Poem for Friday

The Pupil Asks; The Master Answers
By Farid ud-Din Attar
Translated by Raficq Abdulla

'Why was Adam driven from the garden?'
The pupil asked his master. 'His heart was hardened
With images, a hundred bonds that clutter the earth
Chained Adam to the cycle of death following birth.
He was blind to this equation, living for something other
Than God and so out of paradise he was driven
With his mortal body's cover his soul was shriven.
Noblest of God's creatures, Adam fell with blame,
Like a moth shrivelled by the candle's flame,
Into history which taught mankind shame.
Since Adam had not given up his heart
To God's attachment, there was no part
For Adam in paradise where the only friend
Is God; His will is not for Adam to imagine and bend.'

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Poem in honor of "The Way To Eden" which I have just watched so I can review it tomorrow; one of the silliest Star Trek episodes ever, yet I hold deep affection for it, particularly since Spock is so sympathetic to the hippies. In a funny way, it has dated less than some of the episodes less obviously about the '60s -- the music would have been terrible in any era, but I miss the swing toward impractical idealism.

After getting lost all over Fairfax, I had a lovely lunch with , whose birthday present I forgot (and she brought me The Princess Diaries so I doubly suck), but none of these foibles could make the Indian food any less UTTERLY FABULOUS OMG and we discussed the history of the Justice League, our mutual meh-ness about BSG, how I need to show her the Gina Torres episodes of HTLJ, smashers vs. intellectuals and something that seems like it should have been obvious years ago: the reason there have been so many incarnations of James Bond is because JAMES BOND IS A TIME LORD! I think it's also why he's 1) invincible and 2) good with gadgets (I'm sure he has a sonic screwdriver somewhere in his collection of goodies).

From there I went back around the Beltway and up 270 to the Borders in Gaithersburg in search of a book and a nunchuck for sons (still no luck -- they had a retro controller, not a nunchuck, waah!) Despite this lack of success, I found The Ultimate Design Source Book for Crafters on the bargain table for $9.99, which has dozens of public domain Celtic graphics and Art Nouveau and a whole bunch of alphabets, including one where all the letters are cats, so it was a worthwhile trip. Rushed home to get younger son -- older son had Shakespeare Club till right before dinner -- did all the household stuff that did not get done earlier, had pizza, watched Smallville where I had no idea that Tori Spelling was going to play a bitch gossip columnist! I was surprised Clark didn't sleep with her, since her initials were LL. *giggling* And I hope she is not dead just because she got...splashed!

I had totally mixed feelings about this episode, best summed up as Oliver-Clark-Lois-Chloe-Jimmy YAY, Lana-Lex-Spawn-No Lionel BOO! Plus the product placements (this week it's Lana's Sprint Razr) get really annoying week after week, though I hear Desperate Housewives does the same thing, just with classier items that don't have labels right on them. Mostly I tried to tune out Lana's "But what if I still love him? But what if I can't trust him?" routine which I got sick of years ago and to focus on Chloe, who kicked ass, putting Linda Lake in her place, telling Clark to give her a goddamn break about keeping Lana's secrets after she's kept his for so long and calling Jimmy on his moonlighting for Lois. I thought she was really lovely telling Linda off in particular -- Linda being the sort of person who says, "I quit doing freelance when I quit fetching lattes for pudgy newsroom associates" -- hence I hope Tori returns, even though she's Tori Spelling.

It bums me out that Lois has to be kept in the dark about Clark and Oliver, though at least with her it takes a concerted effort on the part of the two of them and Chloe as well -- Lana's just oblivious. Lois hits Clark with the "thou shalt not lie" clause, "What would you do if you realized someone close to you had a serious hero complex?", and it takes Clark a nervous minute to realize she doesn't mean him! And later she says that she loves Oliver so much, he could tell her he was from Mars and she'd dismiss it as an endearing quirk. She and Clark are going to be an awesome couple once he finally grows up...I can say this now that I can't root for Clark/Lex and see lots of potential for Clark/Oliver in the interim. And has Clark ever hugged Chloe spontaneously the way he did this episode? I loved, loved, loved that! Particularly since she wasn't bemoaning that it wasn't a romantic hug, she just wanted that acknowledgment from her friend.

I can't make myself care about the Lex-Lana baby because I am so sure it is going to be 1) dead or 2) a demon before May sweeps, and now that has explained to me that there is a canonical Clark-Lex baby in Justice League or some variation because of the cloning experiment that made Superboy, I'd rather think about him. When Lana said she thought Lex deserved better than her and her regrets about Clark and Lex said that he goes to bed every night praying that he doesn't get what he deserves, all I could think was how Lana is exactly what he deserves...he wanted Clark and he's going to have to settle for the girl Clark is going to leave behind. I really wish I did not resent Lana and her whininess so much and could care about her as a character but between her OMG MUST HAVE TRUE LOVE NOW and the three and a half emotions Kristin Kreuk can express, it's just not happening. Instead I'm all psyched that Lois thinks Clark-pretending-to-be-someone-else is a great kisser. Though when she kisses Superman eventually, she won't think it's awfully familiar?


A trumpet triton from the Solomon Islands in the Delaware Museum of Natural History's fabulous shell collection.


The fancy clam relatives remind me of the singing baby Audrey IIs from Little Shop of Horrors.


Giant rainforest snails. There are dozens in this exhibit.


There are huge collections on display of cowries, scallops and other shells with thousands of variations, and then even more not on display available for research.

So David Beckham is moving to the US. I wonder whether the kids' soccer team will go see DC United play LA again. *ggg*