The Englightenment
My plan was to watch this and go to bed. After it was over, I laid down and started reading. I checked out a People’s History of the United States today. I’m on page 15.
This movie plus this book do not a seamless transition into sleep mode make–at least not for me.
I remember being very bitter two years ago when I took Art History II and Western Civilization. My mother was also very sick.
When I look back on Summer ‘07, I don’t remember how I felt about my mother being as ill as she was (because I didn’t let myself think about it).
I remember the fights my girlfriend and I had.
I remember feeling very bitter.
I remember having two amazing professors at the same time. I didn’t care that it was summer and classes were two hours long. I didn’t care that Art History was on MW 8am-10am. I didn’t care that Western Civ was on TTH 5:45pm-7:45pm. I didn’t care that when I wasn’t in class I was working or doing homework.
I loved so much what I was learning. I loved my professors so much for what they were teaching me.
I loved going to get ice cream with both of them one day after class; the same day my girlfriend sat in on my Art History class.
I loved running into Isabella at the museum the day I went to do research for an upcoming essay. I loved going to lunch with her afterwards and staying until 5pm.
I was learning so much about the world.
I remember being very bitter.
Isabella offered us extra credit points to go see Sicko and write an opinion essay of it. I, of course, saw it.
My mother was very sick.
At more than one point during the movie, I was in tears. I could not separate everything that was happening to me, to my mother, from the rest of the world – in history or the present.
I saw ignorance in every 100lb woman with a chihuahua on her lap that drove up to the drive-thru window talking on her ridiculously pink Razr phone–never once saying a word or even acknowledging me–who blathered insipid drivel while waiting for her stupid trendy drink (probably with sugar-free vanilla and skim milk).
I hated every ignorant customer.
And for those of you who’ve never had the privilege of dealing with customers they are all, for the most part, ignorant.
I saw ignorance in everyone around me.
In the doctors who were going to release my mother at the ER after I had called an ambulance to take her there. Luckily, after having just seen Sicko, I was in no mood to keep my opinion to myself, and they admitted her. She was in the hospital for three weeks. While there, we learned she did not have lupus (quoting Dr. Gregory House: It’s never lupus).
After summer classes were over, and my girlfriend went back to school, and my mother came home, and I took on a (very short lived) second job… I remember being very, very depressed.
And depressed I stayed for some time after that, until my girlfriend asked if I was okay. I, not knowing how I felt, of course said that I was okay. Why wouldn’t I have been? Nothing bad had happened to me, why shouldn’t I be okay?
She hit the nail on the head.
Which is why now, at a later hour than I would have liked, am going to bed instead of reading A People’s History of the United States. Why, reading like this will of course make anyone depressed. However, that does not mean you should not read it. It’s the history of the good ol’ Yew Ess of Aye.
Where’s my passport?
Chomsky & Zinn: 2 New Documentaries
A representative of New Video recently contacted me about two new documentaries:
1. Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times
Noam Chomsky’s voice may be controversial, but his incisive arguments, based on decades of research and analysis, deserve to be heard and considered. “Power and Terror” presents the latest in Chomsky’s thinking, through interviews and public talks given in the Spring of 2002. Chomsky places the terrorist’s attacks of 9/11 in the context of American foreign intervention through the post war decades — in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East and elsewhere.
2. Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train
In these turbulent times, Howard Zinn is inspiring a new generation. This acclaimed film looks at the amazing life of the renowned historian, activist and author of the landmarked book A People’s History of the United States, an eyeopening history from the people of the disenfranchised. Following his early days as a shipyard labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Zinn became an academic rebel and leader of civil disobedience in a time of institutionalized racism and war. His influential writings shine light on and bring voice to factory workers, immigrant laborers, African Americans, Native Americans and the working poor. Featuring rare archival materials with Zinn and colleagues such as Chomsky, “You Can’t Be Neutral” captures the essence of this extraordinary man who has been a catalyst for progressive change for more than 60 years. Narrated by Matt Damon; featuring music from Pearl Jam, Woody Guthrie & Billy Bragg.
The representative mentioned a limited number of free downloads available if I were interested in setting up a contest of sorts for my readers.
If these movies strike your fancy (which I shouold hope that they do), stay tuned for a possible upcoming contest.
Time + Words = ?
abstract
individualistic
For everything there is a time; and with every thing comes its own time frame. With yourself, you are allowed patience, for you are on nobody’s time table but your own.
–Amanda Tuzzolino
I think the easiest ticket to ensure that you will be remembered is to come up with a quote. Of course, it needs to be official, i.e. published in something somewhere: an interview, a journal article you wrote for whatever your specialized area of study is, etc. etc. etc.
[There are two types of history: pre-history (before language and the written word; think Cro Mangnon Men and Neanderthals) and written history (think Egyptians & the Rosetta stone; Hummurabi's Law Code.)]
There is a simpler way to be remembered for something you said, too, and that’s to talk.
Talk to the people you’re closest to; always try to give the best advice you can — that is when they are seeking advice; otherwise, just shut up and listen).
We tend to give advice based on what we know; based on our own, personal trial and error processes.
It is imperative that we never forget that
- what works for us may not work for the next person
- and that when the people around you come to you, they are not always seeking advice/guidance,
- more times than not, they just want their thoughts and feelings to be heard
So:
Just shut up and listen.
–Amanda TuzzolinoMany attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.
–Robert GreenleafThe first duty of love is to listen
–Paul TillichAnd he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.
–William Shakespeare
Quotes for Mundane Mondays
“Difficulties increase the nearer we get to our goals.”
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.”
–Carl Sagan
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
–Napoleon Bonaparté
“In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotims, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.”
–H.L. Mencken
Valentines Day: In the Stars & in History
Heart Nebula
I’m sure most of you are unsure what exactly a fractal is. And if you are, that’s okay, because I was too the first time I heard the term.
A very good, very smart, friend of mine mentioned it one day in humorous passing. Since the story he was telling was so funny, I laughed along, and made a mental note to look up ‘fractal’ when we were through.
To my disappointment, the dictionary failed to elucidate a clear meaning; however the images I found expounded more meaning than referential words ever could.
Since today is Valentine’s Day, I would like to
- shed light onto what fractals really are, and
- give a concise history of the holiday–all the way to its foremost, ancient roots
What are fractals, really?
“Fractals are the Reality within which our own physical reality has its existence and expands.”
OK. What is a “thought fractal?”
“I no longer accept that there are ‘accidents’ or ‘coincidences’. I understand now that there are only synchronicities–intersections of harmonic energies attracted one to the other by their common resonances. We attract to ourselves specific energies depending upon what thoughts we ’send out’ into the Universe — those thoughts which carry our Intent and into which we invest our emotion/desire manifest more rapidly for us than ‘half-baked’ or poorly-formed ones.
Thoughts are ‘things’ that integrally maintain their unique identities within electromagnetic realities as surely as our physical selves do. When we hold a clearly focused thought and attach strong emotion to it, we impel it into the Greater Reality where it ‘takes on a life of its own’. Such a thought attracts to itself sub-quantum particles whose task it is to augment the energies of the thought, to ‘evaluate’ and ’sort’ the thought according to its impetus/emotional accelerator, and to help manifest whatever Intent it carries. The more precisely and clearly that we embed our desire within a thought (and our degree of ability to do so depends upon how completely we have our Will under our conscious control), the ‘faster’ we’ll manifest our ‘heart’s desire’.”
This site gives beautiful semantic meaning to fractals – Fractals: The Infinite Shapes of Thought.
And no, dear readers, I am not just using that site as reference because it corresponds crazily similar to the name of my blog.
Coincidentally, I typed “thought fractals” into Google only to see if my blog was showing up in search engines; it struck me how many hits came back with sites containing either the exact phrase or strikingly similar wording.
Here I thought the blog name I conjured was so singularly creative, hah.
It’s okay–I still think it is. I didn’t know other people held similar beliefs on the nature of thoughts. At the time, I was wholly and purely creative.
It just goes to show that anything you will ever think or ever do as already been thought of and done before.
Which takes us to today’s history lesson–
Valentine’s Day:
I think the most commonly heard “history” (aka: legend) is that of St. Valentine. But, refresh my memory: Who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday?
The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor’s daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
twins Remus & Romulus w/Capitoline Wolf
Click here for history of the sculpture and here for story of Remus and Romulus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa.
In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.
According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages. Written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400, because
- not many people were literate and
- people were terrified to practice anything that wasn’t sanctioned by the church. At that time, lords, manors, rulers, kings, monarchs, et. al were constantly changing, and along with them, so were “rules” about what was holy–legally allowed; not punishable by death–and what was blasphemous–what the “state” would kill them for.
Further reading for cynosure clarification:
- Cupid–this was the Roman God of erotic love and beauty.
- Eros–this is the Greek representation of love, lust and intercourse.
The Greeks came first; Eros came before Cupid.
The Romans came to power after the Greek Empire fell following the death of Alexander.
Cupid did not live on Mt. Olympus, as that was the kingdom of Greek Gods.
Eros was not a Greek God. He was the natural representation of the mysterious, aka love.
The Art of Memory
The other night, I watched a program on National Geographic called My Brilliant Brain: Make Me a Genius. What I found to be most interesting was that it wasn’t centered around how to “become” a genius. It instead focussed on Susan Polger, a grand master chess player.
Her parents, firm believers that “geniuses are not made, not born,” home schooled her and her two sisters. While looking for something to do one day, she happened upon her father’s chess set.
The Polger girls’ enthusiasm for the game was what, first and foremost, paved the way for them to become, not only the youngest grand master chess players, but also the first women grand master chess players.
Traditionally, chess was thought of as something in which men excelled, not woman.
Mathematics and engineering are still do this day primarily male dominated.
But studies of the brain and how it works, in both men and women, are at long last dispelling formally held “truths” about which is the “smarter sex.”
The answer is neither.
Men and women are different–there is no argument there.
The Brains of Boys and Girls: Cerebral Cortex vs. Corpus Callosum
I. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain.
It plays a key role in memory, attention, thought, language, consciousness and spatial awareness.
Studies of the cerebral cortex have shown this area of the brain to be thicker and more developed in boys, making them better equipped to:
- handle spatial awareness
- solve problems from a “distanced perspective”
a. they are better able to look at the bigger picture of a problem and solve it with little respect/attention to detail
II. The corpus callosum connects the 2 halves of the brain: the left and right hemispheres.
It is responsible for sending and receiving information to each cortical.
Studies have shown that girls have a more developed corpus callosum, and a stronger connective pathway–or “bridge”–allows them to:
- cognitively grasp spatial relations
- observe subtleties and nuances
a. by perceiving the minute details of a bigger picture problem, they are able solve it from different angles
Working Memory: aka Short-Term Memory & 15th Century Florentine Architecture: Leon Battista Alberti
I. Chunking: a term used in short term memory refers to the “breaking down” of an idea or concept into smaller “chunks.” This helps us process large amounts of information and retain it in our short-term memories.
Most commonly, people are able to hold no more than 7 pieces of broken information in their short-term memory. This is why telephone numbers (disregarding long-distance and international numbers) are 7 digits.
II. Architectural Elements in Threes
Palazzo Rucellai
“The facade, [of the Palazzo Ruccellai] built over a group of three medieval houses, is much more severely organized than that of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. Each story of the Palazzo Ruccellai is articulated by flat pilasters, which support full entablatures; the whole is crowned by a Classical cornice. The rustication of the wall surfaces between the smooth pilasters is subdued and uniform, and the suggestion that the structure becomes lighter toward its top is made in an adaptation of the ancient Roman manner by using different articulating orders for each story: Tuscan (the Etruscan variant of the Greek Doric order) for the ground floor, Composite (the Roman combination of Ionic volutes with acanthus leaves of the Corinthian) for the second story, and Corinthian for the third floor.”
“[. . .] Alberti has created a large-meshed, linear net that, stretched tightly across the front of his building, not only unifies its three levels but also emphasizes the flat, two dimensional qualities of the wall” (706-07; Wadsworth Art through the Ages).
In other words, this facade has 3 rows and 7 columns.
Curious and humorous aside: Why do good things happen in 3s? Why is 7 thought of as a lucky number but 13 an unlucky number (psst. note today’s date)? Why doesn’t anyone care enough to coin an adage for 15, 17 or 19, but 21 is important enough to get its own card game? If all these numbers are odd and odd means peculiar, then what is so peculiar about them? If even means balanced and balance is something to strive for, then why don’t good things happen in twos; why is there no lucky 6 or unlucky 14; why no casino game called Black Jack 22; why are teenages allowed to drive at 16, and why are we legally an adult at 18?
Playing the Cards You’re Dealt
When I was younger, I remember watching an episode of Dateline about a guy who had an extraordinary memory.
He explained one of his tricks to Stone Phillips using a deck of cards. I remembered this trick and still to this day use it.
Memorize the Order of a Deck of 52 Cards (an even quantity, mind you)
- with each card, say its name: 2 of hearts, jack of spades, etc.
- in your head, visually picture a place you know well: your home, work, school, etc.
- start from a certain spot in a certain place: your bedroom, the door to your office, etc.
- and with each card, visualize that you are putting it a specific spot: 2 of hearts on your pillow, jack of spades by your keyboard, etc.
- and repeat
Personally, I’ve never attempted to do this for an entire deck of cards because I’ve never felt the need to memorize the order of an entire deck of cards; but I have found it to be an indispensable studying trick.
In art history, whenever I had to memorize the names of 20-30 pieces, the artists/architects/sculptors (and how to correctly spell their names), the dates of creation, the art movement/culture they belonged to and their significances, I would place all of that information inside the piece itself.
Botticelli, Birth of Venus or Venus on a Half Shell, c. 1482 Early Renaissance
A pupil of Fra Filippo, Botticeli excelled in the principle methods of painting firm, pure outlines with light shading around subtle contours. “He is known as one of the great masters of line” (721).
Botticelli belonged to the circle of Lorenzo de Medici (Medici family). He studied what is now known as Neo-Platonism at the Platonic Acedmy of Philosophy. He espouses spiritual and mystical Platonism with Christianity in his paintings.
The inspiration for The Birth of Venus was the poem The Joust of Lorenzo de Medici by Angelo Poliziano, a leading 15th century Humanist.
“Venus, born of the sea foam, is wafted on a cockle shell, blown by Zephyrus (the west wind), to her sacred island, Cyprus, where the nymph Pomona runs to meet her with a brocaded mantle. The lightness and bodilessness of the winds move all the figures without effort. Draperies undulate easily in the gentle gusts, perfumed by rose petals that fall on the whitecaps stirred by Zephyrus’ toes. The presentation of the figure of Venus nude was, in itself, an innovation [. . .] The nude, especially the female nude, had been proscribed during the Middle Ages. Its appearance on such a scale and with the use of the ancient statue Venus Pudicia (modest Venus) as a model could have drawn the charge of paganism and infedelity. It was only with the protection of the powerful Medici family that a new world of imagination could freely open within Platonism” (721-22).
From my long-term memory via my working memory, I remembered what I learned about the Palazzo Rucellai while I was watching a program about memory; I remembered how I learned it, and I learned how the brain works to store memories.
“The difference between false memories and real ones is the same as for jewels: its always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.”
–Salvador Dali
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
–Arthur Shopenhauer
“Genuis is work through fortunate circumstances.”
–László Polgár
Relearning, Remembering, Retaining (and Repeating)
When I showed Isabella (my art history professor) this poem, she had only this to say in response:
Timeless you say?
Timeless am I
are you
and her
and they.As time necessitates,
dictates,
mandates:Memories fade,
like the the skin of an onion
no longer fragrant
(thankfully or not)
as we reel toward tomorrow:The fractal remains of striated skin,
the pieces more magnificent
than the discarded whole ever could have been.Can we remember
when our particles were stars–
marble stars lovingly
sculpted
by the wind
through the years
it took
to become
what we are?Do we dare admit
that we are one now,
as we were then,
and will always be?© L. Isabella
I can tell when I’m purposely distracting myself–either by being online, doing a crossword puzzle, playing game after game of Solitaire or Scrabble, etc. etc. etc.
This is not be equated with procrastinating–at least not in this context.
By being online or doing some other random, immaterial activity, I am literally running from my confusion–instead of doing what I know I need to do:
- instead of sitting with my confusion
- instead of letting (or if need be) forcing myself to think about it
I need to allow myself to think about the things I do not know, even though I may not find any conclusions. Conclusion is not what I seek, only resolve.
In the past, I’ve definitely let fear take away my resolve; I let fear steal my resolve. I understand that that happens and will continue to happen as long as I am human. But I cannot, and will not, allow fear to dictate my actions or my decisions.
Fear is an immediate reaction. The only thing I need, can and will do is let myself feel it and let. it. go.
John Mayer – Say
Music Video
