Atlas Sticky Wiki

"Atlas would never have carried the world had he placed his mind on the thought of it."

I forget where I first read that phrase.  It has been in my life a long time.  At different times it has meant different things to me.  Primarily it seems to have acted as a bit of wisdom rather different then what, upon reflection, I would have expected.  Though it is, in all probability, mere pablum, it reminds me of deeper things.  I suppose it always has.

I was reading some notes I had written two years ago, taken while reading Dava Sobel's wonderful book, Longitude.   Within the book Sobel recounted how she had ridden as a little girl on her fathers shoulders whilst walking past the statue of Atlas in New York City.  I wrote in my notebook, 

"I wonder if it will ever stop crushing me to see young girls and boys so well loved, now that I know so many who have never been. "  

It's funny.  Today I don't wonder about that anymore.  I just know I can barely take reality for a lot of kids as it comes.  Much less delve into a great deal more than that.  It will never stop crushing me.  My plastic consciousness has been reconfigured.

I also wrote,

"An Atlas is a thing I have my entire life regarded with the same awe that most people do.  It's the world in your hands:  a metaphorical, mystical, and scientific/practical lodestone.  A matrix of promise and desire.  Maybe even responsibility.  Yet, "Atlas" was something else.  An entity not framed by the purposes and perspective of human yearning.  He was burdened by the physical totem of the universe we call our homes.  And he was burdened by so much more than we would ever aknowledge, and risk burdening ourselves with the timeless purposes of Gods.  We will take their fire, but will it ever be our own?"

I am trying to put on this blog the world as I see it.  This means, I think in spirit, that I should make my suppositions and once having published, if I desire, then fact check.  So I have been trying this, and once again, I find a wrinkle about Atlas.  So here is what Wikipedia says about the etymology of "Atlas":

The origin of the term atlas is a common source of misconception, perhaps because two different mythical figures named 'Atlas' are associated with mapmaking.

• King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was, according to legend, a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who supposedly made the first celestial globe. It was this Atlas that Mercator was referring to when he first used the name 'Atlas', and he included a depiction of the King on the title-page.
• However, the more widely known Atlas is a figure from Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene (or Asia), and brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens (the idea of Atlas carrying the Earth isn't correct according to the original myth) on his back. One of Heracles's labours was to collect the apples of the Hesperides. Heracles went to Atlas and reasoned with him. Eventually, Atlas agreed to collect the apples, and Heracles was left to carry the weight. Atlas tried to leave Heracles there, but Heracles tricked him and Atlas was left to carry the heavens forever. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as "one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder".

In works of art, this Atlas is represented as carrying the heavens or the Celestial Sphere, on his shoulders. The earliest such depiction is the Farnese Atlas, now housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli in Naples, Italy. This figure is frequently found on the cover or title-pages of atlases. This is particularly true of atlases published by Dutch publishers during the second half of the seventeenth century. The image became associated with Dutch merchants, and a statue of this figure adorns the front of the World Trade Center in Amsterdam.

The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was Lafreri, on the title-page to "Tavole Moderne Di Geografia De La Maggior Parte Del Mondo Di Diversi Autori ...". However, he did not use the word "atlas" in the title of his work.

It is pretty amusing, if you ask me, that some people continue to regard the use of Wikipedia as some sort of scourge.  I probably would have looked up Atlas in an encyclopedia under these circumstances  because I am pretty interested, but I never would have had the time to transfer the information I had received (and all the links to supporting information.....) for you to see what I had seen.  Though Wikipedia is an enormously flawed enterprise, it's flaws only underscore the timeless challenge of answering the utterly reasonable question, "Why should I care to look into that?"  Once something is this easy, in general we all care that much more. Most of us see things not better with the truth, but a ladder.  Call it the fallacy of evidence.  And despite being six degrees in separation from the primary texts, and even worse, in the eyes of some, completely separated from accredited scholars, sometimes, even in our heads, we go easy on our knees. 

What You Like A Room With That, Narcissus?

How could I forget.  While working in the yard the other day I looked down and was completely spellbound by a reflection (perhaps not my own, but halo's are ever so bright...)  I must admit it occasionally occurs to me what a simpering fool I am, taking pictures of things like this.  At the time it seemed nifty.  Spring time is very difficult for the mentally ill.

For Cynthia Two

This is Knightridge Road, where I used to have my warehouse.  These are the lovely For Cynthia bushes I have admired so long on my favorite bike ride.  It is a little late in the season, but nobody would have known that this morning.  

PS: If you don't know why I am calling it "For Cynthia", look through the titles of my entries in the margin, and find the one with the name Cynthia in it.  Or click here.

Ground Cherry, Barren Sumac, Why They Call It Spring Wheat

Before you get to the bottom of this entry I thought I should offer yet another warning that the next couple of entries are of a dead dogs bones.  If that seems cool, read the rest of this and then read the next entry as well.  If that doesn't seem cool, skip the rest of this dates entries and save yourself my fascination with bones.  Thanks, and hope I don't have to be sorry....

Click this link, to skip away from the dog below.... after you've read the rest of this, of course.

This first photo is hard to see, so click it.  It's a ground cherry.  I was once so stupid I bought these things from a local historical museum as "heirloom seeds."  As you can see here, not twelve feet from the Budweiser cans and Hershey bar wrapper half sunk in the terra rosa soil, the emphasis is definitely on "ground" and not so much "cherry".  I knew they were no more edible than the ancient "heirloom" corn (that nobody would eat for the perfectly great reason that it taste's like crap) when I bought them.  The problem was that I didn't realize they were sort of a local weed.  It's like buying a butterfly bush, where you'd probably have one if you didn't mow you lawn.  But anyway, that's what the picture is of.  The second picture alternates between spring wheat, soybeans and corn depending on the whims of the farmer and market.  I don't know the farmer personally, but I know who he is, and he seems pretty careful about his practices, from what I've seen.  That said, he's a conventional till field farmer, and wheat is at historic prices.  Remember last year when the plot of future wheat heist movies was being set up (by large scale theft's of wheat from elevators and temporary storage silo's.)  It will be fun to watch the field grow.  

Not far from where I took these pictures... in fact I rode my bike by it on my way home, is the place where I saw oats being grown for the first time in my life.  I couldn't believe the beautiful field (this was five years ago) with its straight parallel lines and pendulous fruited tops.  I walked into the sensuous and enveloping grain and felt as I did as a child (and I suppose even now) walking into a mysterious corn field.  Anyhow, I couldn't believe something as pedestrian (and hugely unpopular compared to corn.  For all hype for the last twenty years about oat bran and oat meal, and oatstraw tea, and oatmeal scrubs, and the "as american as apple pie" appeal of Quaker brand oats---- the vast majority of oats goto animals, silage and not human beings.  Though the majority of corn still probably goes to cattle, pigs and poultry, so there might be some hypocrisy in the comparison.  I shall look into it.

The last picture is of the de-fruited Sumac, one of my favorite small tree/ large shrub in our area.  In open places like a highway or interstate they really thrive.  I think they have a reputation (that among the species, depending on the one you are talking about) for causing contact dermatitis.  But I miss their incredible beauty in the town.  I mean, my God, who doesn't prefer the look of a Great Sumac flower in January to some ground hugging funerary Juniper.  The last time somebody's heart rate increased from a Juniper, bathtub Gin was probably the craze.  IU campus has way too many Juniper.  There ok.  Kind of like grass.  But look at those Sumac in the picture... even when disrobed of their finest clothes by the birds, they look to be contemplating the Cirrus clouds.  The Sumac, no doubt imagines the Cirrus have feathered their hair in deference to the beauty of a roadside bush.

There Was A Paw As Well...

As you can see... it looks like a dead dog.  When I first saw the ribcage I thought, "My God, I hope this isn't a person."  I was very happy to see that skull.  And what a beautiful sight, with the boundary of the skulls plates stitched so beautifully.  The two pictures on the right, above, match so nicely I am thinking of stitching them together and touching them up with the painting program I have on my other computer.  What I would do if I didn't have roommates, or still had my warehouse (sorry future family, I should say also.  What I will do when I have my house later this or next year....) is, of course, bring the bones home, and boil them, then throw them in acid, then dry them in a cold frame.... God I'd love to do that.  Can you imagine having this beautiful skeleton with the missing bones carved in dark black, or better, bright polished aluminum!!!!   Clearly, my chambers will know no secrets.  And my buddy Jaz's wife thought I was weird because I had no pictures on my wall.  Won't be asking her over, I think.

Bike RIde Arcana (Warning: Dead Animal Depicted)

I was riding my bicycle this morning, and noticed the Great Sumac on my favorite route had lost it's gorgeous fruit.  There being a very tiny scattered few left, I am guessing that birds had their way with the plants.  The largest Sumac on 446 are close to thrity feet tall, which seems damn near their max.  The first time I traveled on this highway when I came to Bloomington in 1998, I could not resist the beautiful sumac and strange terrain from valley like fields to a ridgetop.   And the bicycling on the highways wide shoulders..... God is it nice.  Of course the 57 degree weather and intense sun this morning was really tough on me, but you can't have everything.

Then near a place where the county has constructed this extremely long concrete waterslide erosion control surface I looked down a hill (as I always do) and saw a large mammalian ribcage sticking up.  Since I had my camera (which in every case before, when this has happened, I have not) my heart sang.  I love road kill and dead things in general.  Some people find this strange, but eventually see my point when I ask them if they like cutting animals up.  Yeah, neither do I.  But when it's happening in a more or less natural manner, and you are not a squeamish person, then God is basically giving you a science lesson.  And what a lesson this beautiful dead canine was providing me from fifty yards.  I didn't want people who have a problem seeing dead things to become upset (I've had a few bad experiences stopping a car to look at maggots floating out of a deer in the rain and other such obnoxious things, where some friends had a lot of trouble understanding. So....)  Believe it or not the picture showing the hillside looking down, if you click it, has a ribcage showing.  I saw it from the road, very easily, but the picture is underexposed one stop, so.  Click it if you want, or skip to a different date then the following entries on todays date, if you wish not to consider the dead doggie.

You Never Been There Before

Interesting to imagine which is preferable to the lettuce plant:  to spend its life incarcerated in my spaceship for it, the cold frame, beneath metal fabric.  Or... to spend an afternoon masticated between my teeth...

Jimmie Rogers on jail:   

"When you realize that you're all alone

Seated in a two by four.

That little cell is just a taste of Hell,

If you ain't been there before."

I first heard Merle Haggard sing that song.  The last line Merle sang, "You ain't been there before."  And so, that's how I sing it as well.  I only learned this version (attributed Earnest Tubb) while writing this.  It's worth (though somewhat off topic, don't you think?) pointing out that "Same Train, Different Song" Merle's extremely ill advised ode to Jimmy Rogers is the CD where I discovered "Frankie and Johnny." Gracious,  I could go on and on about that song.  Too bad I've remained loyal to the subject of lettuce, however.  Ha!

As much pleasure as my vegetables give me as pure ornament, it is almost a shame to eat them.  Almost....