"The goodness that thou mayest do this day, do it!"
~Chaucer~
What good advice from a 14th c writer! It is good to be reminded to do good. Sometimes we're feeling lazy, or distracted, and simply can't be bothered to get up off our bums and do good. It's essentially the same as being kind. I have two people in my daily life, my husband, and my dad. I think I'll try to keep this little phrase in mind today as I interact with them. It's also an important reminder of something else. There's a song on right now as I am writing and a line in it says "be good to yourself". I tend to do this early in the day when I enjoy reading, creating art, and learning new things. It's a rather concentrated time for me so let's see if I can spread this out a bit more over the course of my day.
Listening: Radio Rizites, Kissamos, Crete, Greece on Radio Garden. I'm not sure what I'm listening to exactly. It sounds like traditional Greek music but it also sounds sort of churchy. I think the announcer just said something about "musica historica" so I guess that's traditional. There's a touch of the middle east in there too and I can imagine the old men dancing to it.
Reading: Jansen's History of Art -Aegean Art- which includes Crete, the Cycladic Islands just north of Crete, and and the Greek mainland. We loved visiting Crete and Athens, but our favourite was Thessalonica. It is glorious to be surrounded by ancient history while enjoying the delicious Greek food!
Weather: 5c and fairly foggy this morning. It looks like a long stretch of wet weather for at least 10 days. I told my dad (who's blind now) that it was foggy outside and he said "What? Froggy!?" We had a chuckle about that.
Library Checkouts:
- Hotel Du Lac, Anita Brookner I can't remember which one of her books I read a long, long time ago but I do recall that I enjoyed it. So I put a couple on hold and they arrived today.
- Strangers, Anita Brookner
- Graounded Spirituality, Jeff Brown I follow Jeff Brown on Facebook and I like his vibe but now that I have the book in my hands I'm not so sure I can get into it. We'll see.
As individuals I think we have honoured Chaucer often, but as societies not at all. This philosophy seems to be universal in all religions and philosophical treatises, but is lacking in execution.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting observation David. I wonder how we could do it differently?
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