The White Goddess - Robert Graves
This took me way too long to read.
But, that said, it's a dense book that ties together vast realms of mythology and history and makes the argument that the original Goddesses were later supplanted by Patriarchal religions/myths, of which Christianity is just the final step.
He brings to the topic formidable learning, knowledge of mythology, religion, cultures, classics, and provides a scholarly, if speculative treatment of the subject.
I lack the basest rudiments of knowledge to even begin to question his Thesis, let alone conclusions, but I found intriguing his ideas that the history of humankind has been encoded in myth and folklore, a tradition brought to great heights by the bards of Wales and Ireland.
His interpretations are a gold mine of symbolic thought (as much so as a good reading of Dream Symbols, or Carl Jung).
And - even if he were wrong (and can you be wrong in this? I mean, I credit an informed and educated opinion - but some things - myth and history, for example - will perhaps always be somewhat obscure and impossible to untangle).
I imagine a version of it perhaps better laid out like a "Brewers Phrase and Fable", where you can word-golf around the entire volume and come to your own conclusions.
Ideas - of how the bards arranged and created symbols in trees, that a great many of our early myths evolved to mark the passage of seasons, hence the attention to trees, flowers, animals, every one not merely a tree or flower but marking a point of time and an usage to man. A whole list of associated meanings and implications. As well he touches upon the mythic beginnings of the alphabet, written language, and provides examples of the mnemonic devices poets used upon the finger joints of the hand - the dactyls, the symbolism of the forefinger, the pinkie finger - which, as we use to clean our ears is also known as "The Oracle Finger" as the muse might speak to you privately when you held the finger in your ear - fascinating, because - symbolically again in this we see the beginning of Palmistry. Nola, you should perhaps find a copy in the library and peruse pages 195-201, they might provide some fodder for you...(there's more in there too, but that saves you making any big reading commitments.)
And he provides an informed, impartial and intelligent/reasoned view of Christianity, done from without the Church, while a great many people are critical of Christianity (and for good reason), few have done the research he has. He covers the countless misinterpretations of ancient illustrations, myths and texts, that led to the Biblical Scriptures as we know them.
So - intriguing. Much to think about and a book to be revisited. Once again the right book at the right time. But my god a formidable read.
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The Richest Pan in the Cariboo...
In todays dollars that would be around $200, 000. Not bad for a single pan. And note that most of the old time miners weren't interested in keeping records, so a lot of lucky strikes like this went unrecorded.
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Meteorite Hits House in Golden
How did I miss this?
I mean, treasure for sure, but it found her:
Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meteorite-crashes-into-womans-bedroom-golden-bc
Now, given the provenance, a small fortune basically landed on the pillow beside her while she was sleeping...
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Big City Blonde
She's familiar, in that way people who meet daily in restaurants and cafe's and yet want formal introduction. Forever on the peripheries of acquaintance, a mere 1 degree of separation, and then she'd disappeared.
I put it down to a change of schedule, quite possibly mine, and forgot about her. There's a whole host of people whom I should know by now, literally everyone, and that I haven't been introduced is a matter of timing and inclination.
Anyways, apparently it wasn't my schedule, it was hers, she's been away, Lower Mainland, the big city, and she's shown up again in the café a wet hot mess, blue pantsuit, expensive handbag, a ridiculous wheely-luggage thing that possesses the tiniest bag on the bottom, big enough for a pair of knickers and nothing else...
It's a prop to start the conversation; she's been away, on the coast...
She sees me, the glance of mutual recognition and the perplexity as to why we haven't been introduced...
Her dress, I've noted, always fashionable-sexy in a Vogue or magazine sort of way. Not in the Kootenays sort of way. A "Professional", but in what capacity?
The skit begins.
She begins by explains herself to the Barista's in terms loud enough for me to overhear. I need no introduction, I, and everyone else in the café, are going to be caught up to speed on her latest adventures.
She's been away, Lower Mainland, going on lots of dates, her problem, she's been told, is that she's "too nice", but that's part of her charm, her small-town values, and she doesn't want to lose these...
A proper coquette.
And she's a little whirlwind of Chaos, everyone stopping by to catch up with her, tribute paid to youth and beauty, and she's regaling them with her dating adventures, breaking to tell the Baristas that they still make the best cappuccino she's ever tasted, she's missed this town, it's home for her, really, even if she is now living on the lower mainland, and OMG, she needs change, she forgot how to feed these small town meters, hahahah...
She's completely oblivious and the sole actress and star of her own show, after Marilyn Munroe, and you can just sit and enjoy it until you can't take any more...
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