“OH, MAAAN — DON’T FALL INTO that trap.”
Well, I ain’t often right, but I’ve never been wrong —
It seldom turns out the way it does in the song.
Once in a while, you get shown the light
In the strangest of places, if you look at it right…”
— Robert Hunter, a”h
First Graf: The Histories
WERE IT NOT FOR HERODOTUS — lauded as the “Father of History,” derided as the “Father of Lies” — we would know nothing of, among other things, the tale of King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans and how it affected the Ascent of the West.
The Histories is more than a simple record of who-said-and-did-what-when. In it you will find plenty about the war between the Greeks and Persians, but also contemporary details of Egyptian and Babylonian culture; how to gather cinnamon despite the objections of giant bats “who shriek alarmingly and are very pugnacious;” an account of the horseback-warrior Scythians; many tales both tall and short; and much fodder for D&D campaigns or pleasant afternoon reveries.
Pithyism #69b
DO WE RESEMBLE OUR TOOLS, or do our tools resemble us? (I’m including in this equation notional tools like webspace, word-processing software, Facebook’s post-ranking choices, etc.)
There was a time when every brief saying one heard was regarded as a ‘Torah’ (teaching, guidance), and everything one saw was perceived as an instruction in his Avoda (worship, service) and conduct.”
–Daily Hayom Yom newsletter
365 Names: “Love”
LOVE is defined here in its Divine sense as “That which attracts and unifies.” Similar in principle to the Great Magnet, but different in its connotation of intimacy. The Greeks have specified this Name’s essential qualities as “eros,” or sexuality, and “agape,” a more selfless emotion and one better suited for our analytic purposes. (The latter sense is Christian in origin, but why should we let only one religion have all the fun?)
Words to Bring Back: “Parvenu”
– Definition: n. a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity.
– Used in a sentence: I like to think the electorate smiles unkindly on parvenus, but evidence indicates otherwise.
– Why: Because, in the early 21st Century, there’s so damned many of them.