Concordia: Goddess of Harmony

July 22nd is the day devoted to Concordia, the goddess of harmony. That's next Wednesday. I haven't been feeling particularly harmonious lately, but no matter about myself. I must get some incense to offer that day. 

After doing some research, there is evidence that the Romans appealed to Concordia for marital harmony, for harmony within the military, for harmony in politics, and for wider social harmony. 

I think these different areas are extensively diverse enough that one can say--if one is going to determine the character of a deity from the reasons for which she was worshipped--with confidence that Concordia is simply concord, in general, not that she represents harmony only within very specific areas of life. 

But I definitely don't want to argue about it. 

Distracted

I feel a little distracted. I need to focus; stay on course.

It is really important not to react. Half the problems in the world are caused by reacting to misperceptions, misapprehensions, and the false urgency of strong emotions. 

May you and all the people in your world be blessed this Tuesday in mid-July, 2015. 

July 13, 2015

This is from the concluding page of The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus, by R.M. Ogilvie:

For over a thousand years, [Roman religion] satisfied the spiritual urges of a wide range of peoples, because it offered an intelligent and dignified interpretation of how the world functions ... True religion for them, as opposed to superstition, was to honour the gods fitly in accordance with custom ... It was a fine, yet tolerant religion whose adherents committed very few crimes in its name and who were healthily free of neuroses. 

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On Sunday, I saw what was most likely a mink(!) in the narrow valley below the mountain I like to hike on. It could very well have been a weasel, or something else. Even if it was, as someone who hardly ever sees interesting animals compared to other people (my sister and both of my parents have seen bears), I felt pretty lucky. 

In other news, the mountainside was covered with raspberries. I mean, covered. I had the urge to gorge myself, and I probably ate too much, but then I started to feel guilty. I am, after all, not the only living thing that might like to eat berries. So I thanked the mountain and stopped. 

I am about twenty pages or so short of being finished with Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. I recommend it to everyone. It's positively brilliant! The individual sections are good; the way he weaves them together to tell a holistic story is even better. Many smaller-scale ideological squabbles are put into the context of larger patterns of human development, from which remove the inadequacy of their explanatory power is readily visible. 

Time

Time is passing. It is already high summer. In the southern hemisphere, it is mid-winter. In less than six months, it will be 2016. 

2016 is only a few short years from 2020, which represents the completion of one fifth of the twenty-first century.

The things of our lives are forever receding into the past.

I hope this day finds you content and at peace.

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Today, while hiking in the forest, I saw ash, sycamore, beech, oak, maple, tulip, and hawthorn trees. One park has a magnificent oak; the other has a magnificent sycamore. 

I saw the tail of an eastern cottontail disappearing into the bushes above the hilltop meadow. The meadow itself is covered with black-eyed susans and queen anne's lace. There were also many mullein plants with yellow flowers on their upper cone as well as butterfly weed, or butterfly milkweed, and, true to its name, there were several butterflies on it. 

The raspberries were out. There was raspberry bush after raspberry bush along the trail, each loaded with ripe raspberries. Where were the people who used to eat them? The hiking trails must not be well used. I didn't even have to venture off the trail to get the ones farther back. There were more raspberries than I could eat hanging near the edge. I had been thinking this morning that I wasn't getting enough fruit. And then to stumble upon this natural cornucopia. How blessed and wealthy I was today. 

High temperature: 86

Low temperature: 56

High air pressure: 30.11

Low air pressure: 30.01

Solar wind speed: 593.4 km/sec.

Proton density: 2.1 protons per cubic centimeter.

It was definitely a high air pressure day. The sun was brilliant and the sky was a rich blue. 

July 10, 2015

I took these pictures where I went for a walk last Sunday. I think that's milkweed the butterfly is sitting on. There's also a bee there, working side-by-side with the butterfly.

High temperature: 83

Low temperature: 62

High barometric pressure: 30.01

Low barometric pressure: 29.80

Solar wind speed: 506.5 km/second

Proton density: 6.3 protons per cubic centimeter

I haven't been following the solar wind long enough to know much about it, but that's a lot higher than previous days this week!

I wonder what's going on. 

Good night, world. :)

July 9, 2015

High temperature: 82

Low temperature: 65

High barometric pressure: 30.02

Low barometric pressure: 29.86

Solar wind speed: 345.6 km/sec

Proton density: 2.3 per cubic centimeter

It is currently thundering, and the weather maps show a line of showers moving in from Pennsylvania. 

I was looking out the train window on the way home, and between two stations, I noticed many mullein plants. One was enormous, was growing out of a sharply sloping embankment, and so had a rather dramatic curve in its stalk. 

Also, this morning, on the way in, in the marshes between Newark and Secaucus, I saw one of the resident egrets in flight. It is able to tuck its long neck in such a way when flying that it appears to have a short neck. 

They say the spacecraft that was launched nine years ago is approaching Pluto and will arrive in four days. This is the first time a spacecraft has gone to Pluto. I wonder what interesting features it will find?

It is events like this that give me that feeling that I love--a sense of the human community, and a sense that together, we are all participating in a grand human adventure. 

July 8, 2015

I'm afraid I wasn't able to upload the images of the mullein plant that I took yesterday. I guess my phone service is bad. It just wouldn't go through. Today, after I got home, I walked down and looked at it. More yellow flowers have come out on the cone-like upper section. It's going to be pretty. :)

High temperature: 86 degrees.

Low temperature: 66 degrees.

High barometric pressure: 29.97

Low barometric pressure: 29.91

Solar wind: 377.7 km/second.

Proton density: 5.1 protons per cubic centimeter.

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Prayer to our family's guardian spirits for our family and household and prayer to Pax for peace among people and among countries.

Good night, world.