Full screen recommended.
Alan Parsons Project, "Ammonia Avenue"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.
Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”
Chet Raymo, "Starlight"
"Starlight"
by Chet Raymo
"Poor Calvin is overwhelmed with the vastness of the cosmos and no small dose of existential angst. He is not the first, of course. Most famously the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wailed his own despair: "I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing and which know nothing of me. I am terrified...The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me."
And he didn't know the half of it. Not so long ago we imagined ourselves to be the be-all and end-all of creation, at the center of a cosmos made expressly for us and at the pinnacle of the material Great Chain of Being. Then it turned out that the Earth was not the center of the cosmos. Nor the Sun. Nor the Galaxy. The astronomers Sebastian von Hoerner and Carl Sagan raised this experience to the level of a principle - the Principle of Mediocrity - which can be stated something like this: The view from here is about the same as the view from anywhere else. Or to put it another way: Our star, our planet, the life on it, and even our own intelligence, are completely mediocre.
Moon rocks are just like Earth rocks. Photographs of the surface of Mars made by the landers and rovers could as well have been made in Nevada. Meteorites contain some of the same organic compounds that are the basis for terrestrial life. Gas clouds in the space between the stars are composed of precisely the same atoms and molecules that we find in our own backyard. The most distant galaxies betray in their spectra the presence of familiar elements.
And yet, and yet, for all we know, our brains are the most complex things in the universe. Are we then living, breathing refutations of the Principle of Mediocrity. I doubt it. For the time being, Calvin will just have to get used to living in the infinite abyss and eternal silence. He has Hobbes. We have each other. And science. And poetry. And love."
The Universe
“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents. And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”
“Tallyho,”
The Universe
“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet: Freedom”
“Freedom”
"And an orator said, “Speak to us of Freedom.”
And he (the prophet) answered:
" At city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself
and worship your own freedom, Even as slaves humble themselves before
a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Aye, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have
seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even
the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you,
and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your
nights without a want and a grief, But rather when these things
girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights
unless you break the chains
which you at the dawn of your understanding
have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains,
though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that
you may become free? If it is an unjust law you would abolish,
that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing
the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone,
see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud,
but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off,
that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel,
the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace,
the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more,
the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters
becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom."
- Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet: Freedom”
"The Way Of Love..."
"The way of love is not a subtle argument.
The door there is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they're given wings."
- Rumi
“Embracing Life-Affirming Death Awareness: How to Transform Yourself and Possibly Save Human Civilization”
“Embracing Life-Affirming Death Awareness:
How to Transform Yourself and Possibly Save Human Civilization”
By Fred Branfman
“I never want to forget the prospect of death. Because, if I am ever able to block out those emotions, I will lose the sense of purpose and focus that cancer has given my own life."
— Hamilton Jordan, "No Such Thing as a Bad Day"
"My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. The country (is) caught up in moral decay. (Our leaders) must speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul."
— Lee Atwater, "Life" Magazine, 1991
When he was 55, a newspaper mistakenly printed an obituary of Alfred Nobel, condemning him for his invention of dynamite and stating "the merchant of death is dead." Nobel was so shocked that he created the Nobel Peace Prize.
When he was 41, Anthony Burgess, working unhappily in the British colonial service, was given a terminal diagnosis with one year to live. He quit, wrote five novels in the next year and 11 including “Clockwork Orange” by age 46.
After serving as Jimmy Carter's chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan contracted several cancers. He wrote in his memoir that cancer was "a strange blessing," and that "after my first cancer, even the smallest joys of life took on a special meaning."
His Republican counterpart Lee Atwater, known for such dirty tricks as claiming off the record that a political opponent "had been hooked up to jumper cables," contracted cancer and then apologized to Michael Dukakis for his "naked cruelty" in running the Willy Horton ad, and repudiated the "Reagan Revolution" he had done so much to create. He wrote in a 1991 Life magazine article, "what power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth. My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything."
Former CEO Eugene O'Kelley wrote in “Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life”, that "the present felt to me like a gift. Living in it now, maybe for the first time, I experienced more Perfect Moments and Perfect Days in two weeks than I had in the last five years. (When a CEO) I had barely even considered limiting my office schedule. I wished I'd known then how to be and stay in the present, the way I now knew it."
These people are not alone. Countless lives have been transformed for the better over the centuries by breaking through their denial about their own deaths, whether due to a terminal diagnosis, surviving a serious illness or suicide, engaging in combat, having a serious accident, being a crime victim, or experiencing the death of a loved one.
Many people find their lives enriched by facing death voluntarily, not because they were forced to. In his famous Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs said that since he was 17, "Remembering that I'll be dead soon (has been) the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life, don't be trapped by dogma, and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."
Let It Come: In the summer of 1990, I was directing “Rebuild America”, a think tank whose advisors included Larry Summers, Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, and semiconductor inventor Robert Noyce, with Gov. Bill Clinton just having agreed to join as well. At 3am one night, I noticed a small fear of death arising, that I automatically pushed it away, and said to myself "Let it come!" I was plunged into the most painful experience of my life, as I felt I was disintegrating, followed by the most ecstatic moments I have ever known. The next morning I quit a sterile full-time politics that was burning me out, and embarked on a spiritual and psychological journey. After a time, I gradually returned to the world of social and political action, enriched and refreshed by my spiritual and psychological explorations.
One of my most moving experiences was spending several months with a psychologist named Jackie McEntee, after she had received a terminal diagnosis. She reported that the diagnosis was a wakeup call which led her to feel far more profoundly, deepened her relationship with her husband Bob, kids and community, and spend her time more purposefully and meaningfully. I asked whether she would rather have lived decades more as she had been living, or these few years as she was living now. She replied: "I call this my Year of Ecstasy. Sublime, incredible things have happened. That's why I wouldn't go back. Even though my previous life was good, it was not the bliss, the splendor, the ecstasy of how I live now."
I asked her what she felt her experience had to teach people who did not face a terminal diagnosis. "I think we need as a society to sustain death in our consciousness. Death is a reality by virtue of life. Our society has been in such a fog, evading death and dying, that I really think we don't live as fully because of that evasion. Well, I've learned to live fully now. And it's my deepest wish that everyone else will also—and without having to go through this kind of illness." That is a key question each of us faces. Do we want to wait for a terminal diagnosis, like Eugene O'Kelly or Jackie McEntee, before discovering that facing death could have transformed our lives for the better years earlier? Or do we wish to explore that question now?
There is no whitewashing the fact that feeling our sadness about our approaching deaths is more painful than defending against it. But, as adults, we can stand it. Doing so can release the enormous psychic energy we have been repressing, enriching our lives and leading to a far greater concern for those in need today and all who will follow us.
Feeling Our Sadness: The most important common feature of those whose lives have been enriched by facing their death is that they were willing to experience sadness and even intense pain about having to lose what they value in this life, and then used it as energy to transform their lives for the better. One could hear that sadness pulsating through the voice of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as he faced his own pain at social injustice and living under a daily threat of death. Sadness is the opposite of the closed, contracted state we call depression. As in the case of Dr. King, it can energize and activate, connecting people on a far deeper level than anger or outrage.
As Hamilton Jordan suggests, it is possible to "block out" much of the emotional pain that can arise even from a terminal diagnosis. We can use antidepressants, entertainment, constant activity, exercise, and a variety of other means to maintain the denial of death we have practiced since early childhood. As Jordan put it, "Nobody thinks too much on Desolation Row," especially about their own deaths, as long as they keep busy and occupied with other matters. But as he also found, daring to feel one's pain at the prospect of death can transform one's life.
I discovered this truth, to my amazement, when my life was transformed by facing my own eventual death at age 48. When the death anxiety I had been repressing burst to the surface I discovered that facing it, though painful, released enormous energy, appreciation for the preciousness of life, deep reservoirs of feeling I never knew existed, and a deep desire to contribute to the wellbeing of those who would follow me. Indeed, the more emotional pain I was consciously willing to feel about my death, the more truly alive, loving, empathetic and appreciative I felt. It was almost mathematical: more pain, more life; more life, more pain.
The key was to consciously bring my pain to the surface. We normally avoid doing so as much as possible, and only react with denial, anger, bargaining or depression when we must, which can make it much harder to handle. But when we choose to bring our sadness to the surface so as to release energy for life, as Hamilton Jordan and Lee Atwater found, it can enhance our experience of life in ways we never dreamed possible—and transform our attitudes toward political action as well.
Facing death openly does not necessarily, of course, lead to political action. The opposite is often true. Many people in their retirement years react to reminders of death by turning to meditation and other spiritual and religious practices. They feel they've done enough politically, and they pursue long-deferred creative projects, focus on their grandchildren, face health issues, care for their mates, or conserve their declining energy.
Much of this is healthy for the individual and society. Spiritually inclined, serene and peaceful elders who have moved beyond materialism and frenetic activity can serve as important role models for an America that badly needs to move beyond the "acquisition," frenetic activity and mindless materialism Lee Atwater so rightly decried. "Don't just do something, sit there," as Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein has written. If enough of us experienced “a touch of Enlightenment," the world would be a far better place.
Facing Our Deaths: Facing repressed death anxiety can benefit anyone at any age. In their book, "Beyond Death Anxiety: Achieving Life-Affirming Death Awareness", the psychotherapist Robert Firestone and Joyce Catlett explain how we first learn we will die between the ages of 3 and 8, and we automatically repress this frightening information. We continue this pattern as adults, rarely reexamining whether it make sense to continue this denial of our death, although we now have the tools to handle it.
They explain how our unconscious death anxiety influences every aspect of our adult lives, including our relationships and our sexuality. We often either unconsciously distance ourselves because true intimacy is so painful, or we violently turn against our partners when we realize they will not be the saviors we imagined. Our anxiety about death affects our child-rearing, as we often partly have children because we wish to live on through them, and then seek to control them so they will be the kind of "immortality vehicle" we seek. Death anxiety also lies at the heart of much of the midlife crisis many undergo, and explains many of our social behaviors as well. We identify with religious, ethnic or national "immortality vehicles" (USA! USA! USA!), because if the "other" triumphs, our own will fail. These processes are unconscious, which is why they have so much power.
The importance of Firestone and Catlett's work is that it is not based upon theory but the actual lived experience of a group of over 100 friends who have broken through much of the death-denial and openly discuss their death anxiety on a regular basis. This experience indicates, first of all, that people can bear it—while painful, surfacing repressed death anxiety does not destroy one's equilibrium, but enhances it. They have discovered that sharing their sadness together is a positive, life-enhancing experience. It also leads to greater empathy and compassion for each other and for the world as a whole.
Gifts of Death Awareness: Reports by people whose lives have been transformed by facing their own deaths reveal what might be called the gifts of death awareness. Examples of these gifts include:
• Increased aliveness and vitality: Feeling sadness about our mortality can release enormous reservoirs of psychic energy, aliveness and vitality that is otherwise wasted on repressing our death-feelings.
• A wider range of feeling: We cannot repress painful feelings without repressing joyful ones as well. Death awareness can widen and deepen our feelings. We find we can stand the painful feelings we have spent a lifetime avoiding. We open up new vistas of love, appreciation, tenderness, joy, compassion, and empathy.
• Deeper relationships: When we deny our pain about our own death and those of loved ones, we often unconsciously pull away from intimacy. Repressing feelings not only deadens us, but causes us to shrink from the pain that true closeness brings. Consciously facing death can lead to deeper intimacy and love for those closest to us. A friend recently wrote me about attending a funeral and sitting with the sister of the deceased, weeping side by side without saying anything for 15 minutes. It was their most intimate interaction in a decade, and it forged a lifelong bond between them.
• Increased life-purpose and passion: Like Hamilton Jordan, Steve Jobs and countless others, facing the shortness of time we have left often leads to a greater sense of purpose and focus. Our passion is increased, as we realize that with the time we have left we will create what we wish to create, and enjoy our most precious experiences.
• Wider perspective: People facing death commonly report that they gain a greater sense of perspective, are less prone to petty fears, slights, jealousies, and anxieties, and have their sights raised to issues of meaning and the human condition. Facing our mortality broadens our perspective.
• Great lucidity and sanity: When one becomes exposed to death, often when parents die, many experience a painful but somehow liberating sense of clarity and sanity. As I was flying back to New York from Florida after my father's death, I found myself writing these words: "I have been living as if I will never die, which is a lie. And to live a lie is not really to live at all."
• Greater creativity: Increased passion often brings greater creativity. As Steve Jobs noted, death-awareness can lead us to commit to following our own path and not be trapped by the opinions of others.
• Greater compassion and empathy: Death awareness can lead us to focus on what we have in common with our fellow beings. It is not only that we are all going to die, but that we are all facing similar difficulties in dealing with this fact. As we become more feeling, our compassion can also deepen and extend to millions who suffer unnecessarily.
• The courage to be vulnerable: Though we tend to see courage as involving strength, decisiveness and risk-taking, the greater bravery is daring to feel and display our vulnerability. Facing death leads to a softer and more feeling appreciation of life and closer relationships with those around us.
• Gratitude, appreciation and awe: Experiencing our vulnerability as creatures who will die can lead to the most precious possible experiences of appreciation and awe that life even exists, let alone that we have been privileged to participate in it. It is precisely because our time with loved ones, or our opportunity to experience life, is so limited that it is so precious.
• Greater aesthetic appreciation: Death awareness opens us up to the beauty of life in space and in time. We become more aware of fleeting and infinitely precious moments of beauty.
• Spiritual openings and the experience of oneness with life: Death awareness can lead to unmediated, direct spiritual experiences in which the personal ego dissolves and we experience a sense of oneness with all life, including the countless humans who have preceded us and those who will follow us.
• Greater concern for preserving civilization for future generations: Such death-influenced spiritual experiences can lead to a greater commitment to saving human civilization for our offspring and all who will follow us.
Exploring Life-Affirming Death Awareness: Words are cheap and only useful if they encourage us to experiment for ourselves whether they might be true. This is particularly true for an issue like whether to surface our sadness about death, which goes against the habits of a lifetime. The following exercises are meant to help us explore how we wish to respond to the fact of our eventual deaths. Many of us have never consciously considered this question as adults, continuing the denial of our feelings that we first learned as kids. But we may find now that exploring this issue can enrich and revitalize our lives, as well as all society.
These explorations are intended to help explore two basic issues: 1) feeling rather than denying painful feelings about our eventual death; 2) using these feelings as energy to live with more purpose and compassion. These exercise tend to yield the deepest results if they are preceded by some minutes of quiet reflection.
1. Focus on what unites us. Pick a time-period—a few hours, a day, longer—in which you focus on what you have in common with each person you see or interact with, whether you know them or not. They, like you, are going to one day die; they, like you, are confused and frightened by this knowledge, and tend to think or feel about it as little as possible; and they, like you, may have a dull look in their eyes, or rigid expression on their face, partly because they are using up precious psychic energy to repress their death anxiety.
Note what you are feeling as you engage in this exercise, particularly any feelings of compassion or empathy for yourself or others. How does this exercise make you feel? Does this exercise in any way change how you feel toward others? Perhaps extend this exercise by meeting with people you normally dislike or disagree with, and note whether any change in your normal feelings arise as a result.
2. Appreciate a last meal or walk. Set aside a time when you can eat a meal alone in a quiet place, and imagine it is the last meal you will ever eat. Eat slowly, noting each smell, how each component of the meal tastes, everything it took for this meal to reach you, from the life of the animal or plant involved to the apparatus—farmer, transport, supermarket, etc.—required to get this food to you. Note your feelings at the prospect that this will be the last meal you will ever eat in this lifetime.
Set a time to take a walk, imagining it is the last walk you will ever take on this earth. Walk extremely slowly, taking the time to smell every smell, hear every sound, see every sight. Note the feelings that arise, whether sadness that you will never have this experience again, or gratitude that you have been able to have this experience of life. As you return to daily life, reflect on whether these experiences change how you might want to eat or take walks from here on out.
3. Appreciate the preciousness of life. Reflect upon those experiences of life you most value at this point in your life, perhaps making a list of them in order, e.g. your experiences of loved ones, travel, learning, contributing, nature, art, and so on and so forth.
Now notice the feelings that emerge as you go through the list, and imagine never being able to have those experiences again. Note where the feelings of sadness, loss or worse, are most intense. Although you are likely to experience a range of feelings, including a distancing from feeling, focus on any feelings of sadness that arise as you understand dying as losing the experiences of life that you most value. Reflect on what your sadness tells you about the parts of your life you value most, your deepest regrets, your deepest desire for developing the qualities you desire, your relationship to the violence and injustice of the world, the unfinished business of your life, internal and external.
4. Appreciate loved ones and friends. Pick a moment when you can gaze upon a loved one or close friend. Either with eyes closed or open, imagine her head as the skull it will be, her body as the skeleton it will become after she dies. Feel the sadness, the pain of it. Now return to the present, feel your love for her, your appreciation of the fact that you can have this experience of her. Note your feelings of appreciation for the fact that you can now experience her, the preciousness of this opportunity to know, interact with and love her.
5. Feel valued by society. Imagine that you had died today and were reading your obituary in the newspaper. Write out what you imagine it might say. Imagine you have another 10 years to live, and then write out your obituary as you would like it to appear then. Conclude by noting the key changes you need to make in your life so as to have your obituary read as you would like it to a decade from now.
6. Set priorities, inner and outer. Imagine that you are on your deathbed, looking back on your life. (This exercise is best conducted while lying on your back, in a dark room, in the actual position you are most likely to be in while facing your actual end.) Note the outer events—your accomplishments, impact on your kids, grandkids, community, America, the world—that are the most meaningful to you at this point. Note the inner events that are most meaningful—ways in which you developed internally, touching experiences with loved ones, friends, nature, the cosmos, moments of spiritual transcendence, etc. Note which kinds of experiences are the most meaningful, inner and outer, past and present, or the impact your life will have after you have gone. Note your feelings about the state of the world you are leaving behind.
Think of those people who have wronged you whom you wish to forgive, or those from whom you wish to ask forgiveness. Perhaps write letters to the most important ones. After conducting this exercise, reflect on whether the thoughts and feelings you had have any implications for how you want to lead your life from here on out. Did you note any enhanced experiences of aliveness and energy, compassion or love for yourself or others, the world, greater serenity, a greater sense of direction and life-purpose, a greater concern for the environment and the world you are leaving behind, a deeper sense of spirituality and connection to all things?
7. Looking backward, looking forward. Reflect on the next 10 years of your life— the people with whom you will interact, the places you will visit, the countless feelings you will experience, and so forth. Reflect upon how long these 10 years seem, how rich the many experiences you will have. Now reflect back on the last 10 years of your life, note how it all seems to have passed in an instant.
Now imagine that you are on your deathbed, looking back on the time between now and when you die. Reflect on how it, too, will seem to have passed in an instant. Reflect on any implications this may have for how you want to live from here on out, whether it helps illuminate what is and isn't important to you, whether it seems to call for an increased commitment to any sort of activities or experiences, and so forth.
8. The precious shortness of life. Imagine your doctor has just told you that you have three years to live in full possession of your health, after which you will decline precipitously and die. Reflect on what you imagine your priorities, internal and external, would be if you knew you had but three more years to live. Would you change anything about your present life? Relationships? External projects? Inner development? Would you live with greater purpose and waste less time? Would you devote yourself to artistic creation, travel or political activity? How would your relationships with people change? Then imagine that your doctor tells you he was mistaken, and you can look forward to a normal lifespan. If you would have lived differently if you had only three years to live, does this have any implications for your future now?”
"Luminarium"
"Luminarium"
"A comprehensive anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Restoration and Eighteenth Century."
“I have undertaken a labor, a labor out of love for
the world, and to comfort noble hearts: those that I
hold dear, and the world to which my heart goes
out. Not the common world do I mean, of those
who (as I have heard) cannot bear grief and desire
but to bathe in bliss. (May God then let them dwell
in bliss!) Their world and manner of life my tale
does not regard: it's life and mine lie apart. Another
world do I hold in mind, which bears together in
one heart its bitter sweetness and its dear grief, its
heart's delight and its pain of longing, dear life and
sorrowful death, dear death and sorrowful life. In
this world let me have my world, to be damned
with it, or to be saved.”
- Gottfried Von Strassburg
"This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.
Luminarium is the labor of love of Anniina Jokinen. The site is not affiliated with any institution nor is it sponsored by anyone other than its maintainer and the contributions of its visitors through revenues from book sales via Amazon.com, poster sales via All Posters, and advertising via Google AdSense.
For all materials, authorities in a given subject are consulted. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English are some of the general reference works consulted for accuracy of dates and details.
Many of the materials collected here reside elsewhere. Quality and accuracy are concerns, and all materials are checked regularly. However, "Luminarium" cannot be held responsible for materials residing on other sites. Corrections and suggestions for improvements are encouraged from the visitors.
The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming—there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.
Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page "Medlit" and "Renlit" pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the "Sevenlit" site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for "lantern," because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered "luminaries" of English literature."
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 51,400 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.
The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors' need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.
The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.
We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home."
•
For those so inclined, this is a treasure trove of material. Enjoy!
"Whispering Walls"
"Whispering Walls"
by Bill Bonner
POITOU, FRANCE – “It’s probably the greatest fiscal con job that’s ever been perpetrated on the U.S. public,” said Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on Monday. He was talking about the “infrastructure” bill. Headlines report it variously at $550 billion, $1 trillion, and $1.2 trillion. We could google it to find out for sure exactly how much money is being frittered away, but we’re not going to bother. What’s a few billion more or less?
Besides, as Mr. Hanke points out, it is just the snout of a “$5 trillion monster” that the feds are now stitching together. Up next is the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” budget. And then, in “reconciliation” – where the House bills and Senate versions are reconciled – there comes another opportunity to sew on more ears and noses.
Spontaneous Performance: We’ll leave that story for another day. Today, we will continue telling you about our home in France. Yesterday, some neighbors stopped over. One of them sat down at the piano and began to play. And the house rejoiced.
Different Sounds: But let’s back up… a quarter of a century. The sounds then were very different. “Time to get up… We have work to do!” Every Saturday morning, we rattled the children’s bedroom doors. “Do we have to?” came the little voices from within. “Yes.”
A groan inevitably followed. Oh yes… there were unhappy sounds as well as joyful ones. The walls remember them all. Then, one by one, the children staggered down the stairs to breakfast in front of an open fire (our only source of heat). The children were obliged to help their father on Saturdays. On Sundays, they had the day to themselves… for catching up on schoolwork or doing whatever they wanted.
The house was built centuries ago; no one knows exactly when. It fell into the hands of the Ducellier family during the French Revolution. They bought it at a “candle auction” (the top bid when the candle goes out is the winner), after the previous owners fled to England to escape the Terror. The Ducelliers lived here for the next 200 or so years – making substantial modifications and embellishments in 1910.
And there it was when we came on the scene… naïve pilgrims from the New World, with stars in their eyes so bright, they hardly noticed that the house was a wreck, neglected for decades… with a roof leaking like a sieve… wiring from the 1950s… skeletal plumbing… and a furnace that was a fire hazard. What a great project! We had years of fix-up ahead of us, working together with the family…
Damp and Cold: We brought the family to the house in the dead of winter. “The heat works fine,” the previous owners had told us. But the antique wood furnace in the basement was hardly up to the job. If we chucked in oak logs, about a yard long, all day long, we could get the temperature in the house above 45 degrees… But by then, the furnace was red hot and the house was ready to catch fire.
After about a month, we had run into stiff opposition. The house was so damp… and so full of mold and mildew… we were getting sick. The children’s tutor, who had eagerly followed her students to France, had to be hospitalized. “Maybe we should go home,” was the proposed strategy for a retreat. “But this is our new home,” we answered. “She needs us.”
We moved to a small, abandoned farmhouse. There, we opened the windows… swept… mopped… and made a giant fire in the kitchen fireplace. It was primitive, but it seemed dry enough to survive in. We camped out in the farmhouse for a few months – until the long days of summer had dried out the main house.
New Sounds:Meanwhile, the work continued. The old walls – undisturbed for so many years – heard new sounds…scrapers on the old plaster walls, as we removed the old, musty wallpaper (hot, soapy water helped, we discovered)…hammers, screwdrivers, and saws, as we rehung the doors and corrected the wooden trim…shovels, trowels, and cement mixers, as we laid up stone walls and patched plaster…and the sound of glass breaking, as we replaced hundreds of cracked or broken window panes.
The walls surely recorded the happy sounds – birthday parties in the dining room… sing-alongs on the veranda… jokes and laughter in the kitchen…and the bitter sounds, too – the family crises… moments of sadness and despair… falls… chipped teeth… kicks from horses… the rush to the emergency room. The complaints and the cries – whimpers and whoops – the walls heard them all. Our aunt died here; she is buried in the local cemetery.
Fitting In: Yes, a house forgets. But a home remembers. A home is where you bury the dead, but keep the family alive. It remembers who you are and where you came from. It is where you keep the family albums… the heirlooms, souvenirs, and mementos… Uncle Charlie’s shotguns… Aunt Louisa’s dresser. It is where the piano sits, waiting for a gentle caress… alongside an old guitar, its strings eager for fingers.
We were as many as 12 people in our little tribe. Children, parents, grandmother, aunt, tutor… and a friendly carpenter from America, who lived with us. The locals worried that we were a cult. And at first, not knowing the language very well, we must have seemed weird… like the Branch Dravidians or the Children of God. But gradually – through school, church, and farm connections – we took our place in local society – unusual, but not at all a threat to the community.
Au contraire, we fit right in. The stability of the farming area appealed to us; it recalled the pleasant, family-oriented life on the banks of the Chesapeake back in the 1950s and 1960s. That life was lost forever, as the Washington suburbs grew… But here, we found something similar. Something that seemed even more stable. These were homes, not just houses. Old houses were rarely sold. New ones were rarely built.
Dangerous Work: And they had workshops. Ours was like a museum, with belt-driven tools… including a bandsaw that would take your whole hand off in a second. One day, we entered the workshop to find our youngest son – then about seven years old – playing with his friend from across the road. They were using the bandsaw to make swords! Oh la la! We dismantled the saw… It was just too dangerous.
Almost every window had at least one broken pane of glass to replace. These were French windows. The work could be done from the inside. But the outside frame could be tricky… especially if it had to be replaced. And the windows on the third floor and in the fourth-floor attic were much too high to be reached by ladder. We devised a system. We pushed a long board out the window, resting on the sill… The children (and sometimes their mother and grandmother) would sit on the board inside the house, while their father ventured out on the other end of the teeter-totter to do the work. "Whatever you do, don’t get up,” he warned them, tying a rope around his waist, just in case. “Don’t tempt us, Dad,” they replied, giggling.
Embedded Memories: Yes, the house must recall that. And the time we scrambled up on top of the chimney in order to lower a bag of nails to clean out a bird’s nest…and when we held a party on the lawn and sang Johnny Cash and Grateful Dead songs until after midnight… and when the chimney caught fire and spewed sparks so high, neighbors called the fire department.
But that was then. Those things are embedded in the walls. And in the ground. We were lucky. A local entrepreneur – Mr. Brule – took charge of the heating and plumbing. His business was drilling wells. But he was the sort of fellow you need on a job like that – confident and able to take command and make things happen. That was 25 years ago. The old house still stands. But poor Mr. Brule cannot stand at all. He has Multiple Sclerosis. What a curse it must be to a man so active… so accustomed to being in charge. He cannot walk… and can barely see.
Last Two Standing: And now, it is a quarter-century later for us, too. The old house needs more work. But now, the children are all grown up. They have families of their own. Jobs in Paris, California, and Florida. Their own projects. Their own walls. Their own shouts and tears.Now, the tutor… the carpenter… and the children – all have left. Mother and aunt are both in their graves. Only two of us remain… father and mother… son and daughter-in-law…
We reorganize the books and photos… fix the furniture… paint the shutters…And we listen to the walls. Growing older, the memories grow faint… We often can’t recall: “Who was that?” “What year was that?” “How old was he then?” But the home remembers everything."
Epilogue: Years later, we went for a long horseback ride with one of the boys. It was a new adventure – high in the Andes mountains of South America. We were on the trail of some missing cows… out for a couple hours in a cold, windswept pass. We stopped for a bite to eat. But with the wind in our ears, we found it difficult to understand each other.
“What did you say?”
“I said it sucked.”
“What sucked?”
“That you made us work with you every damned weekend.”
“What?”
“I never complained about it.”
"Yes, you did… You complained all the time.”
“But you made us work anyway… and it sucked.”
“Oh…”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you make us do it?”
“Well… I needed the help.”
“C’mon… We were more trouble than we were worth.”
“Well… Not always.
“Besides, I thought it was good for you. It showed you that you could work with your hands. You could do things. You know how to fix plaster… how to lay up a stone wall… how to paint.
"You know how to make a nice place to live. A real home.”
“Well… I hated it. I resented it.”
“What?”
“I said I hated it. I resented it.”
“But doesn’t it make you feel good, knowing that you can do things with your own hands?”
“No. I’d rather rent a place.”
Gregory Mannarino, 8/11/21: "Economic Freefall, Inflation, Must Know Now Updates"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/11/21:
"Economic Freefall, Inflation, Must Know Now Updates"
○
Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/11/21:
"Alert - Markets:
Get Yourself On The Right Side Of This NOW!"
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Musical Interlude: Hans Zimmer, "Time"
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
"The problem is, you think you have time."
- Buddha
Must Watch! "Don't Worry, America Is Bankrupt; Fundamentals Will Mean Everything; Nothing Is Real; Debt Crisis"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, PM 8/10/21:
"Don't Worry, America Is Bankrupt; Fundamentals
Will Mean Everything; Nothing Is Real; Debt Crisis"
"We Are Trillions of Dollars in Debt - What Can Stop Our Downward Spiral?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly PM 8/10/21:
"We Are Trillions of Dollars in Debt -
What Can Stop Our Downward Spiral?"
"We are trillions of dollars in Debt. What could possibly help our country's downward spiral right now? Student loan debt is over $1.8 trillion right now. Inflation is completely out of control and the politicians don’t seem interested in stopping it."
"Chinese Lockdowns Spark Panic Buying Frenzy & Massive Shortages As Chaos Spreads Across Supply Chains"
Full screen recommended.
"Chinese Lockdowns Spark Panic Buying Frenzy &
Massive Shortages As Chaos Spreads Across Supply Chains"
by Epic Economist
"Once again, panic buyers are wiping out grocery shelves all across China after authorities announced new movement restrictions, lockdowns, and mass testing in several major cities as infection rates spiked to the highest level in over a year. Local reports are describing that crowded grocery stores are being completely cleared out as consumers stock up on household supplies to prepare for another period of social distancing. Millions of Chinese citizens are already under brutal lockdown mandates after an outbreak of the Delta variant linked to airport workers in Nanjing spread across the country. In a dramatic move reminiscent of the first days of the health crisis in China roughly 19 months ago, flights and trains in and out of several cities have been halted amid an unexpected rise in virus cases. Chinese authorities have also ordered mass testing in many cities across the nation, including Wuhan, where the virus was first detected before it spread around the world.
China is facing strict government-mandated shutdowns in several urban areas with scenes resembling the 2020 outbreak. The southeast region of the country is battling 144 medium- and high-risk areas, the NHC said. For that reason, authorities suspended all forms of domestic travel and public transport, including the inter-city coach, taxi, and online car on the high-risk areas of the delta variant spread. While millions upon millions get confined to their homes, mass testing has been launched across the country. In Wuhan, fears of strict restrictions, particularly of a stringent lockdown, led locals to start panic buying and leave the aisles of retail stores empty, creating a massive shortage of products.
Recent reports highlight that Wuhan residents were spotted stocking up on groceries, cleaning products, and other household supplies in preparation for the imminent restrictions. The Chinese city is battling its first surge of cases in more than a year. In 2020, its rigid but effective 76-day lockdown shocked the world but was soon replicated by many other countries. Photos from Wuhan on Monday showed supermarket shelves emptied by frenzied customers, in a repeat of scenes last seen during the panic buying wave registered before the city was cut off from the rest of the world for 2 and a half months last year. Back then, the shutdown brought domestic cases down to virtually zero, which allowed the economy to recover and life to return largely to normal. But now, locals that have been living in the former virus ‘ground zero’ have raided store shelves with memories from last year's abrupt lockdowns still fresh in their minds. Officials asked the population to “calm the panicked mood", arguing that stores had "promised" to keep prices and supply chains stable. However, many remained unconvinced.
The current restrictions also triggered a panic buying wave amongst retailers that import supplies from China. The shutdown of key ports is already causing shipping delays and shortages of several products, with the apparel sector being the hardest hit by the lockdowns. Garment and textile factories in China were temporarily closed without warning and workers were ordered to self-isolate. This has sparked chaos for apparel retailers in the US and the UK, especially for those who already have been struggling to get hold of the materials and components they needed before the restrictions were put in place. A third supplier warned that retailers will experience severe stock delays in the coming weeks and months. So far, shipping rates from China to the US have skyrocketed by 200 percent, and industry experts say that more price increases are expected given that global supply chains are in total panic mode due to the latest round of lockdowns and severe logjams at key ports in both extremes of the globe. Those shipping price hikes will soon be passed on to consumers if they haven't already. And in case the new virus outbreak isn't put under control soon enough, the U.S. supply chains will start to experience widespread shortages one more time. That is to say, we might soon witness a ravaging panic buying frenzy just as the one now happening in China and just as we have seen last year. If you don't want to find yourself battling over a can of beans or a package of toilet paper in a crowded grocery store, you should start getting ready right now, because things are spiraling out of control very rapidly."
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal: The Covid War; The Fight of Our Lives"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente,
"Trends Journal: The Covid War; The Fight of Our Lives"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic view shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail.
Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The pretty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span about six light-years. "
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