Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Seven Wonders - Song by Fleetwood Mac
So long agoCertain placeCertain timeYou touched my handOn the wayOn the way down to Emmeline
But if our paths never crossWell, you know I'm sorry, but
If I live to see the seven wondersI'll make a path to the rainbow's endI'll never live to match the beauty againThe rainbow's edge
So it's hard to findSomeone with that kind of intensityYou touched my hand, I played it coolAnd you reached out your hand to me
But if our paths never crossWell, no, I'm not sorry, but
If I live to see the seven wondersI'll make a path to the rainbow's endI'll never live to match the beauty againThe rainbow's edge
So long agoIt's a certain timeIt's a certain placeYou touched my hand and you smiledAll the way back you held out your handIf I hope and if I prayOoh it might work out someday
If I live to see the seven wondersI'll make a path to the rainbow's endI'll never live to match the beauty again
If I live to see the seven wondersI'll make a path to the rainbow's end (I'll make a path there)I'll never live to match the beauty again(You'll never live to see the beauty, the beauty, that same same beauty)
If I live to see the seven wondersI'll make a path to the rainbow's endI'll never live to match the beauty again(Oh well if I hope and I pray, well, maybe it might work out some day)
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
- Great Pyramid of Giza:
- the earliest of the wonders to be completed, as well as the only one that still exists in the present day.
- the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Built c. 2600 BC, over a period of about 26 years
- Colossus of Rhodes:
- a statue of the Greek sun god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC.
- , it was constructed to celebrate the successful defence of Rhodes city against an attack by Demetrius I of Macedon, who had besieged it for a year with a large army and navy.
- destroyed by an earthquake
- Lighthouse of Alexandria:
a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC).
It has been estimated to have been at least 100 metres (330 ft) in overall height.
severely damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323 AD and became an abandoned ruin.
- Mausoleum at Halicarnassus:
a tomb built between 353 and 351 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an Anatolian from Caria and a satrap in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and his sister-wife Artemisia II of Caria.
The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythius of Priene. Its elevated tomb structure is derived from the tombs of neighbouring Lycia, a territory Mausolus had invaded and annexed c. 360 BC, such as the Nereid Monument.
- Temple of Artemis:
also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, localised form of the goddess Artemis (equated with the Roman goddess Diana).
By AD 401 it had been ruined or destroyed
- Statue of Zeus at Olympia:
a giant seated figure, about 12.4 m (41 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there.
Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods of Mount Olympus.
The statue was a chryselephantine sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels on a wooden framework. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones.
The statue was lost and destroyed before the end of the 6th century AD, with conflicting accounts of the date and circumstances. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins and art.
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon:
- Legend has it that King Nebuchadnezzar II built this maze of waterfalls and vegetation for his wife, but archaeologists debate whether it actually existed
- described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks. It was said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq.
There are some disasters you just don't see coming, no matter how carefully you plan.
A little surprise that changes everything.
. In life, it's a catastrophe.
a complication, a disruption, a glitch, a nasty surprise.
It calls for extreme measures.
You have to react quickly, try to catch up, because it came out of nowhere.
And it can take everything away.
Our genes, which we inherit from our parents, determine who we are biologically.
Our blueprint. Everything from our eye color to our height. Even our laugh.
But also our diseases. Asthma, diabetes, cancers.
But who you are at your core goes way beyond genes.
Who you really are is the result of many, many things. How you deal with fear. Who you surround yourself with.
And how you show up when it matters.
The organs in the human body have entirely different functions.
The cells which make up those organs act independently of each other.
But in a healthy body, seemingly independent cells quietly depend on the functioning of the others. Because when one system stops working, the others can't function for long.
Just as organ systems are codependent for survival, so are human beings. Studies have shown that our happiness and health depends on our relationships not just functioning, but thriving.
Sometimes the best we can do is bear each other's burdens and ease each other's pain.
And hold each other's hands in the dark.
The organs in the human body have entirely different functions.
The cells which make up those organs act independently of each other.
But in a healthy body, seemingly independent cells quietly depend on the functioning of the others. Because when one system stops working, the others can't function for long.
Just as organ systems are codependent for survival, so are human beings. Studies have shown that our happiness and health depends on our relationships not just functioning, but thriving.
Sometimes the best we can do is bear each other's burdens and ease each other's pain.
And hold each other's hands in the dark.
They hit you out of nowhere.
When bad things come, they come suddenly, without warning.
We rarely get to see the catastrophe coming, no matter how well we try to prepare for it.
We do our very best, but sometimes, it's just not good enough. We buckle our seat belts, we wear a helmet, we stick to the lighted paths. We try to be safe.
We try so hard to protect ourselves, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference, 'cause when the bad things come, they come out of nowhere.
The bad things come suddenly, with no warning.
But we forget that sometimes, that's how the good things come too.
There's an end to every storm.
Once all the trees have been uprooted, once all the houses have been ripped apart, the wind will hush, the clouds will part, the rain will stop.
The sky will clear in an instant
and only then, in those quiet moments after the storm, do we learn who was strong enough to survive it.
They say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die.
The important moments. The moments that tested you. The moments that made you who you are.
We're all gonna die.
We don't get much say over how or when, but we do decide how we're gonna live.
So do it, decide. Is this the life you wanna live? Is this the person you wanna love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More compassionate?
Decide.
Breathe in, breathe out, and decide.
There is this playground game that kids play.
They lock hands and on the count of three, they try to snap each others fingers off. You hold out as long as you can or at least longer than the other guy. The game doesn't end until someone says stop, gives up, cries mercy. It isn't a fun game. In the game of mercy, when one kid cries out, the other one listens and the pain stops.
Don't you wish it was that easy now?
It's not a game anymore and we're not kids. You can cry mercy all you want, but nobody's listening.
It's just you, screaming into a void.
The human body is full of energy.
Sprinting at full speed, it produces enough wattage to power anything in your house.
Your cells are built to move charged ions through the cellular membrane. And the nervous system is a highway of electrical signals zapping through your muscles and brain.
Your body runs on positive and negative charges, all obeying a basic law of physics: opposites attract.
There's lightning in everyone. Opposite charges finding each other. They connect. They spark.
And as long as they do, your life goes on. Your cells keep multiplying. Your brain keeps thinking. Your body wants to move, so it moves, because it can.
Life is electricity. Positive and negative. Creation and destruction.
Destruction, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
But we're all storms inside.
In the 1800s, one of the more common reasons women visited the doctor was hysteria.
A now defunct diagnosis.
Hysteria was used to describe a wide array of symptoms: chest pain, anxiety, a swollen abdomen, mood swings. They tried a variety of treatments for hysteria, ranging from rest to psychosomatic therapy.
But true relief for these women didn't exist until physicians tried using what they called pelvic massage. The cure was called a hysterical paroxysm, which, today, has come to been known as an orgasm.
Modern medicine continues to recognize the stress-reducing benefits of the female orgasm but doctors no longer perform the cure.
When done properly and consensually, sex can be medicine. We know it reduces stress and strengthens the immune system. It even rejuvenates your brain activity.
But sex without connection can leave you feeling empty.
Friendship, laughter, simple human touch, these are stress relievers too. Because truly, it's about connection. When you're physically close to another person, the nervous system responds. The body is flooded with feel-good hormones.
And everything else just fades away.
Sunday, 10 November 2024
Act of Contrition
For thou art the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory
Forever and ever, Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy...
Oh my God, I am heartily sorry
For having offended Thee
And I detest all my sins
Because of Thy just punishment
But most of all
Because I have offended Thee, Oh my God
Who art all good and deserving of all my love
I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace
To confess my sins, to do penance, to amend my life,
And to avoid the temptations of evil
Oh my God
I am heartily sorry
For having offended Thee
And I detest
All my sins
Because of Thy
Just punishment
But most of all
Because my God
I have offended Thee
Who art all good
Like I knew you would
And deserving of all
My love
I reserve
I reserve
I reserve
I reserve
I resolve
I have a reservation
I have a reservation!
What you do mean "it's not in the computer"?
Lenore - Edgar Allan Poe
Lenore
Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?--weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!--
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young--
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
"Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
"And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her--that she died!
"How shall the ritual, then, be read?--the requiem how be sung
"By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue
"That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?"
Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel so wrong!
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride--
For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes--
The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.
"Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,
"But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days!
"Let no bell toll!--lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
"Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth.
"To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven--
"From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven--
"From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven."
Lenore
"Lenore" is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
It began as a different poem, "A Paean", and was not published as "Lenore" until 1843.
The poem discusses proper decorum in the wake of the death of a young woman, described as "the queenliest dead that ever died so young".
The poem concludes:
"No dirge shall I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days!"
Lenore's fiancé, Guy de Vere, finds it inappropriate to "mourn" the dead; rather, one should celebrate their ascension to a new world.
Unlike most of Poe's poems relating to dying women, "Lenore" implies the possibility of meeting in paradise.
The poem may have been Poe's way of dealing with the illness of his wife Virginia. The dead woman's name, however, may have been a reference to Poe's recently dead brother, William Henry Leonard Poe.
Poetically, the name Lenore emphasizes the letter "L" sound, a frequent device in Poe's female characters including "Annabel Lee", "Eulalie", and "Ulalume".
- Death of a beautiful woman
- "Annabel Lee", "Eulalie", "The Raven", "Ulalume";
- in Poe's short stories, see also "Ligeia", Berenice", "Eleonora", "Morella").
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