a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

 Dear Henry, Book Seven, Sophocles's Oedipus the King of the Bucket List Book Adventure ( read about that here ), is done! Let me tell you all about it. Sophocles was born in 497 BC or 496 BC in Hippeios Colonus in Attica, just a few years before the Battle of Marathon.   He was the son of a wealthy armorer and was well-tutored and educated. He was also more than a playwright. Sophocles also served as a soldier and statesman. His first known public duty was to lead the thanksgiving chant or paean, celebrating the Greek victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC when he was around 17.   Sophocles would have his first artistic triumph at the Dionysia in 468 BC when he toppled the great Aeschylus and would become the premier playwright in Greece following the death of Aeschylus in 456 BC. Sophocles also served as one of the treasurers in Athens (the Hellerotamiai) and as one of the 10 Athenian generals in the Samos war.   He died in 405/6 BC, having reached the miraculous age of 90, a

Dear Henry, I'm taking a rather in-depth course requiring studying,  weekend availability, and evenings in a classroom. So, of course, the evening classes are a bummer. The entire class is tired, grumpy, and needs dinner. The class also has "one of those people," you know, the person who has unlimited questions and requires a lot of clarification.   It isn't that the questions are bad, and, in fact, I've learned a lot because of those questions, but because everyone would rather be someplace else, every question invites scoffing, signing, and, invariably, eye-rolling. Or, in other words, scorn. Whenever I see the reactions, I cringe because I know the questioner can feel the atmosphere around them, and I'm sure it hurts their feelings. Scorn is so hurtful to others; if I'm honest, I'm guilty of doing it too. Not about questions, though (as impatient as I may feel about missing dinner time).  However, when it comes to all things suffering, I can be pret

Dear Henry, I've compiled a list of my favorite Aeschylus quotes from the books Agamemnon , The Libation Bearers , The Eumenides , and (my favorite) Prometheus Bound . I personally found Aeschylus much more quotable than Homer's works, The Iliad and The Odyssey , although there was a ton of wisdom within those works as well.  1. "Justice tilts her scale so that those only learn who suffer" - I really feel, because of " the accident ,"  the truth of this quote.  2. "In few men is it part of nature to respect a friend's prosperity without begrudging him."  - Right?  Have you ever been jealous of a friend? 3. "Even in the slave's heart, the gift of the Divine lives on." - Because of my work on the Old Lick Cemetery , this one has really begun to hit home. 4. "What can wash off the blood once spilled upon the ground."  - Right?  The marks of violence never leave. 6. "Rocky and rough are the paths for those who see and

 Dear Henry, This Lent/Easter did not go according to plan. Initially, I planned to spend a quiet, prayerful Lent and dig into the season's mysteries. But, unfortunately, that isn't what happened at all. In January, I signed up for and was accepted into Roanoke County's Master Gardener program. There has been quite a bit of work associated with that course (I don't know why that surprised me), and we moved into our new home at the end of January. So there has been the work of unpacking, organizing, and establishing a home garden. Then, finally, there is the work I've been doing for the Old Lick Cemetery . In addition to the physical chores of "putting the cemetery to rights," I have also been helping the "upper management" of the project pull together historical information to create interpretive signs telling the cemetery's history. As we started digging into the records, we all discovered that the cemetery has more layers than an ogre and a