Jitterbugging Angels

Here's a little bit of wisdom for you boys and girls, on this fickle Sunday morning:

"Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have known all along it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek".

These are words from that go-going gaga guru Tom Robbins, not me. (And before anyone takes offense at my choice of adjective, look up gaga and see how I chose it 'cos it's apposite as well as alliterative!) It's one of his many insights that I wish I could claim were mine.

And now I must return to my grouting...

The turning of the year

Happy New Year!

It's the first of January, and this is my first post of 2009. I admit I have rather a hangover - a real head-thumping humdinger in fact - the first for about a decade - so forgive me, if my thinking seems a little wooly...

It seemed appropriate to reflect a little on the turning of the year. Last night, of course, we moved from one calendar year into the next. But the year is 'turning' in other ways, too. The winter solstice last week was the moment when the days began to grow longer and the nights began to grow shorter. And it's called the 'solstice' (as I can confidently tell you, because I did Latin at school!) because the sun (sol, from solus), which has been getting lower in the sky throughout the winter so far, stands still (stasis) for a few days before it begins to climb higher again.

'The turning of the year', indeed. I had a vague feeling that this must be a quotation, but I couldn't think of its source, so I googled the phrase. I was a little taken aback to find there are 57,400 results for that exact phrase, and nearly 39 million for 'turning' and 'year'! But I'm not easily daunted, so I followed up a couple of hunches.

First, I looked up Auld Lang Syne , but it's not in that. Then I thought of Shakespeare, but thanks to a rather nifty searchable text thingy I now know the phrase isn't his, either. I found it in a rather nice modern version of The Holly and the Ivy, but since this is very different from the old version I learned as a child, it can't be where I've heard it before.

My search uncovered a couple of lovely discoveries; they didn't help me with the origin of the phrase, but I was glad to have found them.

Someone has done lots of research on the symbolism of all the months of the year , and their post for Yule and the New Year made interesting reading:

"Yggdrasil (the world-tree whose roots were knotted in Hell and its boughs supported Heaven) ... This Tree of Life sheltered the Norns, another example of the triple-goddess: Urth (the past), Verdandi (the present), and Skuld (the future) who lovingly tended the tree. In Norse tradition, the festival of Yule (December 26-January 6) assigns 4 days to each of the Norns to honor the turning of the year. New Year’s day, the middle of this period has become a day when we remember the past and plan for the future, making resolutions to better our lives, and invoking the assistance of these triune sister goddesses".

Then the Guardian website had a page with some links to lovely poems relating to new year, including Emily Dickinson's 'Hope is a strange invention':

Hope is a strange invention
A Patent of the Heart
In unremitting action
Yet never wearing out

Of this electric Adjunct
Not anything is known
But its unique momentum
Embellish all we own.

Hope seems to me to be great theme for 2009. Let's face it, 2008 wasn't much fun, was it? And I certainly hope this year will be better.

Fun. Ah yes: one of my favourite themes!

I never did find the origin of the phrase, but thoughts of the year's revolution have now turned to resolution. And I am resolved that this year will be much more fun-filled than last, because I agree with Tom Robbins:

"Fun! If others might find that appraisal of his life shallow, frivolous, so be it. To him, it seemed now to largely have been some form of play. And he vowed that in future he would strive to keep that sense of play more in mind, for he'd grown convinced that play - more than piety, more than charity or vigilance - was what allowed human beings to transcend evil".

And may 2009 be full of fun and play for you, too!

Flow x

Cowgirls and charity shops

I've made a wonderful accidental discovery. It's like walking home in the fog 'cos you've missed the last bus, and finding a waterfall en route. Or looking up 'serious' in the dictionary and finding 'serendipity' instead. Or going to the dentist, and finding they're hosting a circus today.

I wandered into my local charity shop looking for something new to read. Something caught my eye: the silver cover was vaguely appealing, the blurb was vaguely amusing, and the title was vaguely familiar. So I handed over my 40p and took the book home.

But there's nothing even vaguely vague about 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'. It's as In Yer Face as a book can get, without being arrested for prostitution.

Have you read it? It's funny and rude and crazy and wise. Its plot is thin, but its ideas are profound - that Tom Robbins knows a thing or two. There's a lot of pure silliness and plenty of wanton, gratuitous sex to keep Middle England tutting. What's more, its characters are people I'd want as my friends, and it had me laughing out loud on the train and grinning broadly at strangers. It's a bumpy ride in fantastic company.

And d'you know what? It's all about go-going with the flow!

Flow x

P.S. I've just found this on boingboing.net - a surreal image of leaves that got embedded in tarmac - 'tis a kind of modern urban fossil!