Phrases @ MindSay


 

   
Announcement:
From a discussion this morning:

The phrase, "Lunar moon landing," goes right up there with, "Avian bird flu."

That is all.
 
 
   
 

Results of my Samhain divination

My previous introduction to my blog was this Latin phrase:  "Amor animi arbitrio sumitur, non ponitur" which means "We choose to love, we do not choose to cease loving" by Publilius Syrus, a 1st century B.C.E. writer of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse.  I'm not exactly sure what Syrus was implying by that sentence, but it stuck in my mind for a long while.  I agreed with it for that long while, trapped by this thought that I am to be held a willing prisoner of my past loves.  Yes, we do choose who to love, but it's extremely hard to stop loving someone and it's far too easy to punish ourselves for doing so.  We willingly become enslaved by that love, a source of both pain and pleasure depending upon the nature of our old lover.  But it is not impossible to fall out of love.  Eventually time and distance spare us from the daily onslaughts of panic and despair when we are faced with the presence of a lover who does not share our passions.  I often wonder if this type of self torture is truly a form of self sabotage (a reflection of our hatred for ourselves) that we choose an unkind lover in order to stab our own hearts with? 

 

"Amor animi arbitrio sumitur, non ponitur" was my meditation last year.  A sort of "heart on my sleeve" maxim of which I soon out wore.  My solitude has made me realize that, yes, I did choose to love someone and I find I cannot choose to cease loving him, yet this should not be a something I need hit myself over the head with 24/7.  Eventually I have learned to forgive myself for using a boy to cut myself open.  I realize that the relationship was necessary for me to build up strength and resolve against others who would hurt me worse.  At some point, every woman has to face her Demon Prince -- my idiom for those handsome men who appear to be our dreams-come-true lover but once they use us for their pleasure alone, are exposed as the selfish monsters they really are -- and once she falls out of the embrace of the Demon Prince, she seems to break only to bend and snap back with a surprising strength nature before did not afford her at birth.  I say this out of a deep voice within who hasn't spoken in a long while, as if I'm channeling a kind of grandmotherly spirit who rarely speaks but keeps watch over me.

 

My meditation this Samhain was something altogether different.  It has no phrase, but is a thought.  I drew it out of the following Tarot card spread:

 

Near Present (Situations & Feelings Emerging): The Emperor

Future Present (What's next): The Hermit

Enduring Future (Long term situation/feeling): The Sun

 

Myself at Samhain 2007 into the next year will find me more stable and successfully rediscovering the confidence I thought long lost.  I've been searching for motivation and inspiration.  I haven't drawn anything in weeks.  I set up my desk and pens and pencils but nothing comes out of these hands but a limp hopelessness.  When I attempt to draw, my passions escape from me, all my dreams fade, and I sink into thoughts about how wrong I was to fall in love with someone who couldn't love me back.  I begin to think he may have cursed me, that he's draining me of my passion, using me to fuel his own endeavors, and leaving me with nothing to work with to achieve my own goals.  But then I realize that The Emperor is not the ruler of me.  He only functions as an archetype who powers over others to make himself feel more secure -- he needs to inflict his weight on others and this takes a lot of his energy.  When you can turn to a power within yourself, you don't need to continue to beat others down to get what you want.  There is a peace knowing that you don't have to exert that energy, that you can reserve it, let it build, and direct it in a nurturing way so as you use it, it doesn't wear you down.

 

I believe I've been through the worst trials of my life now.  I feel myself entering a stage of life where I don't have to move, I just have to be.  I still feel the stinging desire to create, but with that comes that defeating drain -- the knowledge that I have to work hard to achieve creation -- and it comes with a pain in my arms and neck so I rather sleep than draw.  With the sleep comes visions that I can barely find enough time to put down on paper!  There is so much I want to do, that I know eventually that desire is wearing out the previous desires to be someone's lover. 

 

The Hermit reminds me that I am best in solitude.  In order to achieve my role as artist, I seek not only inspiration (or even the desire to inspire) but concrete evidence to support my visions.  I must research, study, journey, dream...  I don't want to just create pretty pictures, I'm on a mission --

 

What I want to achieve at some point in my life:

 

1.  Reach into the ancient past to bring it back to life in the present.  Artist as time machine priestess.  Drawing the costume and customs of my First American ancestors.  There are no books out there detailing -- truly covering -- what people looked like before the Europeans came.  There are only one or two illustrations per book.  I want to dig into that and pull out the visions I see of them, not just guess or estimate -- but then this is born out of my need to reconnect with the ancestors.  I feel an obligation.

 

2.  Inspired by so many art and "how to draw" books out there, I'd love to put together a series of "How to Draw 18th Century People & Places" or something like that.  This would require teaming up with a few historians and costumers, however.  I also find "How to Draw Children" books in rare supply.  That might be an interesting project to pick up.  I should be a publisher.  There are plenty of "How to Draw Manga" and "How to Draw Comics" type books, but rare are those books out there that really give an artist help on drawing from life outside of a classroom.

 

3.  I need to finish the Objiwe comic book language project, but it's so over my head.  I need help.  Where can I find it?

 

4.  I have so many stories to write and finish.  I must go do all that...

 

And then this list poops out beyond my grasp and attention...  I start to lose focus.  I become clouded.  It's not just the memories of loves lost that hurt me, but the terrible feeling that my dreams are too big for me to make true.  However, The Sun is just beyond those impossible clouds.  There is a fever in my mind, a burning brilliance, a rainbow in the dark shining, a promise that I can defeat my doubts and win a victory over everyone who thought I was worth nothing.  I have to remind myself that I am beyond the reach of those enemies of my esteem!

 

I come out of the clouds, proceeding at my whim and not at the crack of anyone's whip.  I am the most dangerous thing to men.  I am a masterless woman, betrayed by sex, yet refusing to be a good girl and lie down.  Yes, I was betrayed by sex, but I continue to believe in love.  Even the biggest cock can't touch me now.  Did you read that, buddy, eh?  You can't do me over the back side anymore.  I'm becoming your worst nightmare.  I am the woman you choked who didn't die.  I am a Creator in my own right. 

 

I will be more than I ever dreamed.

 

 
 
 

   
quasi vocabularical indexis

alterdinacious...  altered from a normal standpoint of something

perpendicalatimal... perpendicular in relation to a given object...

repriclamonotonal... replication of an object

cementricaladimensional... Pertaining to all concievable dimensions and plains of existence surrounding  us...

predjudiciaclalationism...  intolerance, for "anothers" views or opinions...

memoraditanatriama... pertaining to the aspects of certain functions of the cerebial cortex of the brain...

globulariaral... Something that is clustered together... A person, that has their wits about them...

detratronomical... degredation of cells in a given host body, due to terminal illness...

spascosticalitomis... a sudden jerking or convulsion of the abdomen...

 
 
   
 

Heavens to Murgatroyd

 

Meaning

An exclamation of surprise.

Origin

'Heavens to Murgatroyd' is American in origin and dates from the mid 20th century. The expression was popularized by the cartoon character Snagglepuss - a regular on the Yogi Bear Show in the 1960s, and is a variant of the earlier 'heavens to Betsy'.

bert lahrThe first use of the phrase wasn't by Snagglepuss but comes from the 1944 film Meet the People. It was spoken by Bert Lahr, best remembered for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.

 
Snagglepuss's voice was patterned on Lahr's, along with the 'heavens to Murgatroyd' line. Daws Butler's vocal portrayal of the character was so accurate that when the cartoon was used to promote Kellogg Cereals, Lahr sued and made the company distance him from the campaign by giving a prominent credit to Butler.

As with Betsy, we have no idea who Murgatroyd was. The various spellings of the name - as Murgatroid, Mergatroyd or Mergatroid tend to suggest that it wasn't an actual surname. While it is doubtful that the writers of Meet The People (Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy) were referring to an actual person, they must have got the name from somewhere.

No less than ten of the characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Ruddigore (1887) are baronets surnamed "Murgatroyd", eight of whom (or is that which?) are ghosts. Herzig and Saidy were well versed in the works of the musical theatre and that plethora of Murgatroyds would have been known to them.

Where then did the librettist Sir William Gilbert get the name? It seems that Murgatroyd has a long history as a family name in the English aristocracy. In his genealogy The Murgatroyds of Murgatroyd, Bill Murgatroyd states that, in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde - literally John of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'.

Whether the Murgatroyd name took that route from Yorkshire to Jellystone Park we can't be certain. Unless there's a Betsy Murgatroyd hiding in the archives, that's as close as we are likely to get to a derivation.

 
 
 

   
Communication is ...

Most of those who responded to my questions the other day said about the same thing: that they are comfortable using what is generally thought of as "standard English".  Excellent! 
 
So, communication is ... ?  I propose we all use a variety of dialects with or without our knowledge, especially in our speech.  It's much easier in our daily speech to slip and slide in and out of colloquialisms, idioms and vernacular slang that most of us don't even notice except when it's done for attention or to make a point.
 
My point is ... Don't you think it is beneficial to have some acquaintance with various dialects?  My feeling has always been that the more communication tools we have the better we should be able to adapt to any given situation.  Careful consideration about the words we select and an ability to define them is fundamental, but choices of language are empowering. 
 
David Chrystal in The Stories of English, argues that English is full of nuances and subtleties of language, and the "more we understand these nuances the better, so that we can use them appropriately when others use them."  Familiarity with the various dialects and slang better equips us to communicate and switch from one style to another seamlessly or in order to convey an effect assuming we agree on the basic meanings. 
 
Many phrases in our everyday speech have taken on new meaning.  Some to pay attention to are common phrases like:
  • thinking outside the box
  • step up to the plate
  • the whole 9 yards
  • cream of the crop

What are we trying to say?  How do others interpret what we're saying?  Are the meanings of our words the same to each person?

 

Simple words can have amazingly different meanings to different people.

Words like respect, integrity, responsibility, pride, selfishness.  I have found these words among many others, have a variety of different meaning to different people, so if our basic meanings and definitions are different, how can we possibly have a "meeting of the minds"?

 

Why is there confusion about such basic words / concepts? 

 

~ B

 

 

 
 
   
 

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