Month: July 2008

The Greeks and the gift of Sappho

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I have been lounging in shameless fashion enjoying the sun while it lasts. While lounging (amidst periodic dips in the pool) I have been reading Thomas Cahill’s fantastic book – Sailing the Wine-Dark Seas: Why the Greeks Matter and am about half through it. The book is fantastic and I had to drop a few tidbits of info I have picked up along the way.
 
First and foremost I have learned that I absolutely love the Greek lyrical poet Sappho. Writing around the 6th century BC (about 2,600 years ago) very little survives of what she has written – but what does survive has a very modern appeal – it is sparse and clear, clean and honest in its tone. Here are a few examples of her writing:
 
When you were living, never did you smell
the roses by Olympus, where the Muses dwell.
Now that you’re dead, your faded ghost in hell
is unremembered here on earth. You ring no bell.
 
The rhyme comes from translators but no doubt reflects the quality and tone of the original. Here’s another example:
 
The moon has set
and the Pleiades:
it is the middle of the night,
and time passes, time passes –
and I lie alone.
 
One last example:
 
I love what is delicate,
luminous, brave –
what belongs to the sunlight.
 
That’s what I crave.
 
Ok I lied – one more excerpt:
 
Some say cavalry, others infantry,
still others say a navy is
black earth’s most beautiful thing.
But I say it’s whatever,
whatever you may love…
 
Now I need to find a book of Sappho’s poetry and absorb it. Absolutely brilliant and humbling given that she wrote it more than 2,500 years ago.

Back from Ottawa

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We’re back from Ottawa. Once again we have proven we’re a driving family…we drove straight through to Ottawa (25 hours of driving) and straight back. We stopped on the way to watch Wall-e in Grand Forks – VERY GOOD MOVIE.
 
General Assembly was awesome. We re-elected our worthy president to a third and final term. We also voted to have our next general assembly in Istanbul, Turkey. Sweet homage to our missional focus as a denomination.
 
I spent some quality time with my sister April who lives only a few blocks from the Congress Centre where the conference was held. Also got to spend some time at my mother-in-law’s cottage in Quebec right on the Ottawa River. Fantastic. Matt is staying in Ottawa till the end of July (we miss him already) with his grandmother and aunt.
 
Got some reading down as well. I had a chance to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Children of Hurin. Wow. It is one of the Lays of Beleriand found in the Book of Lost Tales in mini-form. It appears in The Silmarillion in miniature as well. Here we have the completed nearly 300-page narrative only edited together by son Christopher with no additions or subtractions.
The story is about the unfolding of a curse laid upon the family of Hurin – most notably his son Turin – by Morgoth, one of the Valor who has fallen. Morgoth, for those who don’t know had a servant by the name of Sauron who comes into his own thousands of years later with the forging of the rings of power which are the backdrop for The Lord of the Rings. Turin is Elrond of Rivendell’s great uncle.
 
The story is written in very polished prose and contains elements reminiscent of the great Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf as well of shades of Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet. A very powerful story with some exceptional quotes. At one point Turin is expressing anger at his friend Gwindor:
 
"…you have done ill to me, friend, to betray my right name, and call down my doom upon me, from which I would lie hid."
 
But Gwindor answered: "the doom lies in yourself, not in your name."
 
There is a deep truth in what Gwindor says that applies to all of us I think.
 
Anyhow the book is really good and I highly recommend it. I am now reading the fourth book in Thomas Cahill’s seven book Hinges of History series entitled – Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter. For those who don’t recognize this series you might recognize the title of the first book – How the Irish Saved Civilization.
 

Perspective

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I am in Ottawa right now and staying at my sisters while attending a denominational conferrence. This evening my sister returned to me a book of poems I had written 21 years ago and somehow it ended up in her books. Anyhow I read through them (the ones I could stomach) and all I have to say is – Wow did my poetry suck! A non-stop stream of angst, depression, sorrow and drippy love…ick ick ick…it’s amazing I managed to live through the period. Taking into account I was a new writer and a teenager I suppose I have some excuses…but wow…
 
I know old me would be heart-broken to hear present-me talking this way and so I offer apologies to old-me and give voice and thanks to the reality that old-me is the foundation that present-me stands upon and therefore is due a certain amount of respect. I suppose mountains of coal must be waded through before the diamond is found and I am hoping that future-me will look back at current-me and find the writing wasn’t too bad.
 
I did find some nuggets that I appreciated including the following of historical merit:
 
December 8, 1987 – President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbechev have signed an agreement to scrap all medium-range missiles and are in talks to get rid of long-range missiles. I hope this reflects the future.
 
Here’s a few poems from the old days. For those of you who are students and write lots of papers you can identify with this poem.
 
Paper Due
————
 
The time has come
I set pen to paper
and for hour upon hour
I watch the pen
as it remains still
and yet,
the time has come
 
 
I came across the next poem and it very well documents my movement out of agnosticism and into atheism. It is sort of a distant early warning that I was headed in this direction. It has a bit of a psalmic quality. Warning – this poem is rather dramatic.
 
My God
———
 
Emotions burn and seethe
and my whole soul burns
with the question I have
and the answers I need
 
I want to talk to you
for my whole life revolves
around your existance –
on you my being depends
 
and now I am scared
the weight is crushing me
and I begin to lose,
my greatest fear is reality
 
I question your existance
my doubts in you,
they will be my downfall
yet I cannot find you
 
I looked for you last night
but you were not in the moon
you were not the huge orange disk
I’ve lost my man in the moon
 
I searched the night air
sweet scented and warm
yet it was not your breath
it was not your Spirit
 
I probed all existance
but you were nowhere
not in life or death
not even in creation
 
I cried for you last night
and my tears moved no one
I received no comfort
you were not with me
 
The churches are not me
their bells are mere sirens
and I will not be lured
though I still love you
 
But I fear you are gone
or worse – you were never there!
and all the stars of heaven
are falling around me
 
Don’t leave me – not now
for life without you is death
you are my only lasting love
you are my God,
                        and I call you…
 
April 6, 1988