L'Chaim 20

 Gifts of the years - generation to generation -

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The Habit of Excellence

 We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

~ Aristotle

All Words That Devour

Why do you boast of evil  .  .  .

The steadfast love of God endures all the day.

Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor,
you worker of deceit.

You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right.

You love all words that devour,
Oh deceitful tongue.

from Psalm 52

Sleep Serene

Autumn Journal

[Part XXIV]
Sleep serene, avoid the backward
Glance; go forward, dreams, and do not halt
(Behind you in the desert stands a token
Of doubt — a pillar of salt).
Sleep, the past, and wake, the future,
And walk out promptly through the open door;
But you, my coward doubts, may go on sleeping,
You need not wake again — not any more.
The New Year comes with bombs, it is too late
To dose the dead with honourable intentions:
If you have honour to spare, employ it on the living;
The dead are dead as Nineteen-Thirty-Eight.
Sleep to the noise of running water
To-morrow to be crossed, however deep;
This is no river of the dead or Lethe,
To-night we sleep
On the banks of Rubicon — the die is cast;
There will be time to audit
The accounts later, there will be sunlight later
And the equation will come out at last.

~ Louis MacNeice

Devoured in Peace

TRUE ENCOUNTER

Wolf!" cried my cunning heart
At every sheep it spied,
And roused the countryside.

"Wolf! Wolf!"—and up would start
Good neighbours, bringing spade
And pitchfork to my aid.

At length my cry was known:
Therein lay my release.
I met the wolf alone
And was devoured in peace.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Chalcedony on Sard

                              THE CAMEO

Forever over now, forever, forever gone
That day. Clear and diminished like a scene
Carven in Cameo, the lighthouse, and the cove between
The sandy cliffs, and the boat drawn up on the beach;
And the long skirt of a lady innocent and young,
Her hand resting on her bosom, her head hung;
And the figure of a man in earnest speech.

Clear and diminished like a scene cut in cameo
The lighthouse, and the boat on the beach, and the two shapes
Of the woman and the man; lost like the lost day
Are the words that passed, and the pain,-discarded, cut away
From the stone, as from the memory the heat of the tears escapes.

O troubled forms, O early love unfortunate and hard,
Time has estranged you into a jewel cold and pure;
From the action of the waves and from the action of sorrow forever secure,
White against a ruddy cliff you stand, chalcedony on sard.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

All My Days

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:16

Let Their Intrigues Be Their Downfall

From Psalm 5 - Regarding Liars

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you
    and wait expectantly.
 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
    with you, evil people are not welcome.
 The arrogant cannot stand
    in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
     you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful    you, Lord, detest.

 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
    their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;    with their tongues they tell lies.
 Declare them guilty, O God!
    Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
    for they have rebelled against you.

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
    let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
    that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Elk River Falls

is where Elk River falls

from a rocky and considerable height,

turning pale with trepidation at the lip

(it seems from where I stood below)

before it is unbuckled from itself

and plummets, shredded, through the air

into the shadows of a frigid pool,

so calm around the edges, a place

for water to recover from the shock

of falling apart and coming back together

before it picks up its song again,

goes sliding around the massive rocks

and past some islands overgrown with weeds

then flattens out and slips around a bend

and continues on its winding course

according to the camper’s guide,

then joins the Clearwater at its northern fork,

which in time must find the sea

where this and every other stream

mistakes the monster for itself,

sings its name one final time

then feels the sudden sting of salt.

Billy Collins

Edinburgh Castle

Well, this blog is "MOSTLY Poetry," but it is not "ALL Poetry," and this post will not be poetry!  Three years ago when I was on a sabbatical relating to math history, I planned a stop in Edinburgh.  I had no idea how much I would come to love that city.  I live in California in the good old USA, but Edinburgh has become my home away from home and perhaps even my heart's home!

I have rarely had opportunity to travel abroad in my life, but I have a chance to do so next month, and while I could have chosen any destination in the world I am going back to Edinburgh!  

This post is partly in excited anticipation of that, but also is intended to share with a travel-loving friend of mine some of my pictures of Edinburgh Castle, a place I cannot wait to revisit.

PART 1:  some views OF the castle from outside of it:

The front of the castle as you come up the Royal Mile (i.e. the High Street)

Castle and Esplanade (which is where the Military Tattoo takes place)

View from the southeast

View from the southeast

View from the north (across Princes Street Gardens)

View from the west

View from the northwest (from the entry to St. Cuthbert's Church - where Napier was elder)

PART 2:  some views FROM the castle:

Looking back down at St. Curthbert's Church where Napier was elder (St. John's  JUST beyond)

View toward the east from the castle - view of Holyrood Park / Arthur's Seat

View east - Firth of Forth, Scott Monument, Royal Scottish Academy, Balmoral Hotel, Firth of Forth, Waverley Station, Calton Hill

PART 3:  some views INSIDE the castle:

Looking east near the entrance

Built on living rock

Built on living rock

The one o'clock gun

The crowd waiting to see the one o'clock gun

PART 4:  EXTRAS

Jacqueline, I can't help but think of you with this.  The castle has been (at times) and continues to be a place to station military personnel.  Many military personnel have dogs, and there is a cemetery in the castle grounds for the dogs of soldiers!

I took all of the pictures above, but the pictures below are some that I found by looking at Google Images.  When the military tattoo (which I'm sure is amazing!) takes place, stands such as those seen below are built, so you cannot even see the castle as you approach it from the Royal Mile.  I'm not sure it you can enter the castle or not during these times.  I have always avoided Edinburgh during these times.

As I can see from pictures others have posted, the military tattoo must be AMAZING to witness.  I don't know how hard it is to get tickets to this event, but it remains my choice to visit Edinburgh at the lesser crowded times.

Mathematicians Dream and Wonder

by Ocean Trimboli

Touchstone

How foolish we men,
who presume to be
masters of our destiny.

For can we order the sun to set,
or call forth life,
or hold back death?

The touchstone of our life is One
who conquered death,
and rules the sun.

Helena Klein Nibbelink

Love (III)

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back 

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack 

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat.

George Herbert (1593-1633)

The Return

Earth does not understand her child,
  Who from the loud gregarious town
Returns, depleted and defiled,
  To the still woods, to fling him down.

Earth cannot count the sons she bore:
  The wounded lynx, the wounded man
Come trailing blood unto her door;
  She shelters both as best she can.

But she is early up and out,
  To trim the year or strip its bones;
She has no time to stand about
  Talking of him in undertones

Who has no aim but to forget
  Be left in peace, be lying thus
For days, for years, for centuries yet,
  Unshaven and anonymous;

Who, marked for failure, dulled by grief,
  Has traded in his wife and friend
For this warm ledge, this alder leaf:
  Comfort that does not comprehend.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

- Mary Oliver

L'Chaim

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

                                   ~ Emily Dickinson (314)

Liar, Liar

I am not resigned

Today I went to the second funeral in as many weeks - and have been to 4 funerals this spring.  Though I do believe in Heaven, death certainly remains an enemy.  Along with Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem Dirge Without Music, I do not approve, and I am not resigned.

*********************************************************************************

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—

They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.  Elegant and curled

Is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.  I know.  But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

Rejoice!

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.

~John Calvin (1509-1564) 

Relationships

Even when the
words are civil
and polite
things
may not
seem right.

Distance can be felt,
hangs not like
a bridge suspended
by ropes but
like the ropes
themselves.

It is as if the knots
that held them
have slipped
and all that once
seemed solid
is left dangling.

~ Ed Bearden

in more than soil more than sky

With Good Grace

"Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."

                                                                                                                                           ~Henri-Frédéric Amiel

A Soldier's Thoughts: Before Breakfast

You weren't the first,
God knows you weren't the last

Of all the others,
Your mark stays with me

It was the shot,
I never should've taken

And every morning since,
It's your eyes I see

The death of you,
Had become the life of me.

                                               ~Sean Barnett

in more than soil more than sky

This poem was written by a former (math) student of mine.  I knew when I taught him that he had served our country, but I didn't know until later that he was a poet.  I first came across this poem years ago, and it blew me away - still does every time I read it.  I recently shared this poem with a friend, and when she responded with, "Wow, that's gripping," I replied, "Isn't it?!  It knocks me off my feet every time I come across it, and it reminds me what a privilege it is to teach.  He sat and learned math from me, but he knows so much that I do not and that I never will  .  .  ."

Pi Day is Coming!

PI DAY OPPORTUNITIES

Hello MJC math colleagues!  Would you be willing to help out with pi-related activities at the upcoming Pi Day event?  MJC has been hosting Pi Day since 2015.  It's been very well attended, as you can see below:

And, of course, pizza pie and dessert pi are available!  Food is a big draw - especially for college students!

ACTIVITIES

Pi Chain

Buffon's Needle

 

Digits of Pi Memorization Contest

(The winner - below - made it to 202 digits!)

We also have activities for "discovering" pi (by measuring circumferences and diameters of circular objects) and seeing amazing pi-related surprises!

 

It's also a great excuse to wear your cool math tee-shirts!