Summary of Classical Literature with Dr. Sexson

It has been an enlightening semester. Not at all unlike the other two classes that I had the pleasure of taking with Dr. Sexson, Oral Tradition and American Lit. We explored the everything from American Gothic to sparagmos and back to Hades and Heaven. My favorite part of the class would be a mixture of the transformations in Ovid's Metamorphosis and the Golden Ass. I know that the past possesses the present and that there is a one in three chance of everything. Thanks to this class even reading the newspaper has become a small adventure, looking for all of the connections and references to mythology and the past.

Today's Presentations

The two presentations today were fantastic as all of them have been. Who knew that there was so much talent sitting in our class room. It is still so interesting how each and everyone perceives the material that we have covered over the semester and applies it to situations in their own lives. Again, the separate poem writing in group 2 proved that while we have all read the same material throughout the semester, we will take our own understanding of it away with us.

Gay marriages:

In the Sunday, April 5, 2009 edition of the Bozeman Chronicle there was an article that reminded me of Deborah's presentation on misogeny. The state of Iowa plans to begin gay marriages on the 24th of this month. While this article would have been of little to no interest to before, I stopped and thought to myself: oh that's just great!It's hard enough to find dates in this wierd dy and age, now the men can just marry one another and never have to deal with us women. According to Deborah's presentation we'll probably end up discarded as the ugly "other" without...

Quick Chronicle note:

March 22, 2009: This article caught my eye while surfing through the paper, the title; "Two States consider ban on bestiality" for staters, I think it should "beastiality". Then why are they only "considering" it? I think it goes without saying that unless you're Zues in the form of a beautiful swan, you should not mix species!

Favorite passage in Cupid and Psyche:

There was so much to love about the Cupid and Psyche story in the "The Golden Ass". The lines that touched me most were started on page 117. The paragraph begins with:"Psyche was terrified". The breathtaking part begins with,Cupid's divine beauty: his golden hair, washed in nectar and still scented with it, thick curls straying over white neck and flushed cheeks...Then, the best part, his wings! "At his shoulders grew soft wings of the purest white, and though they were at rest, the tender down fringing the feathers quivered naughtily all the time." Naughtliy, what a fantastic word!

Mentor:

The American Heritage Dictionary term for mentor: A wise and trusted counselor or teacher. A tutor in Homer's "Odyssey". At the end of the "Odyssey" the term mentor is mentioned in the last sentence; "Then Athena assumed the form and voice of mentor, and presently made a covenant of peace between the two contending parties"

Catharsis:

It works. After blogging about the tragic suicide of my friend, Gail, last night I do feel less burdened by grief. I still don't understand the act but I feel better.

The past obliterating the present and the future

If you were casually flipping through the pages of the Bozeman Chronicle on Sunday April 12, 2009, you may have skimmed over the obituary for Gail Keiter. She was a friend of mine. On the Wednesday before she must have decided that she could take no more of the present. I can only imagine that she let the residue from the past come creeping over the walls of the present. Gail was a tragic story of how the past can not only possess but consume the present as well as any hope for the future if you are not vigilant in your attempt to create an acceptable present day and a hopeful future for your and those who count on you.

Nostalgia; the longing for the past to possess the present

On Saturday April, 25, 2009 the annual horse drive down Main Street in Three Forks, Mt. will take place. This is how the western cultured people of modern day hold on to the the stories and traditions of those who tamed this land and lived to set the traditions that we hold so dear to our hearts today. The annual horse drive is just one more avenue for the truly western at heart to say that "it's O.K. that Monday morning I'll hop a flight to L.A. and get some business done, today...I'm a cowboy with a herd to move. That is a classic example of the past possessing the present, or of the average person longing for the past to "replace" the present.

New highway signs put Bozeman on the map

This headline in the Sunday, March 15, 2009 edition of the Chronicle caught my eye. The article is in regards to why there is a Butte sign 5 miles east of Bozeman. Obviously some Bozeman residents have taken offence to the fact that Butte seems to prevail before Bozeman in the great order of highway sign significance. While I was reading this article I could not help but think of the "crossroads", and did it really matter if you put your soul on the line in Butte or Bozeman, Montana?

Quick note!

I made myself a cup of tea today, like every day, however, today I read the little "fortune" hanging from the tea bag, it read..."The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. (Horace Walpole, 1717-1797.) How did they know that Dr. Sexson's Classical Lit. class would be discussing tragedy and comedy at this very point on the great time line?

Bozeman Chronicle: Phaethon

This particular article was from the Sunday, February 15,2009 edition of the Bozeman Chronicle. Ofcourse, it was also national news and all that was on the one channel that I recieve up here in the sticks.

The headline read, Investigator: Plane fell flat onto Buffalo house.

It was the heartbreaking story fo an ill-fated flight that crashed into a house in Clarence Center, N.Y., killing everyone on board and one person from inside the house. The survivors from inside the house were a mother and daughter pair. Now tell me that the godesses were not some how involved in that miracle.

It was a sad and tragic accident. While I was reading the article I could not help but think of Phaethon's fall from the heavens to the unforgiving ground below. It was only Phaethon who lost his life after his tragic episode with the sun god's horses, unlike this sad story where the only survivors were two unsuspecting women and one young man who did not get on the doomed flight. Hopefully, this young man will consider Phaethon's fall and the fate of the passengers on that flight and consider each of his remaining days a gift from the gods.

The Midas Video

The video that group 2 made of their version of the story of Midas was so fun to watch. Every time I have thought about it today, I giggle to myself. Who knwe that we had so much talent tucked away in that class. They all deserve an Oscar. You never know, that video could hit the air and one or all of them could possibly end up on teh big screen. If that were to happen...then something they touched in Classical Lit.would have turned to gold.

Presentation Day!

Well our performance was certainly a lot of fun this morning, I just hope that the themes of each of the plays was clear to everyone in class. Bizz and Grace were hilarious with their parts in "Mark and the Toilet". The fact that two of our three plays were based on true events proves that the past possesses the present, we repeated the past this morning. The "Man Eating Himself" play however, has more of a connection with "Ovid's Metamorphosis" than anything else. We had fun rehearsing and performing for the class. It's too bad that we couldn't get the music up and running but thankfully, we had Rio to save the day!

Deborah and Brian's blogs.

I was just reading Deborah and Brian's blog and wondered as I did while listening to the "love" scripts on Friday, if they had consulted with one another. Deborah's "Death is the Mother of Beauty" and Brian's blog with the quote and poem from Eeva-Liisa Manner both have time as a central theme. In Deborah'sblog she discussed how death drives us to live. We have a concept of time because we know that we only have so much of it and no one knows how much that is. The fact that death stirs passions and makes us all realize that the time you give to others should be rich with sincerity. If you consider the quote and poem from Brian's blog where Manner claims that nothing is original and that even the subtlest of dejavues just confirm that it has all been done before. How some people may think that their time and experiences were oringinal and somehow unique. The "false conception of time" theory is very interesting. When you consider both blogs and the many variations of views that are possible with regards to "time" you realize that a person could sit and spend the rest of their life giving thought to the subject, that is until the dryer buzzer goes off and reality comes calling from across the house to remind you that there is only so much "time" before the clothes will wrinkle in the dryer.

Friday's Presentations:

Those were two fabulous presentations with very different themes. However, diversity is so easily achieved even among the same subject matter as the first group's presentation demonstrated. The scripts about "love" that each member of the first group wrote were all so enlightening. To think that they had all written them seperately and without consulting one another is amazing. It just proves that one emotion can have so many different perpectives. Once again, all of the scripts were beautiful.
The second group was a lot of fun too."Television for Immortals" would be a fantastic way to keep the gods entertained and from medling in mortals lives and probably save us all a lot of trouble.

Term Paper Topic:The Significance fo Callisto as a Constellation

Ovid's tale of Callisto and Arcas is only the beginning of the story of the Great Bear in the heavens. The constellation known as Callisto houses one of the most widely used astrological navigational bearings, the Big Dipper. Along with the constant celestial reminder of Callisto's tale, her sad story repeats itself almost daily in every culture arounf the world.
The constellation know as Callisto is the third largest of the eighty-eight recognized constellations and is visible in the Northern night sky all year round. Within this massive constellation begins the stars that form the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper has been the navigational backbone for everyone from ancient sailors crossing inhoispitable seas to the cowboys of the American West driving their herds across the vast grassy plains of an uninhabited land. It si even possible to tell the time in the night sky by observing the Big Dipper and referring to the Polaris Star Clock ( Check: Polaris Star Clock Assembly). All of this is possible from following the stars that lead off of the tail of the great bear who will forever watch over and guide those forget what they have remembered and need to find there way home. The tragic story of how the constellation, Callisto came to be is mostly known to those who have read mythology and Ovid's fabulous tales. However, some have claimed that there is no bear outlined in the hevenly stars of the Northern skies. Then there is also no explanatin for how some Native American tribes: Algonquin, Iroquois, Illinois and possibly others have also identified this same grouping of stars with a gigantic bear in their ancient writings and records.
Callisto's story is one that we have become desensitized to through modern media. Her story is the past that possesses the present every time you turn on the news and hear of a lover's triangle being resolved with the murder of the mistress at the hands of the wife. It is as though the mistress had forgotten to remember to resist the advances of the ever charming god, Jupiter or as he may be known today: Tom, Bob, Larry, Mr. Harris etc... This tragic story is told on almost every other episode of "48 Hours" andversions of lust ending in the murder of the innocent light up the marquis. All the while Callisto silently watches and must wonderwhy we insist on repeating her tragedy over and over again.
What are the chances that the transmigration of Callisto's tortured soul to the starry heavens could have affected so many over the ages? When you gaze into the zodiac and the great constellations try to remember what you have forgotten about their stories. And when you feel lost, take a moment to search the night sky and let Callisto help you find your way home.

Golden Ass, The Story of Aristomenes

4/12/09:
The witches were interesting in this chapter, I wonder if we will see more of them. It seems to me that they must have had a purpose for Socrates and Aristomenes other than just to leave one dead by a creek and the other panicking through the countryside. But...we'll see. I found that the refernce to Socrates' wife crying herself nearly blind made me immediately think of Niobe from Ovid. Since reading the Ovid passages though I find that I look see little references to all of those stories in just about everything that I'm reading. There was also the transformation of the cheating lover to Meroe that she turned into a beaver with the hopes that he will eventually chew his own testicles off...interesting. The power of the oral tradition is mentioned when he claims to have been "towed along by his ears and not his horse" to his destination.

New Thesis Statement

4/6/09: I would like to incorporate the zodiac into the theme "the past possesses to present."

4/4/09: Death of a Pet.
I was invited to some friends house last night for dinner and a movie. They had rented "Marley and Me" of all the movies out there... Naturally there wasn't a dry eye in the house when we finally turned it off. I had intended not to see this movie, having barely survived reading the book however, painful as it was I survived the movie as well. It made me realize that Dr. Sexson probably knows what he's talking about when he says that to write about it will get it out from the deep place where painful memories haunt.
Her name was "Denali". She was a six week old German Sheperd puppy when I got her. She grew up to be a big loveable girl. At the time I had a riding program for children with disabilities in S. Florida and she loved the kids and they loved her. Over the years she developed a lot of problems with her back and hind legs. When I brought her out here to Montana with me in 2000 shw was so happy. She loved the snow and the cooler temperatures. She loved to hike for as long as she could take it without getting painful. I was working as a veterinary technician at the time so Denali had the best medications that I could get for her. The vets kept telling me that this symptoms were normal for a 12 year old sheperd that was as big as she was. She gout to the point where she couldn't get up and down the stairs and I had a hard time carrying her so I moved into the living room downstairs. Then she stopped enjoying the hikes and finally she stopped enjoying food, even ice cream. I had to make the decision to put her to sleep. I was with her at the end. Sometimes I'm struck with the thought that I didn't do enough for her, maybe I should have got one of those doggy wheelchairs for her. I brought her ashes with me on a trip to my mother's place in Fla. last year and buried her under a boganvilla that blooms with bright purple flowers.

Thesis Statement

The powerful bond and love between parent and child is a theme from the past that crosses the boundaries from humans to the stars and possesses our present.

Ovid's Metamorphosis

Ovid (Publius Ovidus Naso) was a Roman born on March 20, 43 b.c. and lived until 18 a.d. His father was of the Eqestrian order in Rome and provided Ovid with a first class education and opportunities to serve in public office. His passion for poetry led him to write the Metamorphoisis, fascinating stories of transformation enabled by the power of gods. Ovid completed the Metamorphosis some where near the time that Christ was born. Chaucer himself favoured the Metamorphosis along with most all of Western Culture. The Metamorphosis and other works of Ovid are said to have furnished great painters and sculptors with the material for their works of timeless art. Ovid also published some of his poetic work under the name of Naso.
Ovid's station is society placed him in a familiar position with the family of Augustus, the emperor of Rome. It is believed that it was some offense to a memeber of this family that led to Ovid's exile from Rome. At the age of 50 Ovid was sent to live the remainder of his ten years in Tomis, a barbarous country that borders the Black Sea known for a severe climate. Seperated from his wife, his work and the prosporous life he had led in Rome Ovid began a metamorphosis of his own.
The tale An Imaginary Life written by David Malouf is the story of Ovid's life in exile at Tomis. In this story Ovid is reaquainted with the Child, a wild boy raised in the forest most likely by wolves or deer. It is Ovids obsession with this creature of nature that drives him to request that the boy be captured and brought to the village. This of course is the beginning of a metamorphosis for the Child. During this period Ovid continues to morph from the political figure of Rome to a man comfortable living among those with a crude language and supersticious practices.
The Metamorphosis written by Ovid and An Imaginary Life written about Ovid are fascinating stories of transformation either from the gods or as a result of man's will. It is the Metamorphosis however that has made Ovid the father of transformation.

Phaethon

3/22/09: The passage from Tales from Ovid titled "Phaethon" was fantastic reading. There was the struggle between Age and Youth ( #2 of the 5 conflicts)at the beginning. The obvious wisdom of age allowing the pride of youth to persuade a tragic oath. Then the mention of four horses which immediately makes you think of the four horses of the apocalypse, and sure enough, there it all is. Conquest, War, Famine and Death (the four horses of the apocalypse) are represented in this tale. First; Phaethon wins the the ride in the chariot. Second; the battle with the zodiac, Third; the destruction to the earth and fourth; the death of Phaeton.
It is interesting to consider that this story may be based on a comet colling with the earth and creating such landmarks as rivers, deserts and mountains as well as skin tone in certain regions. I prefer to accept the tale as the fall of Phaeton, the spoiled son of the sun.

Flyting

3/4/09: one of my most fondest flyting memories happened when I was about 17 years old and my little brother was 14. I had walked home from the bus stop after school only to find my brother, Bill standing at the gate with a lighter in one hand and a can of raid spray in the other. Naturally, I asked "what are you doing dumb ass?" To which he replied;" bite me!" Then he said that was going to kill the wasp nest in the railings of the wooden gate and why don't I mind my own fu.....g business. I said; "listen you punk ass litttle pyro freak, you're gonna burn the gate down or scorcth all the fur off of your inbred face!" Bill swung the gate open and raced out into the street calling me bi..h and waving the lighter and aerosol can at me.
Just then a nieghbor came by walking her dog. She really tried to ignore the two of us standing in the street hurling insults back and forth at eachother while my brother was brandishing a home made flame thrower.
We settled down some as she went directly passed, then Bill raced back for the gate yelling back over his shouler that he wasn't going to let me in. As he reached the gate that he had so violently swung open moments before one of the angry inhabitants of the nest he was intent on destroying came out and stung him on the arm. Now, I know it was wrong butIi just howled! With that my brother turned loose a blue streak of insults at me then took the aerosol can, started to spray the gate, held up the lighter in the stream and flicked his bick. Yep, he burned a good portion of the hair off of his hand and the gate went up like a tinder box.
Perfect timing, as the gate was fully engulfed in flames and I was reminding my brother of all his short comings with every insult I could think of my mother's car pulled around the corner heading for home. She seemed surprised to find the front gate in flames. The moment that she had a grasp of the situation she began to hurl insults at my bother which was naturally a bonus for my day.

2/25/09:I found all of the discussion of love in the "Symposium" awakened a new awareness of the emotion. What is love? I believe that it is different for each of us on some level and yet universally the same ideology.
We love our pets but that doesn't extend their life expectancy to rival our own. Some of us even believe that we have found best friends or soul mates in our pets and yet we lose them so early and so often if you dare to love another pet after your initial heartbreak. This loss of love must be more common than some think if Dr. Sexson would ask a class to write about it and there are so many toughing responses and then there are the those of us who can't bare to write about it.
We love our family. But again, all the love in the world can't stop the reaper. Our hearts break again!
We find love in lovers and spouses and one more time...it could all be in vain.
What is this love thing? Why do so many write about it, talk about it, sing about it and dream about it ?
Why is such a painful thing be the center of philosophy, literature, history and art?
Because it's everything. Without it we have nothing.
Much Love,
Stacy

A beautiful decomposition.

2/16/09: I just wanted to share a really beautiful decomposition story. I am a veterinary technician. One year ago this past Oct. I was working in the Tom Minor basin south of Livingston on a huge ranch that borders Yellostone. Unfortunately two days before myself and the veterinarian that was working for arrived to castrate some yearling horses, the manager of the ranch had had to shoot a horse with a broken leg. The body of the horse was on a bluff about 300 yards away from the pens tha we were working in.
When we first arrived there were several coyotes feasting on the carcass. Shortly after we heard the coyote let out a cry and run off. A huge grey wolf came out of the timberline and began to get his share. We watched him through the binoculars for a while and then got back to work, he was breathtakingly beautiful. Then suddenly he trotted off into the trees. Next, a big black bear came out of the woods. He sat down to dinner. Now I wasn't doing any work at all, just watching this gorgeous bear when he let out a yelp and took off for a big boulder up the hill. Now what would make him run? A mama grizzly with two yearly cubs would do it. I couldn't believe it. There she was dining with her big babies. The cubs got a little excited so she had to remind them who eats first with a huge roar that I'll never forget. They settled down and were allowed back at the table as long as they watched their manners.
It was facinating to watch nature do it's thing in one afternoon. From that one unfurtunate creature so many others benefited.
That's the beautiful side of decomposition.

Bad Day

2/8/09: It was too beautiful of a weekend to have a bad day. I'll have to share from the archives...
I was at a veterinary technician conference in Fla. this past July. When the 8 hour session of pet nutrition came to a merciful end I headed for my truck and was on my way out of the parking lot of the hotel that hosted the conference. Oblivious to my surroundings and numb above the shoulders from 8 hours of "feeding the diabetic cat" in monotone, I didn't notice the police cars in the parking lot. I was the last in a line of cars trying to get through the traffic light and didn't make it. My windows were open to allow some of the Fla. heat to escape the cab of my truck therefore I immediately noticed the near collision that a huge black un-marked S.U.V. had with my truck as it zoomed past. The second vehicle of identical description came to a screeching halt next to my truck and deposited a flack jacket clad, buzz cut, gun drawn man. This gentleman proceeded to instruct me in a raised voice to "put it in park and get your head down, NOW! I obeyed these instructions. First, glancing around to realize that there were other gentlemen with bigger guns screaming at the occupants of a mini-van in the parking lot. Not good. An authoritative voice came over the radio on the shoulder of the "officer"? that had given me my instructions. This voice simply said "get rid of her now!" I became concerned about the use of the term "get rid of". However, the gentlman that was still standing at the side of my truck with one hand inside my truck and the other on a gun simply replied "traffic sir." Seconds later the officer instructed me to sit up and drive! "Do you understand me?!" he said. Oh I understood, I've never understood anything so clearly in my life. I drove.
When I got home I searched the news for some story in regards to this event...nothing. I spoke to a friend of mine on the local sherrifs dept. Nothing. I explained that these officers did not have any identifying initials on their clothing, no F.B.I, no A.T.F. no nothing. My friend suggested that I should stop looking for an explanation and be thankful that they hadn't had to get rid of me.
So maybe it wasn't such a bad day but at the time it sure felt like it qualified.

2/2/09: Ground Hog Day!! Things contitnue to go around and around just like the song that has been in my head since Friday. Puff the Magic Dragon is relentless. Even the grocery store...Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the atumn mist in a land called Hanallee...

Eng213 blog 1

1/24/09: Test bolog.