Buckle up! The train of thought can't stay on track.

One evening I was bored so I began to follow tweeted links and ended up at an interesting article, “Slow Down,” over at The Beautiful Brain. It was a little write-up about how our perception of time can be distorted when we watch a slow-motion scene in a movie. It included a video montage which only took a few seconds to watch.



One of the links on the side of the webpage caught my eye, as it looked more interesting, “The Neuroscience of Avatar.” Gustav Klimt's "The Tree of Life" decorated the article.















I began to wonder about Gustav Klimt. If this was a painting of THE biblical Tree of Life, then who were the people in front of the tree? A couple seemed to be locked in embrace as another woman watched jealously from the other side of the canvas. From deep in the prison of my memory escaped the name, “Lilith.” I was off to search for more information about Lilith and Adam, and Adam and Eve. I had no idea that Lucifer himself might be a vertex in a love triangle.

On my way to the first couple, the other first couple, I found a web page warning of racism in the Talmud and then another site that explained the purpose of the Talmud. Midrash. Why don’t we have that? It would answer at least one of the questions posed by Legion over at the Victoria Advocate Online. Of course, answering that question would give us many more.

Back to triangles and The Tree of Life. If that was Lilith, she was clothed mostly in triangles while Adam and Eve were robed in geometrical shapes, mostly circles. The ground contained circular shapes; the branches of the tree coiled around and around... Lilith was not from the earth like the tree and Adam and Eve.

Speaking of circles and embrace, Henri Matisse was born on this date.

Anyway, back to that night: That night I had a dream about a painting similar to Grant Wood’s American Gothic.






























In my dream, the woman was made of water. Two men, not just the one with the pitchfork, were standing beside her with a look of malcontent. A love triangle? It was inspired by the occupants of the painting, The Tree of Life. I am not grasping the point of the dream.

The song from the video montage was beautiful. If you didn't watch the video montage earlier in this post, please listen to the song: Sigur Ros "Staralfur."

Another song that was in my head around this time was "Lunatic Fringe." Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe According to Wikipedia, "The song was inspired by a book about humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg and is about the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1970s." I figured it reminded me of the religious and political debates over at The VicAd - and myself as I feel I'm sort of on the fringe, at least when it comes to education.

And here is another song written by Tom Cochrane, the man who wrote "Lunatic Fringe," Life Is A Highway - Rascal Flatts Official Music Video

Be safe out there and Happy New Year!

Sylvester the Cat

Our family cat, Sylvester, enjoys Yoga throughout the day. His favorite position is a very sloppy interpretation of the shavasana also known as the corpse pose. He can maintain this zen like solitude for hours. So deep are his thoughts that he sometimes slips into an unconscious state. I can only imagine the thoughts that are scurrying through his mind.

Cats sometimes remind me of Greek philosophers in the same way that dogs do not. It baffles me that Sylvester hasn't figured out that humans can't see in the dark and that I don't have X-ray vision. I've tripped over him several times while carrying overflowing laundry baskets.

I have a theory that cats are masochists. I came to this conclusion after Sylvester, who is always dressed in a tuxedo, gave up Yoga to court me. For two days he followed me around, forced his head under my hand so that he could simulate being pet, and purr-meowed every time our eyes met. Coincidentally (I think not) his food bowl had been empty. This can only mean that “cat people” are unwitting sadists. I’m forgetful so cats naturally love me.

When Sylvester isn’t engaged in Yoga, meditation, or sunbathing in the shade, he enjoys chasing string and playing soccer with marbles or lone tinker toys. He really enjoyed the time the kids tied a long piece of yarn to one of the blades of the ceiling fan. That kept him dizzy, I mean busy, for awhile. Yes, additional proof that cat people are sadists.