From the most charming ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ogambear
Oct. 3rd, 2007 01:47 amHow this game works: Just comment on this post saying you'd like to play. Then I will choose seven interests from your profile, and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post these instructions along with your answers in your own LiveJournal so that others can play along, too. Ogam's choices:
1. basic greek hello, and 5. Κύριε ελέησον/Kyrie eleison, are in fact, one interest, if quasi-separate. Last year, at a party at the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
nookery, we were discussing religious songs, upbringings, and the like. Someone sang a Roman Catholic Kyrie, which resulted in discussion among many people, and an insistence by at least two of the people that Kyrie eleison is a Latin phrase, resulting in me shouting "Kyrie eleison is not Latin! It's basic Greek; HELLO!", resulting in a roomful of stunned people falling silent, then bursting out in laughter. Eventually one of them explained why what i said was funny; my tendency toward literalism got in the way of me seeing that on my own. So, basic greek hello is a reminder that not everyone groks as i do, and that greek is not the best example linguistically. Kyrie eleison sounds nice, and is useful evocative, though the Kyrios i invoke likely be not the Xtian one.
2. berries. Berries are yummy, they’re a class of fruit that i actually like in toto. I grew up foraging berries in the woods, as well as for wild peaches, apples, carrots, and onions. The summer of 1986, my sister and i spent most of the summer with Aunt Ruth on the farm.
Cousin Becky and her husband had just moved into a place near hers, with a mile-long drive. The drive was overgrown with blackberries and blueberries that year. So, every day, we went to Becky’s, and we each, my sister, Becky, and me, harvested a bushel of berries.
We ate berry cobbler, berry pie, berry muffins, berry pancakes, pork roasted with berries, berries in oatmeal, berries on cereal, berries with fresh cream... and pizza now and again for a break from the berries. And we gave away a bushel a day to neighbors and 4-H families; Becky was 4-H coordinator for Licking Township back then. Becky and Donny have maintained the berries since, so they produce reasonably, and they can us the drive.
3. españa. Viví en España durante el año escolar 1984-1985. I liked it there a lot. I liked the food, enjoyed the culture, and i grok the language. The climate is pleasant. I saw one of the most beautiful and fitting war memorials i have ever seen while there – I recommend visiting El Valle de los Caídos in Valladolid. It’s most wonderful. I have several friends there, of whom i am very fond. I find the lack of insects there compared to here weird, on the other hand, most of the country is a desert. I remember dancing the Jota and playing crack the whip in a plaza, between porrones de sangría. I’ve toyed, in my brain, with moving there. There i learned of, and experienced El día de los muertos, a la española, compounding my aleady strong connection to Samhain.
4. ethical culture. Due to the most recent (four years ago) ex, i started attending a Unitarian Universalist congregation. I was raised pagan, in the proto-Celtic Slavic/Magyar tradition and the Native American tradition, with some generic Unitarian and Universalist Christianity, and a dose of Judaism, mostly Sephardic.
End result, my ritual base comes largely from the Central European tradition, but my deity structure mostly from the Native American, and my Patron Deities are The Horned One, who calls himself Cernunnos, who first appeared unto me at the age of 4 – he walked straight out of my Portal, and Moon.
So, where does Ethical Culture fit in with all this? That same ex on the last Sunday in October 2001 suggested we attend the annual Remembrance Day service at the Washington Ethical Society, and so we went. Their now-retired Senior Leader Don Montagna led it. It was a wonderfully structured and moving service, and served as the basis for the annual Samhain ritual at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. I recommend attending UUCSS’ Samhain ritual on the last Sunday of October if you are in the DC area, it’s really quite lovely.
Ethical Culture is a Secular Humanist faith. G-d is a verboten there, mostly. They have no room for divinity nor spirituality – it is rationalist. This is a good thing in the world, but not my thing, at least not every day nor every week, for i love that i commune with the Divine in its many aspects, that i can hear and be at one with the Universe while wandering in the mountains, or laying in a field staring out into the heavens. Ethicism teaches that the experience of oneness is wholly within, and that there be no divine of which we, or anything else, is a part. There are many aspects of Ethical Culture that i embrace, and are at one with my UUism, and i’m interested in it, and learning more of it, but it’s not fully me, despite my interest in it.
5. a bilingual 2-fer: Κύριε ελέησον/Kyrie eleison. Please see 1, above.
6. looney labs. At Disclave in 1989 i think it was, i learned to play IceHouse, back when the pieces were still wood. Then came the rather useless solid plastic pieces, then finally the hollow plastic pieces, which rock. Looney Labs has given us Pyramids, Fluxx, Chrononauts, and plush smiling flowers. The Looneys are fun, and so are their games. I’m a Lab Rabbit, and demo their games. One Fluxx demo, players ranged in age from 6 to 70something, and we all had fun.
7. tjhsst, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I went to school there. I met life-long friends there. I became who i am there. I was set off on my career path there. I learned Chinese there. I played Telemann there. I inserted the tetracycline resistant gene from PBR322 into E. Coli there. I grew hydroponic vegetables there. I weathered the emotional storm that was my father’s death there. I learned to drive there. From there grew the first February picnic, complete with a viewing of Dangerous Liaisons from row 3; we picnicked at Potomac Overlook Regional Park that year, and i lost the Kelly green and white scarf i’d had since i was 5 on that picnic. I was known for my long green and white scarf. I had a new one knit last year. There, for the first time, i experienced the fellowship of geekdom, and i still adore that fellowship, wherever i may encounter it. On the first day of school, we all started the day in the auditorium. Me, 3 people with whom i was vaguely acquainted, and 427 complete strangers, yet i was not afraid; i was curious, excited, and looking forward to the challenge. I met a cousin from my mom’s side in English class that afternoon.
1. basic greek hello, and 5. Κύριε ελέησον/Kyrie eleison, are in fact, one interest, if quasi-separate. Last year, at a party at the
nookery, we were discussing religious songs, upbringings, and the like. Someone sang a Roman Catholic Kyrie, which resulted in discussion among many people, and an insistence by at least two of the people that Kyrie eleison is a Latin phrase, resulting in me shouting "Kyrie eleison is not Latin! It's basic Greek; HELLO!", resulting in a roomful of stunned people falling silent, then bursting out in laughter. Eventually one of them explained why what i said was funny; my tendency toward literalism got in the way of me seeing that on my own. So, basic greek hello is a reminder that not everyone groks as i do, and that greek is not the best example linguistically. Kyrie eleison sounds nice, and is useful evocative, though the Kyrios i invoke likely be not the Xtian one. 2. berries. Berries are yummy, they’re a class of fruit that i actually like in toto. I grew up foraging berries in the woods, as well as for wild peaches, apples, carrots, and onions. The summer of 1986, my sister and i spent most of the summer with Aunt Ruth on the farm.
Cousin Becky and her husband had just moved into a place near hers, with a mile-long drive. The drive was overgrown with blackberries and blueberries that year. So, every day, we went to Becky’s, and we each, my sister, Becky, and me, harvested a bushel of berries.
We ate berry cobbler, berry pie, berry muffins, berry pancakes, pork roasted with berries, berries in oatmeal, berries on cereal, berries with fresh cream... and pizza now and again for a break from the berries. And we gave away a bushel a day to neighbors and 4-H families; Becky was 4-H coordinator for Licking Township back then. Becky and Donny have maintained the berries since, so they produce reasonably, and they can us the drive.
3. españa. Viví en España durante el año escolar 1984-1985. I liked it there a lot. I liked the food, enjoyed the culture, and i grok the language. The climate is pleasant. I saw one of the most beautiful and fitting war memorials i have ever seen while there – I recommend visiting El Valle de los Caídos in Valladolid. It’s most wonderful. I have several friends there, of whom i am very fond. I find the lack of insects there compared to here weird, on the other hand, most of the country is a desert. I remember dancing the Jota and playing crack the whip in a plaza, between porrones de sangría. I’ve toyed, in my brain, with moving there. There i learned of, and experienced El día de los muertos, a la española, compounding my aleady strong connection to Samhain.
4. ethical culture. Due to the most recent (four years ago) ex, i started attending a Unitarian Universalist congregation. I was raised pagan, in the proto-Celtic Slavic/Magyar tradition and the Native American tradition, with some generic Unitarian and Universalist Christianity, and a dose of Judaism, mostly Sephardic.
End result, my ritual base comes largely from the Central European tradition, but my deity structure mostly from the Native American, and my Patron Deities are The Horned One, who calls himself Cernunnos, who first appeared unto me at the age of 4 – he walked straight out of my Portal, and Moon.
So, where does Ethical Culture fit in with all this? That same ex on the last Sunday in October 2001 suggested we attend the annual Remembrance Day service at the Washington Ethical Society, and so we went. Their now-retired Senior Leader Don Montagna led it. It was a wonderfully structured and moving service, and served as the basis for the annual Samhain ritual at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. I recommend attending UUCSS’ Samhain ritual on the last Sunday of October if you are in the DC area, it’s really quite lovely.
Ethical Culture is a Secular Humanist faith. G-d is a verboten there, mostly. They have no room for divinity nor spirituality – it is rationalist. This is a good thing in the world, but not my thing, at least not every day nor every week, for i love that i commune with the Divine in its many aspects, that i can hear and be at one with the Universe while wandering in the mountains, or laying in a field staring out into the heavens. Ethicism teaches that the experience of oneness is wholly within, and that there be no divine of which we, or anything else, is a part. There are many aspects of Ethical Culture that i embrace, and are at one with my UUism, and i’m interested in it, and learning more of it, but it’s not fully me, despite my interest in it.
5. a bilingual 2-fer: Κύριε ελέησον/Kyrie eleison. Please see 1, above.
6. looney labs. At Disclave in 1989 i think it was, i learned to play IceHouse, back when the pieces were still wood. Then came the rather useless solid plastic pieces, then finally the hollow plastic pieces, which rock. Looney Labs has given us Pyramids, Fluxx, Chrononauts, and plush smiling flowers. The Looneys are fun, and so are their games. I’m a Lab Rabbit, and demo their games. One Fluxx demo, players ranged in age from 6 to 70something, and we all had fun.
7. tjhsst, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I went to school there. I met life-long friends there. I became who i am there. I was set off on my career path there. I learned Chinese there. I played Telemann there. I inserted the tetracycline resistant gene from PBR322 into E. Coli there. I grew hydroponic vegetables there. I weathered the emotional storm that was my father’s death there. I learned to drive there. From there grew the first February picnic, complete with a viewing of Dangerous Liaisons from row 3; we picnicked at Potomac Overlook Regional Park that year, and i lost the Kelly green and white scarf i’d had since i was 5 on that picnic. I was known for my long green and white scarf. I had a new one knit last year. There, for the first time, i experienced the fellowship of geekdom, and i still adore that fellowship, wherever i may encounter it. On the first day of school, we all started the day in the auditorium. Me, 3 people with whom i was vaguely acquainted, and 427 complete strangers, yet i was not afraid; i was curious, excited, and looking forward to the challenge. I met a cousin from my mom’s side in English class that afternoon.
