Sing to me of the man, Muse, 10.10.2011

Welcome, friends.  I started this blog as a place to to journal about topics – personal and professional.  I am not sure entirely the form or the direction it will take. 

I read a lot and I am fond of quotes.  Always, books are my most boon companions and many lifelong friends have I made among the pages.  I often find their words far better than my own.  Words, turns of phrase, are, to me, thick, juicy, chewy.  I gnaw on them, and they at me, for days, weeks, years.  They provide me sustenance, light, clarity, hope.

Much change in my life of late, so, maps out, compass in hand, sails unfurled, in medias res I begin –

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove –
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,

Translated by Robert Fagles (1996)