“Indeed there is enough gladness in the world for us all;
or, to speak more exactly, there is a fountain of Gladness in everybody’s heart only waiting to be unstopped.
Grown-up people sometimes say that they envy little children when they hear the Gladness bubbling out of their hearts in laughter, just as it bubbles out of birds in song;
but there is no room for regret; it is simply a case of a choked spring:
remove the rubbish, and Gladness will flow out of the weary heart as freely as out of the child’s.”
(I’m not supposed to have favorite bits, according to CS Lewis, but to let the impression of the whole poem be its value. Yet I can’t help attaching to small lines that made a sharp impression on me. As a whole, it feels like reading The Fellowship of the Ring, and while I was reading the creation part, I was vividly reminded of reading the creation of Narnia in The Magicians Nephew. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were both clearly influenced by Milton.)
In Book 2 line 1046, Milton describes Satan flying toward Earth “At leisure to behold Far off the empyreal Heav’n extended wide In circuit….of living sapphire… And fast by hanging in a golden chain This pendant world in bigness as a star…”
At first I read past this, hardly pausing, thinking that was a pretty way to describe the Earth. Then suddenly, I realized that Milton wrote this description of the earth seen from space in about 1658ish. Man didn’t see earth from space until 300 years later. How did he know that earth looks like a sapphire pendant glowing like a star in space? By the the time he wrote Paradise Lost, he was blind. But surely, living and writing in the green rolling hills of England, he would have pictured the earth as green? Maps of earth still said “here be dragons” about the edges and InSt the sea around England mostly gray and stormy? Later in the poem, he describes Earth wrapped in her “cloudy tabernacle.” again, how did he know? I still feel amazed by this every time I consider it.
In book 10, Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit, and so the Eternal Father sends His Son to “judge Man fallen”. And the Son says “I go to judge On Earth these Thy transgressors but Thou know’st, Whoever judged, the worst on Me must light When time shall be, for so I undertook Before Thee”
This is a new side of the Atonement that I never had thought of before, that Jesus as our judge is the most fair judge because whatever punishment is fixed, He is the one who suffers most.
After judgement is passed (which basically follows Genesis) Milton shows Adam lying on the ground in despair that his posterity must suffer because of his transgression. Eve suggests that they evade this by not having children and by ending their own lives. Adam considers it, but then he remembers his seed will have power to crush the serpent’s head. Satan will evade punishment if they don’t have children. He reminds Eve how merciful their judgment was. Eve shall have pain in childbirth, but children bring joy. He will have to work to earn bread, but work is better than idleness.
“Remember with what mild And gracious temper He both heard and judged Without wrath or reviling… And His hands clothed us unworthy, Pitying while he judged…”
Today Key Lime Pie and I looked up the word “tangible” in my handy Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate dictionary. This dictionary was a birthday gift from my dad when I turned 18.
Key Lime Pie and I laughed over our restating of the sentence
“What are the tangible rewards of this difficult project?”
As “Tell me what I get out of this- real stuff I can touch, not fluffy feel-good feelings.”
And “Show me the money!”
Love of words is a generational thing in my family.
I shared this because I just have a personal grudge against bad administration with bloated salaries running off good teachers by micromanaging them and by throwing them under the bus when parents complain.
Everyone agrees that what should happen is teachers should get paid more and supported more, and that they should have the classroom supplies they need.
Instead of hiring more teachers to make classes smaller, school districts hire “curriculum specialists” etc and pay huge amounts of money to consulting companies to tell them how to improve student performance. They buy curriculum without consulting the teachers who are going to be using it.
Over and over, teachers are treated like mindless workers and even, evil enemies, instead of well-educated professionals who know how to do their jobs, and could do them if the administration and politicians would get out of their way.
No one goes into teaching expecting to get rich. But by the government’s own measures of poverty, most teachers live below the poverty line. On top of this they are continually vilified by the media and politicians.
…. Uh Rant over, I guess. Thank you for coming to my TED talk…
Blueberry Pie and the Resident Captain celebrated by taking a road trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan.
It was epic! The views kept coming and coming as they hiked and visited the local attractions.
It was full of adventure too.
They met Sasquatch, and they saw a real porcupine on the trail.
They found several new brands of root beer to sample, so Blueberry Pie was super excited about that.
Blueberry Pie took a dip in the 46⁰ water, but the Resident Captain decided against it.
One of the best things about my dad is how he still finds the world a place of wonder after living on it for almost 3 quarters of a century (I’m rounding up to sound impressive)
Happy Father’s Day, Dad. Thanks for the gift of poetry. Because of you, I have the solemnity of poetry to turn my mundane life into something holy. I have the solace of poetry for all my quiet agonies, and the delight of poetry to lift my joys higher.
the Divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child. Because He is infinite, the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable Teacher, and because He is infinite, He is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitudinous pupils. We do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our God brings to each of us.
~Charlotte Mason vol.2 p273
3Nephi 17:21
21 And when he [Jesus] had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.
We arrived in Cancun in the evening, had dinner and went to bed. Early in the morning, we got on a bus to Chichen Itsa. It was definitely worth the long, hot drive.
We got to see the ball courts, and the place when the losing team was sacrificed.
We learned about underground tunnels that connected this ancient city with other cities – enabling escape, delivery of messages, and even movement of armies.
Sacred CebolaThese wooden masks are painted with flowers.Some warriors we met who consented to have a picture with us (for a fee)On the way home, we found Marilyn Monroe.Flame trees ❤️🔥This is the view from the rooftop pool at the resort we stayed at.
Every morning, I woke up around 6:30 AM or earlier. I would sit in my balcony hammock, watch the sea birds, and read one of the books I brought until Dear Husband woke up.
Then we would get breakfast.
Chilequiles for breakfast
After breakfast, DH would sleep more, and I would get out my watercolors.
I contemplated the strange phenomenon of the sunrise and sunset being so short, they were almost nonexistent. I did not google my question at first, because I wanted to come up with possibilities, and I wanted to wonder about it for awhile.
I did google to learn that these birds circling the sky every morning were frigate birds.
After watercoloring for awhile, I would go find Dave and Tracy by the pool, and we would talk and read and swim and drink virgin mojitos until dinner time.
Tamarind and scallops ceviche- so good we ordered it several times.
At some point, DH would emerge from his naps and join me by the pool.
Turns out that I have zero spring allergies on the beach!
For dinner, we dined sumptuously. We had purchased the all-inclusive dining, which meant we could order nearly everything without paying any more. I always want all-inclusive dining on my trips forever more. It was so relaxing to order what I wanted and never have to do math of deliberate if I should choose something less expensive.DH said this was “too much sushi.” But I think there is no such thing as too much sushi.
One day we did take a ferry over to Isla de Mujeres and submit ourselves to the tourist market booths so that I could buy presents for the kids. I bought woven blankets for the girls, a guayabera for Blueberry Pie,
Bobble head animals for the little kids, and a Mexican nativity for myself
But isn’t it the most darling thing ever??
The ferry ride made us both pretty motion sick, and the tramp through the markets was exhausting. DH took a whole day to recover from it. We will probably not choose to do that again.
This octopus dish was on our last night. It was very salty and rich.
On the 5th day, we went home. It was the perfect length trip, and because I had come prepared with books and watercolors, I was never sorry that the DH had less energy for adventures and excursions. As soon as we were on the plane, I began to worry about the kids- even though I hadn’t worried during the whole trip.
Yucatán peninsula
it’s good to be home with the kids and working in the garden. But my allergies are back 😅
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 