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.(inspired by Chuck Lorre’s Big Bang Theory vanity post script)
They are starting to put ads on our blog. We do not approve these and are not getting any residuals whatsoever, so I apologize for the content. I’ll see what I can do about it.
“Love suffereth long….beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.”
1 Corinthians 3:4, 7-8 (ASV)“And then he spoke of a girl of surpassing beauty and faithfulness.
I can only assume he meant you.”
– The Princess Bride
By Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
One of my favorite stories of all time is one of the oldest stories of all time. It also happens to be one of the best love stories.
They call it the Odyssey – the story of the Greek hero Odysseus, written about 3,000 years ago by a man named Homer; but tales of the Greek hero had been passed around by word of mouth for many, many years before that.
Odysseus was a king, a soldier, a genius, and easily the most beloved character in all of Greek history. But he is remembered first and foremost as a father and husband because the Odyssey is his struggle to return to the home and family he was forced to leave behind.
Long story short: Odysseus is called to fight in a war that lasts 10 years, and then takes another 10 years on top of that to get home, making it 20 years round-trip. All that time, his beloved wife Penelope waits for her husband’s return – a return which never seems to come for those 2 very long decades.
Teaser: there’s a happy ending to this story, which is one reason why it is so beloved. But let me tell you a bit about Odysseus and Penelope’s story, and why I love them so much. Continue reading
“You can say ‘I love you”
a thousand ways,
but you can say it better
with silence
and a kiss.”
Chloe Thurlow
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“Is not a kiss
the very autograph of love?”
Henry Theophilus Finck,
Romantic Love .
.
What better way to celebrate the month of Love than with artistic impressions of a peculiar phenomenon that is at once more expressive than song, more articulate than philosophy, more romantic than roses, and more delicious (dare I say) than chocolate – The Kiss.
Expressed and understood in all languages, cultures, countries, and eras, the kiss is the very symbol of our simplest yet deepest affections. So, pucker up, folks. Gathered here are some of the world’s most beautiful sentiments and masterpieces culled from centuries of amore. Enjoy! Continue reading
Dante and Beatrice by Henry Holiday
“Everything I understand, I understand only because I love.”
Leo Tolstoy“To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.”
Karen Sunde
Fun fact:
In every single city and town in Italy, you will find a street named “Via Dante”.
At first it seems puzzling. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was not a king or ruler of any kind. He didn’t fight in any major battles, and he was a miserable failure at politics (he even got kicked out of his beloved Florence for it). Dante was nothing more nor less than a writer.
But Dante is arguably the most famous man Italy has produced (and the one Italians are most proud to call their own). He is often called by us English speakers the “Italian Shakespeare”, but as a writer and poet, Dante has no equal and no parallel.
By far his most famous and enduring work is his Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia), a work made up of three parts chronicling Dante’s mystical tour of Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and ultimately – Heaven (Paradiso).
There are many reasons why his magnum opus is considered great – it was written in Tuscan Italian instead of latin (the common literary language), which laid the foundations for modern Italian. It’s a grand collection and embellishment of all the Catholic Church’s teachings concerning the afterlife. It’s the Who’s-Who of the medieval world, with Dante placing all VIPs, friends, enemies, courtiers, nobles, and even men of the church where he saw fit (spoiler: most end up in hell). It was an instant bestseller when it was published, and rocked Europe with its originality.
But what would push Dante to write such a work?
It was the love of a woman. Continue reading
Cupid kissing Psyche
“Being deeply loved by someone
gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply
gives you courage.”
Lao Tzu“To love is nothing.
To be loved is something.
But to be loved by the person you
love…is everything.”
Bill Russell
Although the love story of Cupid and Psyche has existed in oral tradition since forever and a day ago, it made its first written appearance in the Roman novel Metamorphoseon: Asinius Aureas by Lucius Apuleius in the 2nd century AD. The longevity and popularity of the tale has led to a plethora of art through the ages depicting their romance, so I had to include just a handful of favorites in my telling of it. Continue reading
The Nef Chronicles 