George on the Mend

January 27, 2012 - Just shy of 4 weeks post-op, emergency spinal surgery to repair 3 herniated discs, after paralysis set in suddenly, immobilizing hind quarters


Back on January 16, 2012

Testing

"On the other hand, what a privilege, on what could be my last day, to be living with a conscious awareness of God's presence, both in my life and in the lives of those around me. What a breath of fresh air to be honest and open with people, loving and being loved, forgiving and being forgiven. What a pleasure, on what could be my last day, to respect the dignity of everyone I meet, no matter who they are or where they've come from.

This is the only day we have, for sure. What a privilege and what a pleasure to live it with a view of eternity - knowing that we are loved and valued by God for who and what we are, that God has a purpose for us, and always looks at our weaknesses with the compassionate eyes of His Son. And it's that view of eternity and our place in it that can save us from merely existing, with no sense of purpose or direction.

Pray that the Lord will keep us alert and watchful, so that we'll always be ready for Him - both today, when He comes in the common things of life, and tomorrow, when He comes in glory."

Fr. Jim Jensen, December 2, 2007

Gracie the Dog

Watching the kids leave for school.

Writing is Harder

Liked this from Roger Ebert's review of "Becoming Jane":

"But in the movie, as always in the movies, writing flows easily and life is hard, when in reality life is hard and writing is harder."

rogerebert.suntimes.com

Cosmology: The Wave Structure of Matter explains the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Past, Present, Future & the One way direction of Time

From On Truth & Reality: The Spherical Standing Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space at
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/


Does this make sense to anyone?

Time past, time future

Time past, time future intricately connected in the brain: study Discussion at PhysOrgForum

Human memory, the ability to recall vivid mental images of past experiences, has been studied extensively for more than a hundred years. But until recently, there's been surprisingly little research into cognitive processes underlying another form of mental time travel -- the ability to clearly imagine or "see" oneself participating in a future event.

Now, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have used advanced brain imaging techniques to show that remembering the past and envisioning the future may go hand-in-hand, with each process sparking strikingly similar patterns of activity within precisely the same broad network of brain regions.

"In our daily lives, we probably spend more time envisioning what we're going to do tomorrow or later on in the day than we do remembering, but not much is known about how we go about forming these mental images of the future," says Karl Szpunar, lead author of the study and a psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

"Our findings provide compelling support for the idea that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and help explain why future thought may be impossible without memories."

* * * *

Read it all at http://www.physorg.com/news86928742.html

Notes on Burnt Norton

Burnt Norton

II
. . . .

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.
Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.

. . . .

From the Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot


In the end only mathematicians, musicians, magicians and poets can deal with "Erhebung without motion,...", at T S Eliot's "still point of the turning world", e-motionless.


Translations of "Erhebung":

Erhebung {f}
levy
raise
rising
census
survey
inquiry
raising
upheaval
uprising
charging
elatedness
exaltation
ennoblement
rise [in the ground]
geol. elevation
Erhebung {f} [von Daten]
elicitation
höchste Erhebung {f}
highest peak
geol. highest point
geol. highest elevation
primäre Erhebung {f}
field research
statistische Erhebung {f}
poll
survey
Erhebung {f} der Klage
commencement of action
Erhebung {f} von Zöllen
collection of duties
Erhebung {f} von Steuern
collection of taxes
Fehler {m} bei der Erhebung
error in survey

German term or phrase: feierliche Erhebung der Gebeine

From a brief account of the life of Die Heilige Elisabeth, Landgräfin von Thüringen (1206 1231), canonised 1227: Am 1. Mai 1236 fand die feierliche Erhebung der Gebeine der Heiligen in Anwesenheit von Friedrich II. statt.

... not able to find much beyond "elevation of the bones"

English translation:ceremonial disinterment of the bones
This was the last stage in the process of canonization. The saint's body was exhumed (the incorruptibility of the body was one possible criteria of sainthood) and the remains were reburied or even dismembered and distributed as holy relics.

Lord of the Dance

Carlos Saura, director, choreographer, dancer and actor, and his leading ladies, Cristina Hoyos and Laura del Sol, in Carmen (1983)
Thanks to David for sending me down this memory lane. Dance has been my greatest passion since I can remember (in fact, one of my first memories of any kind is sitting in the Lyric Opera House at a performance of American Ballet Theatre of Les Sylphides and Les Patineurs and Graduation Ball. I was 3 or 4, I think, had a horrific earache (as I was prone to get). Watching the "skaters" spin caused me exquisite pain and only finally agreed to leave during Graduation Ball (good taste I had, even then!). I studied ballet myself rather seriously from the age of 5 until I finally gave it up after my last classes in Chicago the year after I graduated from law school, while clerking for a judge. Once upon a time, I saw perform Ruth Ann Koesen, Toni Lander, Maria Tallchief, Fonteyn and Nureyev several times, Baryshnikov, Maximova, Plissetskaya [alright, I'll check spelling later], all the greats in the heyday of Balanchine's NYCB (Farrell, Villella, McBride, Mazzo... can't even remember them all), Makarova, Ferri, Sibley, Dowell, just about everyone in the Royal Ballet (practically lived at Covent Garden for the season in 72-73 when I was in London), Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Harkness, Les Ballets Canadiens from Quebec (I think they were the ones who did a stunning Carmina Burana)...... and many more. The best of course was Sirs Fredick Ashton and Robert Helpmann as the stepsisters in Cinderella. It was high art, not slapstick (though that, too -- leave it to the Brits to take it to that level).

Had I to do it all over, I'd either be a ballet dancer or a physicist. Anyway, this Carmen is one of my favorite dance films. Hope to write an essay here about dance someday soon. (BTW, I'm no fan of liturgical dance, but that's another, unimportant story).

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OTHER DANCE MEMORIES

Fonteyn and Nureyev:







Petrushka





White Nights



Don Quixote

Il bel far niente

Thanks to Eileen for the inspiration for this, which comes from the book Eat, Pray, and Love by Elizbeth Gilbert. In the section on Italy ("Eat" of course), she translates this as "the beauty of doing nothing."

Having struggled to find time to write polished essays for my other blog, "Lady of Silences," and not having the forbearance or humility to keep my random thoughts, musings, and diversions offline, I decided to create this, just for the heck of it. So, whether or not anyone else finds any enjoyment in it, I certainly plan to enjoy.

Starting with all the silliest online quizzes I can find........

Buon appetito! ... or whatever.