11 September 2022

The Star-Spangled Banner ~ Sunday, September 11, 2022

Complete version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key's manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/pdf/ssb_lyrics.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiWjczAm436AhWjOn0KHQ7RAYAQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Iu4nVUUjI6d7NO4vVof2h


O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight 
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, 
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream, 
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, 
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 
A home and a Country should leave us no more? 
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution. 
No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand 
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation! 
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land 
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation! 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust," 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

27 August 2022

David Grossman: A Horse Walks into a Bar ~ Saturday, August 27, 2022

'Don't say that! Death isn't my boyfriend yet. We're just friends. Maybe friends with benefits.'

~ David Grossman

From: A Horse Walks into a Bar (London: Vintage, 2017)

Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen (2016)

20 May 2022

On Quotations ~ Friday, May 20, 2022

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” ~ Epictetus

Now, on first reading this quote, it seems entirely sensible and sound, and yet, so selfish. What about the rest of the world that suffer? Or those too busy and tired to uplift others. Anyone who expects others to demand your best without demanding it of yourself first is ridiculous. Epictetus is a fool to not see deeper into his phrases.

But then, we are all fools to accept this at face value without checking the reference to the quote. The translation and the interpretation of the original text in Greek.

Many people post quotes to uplift others. But without knowing the book where the quote comes from, the pagination, etc.

We are lost in a world of meme philosophy. Gandhi quotes without references and better yet misspelling his name. That's the one that gets my goat.

But the art of interpretation is lost if we take every quote at face value and don't read deeper into what the quote doesn't say. Or how it's no longer applicable to our time.

What strikes me the most is how different from Jesus' stance on the castaways of society, and what this quote of Epictetus says. They are diametrically opposed.

I beg of people to not simply gloss a quote but to question it to your experience and what you would expect out of others and life itself. Reading influences the mind at a subliminal level when not addressed.

Platitudes quickly devolve into hate speech. The backslide is no comeuppance.

22 April 2022

Siddhārtha Gautama ~ Friday, April 22, 2022

The Tathāgata speaks:

"Now this, bhikkhus, for the spiritually ennobled ones, is the true reality which is pain: birth is painful, aging is painful, illness is painful, death is painful; sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, unhappiness and distress are painful; union with what is disliked is painful; separation from what is liked is painful; not to get what one wants is painful; in brief, the five bundles of grasping-fuel are painful."

– Siddhārtha Gautama (Gautama Buddha)

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya,
Translated by Peter Harvey

Jarāmaraṇa - Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jar%C4%81mara%E1%B9%87a