Late, but here. Last night’s sleep came reluctantly and I got up again to have a warm drink. So, here I am bright eyed and bushy tailed, with good intentions.
Yesterday was May Long weekend, but it moves around with Easter and come right after Ascension Day, which most people do not know about. Neither is the coming Pentecost weekend a known quantity here in North America. I suspect that it was considered too Roman Catholic by the early Protestant immigrants.
I always make plans for such holidays to do projects, but when the day is there I say to myself: “Take the holiday and make it a break from what you otherwise do. That is what a holiday is all about!” I do not quite stand in front of the mirror, but almost.
So, that is what I did yesterday during the day and what came to me were memories of my first experiences as a starting immigrant back in the Fall of 1959 in Toronto. This included memories of my evening classes in English at Harbord Collegiate and my first date with woman from that class. It was short lived in that I left our evening meet early, though I was disappointed as a street car passenger noted, as I made my way home.
So, yesterday I spent time on trying to figure out what was at play there and I suspect that I sensed that the woman was older than I had surmised at first. Yesterday I figured that our age difference must have been close to ten (10) years. My intuition back then urged me to not get involved and leave, which is what I did.
So, you see, it is good to leave those holidays open - unprogrammed - making room for the unexpected to surface. Other, but peripheral memories surfaced as well, but had less emotional content. I did recall that I had wanted to study Greek and Latin initially at Jarvis Collegiate. They had discontinued there and sent me on to Harbord, where they had dropped those evening classes as well. That left me with the much more practical choice of English grade eleven. This resulted in attending my first Shakespeare play Macbeth showing in Mount Pleasant theatre. I took it again later at University English, so I know that play better than the others.
Whereas the Gnostics sought knowledge to get away from bodily existence, we in the West seek knowledge to enhance our existence in the body.
Yesterday evening I read some more about Manichaeism and the Gnostics. If I can make a condensed observation about them and me I would say the following. ‘Whereas the Gnostics sought knowledge to get away from bodily existence, we in the West seek knowledge to enhance our existence in the body.’
An interesting difference and worth noting, since it shows that knowledge itself is not meaningful lest it is used for some thing. I should add that not all knowledge is used in beneficial and ethical ways either. This means that ethics also need to be considered, as with all pre-moral concepts such as creativity, power, energy and love even.
I also spent some time on my eight (8) points - the last four - of last Friday’s entry. I am happy with the first four, but the second set needs to be rearranged such that it flows better. I may try that below, under writings.
<10:55am, lunch.