I'm trying to find a poem that went something like this:

... we crossed two sticks
Against the green haired water-nix
....
....
... mental woods grown dark and eerie
Not even sticks of ash to carry.

From the 50s, Cold War; maybe I saw it in a high school English book.

Stolen from http://eska.livejournal.com/1672418.html   Can anyone translate?






The picture on the left is what I saw months ago and tried to describe in a thread about YA dystopias. I think the others in the thread were Sartorias, Rachelmanija....


Here the good picture has been narrowed, perhpas cropped. It looked much better alone.




 

 

There really was a party where Pilgrims and Indians celebrated the harvest in 1621. They really did thank the Indians who really had shown them how to plant corn with fish.. They ate stuffed fowls (turkeys were abundant) and corn and cornbread, and probably pumpkin and  grapes and maybe cranberries. This friendship produced a peace treaty among all the tribes of the area with each other and with the English, which lasted for 50 years.

This was in Plymouth Colony. It was the 53 Pilgrims from the ship Mayflower and 90 Wapanoug Indians. The Pilgrims shot the fowls and the Indians brought venison (and maybe some cranberries). The Indians had a good reason to be so kind to the Pilgrims all year; they wanted the English to help them get the treaty with the rival tribes.* 

Fifty years is a long  time for such a  treaty to last.  Imagine if we had  had no wars since WWII.

* For the Indians' motive, see a summary at my LJ of the account in Mann's book 1491.


---------------

Yeah, it needs work. Sources are at http://houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com/227227.html and later LJ entries.

The original 'Thanksgiving story' is below the cut. It's a letter written in 1621 by the head of the colony, Edward Winslow.

Although I received no letter from you by this ship,

<lj-cut> -- dunno how to do this in Rich Text

 Although I received no letter from you by this ship, yet forasmuch as I know you expect the performance of my promise, which was, to write unto you truly and faithfully of all things, I have therefore at this time sent unto you accordingly, referring you for further satisfaction to our more large relations.

You shall understand that in this little time a few of us have been here, we have built seven dwelling-houses and four for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for divers others. We set last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas; and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings, or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well; and, God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed; but the sun parched them in the blossom.

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming among us, and among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation, and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us, very loving, and ready to pleasure us. We often go to them, and they come to us. Some of us have been fifty miles by land in the country with them, the occasions and relations whereof you shall understand by our general and more full declaration of such things as are worth the noting. Yea, it has pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us and love unto us, that not only the greatest king among them, called Massasoit, but also all the princes and peoples round about us, have either made suit unto us, or been glad of any occasion to make peace with us; so that seven of them at once have sent their messengers to us to that end. Yea, an isle at sea, which we never saw, hath also, together with the former, yielded willingly to be under the protection and subject to our sovereign lord King James. So that there is now great peace amongst the Indians themselves, which was not formerly, neither would have been but for us; [ Surprisingly, this is TRUE; see Mann's book 1491 ] we, for our parts, walk as peaceably and safely in the wood as in the highways in England. We entertain them familiarly in our houses, and they as friendly bestowing their venison on us. They are a people without any religion or knowledge of any God, yet very trusty, quick of apprehension, ripe-witted, just.
[....]
All the spring-time the earth sends forth naturally very good salad herbs. Here are grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also; strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, etc.; plums of three sorts, white, black, and red, being almost as good as a damson; abundance of roses, white, red and damask; single, but very sweet indeed.
[....]
Our Indian corn, even the coarsest, makes as pleasant meat as rice; therefore spare that, unless to spend by the way. Bring paper and linseed oil for your windows, with cotton yarn for your lamps. Let your shot be most for big fowls, and bring store of powder and shot. I forbear further to write for the present, hoping to see you by the next return. So I take my leave, commending you to the Lord for a safe conduct unto us, resting in him,

Your loving friend,

E. W.


-- Plymouth Colony leader Edward Winslow, 1621

So our current US 'Thanksgiving Day'  (aka 'Turkey Day')  isn't spent much on religion and is mainly spent on food and sports. It also sort of re-plays the party that 53 Pilgrims and 90 Indians had in November of  1621 in Plymouth Colony. The interesting thing is, food and sports was what the 1621 party was about too.

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms [guns], many of the Indians coming among us, and among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted....
 -- From a letter from Plymouth Colony leader Edward Winslow, 1621 
 

The LABEL 'Thanksgiving' was added -- by politicians -- after many years of people in various parts of the country having similar autumn celebrations, with the same main foods (turkey or fowl, corn and cornbread, pumpkin, grapes and oher fruit, and maybe cranberries). When the Pilgrims as a group thanked God for something, they made a special solemn religious occasion set aside for it: no distracting feast or games.

This article sorts it out.    http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/the-father-of-thanksgiving-how-william-bradford-started-an-american-tradition-17152/




 

The facts of the 1621 celebration are in my last post. Here's a few things the school pageants etc get wrong. 

1. The pageants don't have enough Indians. Actually it was 53 Pilgrims entertaining 90 Indians. 

2. Turkey wasn't the only meat. There was an assortment of fowl -- and the Indians brought venisons.

3. Costumes may be more iconic than authentic. Critics please tell me, what DID they all wear, and what is your evidence?

4. School programs sometimes use modern fully-popped popcorn rather than authentic half-popped corn. And they use modern formica tables instead of wood tables hewn with axes. (Not enough trees in the school yards, maybe, especially not on repeated years.)

In my experience, he's got it backwards. ;-) Looking at a flower while pausing the breath with the lungs full, is like taking a picture of the flower, it gets impressed in my memory. The flower makes the impact on me.

Kumbhaka also helps when floating in water. (And when flying in dreams.)

http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/patanjali/raja_78.html

The object, or the ideal before oneself, is united with the meditating consciousness in a fast embrace, as it were, when the prana is withheld, and it is made to stick to one’s consciousness inseparably. It becomes one with one’s own self, and there is a sudden impact felt upon the object on account of the kumbhaka that we practise.
( Read more... )

As a non-Christian, I love it when someone wishes me a happy whatever from some other religion. It makes me feel like they'd just invited me to their party and given me a cookie.

ETA: Woops, tried to edit the image to remove negative stuff -- and lost it all! Serves me right, I guess.

You, ignorant of the marrow, deceived by the skin,
be aware. The Beloved is at the center of your soul.
The essence of the body is sensation
and the essence of the senses is the soul.
When you transcend body, senses, and soul, all is He.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Divan-s Shams-e Tabrizi: Quatrain 322
Translated by Kabir and Camille Helminski
http://dailyrumi.livejournal.com/317279.html