Of TEMPO,Time,Spent,Wasted,Thoughts in Search of Love, my Husband calls Convenience ?

drawing by marguerita

Sitting here alone, a curious flashback crosses my mind.TEMPO, an exhibit that was taking place in Rome ,years ago, when I had a chance to visit.I had missed my original destination,which was to see Hadrian's gardens in Tivoli.The day we got there was raining and my younger son,Jacob was cranky and crying.

The books that Marguerite Yourcenar wrote,I still may have, and not ever finished reading.Hadrian's Villa remains in Tivoli and in the book pages I keep looking at,on and off.

TEMPO,the exhibit I did not see,but I still remember the flavor of the coffee at the restaurant near the hotel we were staying.

TEMPO,that word devours me.

Of Passion,Materialism,Wall Street and Waltzing Matilda

Ladies and Gentleman,Voila

THE HORMONES by marguerita

Of,Frazzles,Thoughts about in the Wind, Sondheim,Emotions, Real World

drawing by marguerita

A ntidepressants and performance-enhancing drugs, from steroids to mental stimulants toViagra, are modifying human behavior. Replaceable body parts, plastic surgery and gender re-assignment

are

undermining the traditional idea of the individual as a being with a

singular identity and destiny. Hand-held devices have turned us into

robotic mobile power stations continually transmitting and receivinginformation in computer language that has seeped into pop songs.

These developments are profoundly antithetical to the dream of sadly

civilized enlightenment evoked by Mr. Sondheim’s songs.

In this emerging world, the truth of existence is rooted more in

quantifiable physical reality than in ideas and emotions.

Musically it is embodied in hard digital beats and in performances

staged as competitive sports events.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/arts/music/01sondheim.html?pagewanted=2&hpw

OfFood,Sex,What Flies and What Does Not,The Inner Self,Humanity and Nature

drawing by marguerita

copyrights by marguerita

One primatologist speculated that the real reason two male orangutans were fellating each other was nutritional.

In 2007, the University of Illinois neurobiologist David Featherstone and several colleagues, while searching for new drug treatments for Lou Gehrig’s disease, happened upon a discovery: a specific protein mutation in the brain of male fruit flies made the flies try to have sex with other males.

What the mutation did, more specifically, was tweak the fruit flies’ sense of smell, making them attracted to male pheromones — mounting other males was the end result.

Grasping for parallels with animals can create emotional truths, though it usually results in slushy logic. It’s naïve to slap conclusions about a given species directly onto humans.

But it’s disingenuous to ignore the possibility of any connection. “A lot of zoologists are suspicious, I think, of applying the same evolutionary principles to humans that they apply to animals,” Paul Vasey, the Japanese-macaque researcher, told me. There’s an understandable tendency among some scientists to play down those links to stave off ideological misreading and controversy.

“But broadly speaking, research on animals can inform research on humans,” Vasey says. What we learn about one species can expand or reorient our approach to others;

a well-supported finding about one animal’s behavior can generate new hypotheses worth testing in another. “My research on Japanese macaques might influence how someone conducts their research on octopus, or their research on moose.Note:

Or in fact in husbands. So called of the human kind...

Or their research on humans,” he said. In fact, it has influenced Vasey’s own research on humans.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?ref=global-home

Of Auschwitz Revisited,of Real World,Food and Roof and Hope Nevertheless.....

drawing by marguerita

Of The Real World according to MF,Foxes and Space Vegetalia

drawing by marguerita
There’s a scene in Anthony Trollope’s political novel, “Phineas Finn,” in which young Phineas, about to enter Parliament, tells a party leader that he is going to think for himself and decide issues as

he sees best.

The leader, Barrington Erle, looks at him with utter disgust.

To Erle, anybody who thinks that way is “unstable as water and dishonest as the wind."

Human beings, the philosophers tell us, are social animals. We emerge into the world ready to connect with mom and dad. We go through life jibbering and jabbering with each other, grouping and regrouping.

”We instinctively feel a tinge of pain when we observe another in pain (at least most of us do)."

Note: ONLY SOME DO.......

We instinctively mimic, even to a small extent, the mood, manners, yawns and actions of the people around us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/opinion/16brooks.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1268712900-x37VKX+2C2YmbDKYh/UrGQ

Of Dante,Veins Cut and Sewn, Animals,Earth and Stars

drawing by marguerita

Canto II

Now was the day departing, and the air,

Imbrown'd with shadows, from their

toils released

All animals on earth; and I alone

Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,

Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,

Which my unerring memory shall retrace.

O Muses! O high genius! now vouch safe

Your aid. O mind! that all I saw

hast kept

Safe in a written record, here thy worth

And eminent endowments come to proof.

I thus began: "Bard! thou who art

my guide,

Consider well, if virtue be in me

Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise

Thou trust me. Thou hast told that

Silvius' sire,[1]

Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among

The immortal tribes had entrance,

and was there

Sensibly present. Yet if Heaven's

great Lord,

Almighty foe to ill, such favor show'd

In contemplation of the high effect,

Both what and who from him should

issue forth,

It seems in reason's judgment

well deserved;

Sith he of Rome and of Rome's

empire wide,

In Heaven's imperial height was

chosen sire:

Both which, if truth be spoken,

were ordain'd

And stablish'd for the holy place,

where sits

Who to great Peter's sacred

chair succeeds.

He from this journey, in thy

song renown'd,

Learn'd things, that to his

victory gave rise

And to the papal robe. In after -

times

The Chosen Vessel[2] also

travel'd there,

To bring us back assurance in

that faith

Which is the entrance to

salvation's way.

But I, why should I there presume?

or who

Permits it? not Aeneas I, nor Paul.

[1: "Silvius' sire." Aeneas.]

[2: "The Chosen Vessel." St. Paul.]

Myself I deem not worthy, and none else

Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then

I venture, fear it will in folly end.

Thou, who art wise, better my

meaning know'st,

Than I can speak." As one, who unresolves

What he hath late resolved, and

with new thoughts

Changes his purpose, from his first intent

Removed; e'en such was I on that dun coast,

Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first

So eagerly embraced. "If right thy words

I scan," replied that shade magnanimous,

"Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd,

which oft

So overcasts a man, that he recoils

From noblest resolution, like a beast

At some false semblance in the

twilight gloom.

That from this terror thou mayst

free thyself,

I will instruct thee why I came,

and what

I heard in that same instant,

when for thee

Grief touch'd me first. I was

among the tribe,

Who rest suspended,[3] when a dame,

so blest

And lovely I besought her to command,

Call'd me;

her eyes were brighter

than the star

Of day; and she, with gentle

voice and soft,

Angelically tuned, her speech

address'd:

'O courteous shade of Mantua!

thou whose fame

Yet lives, and shall live long

as nature lasts!

A friend, not of my fortune

but myself,

On the wide desert in his

road has met

Hindrance so great, that he

through fear has turn'd.

Now much I dread lest he past

help have stray'd,

And I be risen too late for

his relief,

From what in heaven of him

I heard. Speed now,

And by thy eloquent persuasive

tongue,

And by all means for his

deliverance meet,

Assist him. So to me will

comfort spring.

I, who now bid thee on this

errand forth,

Am Beatrice;[4] from a place

I come

Revisited with joy. Love brought

me thence,

Who prompts my speech. When in

my Master's sight

I stand, thy praise to him

I oft will tell.'

[3: The spirits in Limbo,

neither admitted to a

state of glory nor

doomed to punishment.]

[4: "Beatrice." The daughter

of Folco Portinari, who is here

invested

with the character of celestial

wisdom or theology.]

"She then was silent, and I thus began:

'O Lady! by whose influence alone

Mankind excels whatever is contain'd

Within that heaven which hath

the smallest orb,

So thy command delights me,

that to obey,

If it were done already,

would seem late.

No need hast thou further

to speak thy will:

Yet tell the reason, why

thou art not loth

To leave that ample space,

where to return

Thou burnest, for this

centre here beneath.'

"She then: 'Since thou so

deeply wouldst inquire,

I will instruct thee

briefly why no dread

Hinders my entrance here.

Those things alone

Are to be fear'd whence

evil may proceed;

None else, for none are

terrible beside.

I am so framed by God,

thanks to His grace!

That any sufferance of your misery

Touches me not, nor flame

of that fierce fire

Assails me. In high Heaven

a blessed Dame[5]

Resides, who mourns with

such effectual grief

That hindrance, which I

send thee to remove,

That God's stern judgment

to her will inclines.'

To Lucia,[6] calling, her she

thus bespake:

'Now doth thy faithful servant

need thy aid,

And I commend him to thee.'

At her word

Sped Lucia, of all cruelty the foe,

And coming to the place,

where I abode

Seated with Rachel, her of

ancient days,

She thus address'd me:

"Thou true praise of God!

Beatrice! why is not thy

succour lent

To him, who so much

loved thee, as to leave

For thy sake all

the multitude admires?

Dost thou not hear how

pitiful his wail,

Nor mark the death, which

in the torrent flood,

Swoln mightier than a sea,

him struggling holds?"

[5: "A blessed Dame."

The Divine Mercy.]

[6: "Lucia." The enlightening

Grace of Heaven; as it is commonly

explained.]

Ne'er among men did

any with such speed

Haste to their profit, flee

from their annoy,

As, when these words

were spoken, I came here,

Down from my blessed seat,

trusting the force

Of thy pure eloquence,

which thee, and all

Who well have mark'd it, into honor brings.'

"When she had ended,

her bright beaming eyes

Tearful she turn'd aside;

whereat I felt

Redoubled zeal to serve thee.

As she will'd,

Thus am I come: I saved

thee from the beast,

Who thy near way across

the goodly mount

Prevented. What is this

comes o'er thee than?

Why, why dost thou hang back?

why in thy breast

Harbour vile fear? why hast

not courage there,

And noble daring; since

three maids,[7] so blest,

Thy safety plan, e'en

in the court of Heaven;

And so much certain good

my words forebode?"

[7: "Three maids."

The Divine Mercy, Lucia and Beatrice.]

As forests, by the frosty air of night

Bent down and closed, when

day has blanch'd their leaves,

Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems;

So was my fainting vigor new restored,

And to my heart such kindly courage ran,

That I as one undaunted soon replied:

"O full of pity she, who undertook

My succour! and thou kind, who didst perform

So soon her true behest! With such desire

Thou hast disposed me to renew my voyage,

That my first purpose fully is resumed.

Lead on: one only will is in us both.

Thou art my guide, my master thou, and lord,"

So spake I; and when he had onward moved,

I enter'd on the deep and woody way.

Note: To you my Man, read those words

and allow these words enlighten your path....

Of Consciousness,Love,Truth,Artichokes and Afterlife,Mummies and Dummies

drawing by marguerita

The heart was generally the only organ

left inside the human mummy.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of one’s consciousness,

and that it was weighed against the feather of truth

during Osiris’s judgment of the deceased.

If the scale remained in balance,

the deceased was accepted into the afterlife.

To ensure success,

a heart scarab was placed close to the heart

of the mummy.

Its inscriptions asked the heart to support the deceased during judgment.

OF NOTE:

'Behold, I have come to You,

Bringing Justice to You,

Repelling evil for you.

I have not done evil against men.

I have not improvished my associates.

I have not acted crookedly in the Place of Justice.

......

I have not defiled a god.

I have not worsened the lot of an orphan.

I have not done what the gods detest.

I have not calumniated a servant to his master.

I have not caused either pain or hunger.

I have not brought forth tears.

I have not killed.

I have not commanded to kill.

I have not caused anyone sorrow.

The unusual shape of this amulet represents an animal’s heart—

the shape of the hieroglyph for “heart”—with the head of a scarab beetle,

a symbol of regeneration.-

from an exhibit at Brooklyn Museum