April 7, 2022 9:18pm

You walk upon the Earth for your allotted days and what have you to show for your time and efforts? Mis-spent youth and wasted days of no productive time and fruitless search. The sun rose and the sun set and you claim no progress. Who are you to deserve praise. Who are you to deserve laurels and songs. You are a placeholder in the eternity of time.

Wish I were. Wish I was. No, too late. Relinquish your claim and walk the quiet streets until the wee hours when light fades and time melts and meaning crumbles. Then who are you? Wraith on the move in a universe of unknowing. No purpose will be found. Only dark. Only foundations that shift and deform. Is there really only good and evil? Manichean acolyte, you wandered the street at 2am to find some truth but it eluded you.

Wind

April 13, 2022 11:48pm

Here there was wind and destruction. Bowline storms pressing eastward to victory. After, the Frankfort Radio Symphony playing “Harold in Italy”. Sinister, silence waits for reports of death in the morning and upheaval of lives once serene. Is this it? I read the verse translation of myths of the post-Roman world in Europe and contemplate the modern upheaval of Ukraine. Conflict of the civil war in mankind….brain on fire and destruction of the holy place. Set me free, innocent one on the palm-strewn path to Jerusalem. What green world awaits us in the post-post-post modern world we anticipate? Annihilation? Another word for nothing left to lose? Thank you saint Janice. We kneel at your altar, while the shooter infests the dreams of the commuters in subterranean warrens of the rabbit people. Eating lettuce, they beg for mercy and receive none. God will be back in days. Just wait….the crucifixion Friday and the resurrection on Sunday and you, you people of the times, you disavow all knowledge of goodness. Please take your seats, T minus zero.

Good Friday / Tax Day

April 15, 2022 6:01pm

Render unto Ceasar the things that are Caesar’s.

What is left of the sacred in our lives? Almost nothing but most do not even realize our European origins. When I was a child, there were “Blue Laws” that prohibited sales at retail outlets on Sunday. Follow the money to see how we have progressed. Ask most people what they hold sacred, and the responses will be an amalgam of abstractions that we do not have to put into actual practice and for which none must sacrifice comfort or wealth. Here’s a possible list of what we Americans hold sacred: Democracy, Religious Freedom, Free speech, Equality, ….you get the idea. Pretty ideas that do not require sacrifice on the part of anyone. What a world.

But then Christ – who was crucified on this day – he did make a sacrifice. Was it to save you and me? I can’t prove A N Y T H I N G! So, you’re on your own. It is very likely that he did die a very slow and painful death. Abba, why have you forsaken me? Take this cup from me. I will do it anyway because I have no choice. A life of passion and meaning perhaps lived to its fullest. To sacrifice our otherwise meaningless lives for others??? Is that what it’s all about?

I dunno….but the full moon, the “pink” moon is tomorrow at 2:55pm and so Easter is the 17th this year. The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. How many know why we celebrate on this day? More know that they better pay their taxes on the 15th because that’s when Uncle demands his due. Follow the money.

If you follow the money, you know that inflation is rampant. We can’t find green bean seeds (Romas) because of a draught or something and other folks tell us that seed potatoes are sold out because of worries about food shortages. Who knew this was coming? Biblical times indeed. Famine and pestilence. I read about the arrival of Jesus at Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to mark the season in a culture of consumerism (and I am in the van so don’t be fooled). The ass-in-waiting had never been ridden…..don’t know why that struck me this time around but if you’ve been thrown, you don’t quickly forget.

Anyway, we have no draft animals here. but two tractors are drawing straws for who will pull the disc. The last frost date is approaching, and we just noticed that our squash (raised under a grow light) already has fruit, and the tomatoes are yearning for real soil so I will peruse the 10-day forecasts and make plans accordingly. If we can sneak in before the bell, we will. I have Crenshaw melon seeds already started too and the 110-day growing season was our undoing last year, so we’ll get a jump on that too. Enough of garden talk.

Happy Easter!

Sucess!

April 23, 2022 12:31am

The gate I built for Locust Grove is hung! I got a call last week indicating that the crew working on the pavilion might be able to hang it and Monday, I loaded it up and hauled it down there. Three guys got it installed in about four hours. I helped a little and advised. It looks great.

This project took about a year start to finish and is a HUGE load off my mind. Each side of the gate weighs about 100 pounds and is made of Black Locust. I used a mortise and tenon construction method which was VERY time consuming. Anyway, it is DONE! You can see the original gate HERE. The new one is pretty much identical (BELOW) although I used metal plates to brace the top and bottom horizontal pieces. I think mine should last a lot longer than the 1 x White Oak laminated construction used by the previous builder, since it is Black Locust and is solid 3 x 8 and 3 x 5 vertical pieces that will not trap moisture. They paid $4500 for the wooden portion of the gate about 10 years ago. I paid for all the material ($600 approximately) and did the work for free.

This project cured me of volunteer work for the foreseeable future.

In other news, I got the garden disced and put up the electric fence today. The six squash and zucchini are already transplanted. Next will come the tomatoes and the peppers. Potatoes are already up in the new cages I built to test the “container” method you can find on Youtube. I have one with compost, one with grass clippings, and one with leaves. Only the compost potatoes are up so far.

The “pasture” got mowed since I’m going to keep it cut this year to try to control the “Florida beggarweed” that has been a problem recently. I love to let that pasture grass get head-high and go to seed but then mowing just pushes down the weeds and they still go to seed so a year of close mowing should eliminate the last of the beggarweed.

Falling Stars

April 24, 2022 11:35pm

I left Saturday morning to help a friend move to Dunmore, KY where he has a lake house. Six of us showed up to help and good thing, there was some heavy lifting. One by one, guys left for other obligations until there were three of us helping to move two trucks and two trailers. We all told him he needs to get younger friends if he continues to move; the average age of these “movers” was about 67 and multiple injuries occurred.

On a winter’s night, a falling star resolves into a flake of snow, or a speck of ash and the observer is left to interpret the origin. I do not claim to know much of anything at this stage, but I think I see through a little of the illusion. Our lives are composed of the myths we create for ourselves….each one seeing his or her place in the universe according to innate biases and nurtured throughout our lives. Not one in a thousand has a clue about his true nature. We exaggerate our virtues and minimize our vices until a listener would scarcely recognize us by our own descriptions of our characters. No, better to offer none and let others, more objective, reach their own conclusions about us and our motives….thusly avoiding hubris.

Helen Keller

April 26, 2022 10:58pm

Helen Keller’s optimism was remarkable. I watched the Patty Duke portrayal when I was a child (The Miracle Worker – 1962) and so thought I knew the story. Research today revealed much deeper waters – a philosophical perspective all the more surprising given the obstacles she overcame. Plus, Keller was truly a physical beauty.

Her positivity forces me to again question what mystery of genetics leads one to see only the good in life while others cannot enjoy a moment of peace because of our ultimate fate. We are all in a vehicle that has left a mountain road and is following a trajectory whose terminus we can calculate with precision. Some passengers enjoy the excitement and the view while others brace for impact. Whose approach is best?

The Greeks (Plato’s “Gorgias”) castigated their fellows who held too long to youthful attitudes of Romanticism and philosophical inquisitiveness. These interests were appropriate in the young but undesirable in maturity when a man should be concerned with power and wealth. The elder Socrates was seen as effeminate and timid by Callicles who was decisive, manly, and bold.

Perhaps this question is not an either/or proposition but one more nuanced. Perhaps the wise man or woman uses all the tools at his or her disposal at the proper time and in the proper context. A well-rounded person should be able to be (or become) whatever is needed. Most of us, however, incline one way or another and cannot easily slip the shackles that bind us to our natures.

The ground approaches but the evening shadows at the bottom of the canyon are so beautiful!

Progeny

April 28, 2022 10:27 pm

Strange thoughts in the garden. While setting out the black heirloom tomatoes that I start from seeds every year, I wondered what my daughters really think of me. I don’t know what convoluted abstractions led to this question but the more crushed leaves I added to the holes, the more this pestered me.

I thought of these two beautiful women long before they were gawky teens, long before they finished elementary school, long before each would occasionally fall asleep with their mother and I would carry them to bed. I thought of them long before their mom carried them in the womb and long before I even married.

I wanted to be the kind of father that my children could respect and I tried to behave accordingly long before they were even a possibility. I wanted to set an example for them before they existed. Did I achieve the goal? Who can say? Perhaps they became the women they are in spite of me….others may judge for themselves.

A new generation is on the way and these parental conundrums will fall to others more youthful and energetic. May they learn from our mistakes.