PRESIDENT'S CORNER - February 5, 2016

Oh, boy, it’s Super Bowl 50, or as I think of it, the second best time to go to the movies because no one else will be there except the ten other people in Mo’town that find football the ultimate bore! Sorry…  But it does look like we’ll have Hail, Caesar, a Coen brothers film with George Clooney and assorted other fine actors; and, my Bonnie MAY get the approval of her doc to get out of the house and sit in a movie!

The word February is believed to have derived from the name 'Februa' taken from the Roman 'Festival of Purification'.  The root 'februo' meaning to 'I purify by sacrifice'.  As part of the seasonal calendar February is the time of the 'Ice Moon' according to Pagan beliefs, and the period described as the 'Moon of the Dark Red Calf' by Black Elk.  February has also been known as 'Sprout-kale' by the Anglo-Saxons in relation to the time the kale and cabbage was edible. [Mystical WWW]

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. [Naturalist Charles Darwin]

Poetry:
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the withered air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, and housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Music: 
Remembered Music by Rumi

'Tis said, the pipe and lute that charm our ears
Derive their melody from rolling spheres;
But Faith, o'er passing speculation's bound,
Can see what sweetens every jangled sound.

We, who are parts of Adam, heard with him
The song of angels and of seraphim.
Our memory, though dull and sad, retains
Some echo still of those unearthly strains.

Oh, music is the meat of all who love,
Music uplifts the soul to realms above.
The ashes glow, the latent fires increase:
We listen and are fed with joy and peace.

Do have a calm and warm weekend with that game…was it basketball? Hockey? Football? Quidditch? Or… we’ll see you at the movies!

Jim Held, President