Friday, January 27, 2006

THE POETRY OF CHEESE AND OTHER RECIPES FOR LIFE

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
G. K. Chesterton

Today I contributed one of those weird searches that turn up in people's stat counters.
"Chesterton + get a handle on his hedgehog". I also tried just "Chesterton + hedgehog" and did these under images first and then websites.

I was looking for an illustration by Chesterton of a very portly man (maybe a self-portrait), a respectable English gentleman, carrying a large hedgehog instead of a briefcase. I believe it is called "Modern Man Tries to get a handle on his Hedgehog." Alas, I searched to no avail. But I did find a page of great Chesterton quotes and another on-line source about him.

What an interesting man. Like Blake he was both writer and painter, and a mystic, but Chesterton was not a rebel-- he converted to Catholicism (not a big leap from the Anglican Church)-- and apparently he was also a murderer, although I need to read a bit more about that. I wish I could have found that painting, because it aptly illustrates how I feel today.

I don't feel like I am getting any better at the right "recipe for a day". The right mixture of long-term and short-term goals. The proper amounts of both poetics and cheese. Of rest and labour. And how to do each thing fully and completely. Sometimes I get so scattered thinking about all the stuff I need to do, should be doing, forgot to do, etc. I miss half the stuff that is ACTUALLY happening!

And it doesn't help that I am feeling a little depressed this morning about the world, and our society, and hearing The Clash and Madness and Zeppelin in commercials. I suppose in the days of old artists had to devote their works to the Royals and rich to support themselves, but somehow that doesn't seem as cheap as Jimmy Page selling an SUV.

Also, I saw a story that the gap between rich and poor is broadening, and it made me think of an interview with Thom Hartmann I read in The Sun. He talks about how the Bush/Rove dicatorship (okay, he didn't actually say "Bush/Rove dictatorship")wants us all to go back to the economics of Dickens novels. Where there are alot of poor and a small, wealthy elite that controls everything. ("Hey, lots of free labour from the Workhouses!" etc.)

UNTIL NEXT TIME, TOODLE ON!!!

4 comments:

Cassandra said...

Yes, I actually mute the commercials with rock songs in them because it's just wrong.
Refer to our horoscope for this week...
"You can't afford to be anything but generous to the deprived and disadvantaged--including the underprivileged parts of your own psyche that you sometimes neglect."

Astronaut said...

That is wrong putting commercials with rock songs, what ever happened to their souls? I hope your new template comes out well.

Mr. Shife said...

With regards to the weight loss, every journey begins with one small step so you have put a plan in motion and that is a good thing.

BriteYellowGun said...

Here's a few rays of sunshine I'm zapping down at you. I have vast reserves of energy so you can have some of that too.