The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Book 5The most famous line in the poem belongs to Satan: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n”. And Satan makes some convincing arguments until he is just plain mean to my friend, Eve. Poor Eve.
I am not a real feminist, mostly because the world has been pretty good to me and even the Old Boys’ Club lets me play in the Clubhouse from time to time. But my closet feminist self is the true and honest reason that I cannot embrace organized religion and it is from that perspective, (egged on by Professor Rogers) that I was attacking this piece.
Rogers says that Eve is “doctrinally wrong” in Paradise Lost, but that she asks some really good questions. Although, it can be argued that asking any questions while you are living in Eden is by its nature doctrinally wrong.
Eve is submissive to Adam, and apparently of her own free will. But one of the great things that Milton does is in challenging the very concept of Free Will as it stands opposed to Predestination. The old philosophical question – “If God knows it is going to happen, why doesn’t he stop it?” blahblahblah.
Skip to the part of the text that really hit me. Eve wakes up one day and suggests to Adam that he go work in one part of the garden and she will work in another part of the garden. Splitting up for the day so they can get some actual work done. (Apparently Dude can’t keep his eyes off her or something.) Adam doesn’t want to do that, saying that the bad guy is out there ready to be bad and they are safer together. Eve’s counterpoint (a great series of lines) is that if they have to live in fear of the Baddie, they can hardly call it Paradise. It ends with:
Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Book 4
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to read eight straight Sookie Stackhouse novels, so I needed some freebies from Amazon in order to do a Kindle-only vacation. I found several Jane Austen novels and decided to re-read Persuasion. This is Austen’s novel of “the one that got away”.
At age 19, Anne Elliott fell in love with a young naval officer. She turned down his marriage proposal on the advice of a family friend, Lady Russell, who was as close to a mother as she had. Neither Lady Russell, nor anyone else in Anne’s vain, foolish family thought he was good enough for her. In a “name and fortune” way.
Fast forward eight years. Anne remains unmarried and her father has spent the family into debt. Naval officer comes back, having made his fortune in the war or whatever. Drama ensues.
This novel isn’t nearly as fun as Pride and Prejudice, but I have far more sympathy for the heroes here. Anne is the only sensible person in her family – although she has a brother-in-law that is rather charming. And it is easy to see that Captain Wentworth is a good guy, even if you don’t know what in hell he is thinking for carrying on with the Musgrove sisters.
Confession: I saw the 1995 film before I actually read the book. And one thing the film does really well that might be a bit too subtle in the novel is expressing how Anne grows as a person throughout the course of events. She becomes a more attractive and independent creature outside of her un-relationship with Wentworth, such that one might be convinced even if he hadn’t come to his damn senses, she would have been just fine. I suppose that is why I like this one best.
The Papaya Obsession
My first visit to Hawaii was a business trip to Honolulu. It was in September..2003, I think. We flew in on Tuesday and met for a group breakfast before the meeting Wednesday morning.
I was standing at the buffet with my colleague, Stu, who looked at my rather lame breakfast plate and said, “Try the papaya.”
“No thanks,” I said. “I’m not a big fan. I’ll take some pineapple, though.”
“Have you been to Hawaii before?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then you’ve never tried papaya.”
I don’t remember if he actually put the fruit on my plate for me, but that is how it felt. So I went back to the table with him and tried it.
Melts in your mouth.
Stu explained that the shelf life of papaya is distressingly short, so it is near impossible to get “the peak of freshness” at home. Apparently, they don’t even bother to try and ship papaya from Hawaii to the Midwest, so the best we can do in Chicago is papaya from Mexico. And even that is too far away to get it at the exact right time.
So yeah. I am eating papaya every day. There is a charming market down the road that has bowls of cut fruit and I am absolutely loving it.
I hope they restock tomorrow.
And the Downside to Travelling Alone
I totally missed King Kamehameha’s statue. I drove right through the little town where it lives, all the way to the end of 270 at the Pololu Valley Lookout. Interesting thing about this island is that is really is all desert…desert….desert….rainforest!
Eh. This picture totally doesn’t cut it. But for about the 20th time on this trip I started down a little path, and said, “(groan) If I go down there, I will have to climb all the way back up.” This time, I went about half way down.
That is one of the famous black sand beaches. Apparently, the prettiest, most famous, most photographed one was destroyed by lava.
The Volcanoes
I had a little moment this morning, heading down the state highway to Volcanoes National Park. I realized that those clouds were not clouds. And I was driving toward them.
I had another little moment when I stopped the car at the first Scenic Overlook. This is where all the “steam vents” were.
So I get to the better view and I can’t even show you the pics because I neglected to pack the cable and have to e-mail myself every single shot until I get home, but then I hit the hiking trails and saw the lava lake.I Took a Single Picture Today
A Sort of Breakthrough
So. I have some pretty serious body image issues. I am carrying around too much weight right now, but even in college when I was a perfectly reasonable size and went to step class twice a week, I hated my body. We blame my skinny, thoughtless father.
I’ve dropped a bit of weight since last summer and the self-loathing has eased up proportionately. Today, I hadn’t planned on doing much and I am seriously lacking in summer playclothes, so I put on a sleeveless dress. I normally wear a short sleeved sweater with it.
I skipped the sweater. I wore a sleeveless dress. All day long. I haven’t gone sleeveless in public since I was 12.
Yeah. It’s practically a deserted island in the Pacific where I literally do not know a soul. Whatever. I pushed my little boundaries and am triumphant. And slightly sunburned.
First Impressions of the Big Island
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Eat papaya every single day. At every meal if it can be arranged.
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Do not check the work e-mail more than once a day.
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Don’t spend too damn much money.
The Universities, Too
I was just talking about how the State of Illinois has neglected to send the public libraries promised funds this year. Now the Tribune is reporting that the state universities are saying the same thing:
“”We have drawn down our available resources, and we are now counting on tuition dollars to keep our doors open for students beginning the new spring semester. Still, no amount of cutting and sacrifice can make up for the absence of hundreds of millions of dollars in State Appropriation payments,” said the letter, which was sent to Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes. “
The article goes on to talk about state vendors that aren’t getting paid, either.
This isn’t going to get fixed until someone neglects to plow the state highways.
Super Weekend
I was so busy this weekend that I don’t even have goofy stories to tell about it.
My nephew, Alex’s birthday was yesterday. He seemed terribly bored with the gifts we brought him – the Spiderman blanket (even when I told him that it was a lucky blanket because I made it the day the Bears beat the Vikings), a game, a lovely copy of Ramona the Pest (even though it is a book about a little girl that goes to kindergarten). Then he opened the Hasselbeck jersey I picked up for him in Seattle. Loved it. Loved the green color (yuck), loved that it said Seahawks. Loved the postcard of the Seahawks stadium. Now he won’t shut up about Seattle. He insists that he has been there before – when he was “one year old”.
No, that was Lambeau Field, we told him. That kid is a riot.
This morning, I went to a baby shower for some friends that are having twin girls. I haven’t seen Max and Susan since before I went back to school I’ve missed them and am so jazzed for them and am very sorry that I am the only person that thought to give them a black onesie with skulls on it. Seriously, I have never seen so much pink in my entire life. I’ll have to make a trip to Hot Topic. On principle.
Of course, then I came home for the game. It is never easy watching the Super Bowl when you are a house divided, (I do not understand my mother’s infatuation with the Manning brothers.) but I am thrilled for the Saints.
And now I must finish the Sunday night laundry and catch up on the latest election drama. Republicans can’t determine a winner and Democrats lose a candidate to scandal..we are off to a great start!
The Next Dark Age 