I started reading “cloud cuckoo land” this past week, which has a big thread of the odyssey in it. And I kept thinking, “this must have landed on my reading list because of Robert Moss, this book is so Robert Moss”- but it was published several years after sidewalk oracles… so who knows how I ended up with it. And here the odyssey is on your shelf photo. I did have a long train of thought about the spirals in my life, and recalled one significant time that a new boss in my life reminded me so much of a former flame, it felt like a warning when I made that connection and both ended similarly and disastrously, even though the latter one always stayed plutonic. They say moths circle flames in a spiral because they use them as some sort of faulty navigation. Maybe we spiral around the things that are faulty north stars in our lives.
Ooohh..... what a line.... "Maybe we spiral around the things that are faulty north stars in our lives."
That's pretty funny about Cloud Cuckoo Land and The Odyssey being in this shelf photo! (I looked at the photo before posting and thought it might be really boring for all of you. Maybe I landed there because of you! Maybe all of these Odyssey connections are for you..... that seems very likely, right?) Cloud Cuckoo is on my someday list since it's by Doerr. (I had pulled a smaller memoir a while back that he wrote while taking his family to Rome when he was finishing a book. That's one I definitely want to get back to at some point.)
I'm glad to hear the spiral had resonance for you.... that your experience was cautionary really makes sense in context.
I loved “all the light we cannot see” in spite of myself, I thought the premise sounded maudlin but I will give a Pulitzer a read any chance I get. I got on the waitlist for his nonfiction about Rome as well, maybe I was just reserving all of his work. But per Moss “it’s never “just” a coincidence when the universe [friends’ photo of a bookshelf] gets personal!”
This week was so low key, as I have been stricken with the worst head cold/flu in years, that I will have just begun thinking about these games now (sorry for the delay). I know that I have had deja vu before, it’s usually a giggly thing with jokes made, but I’m really fond of the idea of letting yourself spiral around a path of the experience and allowing your past self or previous experiences to help guide you through the moment. I’ll be waiting for the next time it happens just to employ this technique! Lauren’s visual of the spiraling moth is a perfect encapsulation of the process.
As for welcoming unexpected guests? Personification of emotional states is a compelling exercise. This may take an intentional effort to begin the practice, but I can see how it could be beneficial. I withhold judgement at this time. Ha!
The Rumi poem in game 11 - “This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor..” - really stuck out to me. So, the book that I would probably have pulled from that shelf is “Daylight” by Rumi. At first glance, I’d say, “ooh a book about light!” And it’s Rumi, who, I sheepishly admit, I have not read any of, despite many people having done so and this would be as good a chance as any to do so.
I do hope you are feeling somewhat better - and that the whole family has not been sick. Rumi was my pull :) -- But until I saw you mention the quote, it didn't even jump out at me that there had been a quote in the chapter. (That's sort of funny.) Rumi had (and now has) come up several times for me recently. Odd how that works.
I appreciate your comments on these games - and your willingness to consider them.
Also - just because there is room for confusion (of my creation), I didn't post a separate week 9 update this week. I just didn't.... so we'll group the remaining games next week.
I read through the next few games. I keep thinking about the personal superstition one, I know I must have some. Moss keeps talking about big black dogs as a harbinger of good in his personal mythology and I am the opposite. I can only recall one instance with a lot of clarity but I feel there were others. Once in my twenties I was walking at night in an unfamiliar neighborhood. A huge huge huge black dog came trotting toward me down the sidewalk, no person in sight, he was calm and I stayed calm and we passed like ships in the night- his head seemed to reach my waist. I was still ruminating on this as I crossed the small 4 way stop intersection in the low light and a car turning from a one way street must have checked for oncoming traffic but not looked they way they were turning (where I was crossing at the intersection) and accelerated right at me. I lept ahead and the car just missed me, I could feel the wind of it on my clothes. I always thought of the dog as a bad omen but- really there was nothing outright ominous about it. Maybe it was my warning from the universe to open my eyes and ears in that moment.
I started reading “cloud cuckoo land” this past week, which has a big thread of the odyssey in it. And I kept thinking, “this must have landed on my reading list because of Robert Moss, this book is so Robert Moss”- but it was published several years after sidewalk oracles… so who knows how I ended up with it. And here the odyssey is on your shelf photo. I did have a long train of thought about the spirals in my life, and recalled one significant time that a new boss in my life reminded me so much of a former flame, it felt like a warning when I made that connection and both ended similarly and disastrously, even though the latter one always stayed plutonic. They say moths circle flames in a spiral because they use them as some sort of faulty navigation. Maybe we spiral around the things that are faulty north stars in our lives.
Ooohh..... what a line.... "Maybe we spiral around the things that are faulty north stars in our lives."
That's pretty funny about Cloud Cuckoo Land and The Odyssey being in this shelf photo! (I looked at the photo before posting and thought it might be really boring for all of you. Maybe I landed there because of you! Maybe all of these Odyssey connections are for you..... that seems very likely, right?) Cloud Cuckoo is on my someday list since it's by Doerr. (I had pulled a smaller memoir a while back that he wrote while taking his family to Rome when he was finishing a book. That's one I definitely want to get back to at some point.)
I'm glad to hear the spiral had resonance for you.... that your experience was cautionary really makes sense in context.
I loved “all the light we cannot see” in spite of myself, I thought the premise sounded maudlin but I will give a Pulitzer a read any chance I get. I got on the waitlist for his nonfiction about Rome as well, maybe I was just reserving all of his work. But per Moss “it’s never “just” a coincidence when the universe [friends’ photo of a bookshelf] gets personal!”
The Iliad jumped out at me, but it is the boldest in color and there are twin books there.
I didn’t have too many connections to this week’s games either. I have experienced deja vu but not this week, not weekly!
And onto the next week we go!
This week was so low key, as I have been stricken with the worst head cold/flu in years, that I will have just begun thinking about these games now (sorry for the delay). I know that I have had deja vu before, it’s usually a giggly thing with jokes made, but I’m really fond of the idea of letting yourself spiral around a path of the experience and allowing your past self or previous experiences to help guide you through the moment. I’ll be waiting for the next time it happens just to employ this technique! Lauren’s visual of the spiraling moth is a perfect encapsulation of the process.
As for welcoming unexpected guests? Personification of emotional states is a compelling exercise. This may take an intentional effort to begin the practice, but I can see how it could be beneficial. I withhold judgement at this time. Ha!
The Rumi poem in game 11 - “This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor..” - really stuck out to me. So, the book that I would probably have pulled from that shelf is “Daylight” by Rumi. At first glance, I’d say, “ooh a book about light!” And it’s Rumi, who, I sheepishly admit, I have not read any of, despite many people having done so and this would be as good a chance as any to do so.
I do hope you are feeling somewhat better - and that the whole family has not been sick. Rumi was my pull :) -- But until I saw you mention the quote, it didn't even jump out at me that there had been a quote in the chapter. (That's sort of funny.) Rumi had (and now has) come up several times for me recently. Odd how that works.
I appreciate your comments on these games - and your willingness to consider them.
Also - just because there is room for confusion (of my creation), I didn't post a separate week 9 update this week. I just didn't.... so we'll group the remaining games next week.
I read through the next few games. I keep thinking about the personal superstition one, I know I must have some. Moss keeps talking about big black dogs as a harbinger of good in his personal mythology and I am the opposite. I can only recall one instance with a lot of clarity but I feel there were others. Once in my twenties I was walking at night in an unfamiliar neighborhood. A huge huge huge black dog came trotting toward me down the sidewalk, no person in sight, he was calm and I stayed calm and we passed like ships in the night- his head seemed to reach my waist. I was still ruminating on this as I crossed the small 4 way stop intersection in the low light and a car turning from a one way street must have checked for oncoming traffic but not looked they way they were turning (where I was crossing at the intersection) and accelerated right at me. I lept ahead and the car just missed me, I could feel the wind of it on my clothes. I always thought of the dog as a bad omen but- really there was nothing outright ominous about it. Maybe it was my warning from the universe to open my eyes and ears in that moment.