Mark Twain words to warn us today. [On the risks of war]
“The loud little handful--as usual--will shout for the war. The pulpit will--warily and cautiously--object..."
More here: https://t.co/NQDP2SeW3h
A full draught of blessing for the Solstice today - The Longest Day of the Year today for the Northern Hemisphere - and the lead to the Feast of St John the Baptist on the 24th June.
Our Anglo-Saxon forbears did much to honour these days now ahead.
https://t.co/DJy0lk71cj
10 Realities of Seeking Validation Online:
1. A like can feel good for a moment, but it rarely fills a deeper need for connection.
2. The approval of strangers doesn't change how you feel once you close the app.
3. Going viral introduces people to a moment, not to who you actually are.
4. Lower engagement on a post says nothing about your value as a person.
5. Comments from people who don't know your story carry less weight than they seem to in the moment.
6. The more energy spent chasing approval online, the less peace tends to remain offline.
7. Followers can vanish in an instant, but genuine relationships are built slowly and don't work that way.
8. Validation through a screen arrives quickly and fades just as fast.
9. The people praising your best moments rarely see the difficult ones behind them.
10. No amount of online approval can replace the feeling of being truly understood by someone.
The public mood is discordant, politics chaotic, a wider imagination lost, though it can be refound. New post at my Substack, A Golden String.
https://t.co/L6UQTwEdST
Sleeping Beauty is such a great film.
Aurora, named for the dawn that awakens the world, manifests the true beauty that makes things more themselves. When she sleeps, so does the kingdom.
Prince Philip wields the sword of truth and shield of virtue, emblazoned with the cross, to defeat the seductive dragon-witch and awaken beauty with the true love that is devoted to her good.
In the end, the archetypes ascend to the place they first met: once upon a dream.
“It is possible...that the account given in the Gospels of ...the resurrection of Christ...that if he had never heard of it...he would have been obliged to try his best to invent something like it as a hypothesis to save the appearances.” Owen Barfield
https://t.co/MojRVDIbCu
“[Mere Christianity] is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms...But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, not a place to live in.” C.S. Lewis
https://t.co/ttHjnM6XXA
Important archaeological discovery in Mieza, Greece. The Royal Gymnasium where Alexander and around 50 more Greeks were taught by Aristotle, along with its stoas, the stadium, the palaestra (wrestling school), and even the writing tools that students used 2,300 years ago. HUGE!
The inauguration of Tower of Jesus Christ of the Basilica of Sagrada Família, the tallest structure in Barcelona, and the tallest Church in the world.
The most incredible thing you will see all year.
When Philonicus the Thessalian brought Bucephalus to sell to Philip, asking for thirteen talents, they went down to the plain to test the horse. However, it appeared wild and extremely difficult to handle, it would not accept a rider, nor tolerate the voice of any of Philip’s attendants, but instead, it became more agitated with each attempt.
When Philip grew angry and ordered the horse to be led away, deeming it too wild and unmanageable,
Alexander, who was present, exclaimed: "What a horse I am losing, simply because they lack the skill and courage to handle it!"
At first, Philip remained silent. But as Alexander kept repeating the same words, Philip finally said: "Are you criticizing your elders because you believe you know more, or because you think you can handle the horse?"
Alexander replied: "I could handle this horse better than anyone."
"And if you fail, what penalty will you pay for your recklessness?" asked Philip.
"By Zeus," Alexander swore, "I will pay the full price of the horse myself!"
At this, everyone laughed. Yet, Philip agreed to the wager.
Immediately, Alexander approached the horse and, taking the reins, turned it toward the sun, for he had noticed that the horse was frightened by its own moving shadow, cast before it. He let the horse gallop lightly for a while, stroking it whenever it seemed tense or aggressive. Then, he quietly removed his cloak and leapt onto its back, sitting firmly in place.
He gently pulled the reins, tightened his grip without using a whip or spurs, and when he felt the horse had relaxed and was ready to run, he let it go, guiding it with a stronger voice and pressing with his legs.
At first, Philip and his attendants watched in tense silence. But when Alexander turned the horse and rode back, proud and composed, everyone erupted in cheers.
Philip, deeply moved, is said to have shed a tear of joy and, as Alexander dismounted, he said to him:
"My son, you must seek a kingdom worthy of yourself, for Macedonia is too small for you."
— Plutarch, Parallel Lives Alexander [6]
I can confess that I did much like this retelling of Gilgamesh, light touch feminist spin and all.
Jenny Lewis being a fine poet helped immensely.
https://t.co/f1anyhgVZh
This includes many late 19thC transcribed oral Gaelic poems (otherwise unknown) about Finn and the Fianna, taken from the Scottish north-west. Essential reading in relation to the Ossian controversy.
"You can become so habituated to hearing the thunder of a hundred canons that you can sit at the table and hear the slightest triviality much more clearly than the thunder of the hundred canons."
- Kierkegaard, Works of Love