De Eso Tan Bello

I can't get enough of this song: here. Why? I can't really tell. I love: her voice, sound of guitar, the wind, the sound of the trumpet, the promise of youth, fragments of sentences, memories and ... - there must be more.

Wealth without Work #2

On October 22, 1925 G. wrote this list of seven social sins. Impressing! I can come up with an example for every sin. You too?

 

Actually, there are eight:

 

                                 #8 Knowing Social Sins    without    A heart 

P.S. Who is G. or M.K.G.? Check out: here.

Reciprocal and Poetry

 

Tree of Everything

In French some 'apples' are favored. Have privileges? The apples that are born and grow up in the ground are called: pommes de terre. The apples that are born and grow up in trees are called: pommes. Not pommes d'arbre!

Dutch has the same "deviation". Aardappelen (the ones that grow up in the ground) and appels. Not: boomappelen. 

Human language apparently likes simplicity. Apples-from-the-tree were first (in retrospect) and apples-from-the-ground came after 1492 from America. The newbies got as a bonus 'ground' added to their name.

Wondering: what did Eve (from Adam & Eve) eat? Ground or tree apples? In original language too? The Bible talks about "fruit from the tree of knowledge":

The phrase in Hebrew: טוֹב וָרָע, tov wa-raʿ, literally translates as "good and evil" and implies "everything." To be understood to mean a tree whose fruit imparts knowledge of everything, this phrase does not necessarily denote a moral concept of 'good and evil' (source: here). 

P.S. And the apple?  It is made up in Western Christian art. Kissing, 'Genesis Volume 1' (2004), page 193, quoting Lapide: "[T]he fruit of the tree in this passage has for almost 2,000 years been painted, sculpted and described as an apple. But the text speaks only of an undefined "fruit." How did we get to the apple, of all things, which was unknown in the Near East until a century ago? In Jerome's fifth-century Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, the word for "evil," with which the snake's speech ends (Genesis 3:5), is malum. Malum can also mean apple, and so this false apple was projected back three lines, to end up ultimately in Eve's hands, where it never was in the first place."

Soft Targets

Woman alone with kids are a soft target for a married man with kids on the hunt.

The most interesting and responsible men are married. I repeat: are and will be married. They are in balance, take their responsibility and put most energy in their  kids and wife. A life that is for the biggest part hidden for the world outside the family. A category that doesn’t  flirt seriously and is out of the market in the game of love.

Hunting married men that lie and tell that they are divorced are double cheating. Firstly, he is cheating the woman of his kids, his wife. Secondly, he is cheating on his target. For me it is a #metoo-category. Don’t do that out of honor and of being courteous. Don’t do that to a woman alone with kids. It’s not fair in the game of love.  They know what a woman wants and needs. They abuse their target's vulnerability.

Why is it not fair? The hunter knows that he can never fulfil his target's deepest wish: a family with man, wife and kids that live their family-life. Normal. Nothing fancy. With a man that is a male role model for her kids.

He can give her love, attention and sex. He can talk deep with her. Eat with her kids and her as a family. Have short holidays together as a family.  But he can't give it to her on a daily basis. And one day he will have to tell his target that he is married with kids and that he can't give her what she and her kids really want. Will the relation last between the unmasked-hunter and target? If it will she will forever have to deal with the leftovers of his time and energy. And next to that - more importantly - she always has to be perfect in bed and on the sofa. Not  too demanding and whining. Not be a bore. If she will, she will remind him too much of his own wife and he will move on. Looking for new horizons. Looking for fresh meat. Live his adult life locked up in a (temporary?) Don Juan phase of love.

You can’t protect yourself for men that hunt. For those that are too selfish. If you find out: skip them. Don’t waist your energy on them. You are what they want: fresh meat. But they are not what you want on a daily basis: a male role model for your kids and man that protects and cares for you.

P.S. The story above is also valid for a married woman with kids on the hunt. For Doña Juanita.

P.P.S. I wrote about Don Juan before in 'Don Juan was a Great Seducer but a Bad Dad' (2010): here.

A Glimpse into Art of Impressing

 

P.S. Quote from Robert Quillen (1928). Source: here.

Story of Blackbird and Snake #cure

On a rainy afternoon a blackbird and a snake were sitting under the roof of the porch. It was already raining for hours. A porch like this one:

Blackbird (B): I love rain.
Snake (S): Why?
B: Because after rain there will be plenty of earthworms to eat for me.
S: Why do earthworms come to the surface when it's raining?
B: No idea but I love to eat them.
S: I prefer sun over rain.
B: Why?
S: I don't know how my body works but I only get enough life in every corner of my body when I recieve a couple of hours hot sun every day.
B: Every day?
S: Yes, every day!

B: I read a sign a couple of weeks ago.
S: What did you read on the sign?
B: "Fascism is cured by reading and racism is cured by traveling."
S: I love to read about the ancient egyptians, greeks and romans. About castles, knights and farmers. And I would love to know more about China and learn to write their language.
B: Really? But all that happened so long ago. A time before our grandparents were born. What a bowl of dust!
S: Dust is something you can clean. I guess I like it above all because it has a mirroring effect on me. It makes me humble. It makes me realize I am a part of a long chain of snakes. There were snakes before me and there will be snakes after me.
B: I get that same feeling when I fly. There are so many trees, valleys, pastures and woods I can fly to. The colors and views are everywhere different. It even seems to me that the clouds are different everywhere. Their colors too. And everywhere there are other blackbirds. At first they are always a bit cautious but when I tell them how much I like their piece of heaven they allow me to stay there for a while. There is always enough to eat.
S: Can you talk to other blackbirds living in other places? Is their language not different?
B: Yes and no. At first the communication is rusty but if we take the time both to adjust there is always something to eat and a place to sleep. And things to look and smell at. Blackbirds are everywhere the same.

The rain stopped suddenly. Fat clouds and lots of sunrays. The blackbird ate as many earthworms as he could. The snake moved to the big stone in the front of the porch. Slowly he felt the life giving sun reaching every corner of his body.

The eyes of the blackbird and snake met. Both realizing: rain or sun we need them both. And the clouds? They past over slowly. Moving light. Moving colors.

Francesca's You just ... Got Off?

The last time I saw our movie 'The Bridges of Madison County' (1995) - it was on Monday evening November 9th, 2020 - I suddenly realized why Francesca was sensitive for Robert. It was his smell of freedom. His acts without any preconceived benefit or necessity. It made him irresistible for her.

ROBERT Oh yeah, Bari. I've been there.

FRANCESCA No, really?

ROBERT Oh, yeah. Actually, I had an assignment in Greece and I had to go through Bari to get the boat at Brindisi. But it looked so pretty I got off and stayed for a few days. Breathtaking country.

FRANCESCA You just... got off the train because it looked pretty?

Sunday's Lunch or A Wild One

An apple and pear were on their way to the market.

Apple (A): Where are you from?
Pear (P): I am from behind the red barn.
A: Then we are almost neighbors. I am from the orchard two houses further back the road. Our orchard consists mostly of those ugly red cherry-trees.
P: Are you a wild one [slang for trees that grow up accidently on a spot and aren't planted by a farmer]?
A: Nope, I'd have loved to.
P: Me too.
A: How do you want to get consumed at the market?
P: I dream of being eaten by birds. I heard in the pear-tree that it tickles a bit. But I'd love being eaten by a bird and to fly. Fly far far away. I saw those birds so many times flying high above the tree; sometimes one of them sat on one of the branches of tree-mother; but I dared not to talk to them, I am too shy. With the poo of my bird I hope to find a wild place and grow up as a own tree-mother. Seems so cool to me to be at the center of the universe. What do you dream of?
A: I want to be bought by a family and be their sunday's dessert. I heard in the apple-tree that families are very tender and sweet. They really put you on a pedestral. I dream of lying on a nice bowl on a white tablecloth in the sun and being eaten by one of the kids. Who smells at me. Licks me tenderly and slowly and cautiously eats me.
P: Are you not afraid that you will end at the bottom of the dump and will never see daylight again?
A: I have been thinking about that too but I can't think of anything better as being the princess and highlight of their sunday's lunch. And after that never see daylight again is for me secondary.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes. A seedless bunch of grapes joined the two of them.

Grapes (G): Can I join the two of you to the market?
A and P: Yes, you can.
G: Am I allowed to ask you a question that has occupied me for years?
A and P: Sure.
G: My tree-mother always told me to be humble because we are "eunuchs" but she never wanted to explain to us what it means. Do you know what an eunuch is?
A and P: Both hesitantly - I have no idea.
G: She also told us that our highest goal is to be pressed into a wine.
A: Seems nice to me. Being pressed and lie for many years quietly in a cellar and to be the wine that is drunk at Christmas.
P: I agree, nothing wrong with being drunk at Christmas.

The three of them arrived at the market and found all three a different market stall.

The pear was never sold at the market. She was lumped together in a corner after a few days. She was eaten by a blackbird and found her own wild spot behind the woods. She loved being a mum.

The apple was cut half on a nice plate on a white tablecloth at Sunday's lunch. The little girl smelled and licked her tenderly. She was most graciously. The little boy was a bit rude. He looked through the windows at clouds passing by dreaming of something the apple didn't understand. He ate his half without attention.

And the grapes? They were pressed into wine. For many years they have been located in a cellar of a renowned house. In the week before Christmas his bottle accidentally fell on the ground. He never knew what an eneuch is. And out of compassion noone ever dared to tell him.

Being eaten by a family like this one:

P.S. Painting José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, 'Cena de Família de Adolfo Augusto Pinto' (1891).

Vedi e Poi

Before I travel to Napels, Italy (and I am ready to die) I first have to check out these:

• Do fish sleep? How? If yes, do they collide every now and then when they sleep in the shoal?
• Do birds sleep? How? Sitting on a branch? Do they never fall off there? Do they have special senses for this?
• Why do earthworms rise above the ground when it rains? What's in it for them?
  
• Do cats and dogs see the same colors as homo sapiens? Do they enjoy watching clouds too? Can they be color blind too?
• What senses do trees have? And grass? And corn? And flesh-eating plants?
• Was there a postal system during the crusades from Europe to Jerusalem and back? Or only snail-mail with the speed of the marching troops?
  
• Did the Vikings and ancient Egyptians (before Cleopatra VII) ever met? Or did the Vikings not travel back then; perfectly happy in Scandinavia in their villages and near their coasts?
  
• How long will it take before planet Earth has cooled down? From which % are there no more earthquakes? Why is there no earthquake- or vulcano-energy? Always renewable, right?
  
• Why are there no snakes on the North and South pole? And if we give them a thermo jacket as add-on?
  

P.S. 'See Napels and then die' is a quote from Goethe. In German: 'Neapel sehen und sterben!'. It seems that this proverb was based on an Italian original (here): 'vedi Napoli e poi muori'.