The Lotus-Eaters

and My First Taste of Persimmons

    
     Last Monday evening I got my first Christmas gift - I met a lotus-eater!  One of the rental customers who had just flown in from California was setting his heavy backpack down at my counter and asked me if I knew what a persimmon was.  I said I wasn't sure, so I asked if it was a small round fruit like a peach thinking of something I saw once, but was maybe a kumquat.   He said, "Funny you should mention that, I just happen to have a backpack full of them so I can show you!  They grow in our backyard in California.  Would you like to have one?"  I said, "Really?  Sure!"  He was bringing them for family and friends and took one out of his backpack to give to me.  It was similar in size and texture to a tomato, only a little thicker or harder and more orange in color.  I asked if you are supposed to eat it just like an apple or a tomato, and he said yes, exactly.

     I waited to try the persimmon until today when it seemed ripe.  The texture was a little less hard to push on and seemed like it might get too soft if I waited longer.  I was amazed at how sweet, juicy and delicious it was!  The flavor and texture were a surprise.  I was also surprised I could eat the whole fruit with the skin and no seeds or core to remove.  Only the calyx that attaches to the stem had to be removed.

     The texture reminded me of a cantaloupe when it's not quite ripe, perfectly firm, not too crisp and yet slightly juicy.  The skin was easy to eat as well, like the skin of an apple or plum.  The taste was sweet and reminded me of a mango, or a honeydew melon, but with a distinct flavor of its own.  I also looked up some information about it:

     The Date-plum (Diospyros lotus) is a persimmon native to southwest Asia and southeast Europe. It was known to the ancient Greeks as "the fruit of the gods," or was often referred to as "nature's candy," i.e. Dios pyros "divine fruit," or literally "the wheat of Zeus," also "God's pear," and "Jove's fire."  Its English name is thought to derive from the Persian Khormaloo خرمالو literally "date-plum," referring to the taste of this fruit which is reminiscent of both plums and dates. This species is one candidate for the lotus mentioned in Homer's Odyssey:  it was so delicious that those who ate it forgot about returning home and wanted to stay and eat lotus with the lotus-eaters.

      The persimmon fruits, like the tomato, are not popularly considered to be berries, but in terms of their botanical morphology, the fruit is in fact a berry.  They are classified into two categories: astringent and non-astringent. The non-astringent is as crisp as an apple when ripe. However, astringent varieties must ripen to be very soft before it can be eaten. If not, it will be a very bitter experience for you. But once ripened, the astringent varieties are as sweet or sweeter than non-astringent varieties.

     My persimmon was not a bitter experience at all, but very sweet.  The experience reminded me that something that seems bitter to me at first, when I give it time, has a way of ripening into a sweet fruit of life.  To use the words of the Lotus Eaters, "A gracing, with a taste of murder in it." One Japanese post says that in Buddhism, the persimmon is used as a symbol of transformation. The green persimmon is acrid and bitter, but the fruit becomes very sweet as it ripens. Thus, man might be basically ignorant but that ignorance is transformed into wisdom as the persimmon's bitterness is transformed into sweet delicious fruit. Dried persimmons, or hoshi gaki, are served at New Year's time in Hawaii. They signify health and success in life for the new year.

Six Persimmons 

(A 13th-century Chinese painting by the monk, Mu Qi (Mu Ch'i), the painter better known in China as Fa-Chang. It was painted during the Song Dynasty.) 

     Another 'Fruit of the Gods' description, in China this fruit is used to regulate one’s ch’i (personal energy) and is symbolic of joy. To the Japanese, it is a symbol of triumph.  They also have a star inside of them when sliced:

     Eating a persimmon in a dream forecasts a surprise meeting with a past friend or former associate. But if the fruit was puckered, the meeting will not be pleasant.

The Lotus Eaters "It Hurts" 

Grab a Yule Log, and your cat:

This is Willow, my daughter Ariele's new kitty, posing with a vintage Christmas bow from 1970's.  It's Christmas Eve and he is enjoying laying down to watch the video of a fireplace and listening to Christmas music with me and Ariele:

This is Willow on November 1st, a few days after we brought him home.  We found him at the Humane Society a while after the difficult loss of her last kitten.  When she saw him, it was instant bonding.  He has the softest fur ever!  It feels more like a rabbit's fur, and he has really large rabbit-like feet.

Re-Post, Lazarus Saturday: Red Onions, Easter Eggs, and Icons

I woke up in the middle of the night last week (April 2013) from one of those Poe-esque dreams and understood his loathing of sleep,

"Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them."-- Edgar Allan Poe

so I turned on the TV to see if anything interesting, or more "uplifting," was on.  Someone was talking about Queen Esther and then mentioned Easter and that some of the Christian traditions of Easter are from pagan origins.  I knew that this was true, but when they mentioned red dyed Easter eggs, I hadn't heard of that before so I decided to look them up online.  I found that they had a different meaning from their pagan origins, which included child sacrifice and shedding of blood.  Dyed red Easter eggs are mostly significant within the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition.  I saw many interesting pictures of dyed red Easter eggs online, as well as pictures of icons of various saints.  I also found stories I hadn't heard before within the Christian tradition about the history of red eggs.  One story was about Mary Magdalene giving a red egg to the emperor of Rome to tell him about the Resurrection of Christ.

I finally fell asleep again, and this time I had a vivid (rather than morbid) dream:  I'm in a grocery store (similar to the Walmart grocery store across from Lowe's near my home).  I find a roll of bread and I realize I need to go outside to get my money to pay for the bread.  As I am walking outside I am looking down at my cell phone, which in this dream is an I-phone with a touch screen.  Many colorful photos of icons of saints are on the screen of the I-phone as I am scrolling through them, trying to get to my text messages.  They are really colorful and beautiful images.  Once outside, I look up and see a Greek restaurant in the same building, just next to Wal-mart's grocery store.  As I look up, the owner comes out of the restaurant dressed in grey priest's robes and I seem to recognize him from being his customer.  He was going to the parking lot, which as I look up, I see several saints from the icons and priests on motorcycles and they are all going to his church with him for services.  He says, "Hello Theresa!" and they all start saying, "Hi Theresa!"  I said "Hi!" and then I watch them as they drive away.  Then I woke up.  (My sister just bought a new Harley Sportster this week, so that could explain the motorcycles?)

While looking up information about red Easter eggs, I was also looking online to see if there were any Coptic Orthodox Christian churches in Oklahoma.  I have always wanted to attend their liturgy service to hear the Coptic language.  The closest one to me used to be in Dallas, TX.  However, I found that there was now one in the Bixby/Tulsa area about 90 miles east of Oklahoma City.  I looked up their website and saw that this week was their Holy Week and Easter celebration.  This made me realize why I may have felt that Easter was not over yet!  However, when I went back to look again at their website to call for information the next morning after my dream, I scrolled further down the page this time and saw that the Coptic Orthodox church has an Oklahoma City community that meets every month at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church!  I thought I dreamed about the Greek priest and icons because I was looking at them online, but I didn't have any idea that the Coptic church was meeting at the Greek Orthodox church that very same morning after my dream for Lazarus Saturday (Feast of St. Lazarus)!  I didn't see the announcement in time to attend the service, but I did call that day and speak to Father Andrew Kahlil about attending their next service, and I have been attending each service since April 2013.

The Greek Orthodox church had an Easter egg dying event after their service on Thursday this week, but I had to work so I tried a recipe for using red onion skins to dye them at home and decorated the eggs using leaves from my garden. (They are more red than they appear in the photos.) The eggs are a reminder of the saints from the Icons that visited me in my dream, first on the screen of an I-phone, and then in the parking lot on motorcycles on their way to their Lazarus Rising service, which led me to the Coptic Church in OKC that meets at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church in OKC every month.

The first thing I noticed when I attended my first Coptic Christian Orthodox service was the picture of St. George on a horse in armor, with a sword in each hand.  He was a Christian martyr and in our day could have very well been riding a Harley.

http://oca.org/questions/liturgicalyear/red-easter-eggs

Johnny "Angel"

     Today, as I stood near the piano with a tape measure in hand, thinking how to get home with this second-hand treasure, I wondered if I had taken on too much of a challenge:  "57 3/4 L X 24" D X 36 1/2" H" and approximately 400 lbs. 

     On the brink of my dilemma (of how to get the piano home), my enthusiasm began to fade rehearsing phone calls to piano movers to gather estimates, looking at YouTube videos about what it takes to move a piano, and googeling similar items and prices.  I started to think maybe my unexpected find was beyond my reach for several reasons: 

     What if it was too far out of tune to be a decent piano?  How often would it need to be tuned?  Or moved?  I  first thought a friend with a pickup would be enough to help us get it home.  But suddenly, I was having a crash course in pianos: something I had always dreamed of owning, but I had never looked into realistically.  

     For myself, I might have passed.  But for my daughter, who has always wanted to learn how to play the piano, I didn't have the heart to pass it up.  

     The scenes of the past six months ran through my mind like cards being shuffled by a card shark.  Her father barely survived a suicide attempt in June.  She barely survived her 21st birthday in August and spent days in a crisis center recovering.  Her beautiful calico kitten, adopted after she got home from the crisis center, was killed by a horrible attack from two dogs due to a negligent roommate, which ended their year long relationship.  She almost lost her job due to the effects of new medicine, ongoing panic attacks and depression, and an escalating abusive relationship. Then in November, we lost her dad due to a heroin overdose.  He had been struggling to overcome his addiction for a while.  Being in physical pain with no health care alternatives, as well as the loss of his girlfriend in the last year to an overdose; as Shakespeare says, "misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."  She lost almost everything dear to her, on top of dealing with my diagnosis of stage IV breast cancer.  

     What would it mean to her to wake up on Christmas morning, facing all she has been through recently, to something that could ease her pain and give her something pleasant to focus on that can actually help her to develop healthy coping skills?  Music, like art, is a good start.  (I also got her a new turntable; but, playing the piano is a more creative form of therapy which involves eyes, ears, hands, feet, and heart.)  That's why I decided to buy the piano.

     Mesmerized in thoughts, I circled like a hawk unsure where to land for a few minutes and then came back to the piano wondering what was I thinking trying to buy a piano and how to bring it home.  One of the employees nearby began to tell me how great a condition the piano was in.  While I listened, my eye caught sight of someone approaching behind her with a pink electric guitar over his shoulder.  (As a breast cancer survivor, this put a smile on my face.)  He caught my eye too, because he looked like someone I would have known, tattoos all down his arms, long hair pulled back, gauged ear plugs, and he walked with an air about him, as an intelligent and artistic musician.  

     He came up and (looking admiringly at the piano) asked if I had bought it.  I said, "yes, and by the way, nice guitar!"  He seemed to know about keyboard instruments and mentioned he has several.  He asked if I had a way to move it and I said I wasn't sure yet.  So far nothing had been decided.  He then offered to help me get it home!  He said he has moved many of his own organs and pianos of similar size.  He also had a Suburban and said he'd be glad to move it for me with the help of one of his friends, or if his friend wasn't available, he felt sure he could find someone from around the UCO campus to help.  (He was an art major at UCO and graduated in 2010.)  

      I was so amazed that someone would consider helping, even after telling him it probably weighed 400 lbs.  We exchanged numbers and he said his name was Johnny.  I said I would be able to pay him something for helping me although it wasn't much compared to the price of a piano mover.  He didn't mind at all, he said he just wanted to help.  

      We met at the store after his friend got off work and they managed to get the piano loaded into the Suburban.  It wasn't as difficult getting it loaded since the store had some flats with rollers and some additional help lifting.  But the bigger challenge came when we got to my apartment, with only the two of them to get the piano out of the Suburban and into the apartment.

     They made it safely over the first hurdle, getting the piano out of the Suburban, (and only one smashed finger).  I was thinking, "What do I have that they could roll the piano on?"  Just as I asked whether I could find something to set the piano on, Johnny said, "I have a skateboard."  I said, "Oh Yes!  So do I!"  The excitement was mutual, not only that there was suddenly a way to move the piano through the parking lot to the apartment on rollers, but also because we were excited to know that we both have skateboards!!

      It worked incredibly well!  We skate-boarded the piano all the way to the (two) steps, then had to maneuver it again once it was on the porch.  I was so thrilled not only to have my piano moved, but to have it delivered with such artistic style!  'Cause, as Johnny said, "That's the way we roll!"

      When we got the piano inside the apartment, they were careful to put everything in place and to instruct me how to replace a screw that was missing on one side.  As Johnny looked around the room for a moment, he said, "you must be an art major."  I said, "Yes, I was an art major, but then I changed to English."  He said he got his degree in art hoping to be an art teacher, but now it will require more than his art degree to teach.  In the meantime, he's working random jobs after graduating until he can pass more tests and get an additional degree.  Then he said, "when I saw you standing there by the piano, something just told me, God told me, to come and help you."  Then he said, "I could also tell you were pretty cool" (i.e. not a square).  Nice.  God definitely knows how to make the scene - being in the right place at the right time!  And I also realized,  musicians with guitars are sometimes like angels with wings.  With that in mind, our dreams are never too big!

Johnny "Angel"

     (The photos on this post are generic this time but nearly identical to the originals, my camera is broken on my phone due to water damage - it ended up in a cup of water, submerged for - not sure how long - or I would have taken many pictures today!)

Happy 65th Birthday Ozzy: Pictures of Matchstick Men & You

To pay tribute to Ozzy's 65th Birthday, (Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013) I'm posting one of my favorite Ozzy songs, a cover by Ozzy and Type O Negative of Status Quo's "Matchstick Men":



Here's a link to the original by Status Quo in 1968:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8THWF09D9w&list=RDY8THWF09D9w

KCDIY - Tuning in now...

http://www.kkfi.org/program/kcdiy/#

Tuesday at 12:00 am

KCDIY

KCDIY Radio is Kansas City’s last and only punk radio program. Each week is a themed selection of punk and hardcore from the past 30 years, including new music each week.

Josh's Brother, Justin Betterton, hosts this radio program each Tuesday beginning at 12:00 am.  Don't miss it!  It's what he would have wanted.

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