The Circle is Unbroken

Weblog entries in memory of June Carter Cash
by S. H. Cullinane from log24.net

Phaedrus Lives! Fans of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance may recall that it is a sort of elegy for an earlier self named Phaedrus who vanished with the recovery of mental health.  Since this is Mental Health Month, the following observations seem relevant. Reading another weblog's comments today, I found the following remark: "...the mind is an amazing thing and it can create patterns and interconnections among things all day it you let it, regardless of whether they are real connections."  - sejanus This, of course, prompted me to look for patterns and interconnections.   The first thing I thought of was the fictional mathematician in "A Beautiful Mind" establishing an amazing -- and, within the fiction, real -- connection between the pattern on a colleague's tie and the reflections from a glass.  A web search led to a really real connection.... i.e., to a lengthy listserver letter from an author named Christopher Locke, whose work is new to me but also strangely familiar.... I recognize in his writing both some of my own less-than-mentally-healthy preoccupations and also what might be called the spirit of Phaedrus, from Zen and the Art. Here is a link to a cache I made of the Locke letter and a follow-up he wrote detailing his sources: Christopher Locke as Phaedrus One part of Locke's letter seems particularly relevant in light of yesterday's entries related to the death of June Carter Cash: "Will the circle be unbroken?   As if some southern congregation   is praying we will come to understand."                             Amen. Concluding Unscientific Postscript from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q"), quoting Socrates's remarks to the original Phaedrus: ‘By Hera,’ says Socrates, ‘a fair resting-place, full of summer sounds and scents! This clearing, with the agnus castus in high bloom and fragrant, and the stream beneath the tree so gratefully cool to our feet! Judging from the ornaments and statues, I think this spot must be sacred to Acheloüs and the Nymphs.  This quotation illustrates a connection between Jesus (College) -- from my entry of 3:33 PM Thursday -- and a Nymph -- from my entry of 11:44 PM Friday.  See, too, Q's quoting of Socrates's prayer to Pan, as well as the cover of the May 19, 2003, New Yorker :   For a discussion of the music that Pan is playing (today's site music), see my entry of Sept. 10, 2002, "The Sound of Hanging Rock."

2:00 PM

Highballs "If you can bounce high, bounce for her too...."  – F. Scott Fitzgerald, epigraph to The Great Gatsby Magazine purchased at newsstand May 14, 2003: A Whiff of Camelot as 'West Wing' Ends an Era – New York Times,  May 14, 2003 Song title from the June Carter Cash album "Press On": "Gatsby's Restaurant" From The Great Gatsby, Chapter Four: "Highballs?" asked the head waiter. "This is a nice restaurant here," said Mr. Wolfsheim, looking at the Presbyterian nymphs on the ceiling. Presbyterian Nymph: Mimi Beardsley, JFK playmate, in the news on May 15, 2003  On JFK's plane trips: "Whenever the President traveled, members of the press staff traveled as well. You always have a press secretary and a couple of girls traveling....  Mimi, who obviously couldn't perform  any function at all, made all the trips!" Apparently there was some function.... "Don't forget the coffee!" – Punchline from the film   "Good Will Hunting."

11:44 PM

Enough Commentary on the May 15 death of June Carter Cash, which I learned of at the New York Times site at about 2:10 AM today: Jesus College In light of yesterday's Jesus College entry ("The Only Pretty Ring Time," May 15), the following song lyrics seem relevant. While walking out one evening                  not knowing where to go Just to pass the time away                        before we held our show  I heard a little mission band                   playing with all their might I gave my soul to Jesus                         and left the show that night. The day will soon be over                            and evening will begun; No more gems to be gathered                        so let us all press on. When Jesus comes to claim us                       and says it is enough  The diamonds will be shining,                        no longer in the rough. -- Diamonds in the Rough June Carter Cash sings this song on her album Press On. an "old shape-note gospel song that A.P. Carter found and rearranged. The song itself had been written and copyrighted back in 1897, with composer credits to C.W. Bryan."

3:03 AM

The Only Pretty Ring Time On May 14 five years ago, the night Sinatra died, the Pennsylvania (State of Grace) lottery evening number was 256:  see my note, Symmetries, of April 2, 2003. On May 14 this year, the Pennsylvania lottery evening number was 147.  Having, through meditation, perhaps established some sort of minor covenant with whatever supernatural lottery powers may exist, this afternoon I sought the significance of this number in Q's 1939 edition of the Oxford Book of English Verse.  It is the number of "It was a Lover and his Lass," a song lyric by William Shakespeare.  The song includes the following lines: In the spring time,     the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing,     Hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring. For the Sinatra connection, see Metaphysics for Tina. The selection of Q's book for consultation was suggested by the home page of Simon Nickerson at Jesus College, Cambridge University, and by the dedication page of Q's 1925 Oxford Book of English Prose, which names Nickerson's school. Ian Lee on the communion of saints and the association of ideas: "The association is the idea." For translation of the Greek phrase in Q's 1925 dedication, see Greek and Roman Grammarians on Motion Verbs and Place Adverbials Malcolm D. Hyman Harvard University January 4, 2003

3:33 PM

	Birthday Present Today is the birthday of Emile Mathieu. Here is a present.
	1:23 PM