Favorite Poems
T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land ãí?èé óåáõôüí ="know thyself", ìçäÝí Üãáí ="nothing in excess", two of three phrases from the oracle at Delphi babbled by the masses for thousands of years but the Cumaen Sibyl is much more important to Elliot and I. The epigraph to the poem The Waste Land, is a quote from the Satyricon of Petronius (d. A.D. 66), chapter 48. wherein Trimalchio states, "For I myself once saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in her jar, and when the boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she answered 'I want to die.' I use the Epigraph in my signature as a way of saying how my life has tired me. Here it is:
Nam Sybillam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum pueri illi dicerent: Óôâìëë ôß ÈÝëåéò; respondebat illa: ÜðóÈíåéí Èåëù. (pain in the tukus to change the encoding to show greek. :))
To get the"joke" you have to understand the sibyl was "blessed" with eternal life by Apollo, but she forgot to ask for perpetual youth, so she was trapped in an extremly decayed body. Given that my time is up, I cannot help but find this amusing as heck...lmao
In the Middle Ages, both the Cumaean Sibyl and Virgil were considered prophets of the birth of Christ, because the fourth of Virgil's Eclogues appears to contain a Messianic prophecy by the Sibyl. In it, she foretells the coming of a savior, whom Christians identified as Jesus.and this was seized on by earlyChristians as such—one reason why later chose Virgil as his guide through the underworld in The Divine Comedy. Similarly, Michelangelo prominently featured the Cumaean Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel among the Old Testament prophets.
Age is not kind.... but then it is better than disobedience...
Paradise Lost...
Please note that The Waste Land is also the work of Ezra Pound who he called, il miglior fabbro. (the better craftsman). Just as Becky is in our partnership.
Favorite Bits :)
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
IV DEATH BY WATER
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers.
As he rose and fell He passes the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look windward,
Consider Phlebas,
who was once handsome and tall as you.
A Theme-"Od Und Leer Das Meer"'' (how desolate and empty the sea) "Fear Death By Drowning"
Overall a tasty masterpiece of the quest for the grail that few outside of lit classes even attempt to understand. -sigh- If you have yet to find meaning in your life read the Waste Land. It might help to read Philebus by Plato first as he is Plebus, the drowned man...
Secular Quotes of Which I am Fond
Well it seems that the best way to convey yourself is to convey what you like. Since I am in the leadership and technology business here are some of my favorites in that area. Poetry, fiction and the like I plan on putting on the interests page.
"In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise imaginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Experience overturns these airy fabrics, and teaches us, that in a large society, the election of a monarch can never devolve to the wisest, or to the most numerous part of the people. The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal, or even a civil constitution. Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves, to appreciate them in others. Valor will acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their suffrage; but the first of these merits is often lodged in the most savage breasts; the latter can only exert itself at the expense of the public; and both may be turned against the possessor of the throne, by the ambition of a daring rival."
Edward Gibbon-Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires."
Marcus Aurelius
"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use-of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public. "
Robert Kennedy
"Be the change you wish to see in the world"
Mohandas Ghandi
Well I suppose that is enough for now. Is it not interesting that throughout history the best in us has aspired to great ideals and the worst in us has prevented us from living up to them.
Religious Quotes of Which I am Fond (Oh the Hypocrisy !!!!!!:))
But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. "- Mathew 8:8 NAS
1How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
4The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish. -Psalm1:1
Fear NO Darkness Friends... :) and tolerate NO true Evil...Tempus Fugit Memento Mori
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