New Roommate

I got a new roommate last week. I named hem Mike after my last roommate. The new Mike is different from the last one in that this one is a ladybug and the last one was a human. A trifle of a difference but a notable one none-the-less. I was working on a paper when a ladybug crawled across my paper. I was rather surprised because Ladybugs are not very common in January. However, he was there regardless. He was all dusty so I think he fell in from the heating vent. I picked him up and he ran around on my fingers for a bit. Then he suddenly flew away.
I think ladybugs are incredible because they can fly. They look like little upside down bowls. Like insectile tanks. Solid little creatures. Then the shell on their backs split and reveal a pair of strong wings. Suddenly they're zipping around a top speeds. Versatile and manuverable. More like apaches than tanks. I think if I was to be a bug, a lady bug would be a cool one to be. Nobody would expect you to suddenly poop on their hand and then zip off into the air.
Mike visited me again a couple days later. I was working on a paper and he mosied along again. I picked him up again and then wondered if he was hungry assuming that there was a shortage of ladybug chow in the heating vents. Unfortunately I did not have any aphids. Knowing that to be a staple in ladybug's diets I thought hard to think of a substitute. I did have some honey. Honey is made from the nectar of flowers and other blossoming plants. Most insects make a diet of drinking this nectar. I offered some to Mike. At first I thought I might have killed him because for the first time since I'd known him he was motionless. I began to grow concerned. I prodded him. He regarded me uninterestingly and continued pressing his face into the blob of honey. I watched him for a while and then went to answer nature's call. When I returned moments later... He was gone. Perhaps he's shy. At any rate, his presence provides an interesting distraction. I wonder if he will visit again.

Trevor

Trevor looked down at the sidewalk and felt a tear shuffle across his eyelid. His lip trembled. Two scoops of double chocolate icecream lay melting on the warm cement. A brief moment ago he had been basking in all the glory of a two-scoop cone. Instead of spending his allowance the week he got it he had saved up for two whole weeks in order to be able to purchase that tower of frozen delight. Blessed euphoria. How blissful had those moments been. How lacking of sorrow and disappointment. Then it had happened. One too many vicarious a lick and the two-scoop wonder had toppled off it's whaffer pedestal. Trevor could only watch with wide eyes as all his hopes and dreams splutted to the ground at his feet. All was lost.
It was then that trevor met his best friend. Kelly was having tea with her stuffed dog and several dolls when she saw the heartbreaking scene occur on the sidewalk in front of her house. As Trevor stared down in agony Kelly walked softly up to him.
"Are you ok," she asked gently.
"No."
"What happened?"
"I took too much."
"Not too much. You just have to be careful. Go slower."
"It's too late now."
Kelly took Trevor's cone from his hand, bent down, and scooped the melting icecream back into the cone. then she handed the cone back to Trevor. At first he looked at it disgusted. Kelly smiled. Uncertain, Trevor took the cone.
"It'll be ok," said Kelly. "Just be more careful this time."
Then she kised him on the cheek and went back to the tea party. It is amazing the affect that a kiss can have on a boy... or a man for that manner. Trevor never forgot that day. He went on his way more slowly but more prepared for life than ever before.

The End

Blood Legacy

I am in the process of writing a paper on Celtic Art. In the course of my research I have been learning about the Celtic people. They began as scattered groups of 'barbarians' all across early Iron-Age Europe and into Asia-minor. They harassed an infant Rome and were a thorn in the empire's side throughout it's entire existence. A great wall was erected in northern Britain where the Romans were unable to go any further due to the fierce people that lived there. Indeed, these Celts eventually did their part to help collapse the Empire when its strength wained. In later years the Scotts were a pain to the English who agian tried to force a foreign leadership upon this wild people. They soon shook this off as well. The Celts were a fierce and undaunted people.
Now, I wonder. This people group has a great legacy. Everyone who can connect their bloodlines back to these people in some way shares in their legacy. I began to wonder as i read all of this, do the anchinet bloodlines that make up our genetic codes have some determining influence on the type of people that we are and the sort of personalities that we have? When faced with an obstacle of some kind do we draw from the reserves of our blood legacies? What were your forefathers capable of?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I'm planning on watching this movie tonight. I was thinking about it and then began to contemplate the message of the movie. I learned from an article in Books and Culture where the title of the movie came from. It originates from a poem by Alexander Pope entitled: Eloise to Abelard. You can read it for yourself here.

This poem is about the historical lovers Abelard and Eloise. Abelard was a renownd scholar and was implored by Eloise's uncle, who was an important member of the church, to tutor her in the areas of theology and philosophy. Soon a love affair developed between the two and they had a son. The two were secretly married and then Abelard convinced Eloise to take the holy vows of a convent and locked her away there. Eloise's uncle was at first angered by the affair but had been placated by their marriage. However, when he believed that Abelard had abandoned Eloise to the convent the enraged uncle had the poor scholar castrated. But, perhaps he had it coming. At any rate, the two lovers eventually began to corespond through letters. Abelard joined a monestary and, despite some of his views being somewhat skewed from the status quo of the Roman Catholic Church, became an important theologian who set the groundwork for others like Thomas Aquinas. Despite his great works as a theologian, it is his letters to his beloved that he is best known for.

Alexander Pope's poem captures the anguish of the abandoned Eloise. She is tourchered by memories of him that will never be more than memories. This brings us back to the movie. This film takes one line from the poem and exponds upon it. The phrase, "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!" cries out that desire of any broken heart to be able to forget what it loved in order to not be tourcherd by what is lost.

Is ignorance bliss? Or is it better to love and lose than to never love at all? This film implores us to belive the latter. What do you think?

I Feel it in Me Bones

Today, my knee hurts. This event produces two effects. First of all, it causes me to become more whiney than usual. Second of all, it causes me to reflect. You know those old guys who sit around on their front porches together becasue their wives are tired of having them around the house. They sit together and discuss the good ol' days and talk about how much they could buy with a dime.
Then they get to predicting the weather based on the painful feelings they get from artheritic bones and joints. And I wonder, what if these fellows really could predict weather based on their aches and pains. What's more, what if they could predict important world events.
Oh, how that would change how we value our elders. Instead of locking them away in homes where we don't have to wipe up their drool and change thier diapers like they did for us, they would be locked away in government buildings somewhere with numerous fellows in white lab coats asking all varieties of questions.
"Good morning Mr. Jenkins, and how are you feeling this morning?"
"Ohhh, not too bad, but i've got an ache in my left ankle. Spose' that means that ol' Sodom Hoossin is goona try to invade Alaska."
The scientists would nod, make a few notes, and then sound an alarm letti9ng the president know what was about to take place.
If only it could be that easy. If only the unproductive members of society would somehow magicaly become useful again so that they would be validated in their existence instead of becoming a nuisance to those around them. Or perhaps we could discover some other way to find value in those who once found value in us.