luckyrabbit

Those are lovely. I'm looking to move West, finally, come Spring 2014.

Three things:

1. I can't believe no one recognizes the T.S. Eliot reference... Boooo. People think you are talking about coffee.... Ugh.
2. How come you've never mentioned you liked him? He's one of my favorite poets and that's one of my favorite poems.
3. Dissect the poem a little more and there is a message there that pertains to your life right now about making decisions and growing old with inaction bearing down. If I had to choose my favorite line from the poem it would have been: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." But Coffee Spoons is probably the most famous.

The first part of the poem in Latin is actually a quote from Dante's Inferno. Translated it means:
If I believed that my answer would be
To someone who would ever return to earth,
This flame would move no more,
But because no one from this gulf
Has ever returned alive, if what I hear is true,
I can reply with no fear of infamy.

I can reply with no fear of infamy. I like that.

Read the whole poem again and reflect on what it says about making difficult decisions that are bold and frightening and the consequences of inaction....

Sio credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, siodo il vero,
Senza tema dinfamia ti rispondo.

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats 5
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question. 10
Oh, do not ask, What is it?
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, 15
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 20
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window panes; 25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate; 30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go 35
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare?
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair 40
(They will say: How his hair is growing thin!)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin
(They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!)
Do I dare 45
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 50
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all 55
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? 60
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress 65
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
. . . . . . . .
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets 70
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
. . . . . . . .
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! 75
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep tired or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? 80
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophetand heres no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, 85
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while, 90
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all 95
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while, 100
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor
And this, and so much more?
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: 105
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.
. . . . . . . .
110
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use, 115
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old I grow old 120
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me. 125

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown 130
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Also of relevance (although you are probably too young to remember this band):

Hey, that song made me smile.

I spend way too much time on the computer. If I had cable too I'd never get anything done.

That song brings me to thinking about Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Mostly tangentially due to some of the themes.

Mondays aren't so bad.

If this Monday was the worst thing that will happen to us, then we're going to be just fine.

Besides, Fridays are forever... And it's not far off.

The only problem with Monday is that the weekend was much too short. I need a vacation.

I don't have cable (or TV reception), so I only see tv shows years later when I buy them on disk. Thus my discovery of Dr. Who, 50 years into the show.

There are many popular things that I just don't get. Football and chicken wings, for two examples.

Hola, 'mana! I don't actually recall what I did on the 4th. Ate, goofed, watched a flick, no doubt. No social interaction, though. A given, I suppose.

Oi! And the rabbit comes out of the hat!!!

I can't say it any better.

Remembrance of those who served, sacrificed, and those they leave behind is not given the proper respect anymore it seems. To make up for the slackers who just enjoy the freedom that men and women have given thier life for...whenever I see a war memorial I read each and every name.When I was living in Honolulu I would walk through the Punchbowl Military Cemetary and read each one of the grave markers. I probably went there 20 times...I never finished...there were so many. Thank you for respecting.

I know it's frustrating that some folks still cling to archaic notions of marriage, but there has been breathtaking progress over the past decade. I never would have guessed that we could have gotten to where we are now so quickly. The remaining strong opposition is among the folks who are now in old age, so it definitely is just a matter of time.

I don't know if it's cruel but I think it's a fair assessment, I think most would agree

She is smoking hot