LITTLE GIDDING by T. S. Eliot (No. 4 of ‘Four Quartets’) I Midwinter spring is its own season Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown, Suspended in time, between pole and tropic. When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire, The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches, In windless cold that…
Saturday evening, upon a friend’s recommendation we dined at Villa Verone in Geneva. The occasion for us was to celebrate fifty two years of partnership, a marriage which began in Japan. The year was 1970 and we both were 21 years old. We traveled to the city hall in our section of Tokyo to…
Iconic denotation is only syntagm, associates elements without any system: The discontinuous connotators are connected, actualized, ‘spoken’ through the syntagm of the denotation, the discontinuous world of symbols plunges into the story of the denoted scene, as though into a lustral bath of innocence. -excerpt, Rhetoric of the Image, by Roland…
It’s called schadenfreude, a descriptive term for the satisfaction that wells up when someone else suffers misfortune. Confession: I felt schadenfreude while viewing the evening news’ depiction of the massive shoreline destruction, the result of the moon’s near orbit, of a high tide and the storm surge of hurricane Nicole’s wind lashed waves….
Tomorrow! The eve of merriment approaches! There have been various “dress rehearsals,” opportunities to don costumes, usually with friends for parties. Here are several images which I captured of my grand daughter and her classmates, enjoying a out-of-doors parade of costumes, accompanied by parents and grand parents. Additionally here is a delightful poem, a…
Saturday, Oct 29th. I am relieved to be in the sunlight, walking in the fall air, with family, enjoying the sights and sounds of Bat-Fest, the public celebration of Halloween held in downtown Batavia. On Thursday I was admitted at the ER for observation at Delnor Northwestern Medical center. The diagnosis: atrial flutter, or…
Just a few days more until Halloween. It is raining now. We’ve yet a hard frost here in the Fox River Valley. The trick or treat experience for children depends upon the weather. Adults hope that the evening will be without inclement weather and not too cold. It is late October after all. More…
Continuing the theme of outdoor, full scale dioramas, another household in Batavia offers the theme of a Madame Butterfly gathering of spirits on Halloween. The vivid colors juxtaposed with the somber skeletal reminders of death is effective to teach that life and death are never separated. Additional background on Halloween: The festival of Samhain…
Fall is a divine time of year. Fall is the season of harvest. As well, the days grow shorter, a chill descends, sunlight falls oblique upon the earth and the maple leaves catch fire, and begin to fall. They fall one by one, finished, the alchemy of chlorophyll having utilized sunlight to make sugar. …
Columbus Day 2022. Today is a federal holiday and traffic is noticeably lighter. “A day off” is appreciated especially by students, who get to sleep-in this morning. The fall days are superlative as the mornings edge toward the appearing of frost. Leaves are beginning to fall. Vegetation has an arc of lifespan as do…
