Lotus

In Odyssey IX, when Odysseus and his men were blown off as Cape Malea, the southernmost tip of the Pelepennesus, they were given lotus to eat, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the lotophaguses (λωτοφάγοι ~lotus-eaters) without thinking further of their return…

Was lotus an actual fruit, or was it a mind fruit? A perspective of life, that once you become aware of, you willingly don’t want to go back to wherever it is you came from, that being a place or a situation.

Lotus is my awakening fruit then, which I would so love to generously offer to everyone who crossed my path! I would even plant it in my garden to eat it every morning along with my cheerios and kick start a rather fruitful day ;)  

And to add more extreme actions to support my stance, I would even change my name to Susan!

Lotus is in a Susan?

Susan in Egyptian (sšn) means lotus flower! To top it off, we have the Hebrew meaning of Susan (Sasson) of “joyful, bright, and cheerful”.

Can the lotus wisdom be so clearly passed on through a common name we all come across? Well, let’s see the Susans here & there:

#1. Leoneard Cohen’s Susanne

After hearing this song, any girl wants to be a Susanne & any boy wants to find a Susanne. After all, who would think of feeding you tea & oranges if not Susanne?

#2. Susan Boyle

Who doesn’t question the value of judging against others after seeing this:  

and as Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) so clearly puts it:

“Boyle let me feel ... the meaning of human grace.... She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until the tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective".

 #3. Susan Sarandon

The living proof that you keep the spirit of lotus alive & sensual for 40 years and counting. 

Hattie, Louise, Jane, Margaret, Lavinia….

#4. Sue Sylvester

Anyone who has uttered the following, needs to be in the list:

“I don't trust a man with curly hair. I can't help but picturing birds laying sulfurous eggs in there, and I find it disgusting.” 

#5. Suddenly Susan

It is not the NBC sitcom that made me put this in my list, but it is that the Susan character brought Brooke Shields back to where she belongs. She was the youngest guest to appear in the Muppet Show after all...

#6. Nina Simone

Not a Susan, but definitely knows how to eat a lotus. She is also here because of a perfect Susanne cover with her Ninaism! 

#7. Susan

You know who ;)

The Wilhelm Scream

A Wilhelm voice is that of James Black, humming "The Wilhelm Scream", his beautiful beautiful song…

- There is no screaming though in the song !

- Oh, but there is my love…..

Black's internal Whilhelm scream is so deep it gave a rainy smell to my winter morning. Have a cup of rich black chai & dissolve your emotions hearing this:

Query #1  -  When is a scream, wilhelm?

It all started (or actually, continued…) when a soldier named Private Wilhelm in The Charge at Feather River film screamed when struck by an arrow.

When it  r e a l l y  started was 2 years earlier in the 1951 movie Distant Drums when an unnamed soldier was attacked and dragged underwater by an alligator in the Everglades offering a startled scream !

Both men would have been forgotten for their bit parts in B-movies if it wasn't for Warner Bros, who archived the recording after Distant Drums, into the studio's sound effects library, and was re-used and re-used and re-used in a-whole-lotta Warner Bros. productions! Get a taste, it's super cute:

Query #2  -  When is a scream, not wilhelm?

s c r e a m 

So cathartic, yes it is... As much a part of our living day as is smiling and dancing! Try combining those 3 and you get a forever-light chest feeling after!

What is it? 

s c r e a m 

s h o u t 

s h r i e k 

h o o t 

h o l l e r 

v o c i f e r a t i o n 

y e l l 

o u t c r y 

b e l l o w  

as in, 

a loud vocalization in which air is passed through the vocal folds with greater force than is used in regular vocalization. 

You may scream deliberately or as a reaction! The core motive, in essentially all situations, is indeed....

c o m m u n i c a t i o n 

!

You want & you need to communicate your 

f e a r

s u r p r i s e

h a p p i n e s s

d i s p l e a s u r e

o u t r a g e

p a i n

 and yes, even b o r e d o m

indeed...

Communication is magic, and so is the amazing effect a scream can have. 

Superbly rich, one can produce so many different screams, that words are even dispensable.

Query #3  -  When is a scream, a poem ?

When Robert Lowell writes "The Scream", 

a poem so internally but also so externally loud...

the truth

How simple Karen Elson makes  t r u t h  sound when she sings about it in "The Truth is in the Dirt on the Ground"

Is it really that simple? To tell the truth? To hear the truth? To feel the truth?

Let's reveal #1, the  l i t e r a l  truth:

  

Anglosaxon version:

Truth: ~noun, [trooth];  “the state of being in accord with fact or reality". 

Greek version:

Aletheia: ~noun, [αλήθεια];   “the state of not being hidden; the state of being evident”.

what about #2, the  l i v i n g  truth ?

...Pinocchio of course...

One personality I’d  l o v e  to hear chat about it, here on my couch, over a bottle of Riesling (to pay respect to Pinocchio's German roots of course...).
Poor baby, he  s t r u g g l e s  with the effects of truth (or shall I say, its lack of!) from day 1, in 1883.

Isn’t is  p r a c t i c a l  for him? That he has his cute nose watching over his not lying?

Not more than it is for everyone. Pinocchio has a nose to verify a non-truth, we simply have our conscious.

#3, the  w i s e  truth?

I do not have Pinocchio’s thought on the truth, but I do have some other interesting personalities’ sayings about it! Read with me:

“Truth is such a rare thing, it is delighted to tell it”

heroic Emily Dickinson

“Art is a Lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the Truth that is given to us to understand”

pioneer Picasso

“There are only 2 mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting”

beloved Buddha

“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth”

exemplary Ghandi

…dear Ghandi… how refreshingly simple, the way you always put things.

one cannot ignore #4, the  e r o t i c  truth . . .

SO LAME.....

I apologize to the you who find this "simple truth" cute, but for me this is just lame. 

It is another way to pretend men & women are different species, so as to support the biggest marketing fraud of "men are from mars, women are from venus" brand, and to provide an alibi for lazy people not wanting to deal with their partners' truth. 
So un-true, honestly...

and #5 ! All those people constantly  s e e k i n g  truth !

Seeking truth, as a lifelong spirituality & goal. Is it really something that needs or can be searched? So intensely? Isn’t it really here? Like… right  h e r e ?

Right now, I can say something or think something or feel something and  k n o w  if it’s the truth.

Is it as easy?

Yes.

When you are True to the way you let your mind pave the path of its thoughts :)

So, to quote Mrs Gillis:

“…The truth is in the dirt on the ground

not in your poison tongue or your acid tears

let the truth howl in your ears…”

Let's hear it once again, this perfect tune with the  t r u l y  sincere voice...

All Saints Day / 1st of November

Is it the day after All Hallows' Eve (Hallowe'en) already? November 1st it is, so...

Happy All Hallows' Day   *   Happy Hallowmas   *   Happy All Saints Day

3 different wishes for 1 same day !

What is All Saints, I wondered?

Is it the Saints? All of them?

Is it a David Bowie album? Or even David Bowie's 2 different albums' title? Apparently, the first released privately in 1993, and the 2nd in 2001 by EMI, both featuring his instrumental work. It is interesting (if not completely unpredictable) that David Bowie (of all people...) would pass the chance to find a title for an album and simply reuse an old one:

But apparently anything goes if you are the man, after whom a cult was created (check out 30.October post for "the Cults"). 

Another All Saints j'adore is of course the iconic Spitafileds "All Saints" shop (http://www.allsaints.com/) which is responsible for the serious degree of coolness in so may people sporting a leather jacket. Best leather jackets ever.

And how can I not mention "All Saints" soap opera, on which so many Australian households rely to witness an Australian ER experience. Could it be that "All Saints" is the inspiration and reason for existance of "Gray's Anatomy"?

Oh, and extra points for the really really I-have-no-idea-which-decade-we-re-on DVD covers!

But THE most interesting detail about "All Saints Day" is the vast amount of events taking place throughout the centuries on this particular day! Read with me:

01.11. 996 : 1st use of the name "Austria" for the till then "Ostarrichi".

01.11.1512 : 1st exhibition (ever) of Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

01.11.1604 : 1st time William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othelo" is presented

01.11.1787 : 1st free school in NYC opens

01.11.1834 : 1st published reference to Poker, as a Mississippi Riverboat game :)

01.11.1848 : 1st U.S. Woman's Medical School opens in Boston

01.11.1866 : 1st Civil Rights bill passes

01.11.1867 : "Harpers Bazaar" publishes

01.11.1896 : 1st bare woman breast appears in National Geographic Magazine (of a zulu woman!)

01.11.1926 : Air Commerce Act passes

01.11.1944 : Mary Coyle Chase "Harvey" premieres in NYC

01.11.1947 : Howard Hughes flies "Spruce Goose", a large wooden airplane

01.11.1948 : Mao's red Army conquerors Mukden, Manchuria

01.11.1956 : Delhi becomes a territory of Indian Union

01.11.1962 :  Greece enters European Common Market

01.11.1972 : 1st gay them tv movie - "That Certain Summer"

01.11.1974 :  U.N. affirms independence of Cyprus

01.11.1981 : 1st Class Mail raised from 18 cents to 20 cents

01.11.1993 : STS-58 (Columbia) lands...

01.11.2010 : The People's Republic of China announces it is taking its first census in 10 years

(source: http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/november_1.html)

Happy Hallowmas everyone !                                                                                                                          May All the Saints be with you ;)