A little late for Epiphany
"The Journey Of The Magi
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death."
T.S. Eliot
**
Home from my travels. Haven't slept more than 5 hours since Friday night so I'm sleeeeeepy.
The flight back was made more unpleasant by being too hot and by me forgetting to reserve an aisle seat beforehand. However, I watched The Martian for the first couple of hours, which was fabulous. Engaging, life affirming, and far funnier than I'd expected. Exactly what I needed to take my mind off the angst of separation.
Christmas was lovely and I was lucky to find West Virginia unseasonably warm (20C a couple of days before Christmas; I was expecting it to be well below freezing. Less than two weeks after it was down to almost 10 below).
Parting was horrible, but that's long distance I guess. It gets harder, not easier.
I need a nap. There'll be another update somewhere down the line.
This entry was originally posted at http:http://prunesquallormd.dreamwidth.org/112618.html. Comment wherever you like :)
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death."
T.S. Eliot
**
Home from my travels. Haven't slept more than 5 hours since Friday night so I'm sleeeeeepy.
The flight back was made more unpleasant by being too hot and by me forgetting to reserve an aisle seat beforehand. However, I watched The Martian for the first couple of hours, which was fabulous. Engaging, life affirming, and far funnier than I'd expected. Exactly what I needed to take my mind off the angst of separation.
Christmas was lovely and I was lucky to find West Virginia unseasonably warm (20C a couple of days before Christmas; I was expecting it to be well below freezing. Less than two weeks after it was down to almost 10 below).
Parting was horrible, but that's long distance I guess. It gets harder, not easier.
I need a nap. There'll be another update somewhere down the line.
This entry was originally posted at http:http://prunesquallormd.dreamwidth.org/112618.html. Comment wherever you like :)