A Serendipitous Confluence of Circumstances

There are times when I am amazed by the way circumstances seem to weave themselves into just the right pattern according to ones current situation or frame of mind.  I have a few thoughts to share on this that require more than the 140 characters permitted by Twitter.

In this particular case, the Animus will be travelling to a distant place this weekend to celebrate the retirement of  a dear friend from the US Navy.  We leave on the morrow and so I will be mostly incommunicado until at least Monday night.  Looking over the various Steamlands calendars I see that I will unfortunately miss some promising events.  On Friday there will be a welcome party and concert by Tanstaafl Constantine in Cape Wrath.   Saturday’s events include the Marzipan Teahouse Formal Ball and a meeting of the Caledon Paranormal Society in which the topic of discussion will be “Soul Mates and Paranormal connections to water” (topics of particular interest to me at the moment).  This Sunday the New Champagne Rooms in Babbage Square ((End the Tyranny!)) Ehem!  will host a Music Appreciation Night with Joshua Pfeiffer from the Vernian Process.

In Which I Attend a Portion of the Grand Tour

The weekend of June 20th was remarkable for several reasons.  First, Sunday the 21st was the Summer Solstice, a significant date for many reasons.  Second, this weekend the populace of the 19th Century grid enjoyed the much anticipated Summer Grand Tour.  Third, it seemed the gods of the grid, our esteemed Service Provider, were a might unsettled this past weekend and all manner of chaos ensued.   There is a fourth reason to mark the weekend, but I will expound on that later.

The Midsummer Grand Tour

I will not dwell over long on the significance of the Solstice.  Suffice it to say that it serves as a touchstone event in many cultural and faith traditions.  Most prosaically we say that it marks the beginning of Summer, although climatologically and astronomiclly speaking Midsummer is the more correct term.  And so another year rolls around and the seasons come and go.   For the curious I recommend your further investigations begin with the Solstice article in the aetheric compendium Wikipedia.

On the Bane and Boon of our Existence: Technology

Gentle readers,

I am once again struck by the Muse, not of Poets or Artists, but of Philosophers.  Yes, I know, the Greeks had no Muse for Philosophers, but they should have.  Inspiration is every bit a part of the philosopher’s trade as it is for the arts.  I also believe there should have been Muses for the artisans and tradesmen.  Is the fashioning of a well formed tool any less artistic than employing that tool in the construction of the finest edifice or most sublime statuary?

Which brings me to the topic on which I wish to wax philosophic for a while.  What brought this to mind was a conversation I had with my good friend Miss Elspeth Woolley the other night.  I later had the opportunity to debate and flesh out my initial thoughts in more detail with my good friend M. Zebrati Merricks.

Conversation and Inspiration

Miss Woolley and I were discussing some difficulties being experienced with various tools we use to communicate events and so forth to the citizens of Caledon.  I made the quip, “Technology is the Anti-Christ.”  She laughingly agreed but pointed out that without it we, meaning she and I, would not be having the discussion in which we were engaged.  It was an excellent point and got me thinking about how it was, in this way, like fire, useful when tamed and disastrous when it is not.  To which she commented that, also like fire, it tends to have a mind of its own, and that both technology and fire follow the laws of their own nature but sometimes seem mysterious.  This really got me thinking about the depth of the fire as technology metaphor.

In Which Emperor Calamari Receives a Pleasant Rezday Surprise

There were a great many wonderful events and activities this past weekend.  Unfortunately, the need for extensive meditation, ritual sacrifice and rites of devotion to the Divine Feminine kept me away from most of them.  For instance, I missed what was from all accounts a truly magnificent performance by the Marzipan Sweeties dance revue.  For an accounting of this event I direct you to Mr. Mako Magellan’s review in the Victorian Second Life ning entitled “‘Glamour’ comes to the Marzipan”.  Miss Woolley has put together a truly magnificent troupe of talented ladies.  I look forward to their further performances.

This past weekend also saw the Warming Day celebration in Orcadia, the launching of Issue #6 of The Primgraph and a welcoming tea in New Toulouse.   The one event I was able to attend was the Belated RezDay celebration for His Imperial Majesty, Emperor SteelCobra Calamari, the benevolent ruler of Steeltopia.