October remains

23 October 2008

The sunshine that was savored by the summer-lush leaves has seeped through every vein and now is shining and falling from crisp branches. Like sunbeams on the wrong side of autumn-grey quilted clouds.

The grass crunched this morning with the gasp of first frost. These mornings, the air is heady with fresh celebration of cold; sparking and sharp. I wore a red sweater because joy like new winter is too glorious for my usual drab.

The vestiges of summer are being buried slowly beneath the walnut trees, and the close mountains are frosted in orange. Once the shadows have swallowed dim twilight, winter tickles the darkness with chill breeze.

I think hot chocolate is in order.

Teacher evaluation

17 October 2008

Explain this course in fifteen words or less:

Reading load is heavy,
like your accent: monotone.
But heaviest of all are
my eyelids.

I do

10 October 2008

I've got this thing for history. It landed me in a dead-end major which I loved intensely, but which provided me with minimal marketable skills. As my ANES 101 class reminded me weekly, you have two options as an Ancient Near Eastern Historian: museum curator ("And here we have the bronze beard of the late Amenhotep II, 7th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt") or translator of obscure languages ("ראיתי אש ירדת מהשמים ונפלת אירושלם"*). By-the-bye, The Next Indiana Jones is no longer a viable/marketable option.

So this year, I picked a new major with a few more post-grad options, but history still pulls at my heartstrings.

I was just reading about Roman marriages- here in Happy Valley I get my fill of the Mormon variety, but the Roman wedding ceremonies were different in a beautiful and exotic way.

The bride wore saffron- I'd like to do my wedding in saffron maybe with burgundy?- and around her waist she knotted a braided rope to represent fidelity. The ceremony began at the bride's home, where her parents gave her away and the bride and groom exchanged their vows:

"Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia."
Where you are Gaius, there I am Gaia.
Where you are Father, I am Mother.

"Ubi to Gaia, ego Gaius"
Where you are Gaia, there I am Gaius.
Where you are Mother, I am Father.

Gaia, the Mother Goddess, the Earth, is the first goddess of fertility; as these young couples took eachother's hands in covenant, they promised to be parents together, to raise a family together. For the Romans, the purpose of marriage was family.

I'm not exactly jumping at the bit to get hitched, but I wonder sometimes how marriage would be different today if our vows were made not only to eachother but also to our children. Ought we not also promise to have and to hold our children till death do us part? Marriage becomes even more selfless when you see it that way.

I feel like now would be a good time for the music to start... "Family-- isn't it about time?" But see, here's the thing: It is really all about family. Marriage I mean. I think the Roman's had that bit pretty strait.

Vote yes on Prop 8.

*"I saw fire descend from the sky and fall upon Jerusalem." Or something to that effect.

Multivariate increase of m.c.escher’s popularity

07 October 2008

All I can say is I wish I'd thought of this first.