Socrates and Aristotle

 I had windows around the house open today. Just reminding you that it's mid-February. 

Are the trees going to bloom early? What about the spring bulbs? The birds? Will it affect them? I keep telling myself it's not time to go start up the garden.

I've been reading Rescuing Socrates, by Roosevelt Montas. He came to this country from the Dominican Republic as a teenager, and ended up at Columbia University before he was even fluent in English. Now, he's a professor there, and he tells "How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation".  I hope more people read it. And speaking of the ancient Greeks, I am also reading Aristotle's Poetics with the Literary Life podcast - I got it on Hoopla. It's rather dry, but I guess that's Aristotle's reputation - not a particularly compelling writer. But he is dissecting plays and their form, their different aspects, which are (as categorized by himself): character, plot, diction, song and thought. From reading this, you can learn how that art form evolved, so that makes it interesting, and it's a short essay. 

I also have something by Frederick Buechner, as recommended by Sarah Clarkson as the book of the month, so to speak, for her Patreon group. A Protestant theologian? philosopher? his analogies are amazing; I'm rather stupefied at the way his mind worked:

if thou art our Father who art in Heaven, be thou also our Father who art in Hell because Hell is where the action is, it is where men labor and are heavy laden under the burden of their own lives without you. Where they cut themselves shaving and smoke three packs a day though they know the surgeon general's warning by heart.

                   - from Telling the Truth, by Frederick Buechner

A very compelling book, the subtitle of which is The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale. Arisotle also speaks of comedy and tragedy: "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.  Comedy is an imitation of characters of a lower type". 

On a much lighter note, I just finished some Cat Club stories by Esther Averill. Have you heard of this children's author, and these charming stories from the 1940s? You have to look them up. A small black cat named Jenny Linsky lives with a Captain Tinker, a sailor. He knitted Jenny a red scarf, which she wears whenever she goes out. There is a club with all the cats of the neighborhood, all sorts of personalities and delightful names. The illustrations are also delightful - if you can find them, read them! They're just what you can expect from books of that era - they show respect, kindness, gratitude, sharing, etc., without preaching like today's fare. A funny thing - one of the categories in the Literary Life's reading challenge this year is to read aloud to someone. Well, I didn't expect to get to that one, but last night while reading this little book, Daisy came along and was so restless and troublesome. So, I petted and rubbed her while I read a story aloud, about Jenny the cat. Afterward, I realized I'd fulfilled the category! It didn't say I couldn't read to a pet! She did seem to like it. 

I also cut out fabric for another skirt. I'm definitely trying to get back to sewing regularly. 

"For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul, as I say to you: 'Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.'"

                           - The Trial and Death of Socrates, by Plato