Dale Price tagged me.
The Rules:
1) Go to Wikipedia.
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday.
4) List two important birthdays and one death.
5) One holiday or observance (if any).
Three Events:
216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.
1776 – Delegates to the Continental Congress begin signing the United States Declaration of Independence.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay) concludes in an English victory
1990 – Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to conflict with coalition forces.
(Ok, I can’t count. I chose four events)
Birthdays:
1905 – Myrna Loy, American actress (d. 1993)
1932 – Peter O’Toole, Irish-born actor
1939 – Wes Craven, American film director
1942 – Isabel Allende, Chilean author(Again with the inability to count!)
Death:
1921 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
Holiday/Observance:
* Costa Rica – Our Lady of the Angels.
* Bulgaria/Republic of Macedonia – Ilinden (St. Ilya Day), a day of remembrance of the Ilinden Uprising.
* Day of Airborne Forces in Russia.
* Tisha B’Av, Jewish Day of Mourning over the destruction of the First and Second Temples
Liturgical Feasts (cause I just thought it was cool)
* Ilya the Prophet in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Roman Catholic:
* Saint Alphonsus Mary de Ligouri
* Translation of Saint Alban, martyr (protomartyr of England) [England] * Saint Auspicius, bishop of Apt, martyr [Apt] * Saint Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli
* Saint Gaudentius, bishop of Chur, martyr [Chur] * Saint Peter Julian Eymard
* Saint Stephen I, pope, martyr [common; 6082, in red] * Saint Catherine (daughter of Bridget) [Scandinavia] * Saint Etheldritha/Alfrida
TAG:
Dom
and whoever else wants to play
Gosh, there’s so much here to think about! And so much to read! I don’t have much that’s useful to comment, but I’ll probably ramble anyway.
I don’t know any kids who were crushed to fin out that Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy weren’t real. I suspect this is because they always knew these characters weren’t real—just like they know the magic in the Harry Potter books isn’t real (to drag in the can of worms you didn’t mention). The thing is, my friends and I believed—intensely and passionately—in the things we were always told couldn’t possibly be real: unicorns, dragons, and the Loch Ness monster (although not fairies). We were never told they were real, and yet we loved the stories in which they might be—and there were so many stories! So unicorns must’ve been real in some way, at some time, right? Thus, when I eventually became disenchanted (literally) with neo-paganism and came back to the Church, it was a source of pure delight to learn that the unicorn is a symbol for Christ, the ultimate reality.
Which leads to my next point: I consider it important that people develop a fantasy life, among other reasons, so that they have a metaphorical world in which to work out problems. I see most works of fantasy and sci-fi as extended metaphors for dealing with difficult questions. Not strict allegories, although some (like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe can be read that way), but very rich metaphor. And I late learned that medieval romances were usually written to be such this sort of rich, layered metaphor—and medieval romance is one of the main sources for modern fantasy lit. ONe of the reasons these metaphors are important, I think, is that they provide a space to work out problems bloodlessly. But they also provide a training ground for seeing the world in terms of symbol and metaphor. And I think that sight is necessary to any understanding of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
I’m afraid I don’t have any psychological points to offer, and I’ve already rambled. I have seen Big Fish, but not recently enough to comment (maybe I’ll borrow your sister’s copy). I’d love to know what you think about metaphor and sacrament, though. But maybe that’s tangential to this thread.
Melanie,
James, Cecilia and I are out of town visiting my parents and brothers, but I look forward to pursuing the discussion later. I just wanted to let you know why I would not be commenting on this subject in the next week or so but I look forward to it soon. God Bless!
Katherine (MommytoCecilia)
I think Maria Montessori had something to say about fantasy in children’s lives but I don’t know what it was….