traditions
In The Powerful Presence Of The Maiden Goddess
Many centuries have come and gone since the Athenians ascended the Acropolis to seek the guidance and protection of Athena, the maiden goddess of wisdom, war and divine intelligence. Her status as the favorite daughter of Zeus, and powerful patron deity of the city of Athens, remains evident to this day.
Expecting to be mostly drawn to the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus, when I visited the Acropolis of Athens in Greece*, I was instead keenly aware of the omnipresence of Athena’s legacy. My undergraduate education in literature and drama afforded me a reasonably good understanding of the role of the god Dionysus in ancient Greek culture. I knew about the festivals and plays, and as a student I often imagined visiting the remains of those historic open-air auditoriums. Continue reading
The Year Of The Snake
Happy New Year! Today heralds the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Snake. Each year in the Chinese Zodiac New Year’s day falls on a different date, and this year’s date is February 10, 2013.
The Snake Year comes sixth in the cycle of the zodiac and reoccurs every 12th year. This means that you are a Snake if you were born in 1941, 1953, 1965, 1989 or 2001. Ancient Chinese wisdom states that if you have a snake in your house your family will never go hungry, because a snake is said to be sage, wise and a good protector of his or her family’s belongings and home.
The Chinese Zodiac is a lunar-based calendar and the Chinese New Year is sometimes referred to as The Lunar New Year. The cycle flows as follows: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. Continue reading
Sitting On The Dock Of The Imaginary Bay
I am, for all intents and purposes, a transplanted ‘Islander’ who is far, far away from her home… many thousands of miles, in a culture that could not be more different than the one I was raised in, if it tried to be.
The differences in perspective are so very large when you come from a tiny island in the Caribbean. I tend to be much more laid back than, say, someone who may have been born and raised in a big city. I’m not always ‘understood’ by some who think I need to be a lot more of, well, I have never been able to figure that out exactly, what I should be ‘more’ of, since I love being me. And after all this time, I know how to be me. Continue reading