Dante in Purgatory [1]

A ridiculous sort of love
that requires no possession.
What? Really? Asks, seeks,
desires no possession?

Says, 'Oh, it's okay. I'll wait for vision...'
(to dream up, no doubt, some guided tour of heaven)
Waits, perhaps nervous by the door, thinks
'I shouldn't disturb her solitude, and besides she's 
      spoken for'(or maybe rather hopes she's spoken for?) 

A practical sort of love
that desires no identity,
is satisfied with 'Ich und Du,'
quite satisfied with 'you and me,'

forces a laugh, tries to sing,
forces a laugh, a sort of offering,
waits, standing nervous by the door,
waits:   
      locked behind an open door.

[1] In interest of full disclosure: I've never read The Divine Comedy. Or I and Thou for that matter.

Soon...

I am back from a splendid vacation, and thus I am almost (very nearly) ready to begin thinking about planning to start trying to write something new here. So, er, you're going have to wait a little bit longer...

Fashion ethics, Film, Omar Khayyam pastiche, & the South Hills

I know this sort of breaks my rule against self promotion, but it is for a good cause, and it is kind of funny.

I am now on a t-shirt (pictured). It's for my friend Lucas's film production company. You can buy one, too, if you want, and the details are here:

http://dpressproductions.com/filme.html

I felt obliged to purchase one, but it brings up an ethical dilemma: should one wear a t-shift with one's own face on it. I also contributed a bit of verse to help promote the things. To wit:

Rubaiyat

a bottle of wine, a book of verse,
wandering the south hills (and how!)
wearing a "un filme" t-shirt:
a t-shirt is happiness for now...

Ok, so maybe I'm not destined to be an ad-man. But we do our best.

The t-shirt is based upon the film L'attante (from January 2006). You can watch it here:

http://dpressproductions.com/l'attente.html

Or, you can see it along with Lucas' new film and the musical brilliance of Mr. Jerome Wincek this coming thursday in Dormont. Details here:

http://dpressproductions.com/gravida.html

Fox v. Hedgehog

From Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman:

For until this moment he had lived in a state of pure possibility, not knowing what sort of a man he was or what he must do, and supposing therefore that he must be all men and do everything... Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him.

Ouch.

"I don't want to meet my new life without you"

My copy of The Idiot is out on loan, but I found this quote again recently thanks to the forward thinking of my good-natured friend Roland. I am posting it here for my birthday, which will be in a few days.

"Stop, and never speak of that again!" cried Myshkin. "Listen, Parfyon, just before you appeared I came here and suddenly began laughing -- I don't know what about. The only reason was that I remembered it was my birthday tomorrow. It seems to have come on purpose. It's almost twelve o'clock. Come, let us meet the day! I've got some wine. Let's drink some. Wish for me what I don't know how to wish for myself. You wish it, and I'll wish all happiness to you. If not, give back the cross. You didn't send the cross back to me the next day! You've got it on now, haven't you?"

"Yes," said Rogozhin.

"Well, then, come along. I don't want to meet my new life without you, for my new life has begun. You don't know, Parfyon, that my new life has begun today." [1]

[1] I believe this is the Constance Garnett translation.

Some thoughts of the ending of War and Peace

Today is the anniversary of both the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the Assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, so it is a good day to remember World War I. In his memoir Surprised By Joy, C. S. Lewis describes some pretty disturbing goings on in the boarding school he attended as a teenager. After the description, however, he writes one of the most chilling paragraphs he ever wrote:

Peace to them all. A worse fate awaited them than the most vindictive fag among us could have wished. Ypres and the Somme ate up most of them. They were happy while their good days lasted.

Which brings me back to War and Peace, which I finished finally a few weeks ago. I heard a professor say that the amazing thing about Tolstoy was that he ended his great epic with Natasha rejoicing over her sick child's dirty diaper. I think the Count seems to be implying that the health of small child is more meaningful and important than the vain pretensions of Emperors and famous men. On this point, I probably agree with him. War and Peace ends with a long philosophical essay about history and war. But before that it's narrative ends with a sort of image of family happiness, in the families of Marie and Nikolai, and Natasha and Pierre. But even in the midst of this family happiness, we know that tragedy again lurks in the background. Tolstoy never mentions the Decembrist uprising, which to be sure is not so tragic as World War I, but Pierre's participation in his secret society in St. Petersburg, which sounds an awful lot like the Northern Society, makes one wonder: what fate awaits Pierre and Natasha's family happiness? Exile, Siberia, or the gallows?

a good word for tonight from St. John of Damascus

Yesterday I found a beautiful image from St. John of Damascus' First Homily "On the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God:

What, then--shall we keep silent, cowering in fear, because we cannot praise her [Mary, the Holy Theotokos] worthily? Not at all! Or shall we stretch out our foot over the boundary, as they say, and ignore our own limitations? Shall we shake off the reins of fear, and boldly reach out to the untouchable? Never! Mingling, instead, fear with longing and weaving from them both a single wreath, let us, in holy reverence, with trembling hand and yearning soul, pay gratefully the humble first-fruits of our minds, as we must, to the Queen Mother, the benefactress of all nature! [1]

[1] From Daley, S.J., Brian E. tr. On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. Crestwood, NY: 1998.

St. John of Damascus (676-749), by the way, is awesome. You should read more about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Damascus