January -- The Tree Of Life Lives On, Beyond Boundaries,
Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life in Norse Legend
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Mythology Has No Borders
Legends have no borders.
Fairy tales have no borders.
Reading opens the doors that take the child beyond all borders.
From fear and darkness,
To light and peace.
For a child who has found the stories,
T here are no borders to the imagination.
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Vestiges of Norse Mythology have endured for centuries. Variations of Norse Myths and concepts from The Tree of Life, Yggdrasill, have appeared both before and after the era around 1200 AD in Iceland, when they were first written down.
Norse mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian peoples, including those who settled on Iceland.
Yggdrasil
According to Norse mythology, the first human man was Ask, or ���ash-tree���. The Norse believed that humankind is made of the same kind of tree that binds the realms of the mythic cosmos together���with one root among the gods, one among the anti-gods, and one among the dead; and that tree is Yggdrasil.
The gods pass their judgements there every day��� This ash tree is the biggest and best of all trees. Its limbs are spread over the whole world and stand over the sky. Three roots of the tree hold it up, and they extend very far. One is with the gods, and the second is with the anti-gods, where the Yawning Gap once was. The third is over Niflheim (Realm of the Dead)
Illustration by Mark Simonetti.
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Old Norse
""Many of the poems in the Poetic Edda have exactly such phenomena, but in Old Norse, which existed as a meaningful language community for several centuries. This means that there is older Old Norse and younger Old Norse, just as there is older and younger modern English.
So, because so many of these poems do contain verifiably older language than we would expect if they had been composed when they were written down in the 1200s, modern scholarship accepts the Poetic Edda as essentially an authentic transmission of genuine pre-Christian stories about the Norse gods and heroes.
Then Snorri���s Prose Edda stands at the beginning of a long tradition of teachers of this lore of gods and heroes, arranging and making sense of more ancient materials like those collected in the Poetic Edda."
Excerpted from articles in Wondrium by Jackson Crawford, Professor at large and expert on Old Norse languages and mythology.
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The Tree of Life and Tolkien's The Old Forest of Middle Earth
The Tree of Life has been an important part of many cultures over the centuries. It has been known by several names including: The Celtic Tree of Life, a symbol of a quest for spiritual enlightenment. Many cutures for the North Iroquois, the Bahai, and The Ancient Mesopotamians, The Chinese and more. The Holy Tree is the name given to the tree which Buddha sat under meditating for 49 days in his quest for enlightenment.
Middle Earth, created by J.R.R. Tolkien, has an Old Forest that has survived the war and turmoil of earlier times -- huge areas of forest have been wantonly destroyed. The trees of the Old Forest remember those times and are often angry. As the Hobbits learned, the Old Forest can be foreboding. It is here that the Ents are found. The Ents are huge, ancient tree-like sentient beings that have big leg-like roots that allow them to walk; they also have human-like faces. On Middle Earth, I find that the Old Forest itself is like one big Tree of Life.
A scene with an Ent in the Old Forest from the Hobbit movie.
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Norse Mythology --
Neil Gaiman, a master story teller with a huge following, topped the best seller list with his book, Norse Mythology. The following excerpts are from a review by Ursula Le Guin in the Guardian.
"Gaiman���s characteristically limpid, quick-running prose keeps the dramatic impetus of the medieval texts, if not their rough-hewn quality. His telling of the tales is for children and adults alike, and this is both right and wise, it being the property of genuine myth to be accessible on many levels. . .
Gaiman plays down the extreme strangeness of some of the material and defuses its bleakness by a degree of self-satire. There is a good deal of humour in the stories, the kind most children like ��� seeing a braggart take a pratfall, watching the cunning little fellow outwit the big dumb bully. Gaiman handles this splendidly. Yet I wonder if he tries too hard to tame something intractably feral, to domesticate a troll.
It all comes back to the matter of interpretation. In her 2011 book Ragnarok, AS Byatt used the Norse mythos to express her own childhood experience of world war and as a parable of the irrational human behaviours that result in mass ruin and destruction. Such interpretations are perfectly valid in themselves but don���t serve well as a retelling of the myths. They are more of the order of meditations on a religious text, sermons on the meaning of biblical stories. Gaiman does not use the Norse material this way; he simply tells us the story, and tells it well."
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The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin
In 1972, Ursula Le Quin, motivated in part by deep concerns for the outrageous Vietnam War and the destruction of the environment, wrote this Hugo prize winning book. Concepts found in the Tree of Life are found throughout the forest. And wherever there is land, there is forest. The trees that cover the land provide homes and gathering places for the native Athseans. The trees also play an integral part in their dream-based lives; their dreams both heal them and guide their behavior.
The following excerpts are from Goodreads.
"Centuries in the future, Terrans (earth people) have established a logging colony and military base named "New Tahiti" on a tree-covered planet whose small, green-furred, big-eyed inhabitants have a culture centered on lucid dreaming. Terran greed spirals around native innocence and wisdom, overturning the ancient society . . .Terran colonists take over the planet locals who are named after their planet, Athshe, meaning "forest," rather than "dirt," like their home planet Terra. They follow the 19th century model of colonization: felling trees, planting farms, digging mines and enslaving indigenous peoples. The natives are unequipped to comprehend this. They're a subsistence race who rely on the forests and have no cultural precedent for tyranny, slavery or war. "
Le Guin writes a thought provoking, logical, resolution which I shall not reveal.
The photo of Ursula Le Guin is from the Guardian. The photo of the trees is courtesy of the Tree People.
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Avatar and James Cameron
This movie of the imagination drew an extremely large -- record breaking -- number of viewers, enough to sell 2.8 billion dollars of tickets. I am fascinated by the fact that so many people wanted to see a film based on myth and history. The plot centers on a conflict regarding precious minerals found only on the planet Pandora.
James Cameron, the outstanding creator (producer, director, animation director, and writer) of Avatar and the new sequel, Avatar, The Way Of Water, has opened the doors of perception for a huge, world-wide audience. The visual and sound experience is immersive, from the camerawork to the acting.
Cameron has great knowledge and respect for myth, science fiction, and classic literature. Some of the story seems influenced by Le Guin's book, The Word For World is Forest: The greater influences are The Norse Legends and especially those of the Sacred Tree, Yggdrasil. And the greatest influence of all is the extraordinary imagination of James Cameron.
Three sequels have been written,
I recommend the following Wiki link to learn more about The World of Avatar Wikii and related matters. Well written and informative. The following excepts are from the LINK: Hometree, Na'vi Habitat, and Natural Resources.
Photo of James Cameron is by Britannica..
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Hometree
Over 20,000 years old, Hometree is the spiritual and physical home of the Tipani clan of the Na'vi. It is where they sleep and eat, learn and labor. The tree itself is over 150 meters tall and its diameter is many times that of a giant sequoia. Its interior is distinguished by a massive helical core and boasts multiple levels upon which the Na'vi communally craft and enact their rituals and customs.
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Na'vi Habitat
Each Hometree has enough room to comfortably accommodate the members of each Na'vi clan. There are no cases of Na'vi overpopulation as they live in equilibrium with the finite resources of their surrounding environment, subject to the same Darwinian forces as the jungle's other inhabitants.
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Natural Resources
Pandora is a treasure trove of both living and nonliving natural resources. It is the first celestial body to host intelligent sentient lifeforms away from Earth and is also home to a plethora of diverse and spectacular species unlike anything ever speculated by humanity.
In terms of nonliving resources, several large areas of the moon's surface contain the extremely rare superconducting mineral unobtanium. This mineral is worth twenty million standard dollars per unrefined kilogram and twice that in its refined state. The mineral's superconductivity makes it a baffling scientific discovery.
The photo is of mining unobtanium.
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Legends, Myths, and Truth
"After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear.". James Cameron
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Original, Independent, Animation
Future Thoughts
Experimental, Highly accomplished, Innovative
Created by Loek Vugs
Sound Rik Kooyman
Link: Future Thoughts Time: 2.55
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Pique-Nique Au Bord Du Chemin (Roadside Picnic)
Abstract, original, always moving on
Created by Benjiman Jeffroy, Nina-Lou Giachetti
Music: U��le Lamore
Link: Pique-Nique Time: 2.02
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King of the Sea
Remarkable, touching, exceptional visuals inspired by music.
My new music video for Kwoon. Credits : Written & Directed by St��phane Berla; Music by KWOON Eddy :
Producer - Camille Principiano
Executive Producers : Jean Fran��ois Bourrel / Nicolas de Rosanbo / C��line Vanlint
Link to: King of the SeaTime: 5.15
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Warrior Librarians
The Fight by Ukrainian Warrior Librarians by Stephen Marche, the Guardian
When Russia invaded Ukraine, a key part of its strategy was to destroy historic libraries in order to eradicate the Ukrainians��� sense of identity. But Putin hadn���t counted on the unbreakable spirit of the country���s librarians
The battles of the 21st century are hybrid wars fought on any and all fronts: military, economic, political, technological, informational, cultural. Often ignored, or relegated to marginal status, the cultural front is nonetheless foundational. The wars of this century are wars over meaning. As American forces learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, if you lose on the cultural front, military and economic dominance swiftly erode. . . Most wars are fought over who will define the future. The Ukrainian war is a struggle over who will define the past. . .
The libraries are on the frontline. The Russians targeted them from the beginning. In the initial invasion, Russian forces demolished the state archives in Chernihiv, . .They ransacked the archives in Bucha just as they looted every cultural institution they conquered. . . ���Those who burn books will eventually burn people,��� the German poet Heinrich Heine said. But in the Ukrainian war, the Russians burn books and people together.
The photo is of one of 348 libraries destroyed by the Russians as of October, 2022.+?
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Kids Picture Books
While children���s books are, on the whole, often scorned by the literary world as not altogether serious, perhaps no format is treated with the same dismissiveness as picture books. Even board books are respected at the very least as convenient chew toys, and chapter books look enough like novels to constitute a respectable gateway to true literature. But picture books seem like a transitory phase, suitable for a sleepy bedtime read-aloud or the shushed classroom break of story time, but hardly worthy of consideration on their own.
Most picture books are recommended for kids ages 4 to 8. That���s already too narrow. But picture books are tossed out even faster since many schools expect kids to read by the end of kindergarten. Because so many parents like to think of our kids as progressing and developing new skills, we allow picture books to fall away by the time kids are sounding out their Dr. Seuss.
The above is from Pamela Paul's New York Times article, Don't Let This Happen.
The illustration is by Richard Scary.
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"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
Dr Seuss
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Pioneering Black Cartoonist
Elizabeth Montague made national news in 2019 for being the first Black cartoonist for the New Yorker. Her debut graphic memoir, Maybe an Artist, depicts Montague's childhood as a Black suburban kid who had to grow up in a post-9/11 world where casual racism and prejudice from her peers were the new norm. Liz also recognized early she was dyslexic and used that to reimagine her career. We spoke with Montague about her new book and how her passion for visual storytelling changed her entire life.
Q: Why do you believe your comics resonate with so many people?
A: I tried to not be super dark and dour. I���m still touching on important and sensitive topics, but hopefully doing it in a way that isn���t depressing. And I feel like I do a pretty good job of not making light of tough subjects but making tough subjects more digestible. MORE interview by Publisers Weekly
Link to see her cartoons: Liz Montague
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Why Am I ? by Ari Wulff
I love this book. . . I come at this wonderful book, as I do all kid���s books; with the three-pronged perspective of being a parent, a parent of a disabled child with particular special challenges and needs, and finally as an Early Childhood Pre-K teacher of 3-5 year old children.First time parents who don���t have much previous involvement with kids are often bemused or even befuddled by the simplicity of many popular kids��� books. Everyone summons respect for Seuss, and other unique iconic work, but many look at some enduring but seemingly simple books by the likes of Eric Carle, Susan Boynton, Margaret Wise Brown, Crockett Johnson, and Mo Willems to name just a few, . . Wulff's drawings are enchanting and delightful. My students adored them and looked at the book many times after each reading. That's a nice bonus, but to me, the overwhelming value of the book is the seemingly simple story that looms larger as it's told. -- This Amazon Customer Review was written by a teacher:
Why Am I was written and illustrated by Ari Wulff.
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Loyalty, Dogs and Kids...
How do you explain loyalty to children? Does loyalty have a place in the world outside? Is it a virtue? Does loyalty bring trouble and problems? Or is it rewarding?
Does loyalty have a beginning and an end? Where can a child find examples of loyalty that they can experience and understand? In stories? In daily life? In computer games?
Dogs offer a wonderful way for a child to understand loyalty. Dogs are the embodiment of loyalty and a story with dogs can illustrate loyalty...
Suppose it is long, long ago...A sister and brother, are on a journey that will take them home. They have stopped for the night and are sleeping at a campsite in the woods. They have been riding on horseback, accompanied by two soldiers who are believed to be loyal to their father, and by their two dogs.
Betrayal...But the men are not loyal. They are traitors and the children find that they have been kidnapped. The children's dogs appear to be dead.
Thus begins a hard journey for the children, through the mountains to the land of the Forest people. There the children are imprisoned in an old castle. Their father cannot rescue them, because he does not know where his children have been taken. The children are dismayed and frightened.
Loyal Dogs...Until one cold foggy night, with the forest and the castle enveloped in mist, the sound of howling dogs is heard by the imprisoned children. Their dogs, their loyal dogs, have found them. Hope returns. And thus unfolds the story of the Castle In The Mist .
The illustration above , from the book Castle In The Mist, are by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty.
Complimentary copies of the award-winning Planet Of The Dogs Series are available for therapy reading dog owners and organizations. Write us at planetofthedogs@gmail.com. and we'll send you the books.
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"And the woman said,"His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always . . ." -- Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories (1902)
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