Imbolc Waxing Bloodroot Moon
Latin. Subjunctives, indirect questions, tense sequences. Done in a bit of a fog, almost like school. The verb conjugations still have not taken full root in my mind, though at this point I have had exposure to all of them, for all four tenses. I’ve had exposure likewise to five noun declensions, comparatives, superlatives, pronouns, interrogatives, adverbs, adjectives, ablative uses, dative uses, participles and participial clauses, and subordinate clauses of several types with more to come. I’m almost three-fourths through Wheelock and have now translated 75 verses of Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
As unintended outcome, I have found myself metamorphosed, changed. Just how, right now, is not all clear, but it has something to do with facing a challenge, a language, and coming to grips with it, incorporating it into myself. Just why I waited until I was 63, I don’t know; fear, yes, time, yes, but the largest barrier was lack of purpose. When I began to want to know what was behind the translator’s veil, and, in particular, when I wanted to know what was behind the translations of Ovid’s master work, the purpose emerged and a teacher appeared. There is no time when we stop growing, learning.
Later in the day I prepped for and ran the Legislative Committee for the Sierra Club’s weekly meeting. This political season will not be kind to our lakes and rivers, our forests and wildlife, our prairies. The burden will be laid at the foot of the Republicans, but really, they’re just being Republicans, giving political expression to the wills of those who support them. No, the burden lies squarely at the feet of those of us who want to see our forests, rivers, moose, wolf, prairies and lakes healthy and whole now and into the future. We have not fought with the same passion today as the Tea Party folk or the Christian Right or the Libertarians.
Over the retreat at Blue Cloud I read two novels focused on the political life of Cicero. At the end of a brutal period for his political perspective he said, “All regimes come to an end.”
I agree.
