Edith Hamilton

 I took Latin in High School - even then I longed for a classical education. One of our textbooks was Edith Hamilton's "Mythology." I remember being mesmerized by it, by the complex interactions of the Greek and Roman gods, and the stories spun around them. 

I've kept the book ever since, and I recently pulled it out to re-read. For the first time, however, I thought, "Who was this Edith Hamilton, who gave the world such a compilation of ideas and stories?" I had a feeling there might be an empowering and inspiring story there, as well. I had an idea there might be a woman ahead of her time, paving the way for others.

I wasn't disappointed! She was born in Germany, but raised in Indiana. Her parents gave her and her siblings a classical education at home, and they all went on to achieve roles of distinction. 

Edith was head administrator at Byrn Mawr Shcool, a preparatory school, for many years before retiring - and in her fifties - starting her own quest to learn and write about the ancient world. 

She celebrated the mind - rising above oneself - being educated. "To be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is being educated."

"A people's literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can."

"None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exultation by the alchemy of poetry."

For a list of her books: Books by Edith Hamilton (Author of Mythology) (goodreads.com)

Finding kindred

A new year is upon us, after a year of hibernation, self-protection, loss, gain, and growth. Now it is time for new adventures and finding kindred souls who are walking - or who have walked - the planet.

This year, as I prepare to step onto the soil of Scotland for the first time and commune with my ancestors, I have already found connections to the "homeland" that make me feel I will belong there. 

One of the first things I do, of course, when visiting some place new, is search out the artists and writers. Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Walter Scott come to mind immediately, but then I found Nan Shepard. Ah, there's the like...

She walked the highlands, and made poetic observations on them, showing an intense connection to the land. 

"Shepard's first novel, The Quarry Wood, was published in 1928, with two more following in the 1930s. All three are set in the North-East with the country communities and harsh landscape as background. Her book The Living Mountain, a work of poetic prose exploring her close relationship with the hills, was written in the 1940s, though not published until 1977. Hill-walking was Shepard's great love; her single collection of poetry In the Cairngorms (1934) expresses an intensity of deep kinship with nature. They are poems written with the perception of one who has climbed the mountains and truly knows them."

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/nan-shepherd

So without sediment

Run the clear burns of my country,
Fiercely pure,
Transparent as light
Gathered into its own unity,
Lucent and without colour:
Or gree,
Like clear deeps of air,
Light massed upon itself,
Like the green pinions,
Cleaving the trouble of approaching night,
Shining in their own lucency...

I cannot wait to know this world myself. My upcoming journey is made to a writing retreat within the walls of a castle, to live bohemian for a glorious week. My goal is a book of poems and artwork to complete upon my return, if my ballad-singing ancestors will wake within me there. I call upon them like the willo-the-wisps I've already loved, since the first days of foxfire and fireflies on the farm.

That's kindred, after all.

Creatures of Time

Then there is the greatest first - the moment you hold your first published book in your hand. There comes a time when you realize you need to stop talking about dreams and start making them happen. I've made a movie short, acted in plays, had my own art show, and now there is the culmination. It came in part from a promise to my dad, to compile his poetry and share it with the world, because it needs to be shared. I realized there were paintings he and/or I had painted that corresponded well with the poems, and there were poems I'd written myself. It became an anthology of art and verse, of memories growing up on a farm, of Appalachia then and now. I t is beautiful, and I'll treasure it forever, because of what it is, and of the first milestone it marks.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kendra-hinkle/creatures-of-time/paperback/product-23851803.html

This and that...

The latest litany of new stuff...but in an exciting way...

Had fun with Google Arts and Culture art comparisons...

Eaten at a French Market in Knoxville...

And tried petit fours. DIVINE...

Gotten a new stamp in my NPS passport book - to recognize the 150th anniversary of Andrew Johnson's impeachment...

And so it goes...

In keeping up the quest to ever strive to welcome newness and growth into life I have:

• Powered through the upper notes in a classical piece of piano music
• Celebrated Burn's Night with poetry and new foods with names like lamb croquette and cock-a-leeky stew
                                  

                                             

• Changed the server memory card at work
• Upgraded to a modern record-able tv system
• Taken a new road home from work
• Learned about Orangeburg tile 
• Eaten at the Choo-Choo Cafe in Erwin
• Tried a new coffee flavor at the Steel Rails Coffee House
• Added tobiko and eel sauce sides with sushi - I'm a fan of both!
• Scanned a negative to recreate a long-lost photo

                                               

• Visited Fort Negley in Nashville, TN - commissioned by Military Governor Andrew Johnson

And, today is a big deal, because I'm working through a self-publishing site, and I got my first ISBN number of my very own, for my very own first book. The book is still in the works, as I learn to maneuver things like formatting and embedded fonts. The voyage of discovery is thrilling, as is the fulfillment of my life-long heart's desire.

Fahrvergnugen

Today's first - a foray into a new language. German is something outside of anything I ever thought I'd consider learning, but here goes! A new person in your life can spark new interests and desires, literally and figuratively. 

Unfortunately or fortunately, my sister and I have had a terrible amount of fun with it already...When I asked her the first phrase from the book, "Was ist los?" she looked at me and replied very seriously, "Fahrvergnugen." We dissolved into hysterics for a bit, then she said, "No really, what does it mean?" I said, "It means, 'What is wrong?'" 

"The first phrase they teach you is 'What is wrong?'" Insert hysterical laughter again. 

I'll straighten up soon, I promise, and I'll be very proud when I can order some mulled wine from the Christmas markets in Germany. That is also on the list of desired firsts.

In the meantime, we've learned that "Fahrvergnügen was an advertising slogan used by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen in a 1990 U.S. ad campaign that included a stick figure driving a Volkswagen car...'Fahrvergnügen' means 'driving enjoyment' in English (from fahren, 'to drive,' and Vergnügen, 'enjoyment'). The term itself is not standard German but a neologism (compound noun) created especially for this advertising campaign."

One new thing...

One of the main principles of "The Artist's Way" is synchronicity - that mysterious and miraculous intertwining of events. I've found it true in my own life an uncountable number of times. That's why I wasn't surprised when, after making a New Year's Resolution to learn at least one new thing a day, a friend gave me the book, "I Dare Me." It's a challenge to DO one new thing a day. That ups the ante.
Upping the ante. Let's use that as an example - the Spanish word ante means before. So you raise the bets before a game of poker starts - a forced bet for higher stakes.

Okay. So far I've learned it's easier to learn something new each day than do something new each day. I have to admit I love the ease with which we can find out anything we want to know in this technological era. I heard a quote once that we have the wealth of human knowledge available in our pockets, and we use it to watch cat videos and argue about politics. We need to be more than that. We need to be grateful for the resources at our grasp.

So far my goal has been an amalgam (a mixture or blend), but I'm dedicated. Do you know how long it takes to jot down 1-365 in a small, shiny blue notebook? I can tell you it covers 15 pages of imposing yet exciting possibilities.

Examples thus far:

1. Eat at the Melting Pot - It was simple yet fascinating to sit down at a table with a hot eye and shiny silver pot in the center, then see the mixtures of rich cheeses and wines and broths appear before you. There are four courses, all in manageable sizes. Cheese and bread/fruit/vegetables start the feast; salad of choice appears next; then, heady broth with vegetables into which you drop your skewers of chosen tender meats to cook yourself, given the proper amount of time. Then comes dessert! We chose a pot of dark chocolate with sea salt, and the smorgasbord of fruit, cake, marshmallows, Rice Krispy tasties thrilled us like school children.

2. In progress: Read all the biographies in the young adult section of the library. I started this when I was a child, but the prickly library staff was so akin to the Gestapo that I vowed never to darken the doorway again. With a new staff, I've picked up the quest again, and am tearing through the books with childish gusto and zeal.

Louis Braille - whose grave I'd seen in the Pantheon in Paris this summer - died so disappointed that his system of writing for the blind hadn't been adopted made me wonder if his interment in the hallowed structured had come later. Indeed it had - his re-interment had been attended by Helen Keller herself.

Guiseppe Verdi - did you know that in addition to being a prodigious musician, he was an amazing philanthropist?

Others so far - Louis Armstrong, Crispus Attucks, Jim Bridger, Noah Webster, Lew Wallace, Harry Truman, Queen Victoria...

3. Listen to Les Eolides, music inspired by poetry: http://classicalwcrb.org/post/music-inspired-poetry-les-eolides#stream/0 It's about the winds, from Greek mythology.

4. Learn music theory - this is the part of childhood piano lessons I "tuned out." Also doing all those awful finger exercises.

5. Speaking of music - the difference between a Sonata and a Sonatina. "A sonatina is literally a small sonata. As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form, but is shorter and lighter in character, or technically more elementary, than a typical sonata." I'll leave the Sonatas to Rhonda.

6. Learn about Marie Bashkirtseff - a woman artist who broke the rules of Victorian culture by getting out and wandering about Paris - a "flaneuse." She captured scenes of every day life, even including a single girl walking by herself - or not? - in her painting, The Meeting. The girl is on the edge the painting and it's impossible to tell if someone is beside her.

There are many more ideas and thoughts to come! Some days I'll have a set goal. Some days will be an exciting adventure. But it's nice to have something to feel eager about for the new year.