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!