Celebrating the day

Back in the day when gods were bigger than life and beyond the grasp of the average person, Aphrodite, the deity who liked to control every aspect of the affections of human beings, according to Greeks, grew so vain that she instructed her son to go to earth and destroy one of the famed, beautiful women among human beings. Aphrodite would not allow anyone to be in competition with herself. So, her son, Eros, went to Earth to destroy Psyche, the woman whose beauty was reported to rival Aphrodite's.

But, as Eros spied Psyche, he fell head over heels in love with her. So, instead of doing away with her, he created a beautiful castle for them to live in as long as she never looked on him because he was a deity. She agreed to feeling his presence without looking at him. But, Psyche's sisters convinced her to look one day. When that happened, Eros left, and with the absence of his presence, the beautiful castle with all of its gardens instantly changed to weeds and a pile of rubble. Psyche loved Eros so much that she went looking for him. Of course, it came to the attention of Aphrodite that someone beautiful was again walking the Earth.

She would brook no rival, so she met Psyche and told Psyche she had to bring Aphrodite the piece of the soul or essence (the meaning of the Greek word psyche) of one of the goddesses of the underworld. Psyche succeeded through a little trickery to get a part of that soul, but the effect of the goddess' soul in the box where Psyche carried it caused her to fall into an eternal sleep. Eros could not believe what his mother required of Psyche, so he went looking for his wife and found her eternally asleep.He went to plead the case for her life with Zeus, king of the Gods. Zeus relented, gave Eros his wife back to him, and Eros and Psyche lived happily ever after in a beautiful castle with extravagant flower gardens.

We are told the story by a Roman, Ovid, so the names were changed to those of the Roman pantheon, Venus, Jupiter, and Cupid.

The allegory is a great one to show that the human essence (Psyche) longs for the sweet fruits of attraction, falling for someone completely. Of course, that explanation came from a world far away and long ago.

Today, we understand the world so much more clearly. We frame the affection that consumes us so totally for someone as something innocent, pure, and sweet, saying it is sweeter than summertime. It's the taste of honey. Our busy work days ask us to be everything to others, causing us to miss out on the sweet nectar of our lives, our American Honey. That's the modern version, and I'm sticking to it on this day celebrating Cupid's expression of his eternal affection for the most beautiful woman of his life.

Winnowing

The sports model of success is what I think all successful people operate by. In junior high everybody plays a sport, and usually several sports. I'll focus on football since it is America's biggest sport. Junior high students, small and large, fat and thin, white, brown and black all play. Then they all go to high school. Amazingly, only a portion play at the high school level, the good ones. Probably about half as many or fewer play because more than one junior high feeds a high school, and so competition is a notch above junior high. Then those players graduate. Some go on to college, the best. Probably around 20% of the high school players play for a college. After college, only a few become professional football players, maybe 5%. Those are the cream, the best of the best.



When a player makes the pros, he can see that there are levels even among them. Some of them wear superbowl rings or have Pro Bowl beside their names, the very best of them. But even among those elite, there is a single spot available for a league MVP, just one, the very best of the very best.



Successful people learn this sports principle as they experience life. At first everyone is a friend. Then, they see that not everyone can benefit their positions at school or on the job. So, they make a few cuts on the ones they allow themselves to be close to. It seems that with every passing year they notice that they need to surround themselves with better friends or significant others. They want a symbiotic relationship with other successful people. They want positive energy, not negative. They want cheerfulness, not sullenness. They want lifted spirits, not a denigrating aura. At some point, successful people surround themselves with only those on whom they can rely fully. They have friends or significant others that they trust, that they need, that they depend on. And usually people have an MVP.

I can't imagine going through life without looking around and seeing faces of those I trust, need, and depend on. It's been a process. But I have followed the model and found those who are the best of the best. They have great successes of their own that they offer our friendship or significant relationship.



And everyone has that reserved spot... for the best of the best of the best... of the best.

No, not fate

The Adjustment Bureau has some interesting philosophy behind it. I have only seen the commercials to this movie, but it looks like it will be a treatment of an age-old theme in story-telling.

The consummate story telling this theme is from the Greek theater. Sophocles wrote a play called Oedipus the King. The theme is whether or not humans have free will to choose their course of actions through life or whether some bigger picture comes into play as in the idea of destiny or fate. Oedipus made some choices, but by the end of the play, the fate of the gods ruled his actions without his knowledge, and his actions ruined his life completely.



Earlier than Sophocles, the Hebrews had a play called Job where the world around him was controlled by a deity thus controlling Job's reactions. His immediate family was taken from him, but he ended up conceding that he didn't control anything, so he gained a new second family. The Hebrews apparently liked this theme because an even earlier story was told of a character of really humble means who rose against all odds, and not due to any action of his own, to become second in charge of a world-class empire. By being in that position, he saved a nation, and the deity controlled all the action, not humans at all.

Stories like these two exist even earlier in Sumer and in the Indus Valley Harrapan civilization. Early people, no doubt felt that they didn't control the environment around them, so their own actions fed a larger picture that wasn't controlled by them, but in conjunction with those supernaturals who did control the environment.



Two of my favorite movies of all times are You've Got Mail and, a little later, Serendipity. One interpretation of these movies would have a higher force drawing people together no matter what human actions got in the way of the drawing power. Events followed a force line that people ignored to some extent or for a period of time, but eventually the force defied people's action and the two that should be drawn together were drawn together.



I think people in general like to think that something or someone outside of themselves directs their big picture actions, but there is another explanation to events that happen much like the ones in You've Got Mail and Serendipity. People ultimately know themselves and what would make them happy. It sometimes makes them take calculated risks as in You've Got Mail. And sometimes it makes them understand the math behind intersecting lines and trajectories between two points as in Serendipity.



But the reason I like those two movies so much is that it shows it is a heart's desire backed by a steady, unfailing hope that brings one person to another .

A place to linger

I love this Robert Frost poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.



Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.



Yesterday and today will likely be the coldest days of our entire year. So, I am reminded of this poem of one the coldest days of Frost's experience in New Hampshire many years ago. And even though it is cold, my mind has made a great number of stops today in its open field of thoughts. The horse-drawn carriage stopped at thoughts of cold, bleak territory in my mind. I didn't linger there, though. I next stopped at a few places that brought to mind good memories of places and people far away and long ago. And then it traveled on to to pause at that one great spot as inviting and beautiful as the snowy woods in the poem. The horse must have thought I made a mistake because I lingered there many, many times longer than any other spot on the road.

But there was no mistake in stopping at the most lovely place in my entire mind. I let the woods of my mind fill up with the snows of the warm, pleasing scenes crossing it. It was a quiet, sacred place, full of cheerful and enjoyable snowflakes stacking one on top of another. This particular place of inner sanctum is sacred because it contains the desire of my heart, the source of warmth in the coldest of times, the spark of flame for every joy, and the need to linger in its presence when triggered by scenes of soft, white, glistening beauty.



But I have promises to keep, so I have roused my horse to continue my journey. I have miles to go before I sleep.

Wishing for warm feet

Tonight is one of the coldest nights in 25 years. Tomorrow night will be the same. A little snow blankets the ground and coats and gloves are the order of the day.

But my heart is warm. I will sleep well tonight. It helps that the air in the house is 55 degrees warmer than outside, but mainly I will sleep well tonight because my heart is warm. The one who warms it doesn't usually wear anything but shoes even in the coldest of weather. So, tonight I wish for warm feet tomorrow as the day begins for the one who warms my heart.