History
Dayle in Limoux – Dayle #43
August 17, 2022* . . ✧
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. * . * . There is magic in this world and you’re part of it. * . *
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‘I use my body as it was meant to be used, as a vessel of light, to express ℒℴve. I protect my body against the assaults of modernity from thoughts of
c h a o s
to the contaminates of the physical environment, infusing my body with the light of the divine.’
-Marianne Williamson
🌼
Marianne’s prayer is basically a Cathar approach to their beliefs. There’s a devil and a god and that everything material (including the body) was the domain of evil, and the ethereal soul was the domain of God and that life was about the keeping the soul GOOD and PURE. To be a light and a conduit for spirit. Baptism was a vessel of purification. They revered John the Baptist. If in this life they did not achieve their goal, the goal of purity, they were reincarnated. Not unlike the Hindus belief of samskaras (earthly conditioning) and moksha, ending the cycle of death and re-birth through purification at the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. The underlying similarities between many religions and faiths is truly remarkable, especially in the Jewish faith and practices in Egypt and Iran. There was a lot of borrowing and re-shaping over the centuries, and yet, the ugly inhumane violence and destruction in the name of those beliefs is beyond understanding. The Cathars would probably just say, “Well, yeah. That’s the Rex Mundi part of this existence, the evil…the devil. The human experience.”
Might be a good time to listen to the ever optimistic Coldplay with their song ‘Humankind.’ I listened to it today after Rolling Stone posted about the group’s new video for the ‘Music of the Spheres’ track. They’re holding on to h o p e for the humans.
Rolling Stone
Coldplay Break Out the Fireworks for Euphoric ‘Humankind’ Video
I know, I know, I know
We’re only human
I know, I know, I know
How we’re designed
Oh I know, I know, I know
We’re only human
But we’re capable of kindness
So they call us humankind
Some of us, especially in the u.s.a., just need a lot more practice.
It rains in France!
And it’s 72 degrees!
Woo-Hoo! Doing the Languedoc happy dance. :)
Now, bring on the flooding since the drought has dried everything and the earth can’t absorb. You know, I think the river already looks higher. They run these test sirens for flooding that sound like WWII air raids. Glad I had been told me about them early after my arrival or I would have taken shelter under the bed thinking Putin had gotten feisty.
From France 24 and AFP News:
‘The French weather service warned Wednesday of flash flooding risks across much of the south, where a historic drought has parched the rugged Mediterranean hills, a day after fierce rainstorms lashed much of the country.’
And the fires. Spain firefighters are having a harrowing effort battling blazes as have many in France this summer.
The Independent
‘Firefighters ran from towering flames as they tackled the Bejís fire in Castellón, eastern Spain, on Tuesday afternoon, 16 August. Footage shows firefighters repeatedly shouting “fuera”, which means “get out,” as huge flames and plumes of smoke close in. The fire has burned over 1,900 acres (800 hectares) so far. Around 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, Valencia’s president Ximo Puig said. At least 11 people were injured after they evacuated a train travelling near the flames through Castellón.’
There’s always music in Limoux! ..•*¨`*♫.•
´*.¸.• .¸. ❥❥¸¸.☆¨¯ ♫.¸.¸¸.☆¨¯`❥❥
With the rain, lots of reading and research today. One of my favorite things is unlimited time and be surrounded by books and journals. Divine grace. Learning so much about the deeply layered history of this area, along with Egypt and Spain. I hope to visit a number of the ruins and villages I’m reading about, although getting there is going to be tough without a vehicle; cell phone service is precarious in some of these places too, to be able to fetch a ride from a taxi service, if…big if…they want to drive to the places I need to go for drop-off and pick-up. I’m going to look into some day tours, too.
http://www.enigmatours.com/EnigmaTours-Rennes-Le-Chateau_en.html
And found another site, too, with great visuals and history of the Cathars and Languedoc/Occitanie region.
‘And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’ -F. Scott Fitzgerald
My favorite place to be.
https://www.payscathare.org/en
‘I believe the spiritual realm is so enmeshed with the physical that it is imperceptible. I believe in the mysterious nearness of my ancestors, but I believe they are located at the site of my own blood and bone.’ -Fr Richard Rohr
Oui! Or, as they said in Languedoc before they were overtaken by French kings and the Catholic church, ‘Oc!’ Yes. They had their own language, although not far from some of the French language. The dialect is so different here in this region and most likely the reason NOBODY UNDERSTANDS MY SIMPLEST OF FRENCH WORDS. Pronunciation. It’s mauvais. <sigh> Just wrong. It’s going to take me awhile. There’s a food server here I’ve gotten to know and she’s helping with my French pronunciation. So kind. She has trouble saying my first name. It’s very ‘flat’ sounding, I think…just kinda falls, well, flat. But! When I told her my middle name and try putting both together, it was beautiful! Dayle Ann…only she said it with her French accent and blurred the two names. It was parfait! Perfect. I think my new French name is now DayleAnn. My family once called me that when I was a little girl because I was named after my dad, Dale. So, DayleAnn it is. :)
À bientôt.
❀
History’s arc…bending.
June 1, 2019
“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” -W.E.B. DuBoise, 1935
“The Propaganda of History” / Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor.
Creating, not repeating.
October 2, 2017“Cultural memory, the hope of history, is often as potent as historical fact.”
-Bettany Hughes, Historian/author
New Orleans Mayor David Menschel
May 24, 2017
The last of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans was removed on Friday.
While construction workers were taking down the enormous statue of Robert E. Lee, Mayor Mitch Landrieu delivered a powerful and brutally honest speech about Confederate monuments, the reason they were erected, and why they must come down.
David Menschel, a criminal defense attorney, describes it as one of the “most honest speeches given by a Southern politician, maybe ever.” He wasn’t exaggerating. Here’s an excerpt:
America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.
So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.
And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans.
So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.
There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth.
As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other.
So, let’s start with the facts.
The historic record is clear: the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.
We strongly urge you to read the entire speech and share it with your friends. You can read and watch it here.
Bryan Stevenson explains how it feels to grow up black amid Confederated monuments.
“I think we have to increase our shame – and I don’t think shame is a bad thing.”
VOX
Ezra Klein
May 2107
‘For years, his organization has been documenting and memorializing the actual lynchings that happened in America after slavery was abolished, and is now building a museum that will explore America’s brutal history on race with more honesty. He has thought deeply about the work America resistance to confronting the reality of our past, and the damage that that national act of forgetting — or, worse, of lying — has done to our present.’
https://www.vox.com/2017/5/24/15675606/bryan-stevenson-confederacy-monuments-slavery-ezra-klein
Hope.
July 3, 2016
Victor Frankl:
‘Without hope there is no meaning. Without meaning there is no hope.’
~
Elie Wiesel:
‘For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope.’
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Maria Papova:
Critical thinking without hope is cynicism. Cynicism without critical thinking is naïveté.
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Rebecca Solnit
The moment passed long ago, but despair, defeatism, cynicism, and the amnesia and assumptions from which they often arise have not dispersed, even as the most wildly, unimaginably magnificent things came to pass. There is a lot of evidence for the defense… Progressive, populist, and grassroots constituencies have had many victories. Popular power has continued to be a profound force for change. And the changes we’ve undergone, both wonderful and terrible, are astonishing.
[…]
This is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen. It’s also a nightmarish time. Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both.
[…]
There’s a public equivalent to private depression, a sense that the nation or the society rather than the individual is stuck. Things don’t always change for the better, but they change, and we can play a role in that change if we act. Which is where hope comes in, and memory, the collective memory we call history.
[…]
You row forward looking back, and telling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future. We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war chant for our victories. The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future.