Scheduling

Apologies. Too busy with my day job to post this week. Try back next week.

The Sky over Saint Peter's

Sorry for the late post. I'm grading the second midterm this week, on top of at least fifteen other enormous deadlines. Please enjoy this poem that I wrote when I was living in Rome. 

The Sky over Saint Peter's

No rain, no clouds, no sadness yet

just blue on blue on top of blue

so blue it hurts my eyes.

As not-so-early morning traffic

swirls around the fountain

and dies into the night.

Or pre-dawn glowing gold-on-blue

over the buildingtops too greet

the day that’s paused in coming.

I skirt the fountain, yet alone,

can’t quite define the color

suspended in the air.

Stars are hard to find in Rome.

From my terazza, certainly

a dark spot in the city,

I count no more than twenty.

So frightened by the big-town bustle

they slink into the corners

and wink out as I chase them.

But molten gold glows slowly, surely

filtered through the leaves of trees

as light begins to fade.

Behind me blue melts into pink

as one lone airplane traces high an arc;

you’d think it was a star.

Divine Government

      Greece is famous as the cradle of democracy, but we should all remember that, during the golden age of classical Greek democracy, the system was more or less restricted to Athens, and moreover was seen by the other Greek city-states (generally ruled by old-fashioned monarchies or oligarchies) as a bizarre fringe movement that dangerously placed untrained civilians in positions that really ought to be occupied by experienced professionals. It was a direct democracy, which meant that it did involve putting randomly-chosen inexperienced laypeople in decision-making positions, which certainly invites certain difficulties, although their lack of experience and connections was supposed to be a benefit (a safeguard against cronyism). We should also remember that Athenian democracy was effectively crushed when Philip of Macedon conquered all the Greek city-states (followed by some Hellenistic tyrants until all of Greece was absorbed into the Roman empire) so the heyday of Athenian democracy really wasn’t very long--only a few centuries.

      Still, Athenian democracy had its selling points. It was an experimental system in the Greek world, certainly innovative against a backdrop of oligarchies and monarchies. And there was definitely no precedent for democracy in myth, no illustration of the gods buying into Athenian political procedures. If you want to hear about the government of the gods, go check Hesiod’s Theogony. It’s just pages and pages of one dynast overthrowing another. Ouranos seizes power as soon as there’s a population of gods to hold power over. Ouranos’ son Cronos overthrows Ouranos. Cronos tries to eat his children to prevent himself from being likewise overthrown, but Zeus is hidden away and overthrows Cronos (via castration). Zeus holds autocratic power and prevents any of his children from becoming powerful enough to overthrow him. It is a despotic monarchy, and Zeus has his lightning bolts to destroy anyone who challenges his authority.

      The US is not a despotic monarchy, and in fact on Tuesday we have the opportunity to go out and vote for who we want to be in charge of certain powers and decisions. If you live in the US, I would strongly encourage you to read up on the elections under contention and candidates available in your area, and vote. Historically, not many people have had the opportunity to choose who rules over them, so I encourage you to take advantage of this anomaly.