Myth, by Natasha Trethewey

Copyright © 2007 by Natasha Trethewey, who was twice named Poet Laureate of the United States of America, serving that duty from 2012 to 2014.  She currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.

Myth appears in Native Guard (Mariner Books of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), book for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 .

Photograph by Jalissa Gray - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15244260

Myth

I was asleep while you were dying.
It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow
I make between my slumber and my waking,

the Erebus I keep you in, still trying
not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow,
but in dreams you live. So I try taking

you back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning,
my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
Again and again, this constant forsaking.

*

Again and again, this constant forsaking:
my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
You back into morning, sleep-heavy, turning.

But in dreams you live. So I try taking,
not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow.
The Erebus I keep you in—still, trying—

I make between my slumber and my waking.
It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow.
I was asleep while you were dying.



From a 2007 Panhandler Magazine interview from the University of West Florida, Natasha Trethewey candidly states "I am deeply interested in the experience of other human beings, no matter how small or seemingly trivial it is." I wholeheartedly share this sentiment. Note the use of the adjective seemingly modifying trivial. Often enough, human beings trivialize the most important matters and elevate in importance the most irrelevant and trivial of issues. If only people were paying attention, like she is!

Borders Change: Short history primers on the Napoleonic Wars and the Unification of Germany and Italy

Human minds may turn fickle when not nurtured properly with knowledge, hindering the ability to discern among concepts that is generally called intelligence.  This is, of course, harmful insofar as individual lives are concerned, but a collective lack of perspective can be devastating when accumulated ignorance finally reaches the political realm.  This seems to be occurring in the present geopolitical scene, and the current situation has all the ingredients required to cause massive ruin to lives, nations, and entire peoples.  One of the cognitive dynamics that has led to the present situation has been a tenuous grasp of history by the general public.

The international agreements that ended the Second World War, along with the culmination of a long drawn-out (and hard fought) process of decolonization by the European imperial powers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, established national borders that, for better or worse, had been up until now relative stable by historical standards.  Though some borders did fluctuate, particularly in Africa and in Eastern Europe following the downfall of the Soviet Union, the resulting territorial alterations may be deemed small within the grand scope of history.  But it was precisely that long, 70 year period that has made current societies lose grasp of how quickly states can expand or be dismantled.



Historical shifts have a way of building up slowly and then happening all at once.  This was the case in 19th century Europe, as can be appreciated in the videos embedded below.  One of the long-standing factors leading to the present geopolitical situation is that the national borders created via decolonization and the post-World War II conventions rarely considered the underlying histories of the cultures that they were carving up into states, but rather largely followed the borders crafted by the imperialist expansions.  Creating and legitimizing a United Nations complete with its own armed forces afforded stability to the 20th century arrangement.  But why would this configuration last forever?  Why expect, even assume, that humanity would not revert to the historical mean insofar as the reshaping of national borders is concerned?  Two recent events have provided a wake-up call: the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea and the rise of a transnational revolutionary force - the Islamic State - fluidly carving up its own borders over existing national borders.

In March 2014, the Russian Federation annexed the port territories of Crimea basically over a weekend, even though the political buildup to that event had been going on for years (if not decades or centuries), and within days the Western powers had recognized that what used to be Ukraine was now Russian Federation.  How quickly can 70 years of international laws become utterly obsolete!  Personally, I found strange how little importance was given to an invasion within Europe that shattered previous political convention.  But then again, might makes right... Who was going to stand up to the Russians?  Clearly, the answer is no one at all.

The case is entirely different with the Islamic State, which lacks the advanced weaponry necessary to deter the European powers.  Note that the Kurds quietly seceded from eastern Iraq and Syria, forming the new Kurdistan state.  Only Turkey bombs that new state because there is Kurdish presence on Turkey's east providences.  Most of the intervening coalition considers Kurdistan an ally.

I will not delve into the causes of the IS (or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh...) conflict as that would be a very long list, nor will I speculate as to the possible outcomes of that war since nothing can be stated with any certainty as things now stand.  Instead, it is worth merely pointing out that the geopolitical events of our era act as a reminder to the last few generations of a phenomena that they had begun to forget, of a historical fact that needs to be kept in mind as we move forward: state borders aren't set in stone and, when these shift, these change quickly and drastically, setting a novel world stage in the process.

To make this point clear, the three short videos that follow provide succinct 3 minute history primers of massive border changes that occurred in the heart of Europe during the 19th century (not that long ago!).  If you think nothing like this could ever happen again, I have a bridge that I would like to sell to you.

The first video depicts the process of the German Unification; the second summarizes the Italian Unification.  Finally, since both these rapid sequences of events were possible because of Bonaparte's Empire, a third 3 minute video is provided that covers the Napoleonic Wars.

Never forget.  When people forget, that's when history repeats itself.  Our cognitive dynamics must change with regards to our worldview in light of recent event so that we may be prepared for the geopolitical fluidity that is likely to come. 

I hope, at the very least, that you find these animated primers enjoyable, as a fun way to remember events that most of us do not tend to think about even though these have defined the shape of the Western world.

(For mobile users that may not be able to see the videos embedded below, please go to the following links:

1) German Unification in 3 minutes  2) Italian Unification in 3 minutes  3) Napoleonic Wars in 3 minutes)

since feeling is first, by e.e. cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings enjoying life at his
Joy Farm in New Hampshire.  Only having seen
the worst humanity had to offer was he able
to write some of the most beautiful, loving,
yet still socially conscious poems of all time.

since feeling is first
who pays any attention to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis




-----
Originally published in is 5 by E. E. Cummings.  Since it isn't public domain yet, you can read about half of the poems contained therein by clicking here.

-----

e.e. cummings (without capital letters as he did not like capital letters much) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1894.  He died on September 3, 1962, being the second most widely read poets in the United States after Robert Frost [read some of his poems], as great a poet and wonderful counterpart precisely because they almost represent polar opposites insofar as style, tone and thematic content.

After completing undergraduate studies and a Masters of Arts at Harvard University by 1916, Edward Estlin Cummings enlisted as a volunteer ambulance driver during World War I.  Five months later, he was detained on suspicion of espionage by French authorities.  The consistent and constant vitalist message in his poetry, his enduring love of life, is likely a product of having witnessed the "War to End All Wars".

Of course, the "War to End All Wars" did not end all wars and, in fact, led to an even deadlier and longer one, World War II, only two decades later.  However, contrary to popular belief, World War I was far more gruesome for participants than was WWII.  The reason for this is largely technological. On the one hand, airplanes were still too basic to provide any decisive advantage, and tanks only came into existence near the end of that war, invented by the English and quickly replicated by everyone else, but these were too few, clunky and slow to permit the quick troop movements seen during the Second World War.

World War I tank.  These roaring machines were so noisy
and scary that their tactical effect was more psychological
than anything else.  Just imagine being holed up in a tench
and seeing one of these buzzing machines you had never seen before
coming toward you and ignoring the many lines of barbed wire.

On the other hand, the machine gun had been perfected and great strides had been made in artillery, mortars, and in chemical warfare, particularly mustard gas, against which early gas masks afforded little protection.

Machine guns were the decisive force during during World War I.
Here you see infantry employing them in trench warfare
while wearing gas masks because of the frequent use
of chemical warfare as a means to advance from trench to trench.

The result was that the First World War was largely a trench war that was basically a stalemate where troops would advance with many losses from one trench to the next only to have a counterattack drive them back from that trench to where they had come from.  The use of toxic gas had two purposes: not only did it provide a cloud of cover that impeded proper aiming by machine guns, it also killed or severely injured the troops holed up in the trench that was being advanced towards.

Photograph of World War I infantrymen spending their days
 in trenches covered by sandbags and protected by barbed wire.

The First World War only ended because the Allied Powers managed to successfully flank the Central Power's trench lines, cutting off their front line troops from receiving supplies.  This maneuver led to a Conditional Surrender or Capitulation by the Central Powers (i.e., Germany, the Austria-Hungary Empire, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), unlike the end of World War II which was concluded in an Unconditional Surrender.

World map of the Allied Powers, the Central Powers,
and their colonies, at the onset of World War I.  Allies shown
in green; Central Powers shown in orange, and neutral territories
are displayed in gray. Russia withdrew from the war in 1917,
ceding the territories the Central Powers had managed to occupy
following the Bolshevik Revolution and their need
to focus on internal affairs as their new state restructured.
The United Socialist Soviet Republics would get back control
over these territories following World War II.

The conditions set by the Allied Powers (i.e., the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan) split the Austria-Hungary into two separate states, spelled the end of the Ottoman Empire, but the conditions were harshest against Germany, being considered the main culprit.  These included large territorial transfers, of particular importance are Alsace-Lorraine going to France and most of Western Prussia going to the establishment of the nation of Poland.  However, it was the large economic reparations imposed on Germany that led to its economic collapse soon afterwards and allowed the Nazi Party's rise to power.  Not surprisingly, one of Hitler's first orders of business was to violate the Treaty of Versailles via a surprise re-militarization in 1936 of the Rhineland; moreover, the German invasion of Poland on September 1939 marks the beginning of the Second World War.  Allied cowardice permitted it all, and Hitler would later say "If France had then marched into Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tail between our legs", a hypothetical event that would have likely prevented WWII altogether because the French army was still overwhelmingly larger and better equipped than Germany's given that the latter had just begun the rebuilding of their military strength.

Click to Enlarge.
German territory at onset of World War I
and the remaining territory at the end of
World War II, in gray at top, in blue at bottom.
The reunification of Germany did not occur
until 1990, following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

History aside, the psychological effects of the dehumanizing nature of World War I and the mass and unusually cruel deaths that were everyone to be seen had a profound influence on e.e. cummings' celebration of life, living, and the vitality in all of us that most people either hinder or ignore.

Otto Dix (1924) "Shock Troops Advance under Gas".
Otto Dix participated in what is known as Germany's
cultural Golden Age during the decade of the 1920s.

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Read more poems by Edward Estlin Cummings.

Who were the Ancient Greeks?

Strange ritualistic lifestyles dotted the landscape of the Ancient Greek wide array of cultures.  The following BBC documentary provides a glimpse at many different facets of Ancient Greek life that seem strange to us now.  Though long, these videos are definitely worth watching.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 1.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 2.