The World as I See It...or What I Discovered on the Way to the Colosseum

I thought of this today, because I heard this on the way to the store...and it took me back to my youth...my mother...and her love of this...Scheherazade... I think I love this symphony...not only because of the haunting melody...but because of the poetic meaning...Meaning? Well...yes of course. Scheherazade (IPA: /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd, -ˈzɑːdə/), sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād (Persian: شهرزاد Šahrzād) is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. The famous tale goes that every day Shahryar (Persian: شهريار or "king") would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded. This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife was betraying him. He had killed three thousand such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter. In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights, Shahrazad was described in this way: "

   In the the midst of the Cuban Missile crisis...a married couple, sat down and wrote a song. In 1962, while we ducked...and covered, this couple, wrote a tune. That tune would become one of the most popular of Christmas Carols. The Lyrics: Said the night wind to the little lamb, "Do you see what I see? Way up in the sky, little lamb, Do you see what I see? A star, a star, dancing in the night With a tail as big as a kite, With a tail as big as a kite." Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, "Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky shepherd boy, Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees With a voice as big as the sea, With a voice as big as the sea." Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, "Do you know what I know? In your palace warm, mighty king, Do you know what I know? A Child, a Child, shivers in the cold; Let us bring him silver and gold, Let us bring him silver and gold." Said the king to the people everywhere, &qu

  Arthur  and the Witch: Young  King Arthur  was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So, the monarch offered him his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, if after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death. The question?... .What do women really want? Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was better than death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end. He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: the princess, the priests, the wise men and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer. Many people advised him to consult the old witch, for only she would have the answer. But the price would be high; a

One of the great movie speeches...and a question becomes a movement...Provocative thought...it always has appealed to me... Roark's defense... Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived, and he lifted darkness off the earth. Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators -- the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors -- stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed; every new invention was denounced. But the men of un-borrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won. No creator was prompted by a desire to please his brothers. His brothers hated the gift he offered. His truth was his only motive. His work was his only goal. His work -- not those who used it. His creation -- not

 Everyone has childhood memories of Thanksgiving, at least in the US.  I am no different.  I grew up in Michigan, and was raised near Detroit.   You may know all about the Macy's Day Parade.  I was raised with the J. L. Hudson's Parade, and it was just as impact-full.  Woodward Ave...J L Hudson Parade, Detroit, MI   So, we sometimes would make the trek to the parade, however, most of the time we would watch it from our living room, on our black and white TV.   After the parade was another tradition.  That was the LIONS football game.   The Lions' annual tradition of playing on the American holiday, which began in 1934, is nearly as old as the franchise itself. In fact, they're the biggest reason why football and Thanksgiving are synonymous, even if the Lions haven't enjoyed as much success on the holiday as other franchises. It all started on Thanksgiving Day in 1934, when owner George A. Richards decided to play on the holiday to attract more fans. Richards was kno

  As Henry David Thoreau so eloquently put it: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. That pretty much sums up where I am in my life...living deliberately. I like that notion.  So I began to think about what really makes