End of June

It’s been another lovely, not too hot day, with some cloud cover and cool breezes.  Annoyingly, my back decided to go into some spasms so I couldn’t do everything I wanted. I did manage to cook a little, so I’ve got a bit extra for meals for the next couple of days.  The boys are all good, and Jerry is surprisingly cuddly.  He literally spends every possible minute touching one or the other of us.  He still hasn’t learned that mooching, while he looks cute, won’t gain him anything.  He’s persistent, if nothing else!

I’m learning again how it’s important not to make decisions based on other people’s opinions.  It’s so amazing that we keep coming back to lessons in different ways over time.  Remember, when we were kids, we were always told to “try [the food] before you decide that you don’t like it.”  We’d then be introduced to all sorts of foods — some became instant favourites, some we disliked, others we tolerated.  And over the years, if we’re lucky, we’d be introduced to other new foods, or ways of preparing them.  Like one of my friends, for the first time in their life, tried eggplant.  They’d always managed to avoid it (and a number of other vegetables) but when they tried it, they decided that it wasn’t too bad.  I recently tried a “non-dairy” milk, and concluded that it would not be forming a part of my regular diet.  (Sorry!  But the taste and texture didn’t please me.) Plus I’ve been doing cooking sessions with my niece (via phone and video call) to help her develop a repertoire of simple, adaptable menus that will be the base of her culinary adventures.  (We have so much fun doing that!!  She will call or message me to ask us to cook together, so I know she likes it too.)

Apart from food, though, I have been introduced to new literary forms.  One of my birthday gifts was a book of Sappho’s poetry.  My initial thought was that it would join the (small) pile of “to read when I’m deathly bored and there’s nothing else available” books, but I picked it up and started browsing it out of curiosity.  I’m disappointed that only fragments of her work exist, because I’m very much enjoying reading her.  One of many pieces that spoke to me was, 

For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see  but the good man will at once also beautiful be.

I’ve reread the book twice so far, and I find that it’s easy to lose myself in the imagery — broken as it is because, well, fragments.  I begin to understand why (a) it’s lasted so long and (b) why people think it’s so great.  Many thanks to the person who thought I’d enjoy this and provided me with a copy.  I know another person who studied classics and who caused me to go read some Ancient Greek theatre, and thence into both Greek myth and literature (I recently reread The Odyssey) and was absorbed by it.  That led me into the Mahabharata in which I got happily lost… enough that I didn’t question the size of the battle until it was done.  (Let’s just say that at the start of the battle there were more combatants on the field than there were people alive at the beginning of the 21st century!)  I’ve read translations, because I don’t read / speak Ancient Greek or Sanskrit.   I’m glad that I didn’t give in to the impulse to just file the book — I’d have missed out on a lovely experience.  

I do enjoy reading myths from various countries.  I was somewhat surprised (not very) to learn that there are serious studies into myths, legends and fairy tales, where they’re categorized by type, and compared from one country to another.  There’s a lot of overlap, and some archetypal characters, and while that’s intellectually fascinating, it distracts me from reading and enjoying the tales themselves.  I think that’s why I never seriously studied Literature, because I think that it might have disrupted my enjoyment of reading.  I did read all of my BFF’s set texts back in high school, and we discussed at length Doctor Faustus plus some of Neruda’s poetry.  As much as I liked the discussion, I still preferred to get lost in the works themselves (including the Spanish poetry of Neruda) rather than do much analysis (James Joyce would have killed my fun, as did Margaret Atwood). OK, I can go on at length about books and reading and so on, but to summarize:  Trying new things leads to acquiring new sources of enjoyment, Sappho’s poetry is absorbing, mythology is fascinating and I’m open to recommendations for new reading material. And food is yummy, cooking is fun and I miss sharing meals with my family.  Good night!