Rose Anderson~ Pondering Life's Big Questions

With the holidays over I have to say I've had enough merriment for a while. For me it's time to settle into the deep stillness of winter and write. I'll come out of my mind cave when the seed catalogs arrive... in March.
:)  

Were we to peel back the wrappers on the holidays, we'd likely find even older observances by the people who came before. Take the holiday of Saturnalia. The Christmas season owes much to that early Roman celebration. According to Catullus, Roman poet and consummate scribbler of stray thoughts, Saturnalia was the absolute best time of year. It was a time of gift giving and banquets and of fun and merriment. For some, it was also a precious taste of the good life, for every Saturnalia saw the roles of slaves and masters temporarily reversed. For the duration of the holiday, slaves, as temporary masters, got to do things the free people took for granted. Served and attended by their own masters, these temporarily free

peoples took extra long baths, gambled and sought entertainment, and otherwise partook in all the leisure activities not allowed the rest of the year.  

Since everything was topsy turvy, a Lord of Misrule was appointed to oversee festivities and make sure everyone participated. (The Lord of Misrule eventually came to preside over the twelve days of Christmas when young lords went leaping and true loves everywhere gave turtle doves and French hens.) Wine and laughter flowed during Saturnalia. Feasting was had and gods and goddesses were very happy with their mortals. A popular activity for slave and master alike was to ponder life's big questions and really great points were made by all.  

I've discovered a few Saturnalia quotes from this time. 

"Nescis quid vesper vehat."
"Thou knowest not what evening may bring."

"Tempus ante mundum esse non potuit."
"Time could not exist before the world."

"Non potest amor cum timore misceri."
"Love cannot exist where there is fear."

"Opinionis ortus est memoriae defectus."
"The origin of speculation is a defective memory."

"Sibi quisque dat mores; conditionem casus adsignat."
"Each one forms his own character; his station is assigned to him by fortune.' 

"Sic loquendum esse cum hominibus, tanquam dii audiant; sic loquendum cum hominibus, tanquam homines audiant."
"We should so speak with men as though the Gods were listening, and so speak with the Gods as though men were listening." 

"(Consuluisti) utrum prius gallina ex ovo an ovum ex gallina coeperit."
"You have been considering whether the fowl came first from the egg or the egg from the fowl." 

Some of these ponderings are recognizable today, especially that last one-- Which came first the chicken or the egg?  I find it funny that question was pondered for 2000 years and maybe more. It just goes to show the human experience and the desire to know remain the same no matter where we sit on the timeline. Here's another fun bit of trivia-- Twelfth Night ends tomorrow. So put some time into pondering life's big questions today and tomorrow. You just might have an incredible flash of insight. If you're a writer, that insight may bring a flash of creative brilliance. Either way, may the coming year bring you all good things.

>>۞<<

Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find free reads too!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Find Madeline's sweet or spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback wherever stories are sold.
Sample my Scorching First Chapters Here

Timing is Everything

I love deep winter with its dark crisp mornings and icy star-filled nights. To some, winter means heading south to warmer climes. But that’s not for me, I’m a Midwest girl. I live in anticipation of snowfall armed with the trifecta of protection against the storm – that requisite milk, bread, and eggs.

When I was a girl, winter meant snowball fights, tobogganing, and school closed for snow days. As a teen it meant snowmobiling and skiing. Nowadays winter means slipping into the baggy comfortable clothes and thick floppy socks you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing outside the house. Winter means pots of soup simmering on the stove. It's a time for assembling jigsaw puzzles on the kitchen table with my husband and anyone who stops for a visit.

Snowfall at night always summons that perfect sleep. Come morning, I'm often filled with an aching wonder at how anything could be as lovely as two-hundred year old bur oaks surrounded by an undisturbed blanketing of snow. There are as many shades of blue to snow as there are shades of green in the spring. The artist in me can’t wait.

I just love the shorter days and longer nights of winter. I'm an early riser whose circadian rhythm is fine-tuned from years of living in the country. Since the clocks turned back an hour, I feel like I've actually gained more time in my day. What writer doesn't like that? My bedroom window faces east so my days begin when the first sliver of daylight wakes me. I write on my laptop at the kitchen table where a large window treats me to a half day of ascending sunlight at my back. The living room bay window and backdoor window give me the rest as afternoon inches toward evening. My dogs follow these warm winter sunbeams on the floor like canine sundials. At night, no urban lights disturb the starry sky around my home. When I turn off the lights at night, it’s dark out here. 

Soon we'll face that shortest day of the year with the least amount of daylight -- the winter solstice. The very next day, a new cycle begins in the wheel of the year. Each day gets a little longer until the equinox and shortly after, the summer solstice gives us the longest day of the year. Then we do it all over again. It was so important to know when days would lengthen again, this celestial event was observed and revered around the world, and ways to measure it cut or placed in stone. Complicated stone tunnels and specifically placed boulders of the like found in Stone Henge and Newgrange became prehistoric astronomical observatories to help keep track.  Shafts of solstice sunlight beamed down passages and rose between precisely placed megaliths with perfect timing. Tied to the sun and the growing season as we are, just knowing the sun's full shining face will warm the earth again is reason to celebrate. The solstice was long considered a time of great symbolism and divine power. How could it not be when it's as regular as clockwork? 

The solstice is certainly a day to feel grateful. We live because of the sun. For many cultures, this is the time to celebrate with family and friends and share the spirit of giving. I once read how the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, the festival of light, with parties that lasted thirty days and culminated on the winter solstice. What an excellent idea! I too have reasons to rejoice. This year my husband and I are doing something different for the winter solstice – a twelve-hour drumming event. My drumming friends and family will join us either by stopping by for a time, or drumming the entire twelve hours with us non-stop. If that doesn’t bring the sun back, I don’t know what will.  ;)

But until the sun's return and the first greening of spring,  I’ll enjoy the silent beauty of the first snowfall and make my pots of soup, work my puzzles, and watch my dogs sprawl in the sunbeams on the floor. By the time I’ve surely had enough of winter, the seed catalogs will come in the mail and herald the thaw. Timing is everything.

Do you have any special solstice plans?

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

News: I've created a 1st and 2nd chapter sampler of my novels, and it's free!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971
 
Rose is multi-published, award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and learning interesting things to weave into stories. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper mid-west.  
 
Main Blog:
Subscribe on the Main blog for interesting posts, updates & more. http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

My unusual love stories can be found in ebook and  paperback wherever books are sold.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004XDGWL6
My Links Page -- oh so many.
http://caliopesritingtablet.com/links-links-more-links/