Ode to Nobody...

I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?

by Emily Dickinson.

 I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd advertise - you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

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     Emily Dickinson's poems almost always make me laugh or ponder something new, and more often than not they contain true-to-life lessons. This is one such poem. This piece explores how boring it would be to 'tell one's name the livelong day' to what at first appears to be a group of good listeners. In my mind this creates the image of any and all 'famous' people -  people who work in the movies, for example. Even outside of the theater, it seems as if the whole world welcomes them with open arms. This helps me draw the conclusion, then, that it would be so incredibly 'deary' to be anyone but who God has made me. Woe to the girl who wishes she were famous! 

Learn to love learning

"     A good book is worth trying to track down, and if your local library doesn't have a particular book, by all means explore the use of special requests and inter-library loans."
                        ~From Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson. Page xxii
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     I know, it's a short piece, but as we get into summer I think it's important for students, from Kindergarten to Seniors in College, to get involved in reading. I'm sure all of us have a book we've heard of or a topic we know of that's crying out for you to explore. I personally have one of each - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered a classic and I've never read it!! As long as there are still good books out there that I haven't read, I want to 'track down' those masterpieces.
     Also, I greatly enjoy being able to read about something - whether it's a Historical event or a fact of Science - and fully understand it. For example, this year in Biology we learned about open and closed circulatory systems. If you were to ask me about them today, I would take great pleasure in being able to explain these interesting blood systems to you! So one of my goals for this summer is to find a topic and learn about it so well that I could write an essay about it in my sleep.
     This summer, I challenge you to learn to love learning, and to expand your knowledge. Don't let all those great books sit at the library all summer - get out and read!
 

The Aeneid, chapter 9

     " Euryalus countered: 'You're spinning empty arguments, they won't work. No, my mind won't change, won't budge an inch. Let's be gone!'"
                               From The Aeneid by Virgil
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     Empty arguments. Everyone hates them, yet they are so common. This passage, although one of the shortest in the book, is one that stands out to me more than others. It's interesting - an empty argument is one that is usually chock-full of words, feelings, and emotion. Yet they can be so meaningless to some. They most often don't work to accomplish much, yet we throw ourselves into them. I am the second-oldest of five children, and I can definitely relate to this.I know that, for me, when I've set my mind on something that I believe with my whole heart is right, true, or 'fair', no amount of yelling, pleading, or whining will change my mind. {Unless it's my parents, that is}. This is often called bullheadedness, but it's helped me - when I find out on my own that I was wrong - to put myself in others' shoes and remember that sometimes we need to just let people think what they think. Who cares if my seven-year-old  brother thinks the sky is purple!? He'll figure out the truth someday, but does it really matter now? Who am I to try and change what he has set his heart on?

Taking the time...

A Time to Talk

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit. 

Robert Frost

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This poem by Robert Frost is a great reminder to simply take the time. The character in his piece is in the middle of hoeing his fields when, unannounced, his neighbor rides by and slows to a 'meaning walk'. Instead of staying planted in his position and shouted ' Hey, neighbor, what's up?' he sets the tool down and takes the time to talk. Some would find this a waste of time, but really, it is much more meaningful than field work. To do what the character did shows true interest in a fellow's day, and - when the world comes to an end - it will be much more important that he took the time to listen, instead of talk or work. For everything there is a season, and a purpose for everything under the heavens. 

A document by Frontinus

" All the aqueducts reach the city at different elevations. Six of these streams flow into covered containers, where they lose their sediment....(goes on to describe the grandeur of the aqueducts)
    Compare such numerous and indispensable structures carrying so much water with the idle pyramids, or the useless but famous works of the Greeks."
                                                   ~Frontinus

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The first analysis I made of this document is the fact that, according to the last sentence, the author believes the aqueducts to be works of art. I can't help but agree with him, according to the definition of art. Art is anything that requires traits such as skill, patience, thought... and the list goes on. The last sentence may seem a little out there - but think about it: after you've defined the aqueducts as works of art, you must realize that such art is useful. With aqueducts came water - endless water - to the Romans. It didn't have to be pumped, and one didn't have to travel far to find it. So, when compared to the art of the Greeks, or the Egyptian pyramids, these things really do seem like useless things, that really aren't good for much at all.

The Aeneid, week 24

"     So all his shipmates gathered round his body and raised a loud lament, devoted Aeneas in the lead. Then still in tears, they rushed to perform the Sibyl's orders, no delay, they strive to pile up trees, to build an altar-pyre rising to the skies. Then into an ancient wood and the hidden dens of beasts they make their way, and down crash the pines, the ilex rings to the axe, the trunks of ash and oak are split by the driving wedge, and they roll huge rowans down the hilly slopes."
                                                 ~from The Aeneid by Virgil, book six
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     This particular passage of book six is one of my favorites from The Aeneid so far. This is because it displays a dramatic, yet applicable happening. The men who are with Aeneid on his journey are forced to say goodbye to a comrade, a companion - a friend. Plenty of people today have to do this, but fewer have to go right back into laboring, minutes after a funerary farewell. These particular men, though, do so with dignity, courage, and silent sorrow - 'still in tears'. Even Aeneid weeps as he carries out his instructions. but through the tears, they carry on.
     I love the emotion in this piece, and how it's not an unheard of emotion - but a circumstance that can be very real.

Purity beneath the veil

A charm invests a face

a poem by Emily Dickinson

A charm invests a face

Imperfectly beheld.

The lady dare not lift her veil

For fear it be dispelled.

But peers beyond her mesh,

And wishes, and denies,

Lest interview annul a want

That image satisfies.

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       This poem about purity took a while to find, but was worth being found. It's about the purity of the veiled woman - whether the veil be metaphorical or physical. Metaphorical veils are much more popular today than are physical ones, but - sadly - any type of veil is either unheard of or rare in most places. Girls today just don't care as much about saving purity for the man God has planned for her. They want satisfaction now, the satisfaction being found in small, temporary things such as 'the first kiss' (often at age 10) or the prom later on. And as I strive to be a pure young woman in an impure world, watching some of my friends slowly lose their purity has become a lesson to me. Every week they break up with someone, and every week their heart is broken. So I'm waiting on what the Lord has in store for me - avoiding trauma, heartbreak, and wave-like relationships. Sure - it's hard - but it will be so, so worth it.