I moved already!

I have been trying to update one of my posts for the last three days and since I sort of go with the flow like that and I have been unsuccessful here at Blogger...I moved my blog to wordpress...http://encompassingchaos.wordpress.com  I will remain to read blogs here, but will continue to post at Wordpress.

Star Spangled Wine Tasting!

Today I was reminded of an incident that happened while at a friend’s home while we were playing a board game and I was summoned by the game to sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” (it was an incident to my memory, but maybe not to the others)

…I failed miserably; my recall memory is quite atrocious to begin with and then to have everyone stare at me while trying to sing of all things, made every word that much more difficult to recall.  I couldn’t make it past the first two lines. 

Now, I don’t consider the fact that I couldn’t recall the song on fly an “incident”, but the way that everyone looked at me while it happened, definitely matched my definition of incident.  They all looked at me like I was some communist traitor.  The whole ambience of the room changed.  I felt this sickening pull of emotions from everyone.  Just because I didn’t know the words to our country’s national anthem in no way predicates that I have any malevolent feelings toward our country.  I may not totally agree with what’s going on and do not participate in all aspects of government, but I’m not a traitor. 

Anyways, back to what I was writing about…

This song popped into my head after my shower and I can’t stop singing it…well more like humming it, because I still don’t know all of the words, but I was going to write today about how I like to follow paths that show themselves to me.  For as long as I can remember I have done this, but never really verbalized the action to anyone in fear of coming across loony, although, I may come across as loony without adding this crazy tidbit to the mix. 

By path I am talking about if I was looking at an article on the internet and some word or phrase sort of jumped out at me and caught my attention, I would follow it, be it a link, or looking up the word or phrase on google.  This action then may lead to another interesting subject that I look into, so before long I have gained insight into seemingly disconnected subjects which have now been strung together by my perception and have been given significant meaning. 

This doesn’t sound so crazy, that is until I go to pick up something from the grocery store and see one of the subjects from my path printed in a magazine displayed at the checkout, or the person standing in from of me talks to the cashier about the subject of my interest.  This path thing really starts to tingle my senses when on my return home the radio host also speaks about what I have just learned, and then when I go and pick up the book on my nightstand the very next chapter reads like it knew what I was going to find out about today on the internet. 

There is no way that coincidence can be the explanation.  (In my mind anyways) and recently I have found out that I am not the only one that lives this way.  This life of following the subtle nuances of experience and letting the universe guide them…nope I am not crazy in the sense that only I see this matrix.  Others see it too and some call it synchronicity, which reminds me of serendipity; the finding of things while not looking for them. 

So, this song is stuck in my head while I read one of my new favorite blogs The Sync Whole.  I get this notion about finding other anagrams for horse other than shore which was being used on this particular post, and I go to  http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ and put in horse.  I write down the words Shore = Horse = Heroes  on my note pad and then notice on the right hand side of the screen there is a Thought of the Moment.  (Never notice that little gem before on this site) it read:

Thought of the Moment

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

A bit serendipitous I would say…which puts me here; because I had the spark of reflection that I needed to just write about that tune stuck in my head instead of looking for some other significant reason to post. 

So let me give this syncing a go. 

The Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key and my thought of the moment was by Samuel Johnson…look at this journal entry I found from a quick search on google.  The year is 1904 and it appears on page 27. 

And this issue (64) of American Printer and Lithographer from January 5, 1917 where is mentions Samuel Johnson while speaking about Francis Scott Key.  The bit begins on page 17 and the two names are mentioned at the bottom of page 18 where you can see the 19^th page number.  I somehow feel as though 9 and 7 may be significant.  The numbers 1, 2 and 4 resonate here also, but not at prominent.    

John Stafford Smith is mentioned as the writer of the music used for the Star Spangled Banner.  The music was originally for the song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” the Anacreontic Society’s constitutional song of which Samuel Johnson(not the same one) was a member.  The society was named after the Greek court poet Anacreon.  In the song the phrase “The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine” is repeated in each verse. 

The following is what I found on the Myrtle of Venus from Wikipedia:

Vinalia urbana (April 23), a wine festival shared by Venus, in her capacity as patron of "profane" wine, for everyday human use; and Jupiter, king of the gods, patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, and god of the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend. Men and women alike drank the new vintage of ordinary, non-sacral wine in honour of Venus, whose powers had provided humankind with this gift. Upper-class women gathered at Venus's Capitoline temple; a libation of the previous year's vintage, sacred to Jupiter, was poured into a nearby ditch.^[13] Common girls (vulgares puellae) and prostitutes gathered at Venus' temple just outside the Colline gate, where they offered her myrtle, mint, and rushes concealed in rose-bunches and asked her for "beauty and popular favour", and to be made "charming and witty".^[14]

And Bacchus actually speaks of Dionysus the greek god of the grape harvest.  Here is what I found on him from Wikipedia:

[Dionysus] was also known as Bacchus ( /ˈbækəs/ or /ˈbɑːkəs/; Greek: Βάκχος, Bakkhos), the name adopted by the Romans^[10] and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake in his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself.^[11] His cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.^[12]

The last line of the verses that reads beginning “the myrtle” is replaced in the Star Spangled Banner with

“O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

That is just ironic, something that rings is the fact that Bacchus resonates with the home of the brave with Bacchus having a weapon that can be used to destroy those who oppose his freedoms, just as Americans use war to destroy anyone who they believe opposes their democracy.  Just like America is the only country to actually utilize the H-bomb on another country, yet we are the ones who try to regulate everyone else’s nuclear caches.  

I'm an now not so sure about this Star Spangled Banner incident being so bad after all.

I must go for the day, but I will return as more syncs come together with this...