February 10, 2016
I have been asked by my good friend, Johnny Gunn, to remind those of you folks who stop by here to check the sky in Glendale, that the tree trunks there to the left where the shadows tell the time of day, are not telephone poles. They are two of five Mexican Fan Palms that live between my home and the house next door. The tallest one is almost fifty feet tall now. Thales of Miletus, the father of geometry, calculated the height of the pyramids by comparing his shadow to their shadows. I should try that! Thales is mentioned in Sophie's World, the book I talk about below.
When I was in college, I remember seeing the marks of Ash Wednesday for the first time. I guess before that I didn't rub noses with any Catholics? I probably embarrassed myself by not understanding the ritual. Of course, the coming of Easter, whatever myth you choose to believe or promote for the coming of spring, is welcome. It's early here, perhaps because of that pesky groundhog not seeing his shadow?
I'm reading a terrific book, Sophie's World, that discusses philosophy as told in small bites to a young Norwegian girl whose father is a cargo ship's captian. Sophie discovers cryptic envelopes in her mailbox when she comes home from school. Their contents lead her to a course in philosophy that is turning out to be chock full of information that is actually palatable! (I think that Sophie is about thirteen and ready for the challenge.)
The first envelope that Sophie receives (no stamp, no postmark, no return address) contains a simple question: "Who are you?" That's a question that I seem to ponder my own self and I'm no longer thirteen! The book is translated from Norwegian and has some Norse references. The lessons should be really interesting. It's a novel, but loaded with facts like the reference to Thales and early philosophers who come into play after a brief discussion of Myth and how early humans created stories to explain things like the seasons. Hmm.
February 10, 2016
michaelsheehan
No comments:
Post a Comment