C. P. Cavafy: “Amilianos Monai, Alexandrian, A.D. 628 – 655”

Still searching for closure, comfort, clarity, after the horrible events of the past week.

Turning to the poet C. P. Cavafy.

Specifically, his poem “Amilianos Monai, Alexandrian, A.D. 628 – 655.” Here’s how the poem begins:

Out of talk, appearance and manners
I will make an excellent suit of armor;
and in this way I will face malicious people
without feeling the slightest fear or weakness.

They will try to injure me but of those
who come near me none will know
where to find my wounds, my vulnerable places,
under the deceptions that will cover me.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Still Thoughts

WordPress changed their editing Dashboard (and self didn’t know about it until she tried to stick a post to the front of a page)

Moreover, she still has to figure out how to attach thumbnails.

But, as Humphrey Bogart’s character says in the immortal Casablanca, “the problems of . . . little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

Paris happened.

Here is self, back to reading Master Shih Cheng-Yen’s Still Thoughts.

Still Thought # 36: Even though reason is on one’s side, one must be forgiving; even though justice is on one’s side, one must be well-spoken and humble.

BTW, self loved Spectre very much. Daniel Craig’s age is showing, but he still looks mighty fine.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Bleu, Blanc, Rouge: Sylvain Landry Week 20 Photo Challenge

Since Nov. 13, self has been thinking of Sylvain Landry. Today, she read the prompt on his site for Week 20 of his photo challenge, and it was the colors of the French flag: white, blue, red.

His post for the week describes his first reaction to the news of the terrorist attacks: “You are traversed by a visceral anger . . . Then, slowly, you realize that it is the play of terrorism, the great disturbance of stupidity that inflicts extreme pain to trigger the urge to violence, hatred of the other, xenophobia . . . ”

Fear is “invasive, winding, and icy, but it is this fear that makes us living beings. Fear keeps us alive. And because we really fear, we find in ourselves the courage . . . ”

Here is self’s picture for the Sylvain Landry Week 20 Photo Challenge: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge: a picture she took of a double-decker tourist bus in New York City:

New York City, Late Summer 2015

In solidarity with the people of France.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.