I apologize for not acknowledging receipt of this nomination yesterday. I had to keep appointments.
First I would like to thank Dear Kitty1.Some Blog for nominating me for the blogger recognition award displayed above. I do not think I deserve an award at this point because I haven’t posted articles frequently for several months. However, I have worked carefully on those I published. There are rules to follow.
The first rule attached to this nomination is to thank my colleague most sincerely. She is a person I have admired from the moment I started blogging and interacting with other bloggers.
The second rule is to tell how by blog started. This rule could lead to my writing several posts, but I will keep it short. I started blogging when I realized US President Obama was criticized for the best things he did. He has helped to modernize the United States, bring it up to today’s societal standards. If Donald Trump replaces him, I fear very much that he will do away with Obamacare. He’ll protect the rich.
The third rule is to give advice to bloggers. The Google rating of my post is not good which has nothing to do with content. It’s presentation. I have learned to insert images and videos into my posts, but I do not know how to customize my blog. Filling your sidebar is important. As well, keep a formula. For instance a picture and a few words can make for a beautiful post. But my two pieces of advice would be:
– To make access to your blog as easy as possible.
– To make your blog easy to navigate is also crucial.
Each nominee will receive a notification. You need not thank me and you are free to decline this nomination. If you choose to accept it, the rules are:
Write a post to show your award.
Give a brief story of how your blog started.
Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
Satyr with pipe and a pipe case (Attic red-figure plate, 520–500 BCE, from Vulci, Etruria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From time immemorial, seasons, or more precisely, darkness and light, have determined the days on which humankind placed its festivities, regardless of cultures and religions. In fact, nature has always prevailed, bestowing unity upon diversity. And it most certainly dictated the moment when festivities were held.
Humankind has always celebrated the longest night and the longest day. In ancient Greece, comedies and satires were associated with the winter solstice: Kômos, or Cômos, andSatyrs. And in the Rome of Antiquity, Saturnaliæ occurred on the day of the longest night. On that day, the universe was upside down. Therefore, in certain cultures, the master was suddenly slave. In more ancient cultures, an old king was replaced and, at times, sacrificed, so a new king could be enthroned. The old king was the pharmakos or scapegoat.
Judaism placed Hanukkah very close to the longest night of the year as did Christianity. In fact, Christianity celebrated the twelve days Christmas. In the Western Church, Christmas, the birth of Christ, has been celebrated on December 25th, but in the Eastern Church, January 6th, Epiphany, is the day on which the birth of Christ has been celebrated.
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When Julius Cæsar established his calendar (the Julian Calendar), in 45 CE, he situated the winter solstice on December 25th, but in time, Christmas was celebrated several days before December 25th. See Winter solstice. Consequently, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (the Gregorian Calendar) brought the winter solstice back to December 22nd and, as per the directives of Council of Nicaea of 325, in the Western Church, Christmas has since been celebrated on December 25th and twelve days later in the Eastern Church.
Cæsar fixed the Spring (vernal) equinox on March 25th, but that was also changed at the Council of Nicaea. In Western cultures, we use the Gregorian calendar which is based on the determinations of the Council of Nicaea.
The Summer Solstice(June 20/21, for the northern hemisphere; December 21/22, for the Southern Hemisphere)
As for the longest day, for Christians, it is la Saint-Jean, St John’s Day, and various other feasts.
The Vernal Equinox (March 20/21, for the Northern Hemisphere; September 22/23, in the Southern Hemisphere)
The day on which darkness and light are of more or less equal length (equi =equal), Judaism celebrates Passover and Christians, Easter. Easter is the day of the resurrection of Christ. Consequently, the night before Easter Sunday, a mass is celebrated during which the Church is momentarily in complete darkness and gradually lit a candle at a time. In earlier days, a lamb was sacrificed: the sacrificial lamb.
As for the Autumnal equinox, it is the Judaic Rosh Hashanah. In Christianity, the day is marked by la Saint-Michel, on September 29th or the now nearly-forgotten Michaelmas. In the Roman Catholic Church, Michael is one of three archangels, the other two are Gabriel (March 24th) and Raphael (October 24th). But Christianity also has its archangel of death, or Esdras, the “avenging angel,” or archangel of death, named Azrael in Hebrew culture.
In Islamic culture, the four archangels are Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Azrael. There are slight variations in the spelling of Azrael, variations that are consistent with national languages. The Greek Orthodox Church honours the archangels on November 8th.
The solstices and the equinoxes do not occur on a fixed and permanent day. However, nations have situated official feasts on fixed dates.
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For the moment, my purpose is
first to provide a concise background for liturgical and secular Books of Hours. Liturgical “Books of Hours” are, among other texts, the Breviary and the Liber Usualis. Moreover Benedictine monks and other monks observe the Canonical Hours during which psalms are recited. Secular “Books of Hours,” such as Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, duc de Berry, are exquisitely-decorated books, books with illuminations or enluminures. As we have seen, Bestiaries are also richly-decorated manuscripts, a pleasure to the eye.
Second, it seemed important to write about humanity’s universal observance of feasts that are embedded in the seasons, or in the degree of darkness and light. Nature is the template.
In short, seasons and feasts correspond to natural phenomena, i. e. the degree of darkness and light. All cultures have let the cycles of nature dictate the dates of their feasts and, as strange as this may seem, our ordinary calendars are a cultural monument. They resemble “Books of Hours” and, generally, they are illustrated or “illuminated.”
In other words, as humankind progressed through milennia, it amassed traditions we must never forget. They shape our lives and inhabit the imagination of all human beings, and they cross every border.
composer: Antonio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741)
piece: The Seasons, Winter
performers: Dénes Kovács
Budapest Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Lamberto Gardelli
Sand animation film – Ferenc Cakó
I have discreetly updated the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. As some of you may have noticed, earlier versions of blogs sometimes appear on the screen. Or else, a thought comes to one’s mind.
Writing allows further understanding of an event.
My last posts have not been very entertaining. I have readers who require information.
However, my main reason for writing to you is that I may not be able to post articles for two or three days for medical reasons: minor surgery. Or else I may post articles that do not require much research. But I will reading your blogs.
It is November 11th. Many of us lost dear ones to a battle fought during WW I and WW II. My grandfather lost his brother. One of my uncles “survived” D-Day, but he was sick for years. The Canadian government provided him with the little house he still lives in. I believe that for him, that house is like a security blanket. He does not know how he survived. I may have told you that I visited all the D-Day beaches with another survivor. We also have dear ones who died in Vietnam, in the Middle-East and elsewhere.
Somehow WW II is the one war I find particularly atrocious. Hitler is responsible for the death of 6 million Jews. But Hitler was also a dictator who harmed the people of Germany using the war reparations imposed on Germany under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919). Fortunately, this mistake was carefully avoided after WW II.
I am pleased to see that President Obama is looking after the veterans of wars fought in the wake of 9/11, as if these brutal attacks had not made enough victims. I am also pleased that President Obama was re-elected. He did not have the funds Mr Romney could use, but he went to the people and there were last-minute endorsements from influential sources.
Gratitude
I wish to thank my WordPress colleagues and followers who clicked the “I like” button and those who did not. It was magical. A little compassion goes a very long way. You were very helpful. If you are the victim of fraud, I will be there for you and will not suspect carelessness on your part. We all experience difficulties we keep to ourselves because we consider these personal. However, fraud is an exception. One tells so others are warned. The advice I gave you is advice that was given to me.
The Four Seasons: Summer, or Ruth and Boaz, 1660–1664, Louvre Museum
Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665)
Photo credit: Wikipedia
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I have just destroyed my Credit Card. It was a new Credit Card, a third card because I had already destroyed two cards.
Yesterday, a person from the Credit Card Company phoned to inform me that all the money available on my Credit Card had been spent. They were suspicious because the money was used by a company located in France, which was unusual. Normally, my card is used to pay for groceries or cat food. To my surprise, someone authorized these expenses, but it was not me. My money will be returned to me, but I must now involve the police.
I can think of only two ways in which they could have accessed my Credit Card number. First, they could have done so when I paid WordPress for an update. I did not use the Credit Card on the internet other than to pay WordPress money I owed. Second, they may have entered my online bank account. They are hackers.
My money will be returned to me, but the items will show on my next statement and I am now alarmed.
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Two weeks (approximately), I received comments from a French site calling itself Référencement gratuit (Free reference). Référencement would mean cataloguing. I replied to these comments by explaining that if my posts were quoted, a source had to be given as the writer would otherwise be in violation of copyright laws. I also feared they would make money using my posts. A student would kill to have access to the blog I published yesterday. It may not be popular with most readers, but for a student preparing a term essay it is very valuable. So are my voyageur posts.
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But we have left the realm of copyright violation. That is bad enough, however… using WordPress (the name, the ability to leave comments, etc.) to defraud me is just as serious a matter, and I cannot exclude the possibility that WordPress was used to defraud me, even though WordPress does not keep a Credit Card number. The police will have to deal with this matter, but I need to contact WordPress. Please tell me. How does one contact WordPress? If one phones WordPress, no one answers. One leaves a message, but one’s call is not returned. If you write a message to WordPress, again you will hit a brick wall.
I have to talk to someone at WordPress. It is an URGENT MATTER. I have to secure my site. WordPress is an honest platform, but hackers are not honest. They are criminals.
If any of you could help reach WordPress, I would be most thankful.
By the way, change your password often. Moreover, when you bank on the internet and your password is not accepted, please take that matter very seriously. Do not use PayPal, unless you can authorize a payment and they have hired investigators. Credit Card companies have professional investigators.
But it is best not to give your credit card number to anyone on the internet, including our above-suspicion WordPress. Your Credit Card number will nevertheless be in cyberspace for a few minutes and cyberspace is not safe.
I have been removing what I considered harmless personal information from the internet. It is not harmless. In fact, if I post a lovely picture, I soon find that an internet company has chosen to put it in its inventory. If they do this, they should pay me. This keeps happening. Moreover, Micheline Walker’s pictures are on the internet. I have obtained or purchased permission to use art from certain sources, but some of these pictures are on the internet and not on my site.
P.S. If I am late reading your posts, it has to do with the above-mentioned fraudulent activity.
*When he was 53, Rubens married 16-year-old Hélène Fourment. Susanna Lunden, née Fourment, was Hélène’s sister.
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Just a few words before I continue to write about Refus global or Total Refusal
Yesterday I received an e-mail in which I was informed that my e-mail account would be closed because I had exceeded the limit. I thought the writer was referring to my personal e-mail account, but the bulky account was my gmail account.
I started reading the comments and realized I would be reading, approving and deleting for a long time. I therefore deleted a large number of comments, many of which had also been published by WordPress. But in the process, I learned who had subscribed to my blog. These e-mails have not been deleted.
The moral of the story is that one should look at one’s gmail account on a regular basis.
I apologize to my readers whose comments may not have been posted.
Peter Paul Rubens: a Flemish Master
Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was active at a turning-point in European history. Before the Renaissance, the Franco-Flemish lands were the cultural hub of Europe. Adrian Willaert (1490 – 7 December 1562) went to Venice to teach music to the Italians! Moreover, extraordinary miniaturists had illuminated (enluminures) books of hours that chronicled an entire era. The Limbourg brothers ‘s Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, duc deBerry, or Belles Heures de Jean de France,is their foremost achievement.
I have written posts on Books of Hours(see list below), a lay version of the Canonical Hours kept by monks whose Gregorian chant is extremely rich. Vatican II, the Council that promulgated a degree a laicization of liturgy, such as using a modern language instead of Latin, had to make exceptions. Gregorian chant was protected.
Before completing my article on Refus global(1948), a document that indicted the institutions of old Quebec, the Church in particular, I am sending you the news. Refus global (1948) was written during a period in Quebec’s history when the province was often referred to as the “priest-ridden” province.
My students read that document because I considered it a statement that ushered in Quebec’s Révolution tranquille. It is now viewed as such in an official manner.
I wrote my final blog on the American presidential election and will be posting it after I send the News. There is more to say about the “Noble Savage” and other topics.
The article I will post I about planned parenthood. I am making the point that there is hypocrisy in the attitude of Republicans. If a weathy person gets sicks, he or she can afford treatment and medication. Moreover, a wealthy woman can manage if and when she will have a child. She can buy birth control and she can buy an abortion. Moreover, she can also afford children and can hire help in caring for them.
But my post lacks an important paragraph which would have to do with a woman’s right to say “no” to unprotected sexual intercourse. There is nothing wrong with a woman saying “no,” until she is ready to have a child. In fact, there are still women who say “no” until they have found a husband or are in a stable and permanent relationship. If a man cannot understand a woman’s wish to wait, it may well be prudent to let him go. Do not listen to such arguments as the classic you-don’t-love-me-if-you-wont… In other words, do not let a man bully (that word again!) you into sexual intercourse. Walk away as fast as you can and do not look back.
“So the nature of war, consisteth not in actuall fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary.” (The Leviathan,Chapter XIII)
Hobbes identified “three principall causes of quarrell. First, competition; Secondly, Diffidence; Thirdly, Glory. The first maketh man invade for gain; the second, for Safety; and the third, for Reputation. The first use Violence, to make themselves Masters of other mens persons, wives, children, and cattell; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other signe of undervalue, either direct in their Persons, or by reflexion in their Kindred, their Friends, their Nation, their Profession, or their Name.”
What we heard and saw in this week debate, held on 16 October 2012, is one man, President Obama, defending himself against false accusations and false accusations may eventually lead a man to say: “You’re lying.” The debate turned into a quarrel and President Obama defended himself, for his own safety. Human beings are born equipped with an instinct for self-preservation. John Locke opposed inneism, but to my knowledge, he did not negate the innateness of man’s instinct for self-preservation. It is the instinct that motivates individuals to protect themselves and, at times, to enter into a Social Contract to ensure their safety.
In Chapter XIV of the Leviathan, Hobbes writes that “no man can transferre, or lay down his Right to save himselfe from Death, Wounds, and Imprisonment.”
In the case of the October 16th debate, no one had to fear death and imprisonment, but wounds were being inflicted. Mr Romney indulged in machiavelianism: the end justifies the means. I therefore believe that the winner in the October 16th, 2012 debate is President Obama. Defending oneself seems legitimate.
The Near and Middle East
Moreover, if war is a constant feature in human behaviour, the US and the world may be at risk again (please see the New York Times, 20 October 2012, for an analysis), “Mr. Romney has repeatedly criticized the president as showing weakness on Iran and failing to stand firmly with Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat.”
Mr Romney should know better. It isn’t in the best interest of the United States to wage war in the Near and Middle East. Citizens of the Near and Middle East loathe the United States. I would rephrase the above quotation. It would read: “The world must stand firmly in opposing nuclear threat.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, is no choirboy. If the US takes sides, it may provoke him into greater adversity.
Besides, we all know that Mr Romney is seeking the Presidency of the United States in order to spare the rich their fair share of taxes, which is the freedom we surrender, the social contract, in order to live safely.
