THOUGHT

Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations of the Book of Job

 Job Confessing His Presumption to God Who Answers from the Whirlwind

My thought: Life teaches us how much we can do, and how little we can do.

Is this about 2 levels of experience? We may be able to do little materially, much spiritually. To the contrary we may be able to do much materially and little spiritually. As we lose capabilities in our material bodies we trust that the spirit grows stronger as God prepares us for the transition to the non-material realm. The life of the spirit is no more confined to the mind than it is to the brain.

 

 

HAPPY OLD MAN

Friday, December 30, 2011

Ageing

For many years I used to say, "this is the best year of my life".
But everything comes to an end.

2012 looms ahead as a stopping point.  There will be many challenges; there will be triumphs-- and failures.  This is par for the course, but right now with greater intensity than ever before.

Two years ago, when Ellie took up Blake, a great new vitality came into our lives. What had been my (occasional) obsession became a primary interest for us. For two years we have posted on William Blake: Religion and Psychology, one or the other each day (ramhornd.blogspot.com).

That was a new discipline for me; heretofore I did Blake sporadically for a few months and then something else for a few months.   But every day!! No way, until two years ago. A salutary development.  (It occurred to me that this
might have been the shape of my life, had not ten wartime years intruded over most of my twenties.)

However this intensive mental activity came at a cost.  After an intense two hours doing research I discovered I was sleepy (you might say my brain started getting sluggish).  Strangely enough it was much like what happened to me after two intense hours of tennis.

Wow! a Discovery! Intense mental activity and/or physical activity led to a diminution of energy- for one or the other.

 For an old man the challenge of this is to learn balanced habits that use the appropriate amount of the two activities-- to go from one to the other.  Perhaps this was simple second nature to many people much younger that my (advanced) age, but for me it was a Revelation.

Memory is the greatest problem.  Strangely enough a fairly large vocabulary was still in force, but I was frequently guilty of making up a sentence with appropriate words, only to the find the appropriate words forgotten before I got around to writing it;  like going to the bathroom for something and forgetting the purpose before I got there.)

Memory is something to fight for.  There are in fact two levels: the immediate memory continually diminished, but a (largely) unconscious reservoir exists available under certain circumstances.  The challenge is to learn how to use it more consciously.  Memory loss is one of the primary concomitants of Alzheimer's disease and similar disabilities.

How can we learn to remember?

CHRISTMAS CARD

 

Image by William Blake

Our Lady with the Infant Jesus Riding on a Lamb With

St John

From Victoria and Albert Museum

Luke 1

76] And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
[77] to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
[78] through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high
[79] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
[80] And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14: 27

CLAYTON FAMILY ARRIVES

In 1682 William Penn sailed for America with a large fleet of ships carrying immigrants. Perhaps most of these people were Quakers, but many were not. William Penn himself landed at New Castle, but at least one of his fleet made its way into Chesapeake Bay: the Submission, out of Liverpool and Bristol. The Submission arrived at Choptank, on the Choptank River in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in November 1682. The "ship's log" lists her passengers, among them James and Jane Clayton and their six children. They were from Middlewich, in the Cheshire County, England. 

 Many or most of the passengers of the Submission disembarked at Choptank and traveled overland to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on the west side of the Delaware River a few miles above Philadelphia. It may be assumed that James Clayton and his family were in this number. Neither is it difficult to imagine that some of the party found desirable home sites along the way. Each of the three Clayton sons of James Clayton, as he reached his majority, appeared in the records of Kent County, Delaware.^[1]

CLAYTON FAMILY MOVES SOUTH 4

 III. The Georgia Claytons

As stated above the only Claytons remaining in N.C. long after the beginning of the 19th century were the descendants of John Clayton in Hyde County and of William Clayton by his third son, William, in Craven County. James III is presumed to have been lost in the Revolution. The younger son, Thomas moved to Hancock County, Ga about 1804. Some years later he was followed by his two nephews, James and Dempsey, who were both apparently local preachers in the Methodist Church. We also have records of several Delamars and Carruthers families moving to Georgia, very likely related to the Claytons and also Eunice Cannon, daughter of James Clayton, the blacksmith of Craven County.

Thomas Clayton, grandson of the original James, settled first in Hancock County Ga. By 1812 the tax list there showed the following: Thomas Clayton, Sr. Thomas Clayton, Jr. James Clayton (This James was probably the son of Thomas, Sr.) Eunice Cannon (Thomas Clayton's sister) By 1820 there were three James Claytons in Hancock County. In addition to Thomas's son, it appears that his nephew James, son of William, had moved to the area.

In 1816 Thomas Clayton and most of his family moved south to Pulaski Co. In 1820 he died there. His two older sons, James and Thomas, had remained in Hancock County. From the Bible of his son, James, still preserved by the family of Margaret Russell Clayton of Eufaula, Alabama, we have the birthdates of his children: Miriam Barcliff b 1787; died 1805 in Hancock Co. James b. 1788, moved to Monroe Co 1827 Thomas b 1790, died 1834 in Hancock County, Ga. Nelson b. 1796, lived in Pulaski Co, then Alabama William b. 1799 Delamar b. 1802 Sarah b. 1804 Easter b. 1807.

Margaret Clayton Russell has written a family history that gives details about the lives of all of these people. In this article mention is made of Nelson Clayton and his descendants. Nelson Clayton, son of Thomas, son of James, son of James, married Sarah Leith Carruthers in 1819 in Pulaski County. In 1835 he moved to south Alabama, where his brother, James had already settled.

Nelson Clayton's youngest son, Henry Delamar Clayton, born 1827, became a major general in the Confederate army and later was president of the University of Alabama. He was the great grandfather of Margaret Clayton Russell, from whom much of this family history came. The general's son, Henry D. Clayton, Jr. became a Congressman from Alabama. Meanwhile Thomas' nephews, James and Dempsey, the sons of William, moved westward from Hancock County with the advancing frontier.

CLAYTON FAMIILY MOVES SOUTH 3

5. William Clayton of Craven Co. NC

Descendants of William Clayton

Two of William Clayton's sons, James and Dempsey, were Methodist ministers, and they both moved to Georgia early in the 19th Century. William Clayton's third son, William, appears to have remained in Craven County.

William Clayton married Susannah Leverman in 1792.
Bondsman: John Clayton; T. Mckey, Witness. (This may or may not be out William Clayton.)

---

---

6. Rev James Clayton of Butts Co. GA

James was born in 1776. In early years a blacksmith, he became a Methodist minister, (and a doctor of some sort), helped start churches in Craven and Person Counties in NC, others in Butts Co. GA, in Coosa and Tallapoosa Counties in AL. (He was the ancestor of the present writer.) ; in 1792 he married Sarah Carraway.

James Clayton of Craven Co. NC, Person Co. NC, Butts and Carroll Counties, GA, and Tallapoosa and Chambers Counties in AL died in the last of these locations some time after 1860.

In 1805 in Craven County James Clayton signed a bond for the marriage of Patsy Delamar to Spencer Pittman.

In 1806 he signed the bond for marriage of Christopher Delamar to Ann York.

In 1811 Polly Delamar, James Clayton's daughter, married Churchill Delamar, brother of Christopher. Both were sons of Francis Delamar IV.

Dempsey Clayton was admitted to the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Church in 1805 and assigned to the Caswell Circuit in the Salisbury District. (He apparently 'located' within a year because he does not appear among the appointments for 1806 or thereafter.) He later appeared with his brother, James and his nephew Churchill Delamar, on a list of trustees to receive a piece of property in Person Co. for a meeting house for Methodists. Later still he moved to Newton Co. GA and then to Carroll Co. GA.

William's 3rd son, William, Jr., a blacksmith, married Susanna Hammontree in 1798. Most likely he remained in Craven Co. and was the ancestor of the present generation living there.

As stated above William Jr's two brothers and his nephew Churchill Delamar moved to GA. But before they did they spent some time in Person County, probably largely for the purpose of organizing what became the Tirzah Methodist Church in the southeast corner of the county, a few miles in fact from Durham.

In 1816 Clayton James, acting as trustee of a Methodist congregation in Person Co., together with Dempsey Clayton and Churchwell Delamar and several Moores received a conveyance from Samuel Dickens, a member of the Moore family who owned most of the Mt. Tirzah neighbor in SE Person Co. They were deeded "five acres on a branch of Hillsboro Rd to erect a house of worship for Methodist Episcopal Church" A few years later the house of worship burned and a new deed was issued for property nearby.

The 1820 census reveals Dempsey Clayton and Churchill Delamar in Person County. James appears to be absent and it appears that during that year he probably moved to Hancock County GA., part of which later became Butts Co.

CLAYTON FAMILY MOVES SOUTH 2

 

James Clayton, the Son of James Clayton of Hyde Co.

This man, you may recall, was born in Kent County, Delaware, and appeared in his youth to be closely associated with his mother's family, the Newells. He had three maternal uncles, named John, Thomas, and William, after whom three of his sons may have been named. It seems likely that all four of his sons were also born in Delaware, although his father had probably moved to Hyde County before any of his grandchildren were born.

James Clayton, blacksmith, continued to live in Hyde County until ca 1769. In 1762 a deed from Thomas and John Spencer to James Clayton was acknowedged in court and registered. (This John Spencer may have been the son of William Spencer.) During this period James Clayton sold three tracts of land. In July 1769 he appeared on a petit jury, but he apparently moved to Craven County that year. He continued to sell property in Hyde County until 1782, but the deeds identify him as James Clayton of Craven County.

In 1767 James Clayton had acquired property in Craven County on the Lower Broad Creek: two tracts from John Carruthers and one from Thomas Delamar:

1767 John Carruthers, planter, to James Clayton, Blacksmith for 16 lbs. 100 acres ns of Neuse and ns of Lower Broad Cr. beginning at Whitehouse Gut. Witnesses: Thomas Delamar and Isaac Simmons. (Carruthers had recently purchased this property from John Moore, Elder.)

1767 John Carruthers to James Clayton for 11 lbs land ns of Neuse, s side of head of Lower Broad Cr. beginning at mouth of Poplar Branch, etc. to corner of a patent granted to John Moore 11 April 1745, to Isaac Simmons line, etc.
witnesses: Thomas Delamar and Isaac Simmons
(One book has this deed published as conveyed to Joseph Carruthers, but I believe that is in error.)

James Clayton appears on a tax list in Craven County in 1769 with five slaves.

James appears to be a widower in Craven Co. because within a couple of years he had apparently remarried--to Mary Edwards, a widow with at least four children. Her husband, Solomon Edwards, had apparently died in 1766.

In March of 1771 James appeared in court, represented by Mr. Sitgreaves, to qualify as administrator of the estate of Acenah Edwards, decd. (Significantly Capt. Thomas Sitgeaves, paid a unit of soldiers who had belonged to the Prison Guard on Jan 8, 1771. The unit included the name James Clayton, probably the son of the James whom Sitgreaves had represented in this court case. Was this in connection with the Regulators incident?) James Clayton entered into bond with James Carraway and Christopher Dawson and qualified.

In 1774 James Clayton acquired more property in the Lower Broad Creek area from Joseph Brooks. (See Craven County deed books 14, 15 and 21.) The Brooks tract appears to be his last land acquisition except for a patent for 500 acres on the sound granted in 1782.

In 1776 James Clayton, Sr., blacksmith for love and affection conveyed to his son William Clayton the two parcels on the Lower Broad which he had acquired in 1767 including the 100 acres on the north side of the creek "where James Clayton, Sr. now lives".
Witnesses were John Carruthers and Abel McBay.

His will indicates that his home plantation was adj. to William Clayton, Joseph Carraway and Joseph Good. His exors were "my son William Clayton and my friends William Carraway Esqr and Joseph Good" (Presumably this is the William Carraway whose will was also made in 1783.)

In December of 1783 the will of James Clayton, planter, was proved by Francis Delamar in Craven County court (it was written the 21st day of August). In it he names wife Mary and four sons:
John, born 1745 died in Hyde Co.;
William, born 1750, married Rhoda Ann;
James, born 1753, thought to have died in the Revolution;
Thomas, born 1755, married Sarah Delamar, dau of Francis 1784.
(The birthdates of the four sons were provided by cousin Margaret Clayton Russell.)

James left his children land in Hyde and Craven Counties. In addition to his sons he named three daughters:
Tomson (or Tonnieson?), who was contemporary with his sons. She married Demson Delamar, and they are said to have moved to GA.

The other two daughters were children of Mary Edwards. They were contemporary with their father's grandchildren. (Their mother survived James and wrote her will in 1795):
Elizabeth married Jesse Lester. He was the executor of Elizabeth's mother, Mary Clayton in 1795, but Elizabeth had died by that time. It is possible that James C Lester was their son; he is mentioned in the will of Thomas Clayton in Pulaski Co. GA in 1820.
Eunice married James Cannon and moved to Ga.

James Clayton's son John, apparently the oldest, seems to have remained in Hyde County. He and his brothers exchanged property so that he owned all the Hyde County property and they owned all the Craven County property. John had two sons, Thomas and Elliot.

Elliot Clayton joined the Core Sound Friends Meeting on 8m 27d, 1814 but was dismissed three years later for "marrying out of unity". (There are Claytons in Hyde County today, but they trace their ancestry from the Claytons of Perquimans Co, a branch of the New Jersey family.)

There was a Quaker meeting house on or near the shore of Lake Matamuskeet and probably on land which had been owned by Elliot's grandfather, James Clayton. The property belonged to John Moore of Jones Co. when he died ca 1798 and willed it to three Quakers, Ezekiel Harris, James Hall and Lemuel Cartwright. James Hall was almost surely a cousin of James Clayton and had come down with him from Kent Co. DE ca 1760 and was conveyed property by James Clayton on the lake. In 1764 Ezekiel Cartwright was conveyed similar property, and in 1772 Ezekiel Harris.

Son William appears to have remained in Craven County. (This is probably the William Clayton who is a recorded participant in the battle of Camden as a part of the Craven County militia.) Craven County deeds reveal that he and his wife Rhoda Ann had three sons: James, Dempsey, and William.

Son James was said to be "absant" and his share was conditioned upon his return, and otherwise was to go to his three brothers. (Mrs. Margaret Clayton Russell, who has published a history of the Clayton family stated that son James was in the American navy during the Revolution, captured by the British and last heard of in Pensacola. She has this from family records and/or traditions.)

Son Thomas, presumably, the youngest, born in 1755, was the ancestor of Margaret Clayton Russell. Thomas married Sarah Delamar, daughter of Francis Delamar. In a deed from his brother William in 1796 he is listed as a ship carpenter. (William is listed as a blacksmith.) Thomas moved to Hancock County, Ga. in 1804, and his descendant, Margaret Russell, has considerable detail on his family history from that time. Thomas's grandson was the famous General Henry Delamar Clayton of the Confederate forces in Alabama.

CLAYTON FAMILY MOVES SOUTH 1

 

The Clayton Family Moves South

Although no extant records have been found demonstrating the emigration of the Delaware Clayton family to North Carolina, the circumstantial evidence is convincing. In Kent Co., DE in the first half of the 18th century there were two James Claytons, father and son; Both were thought to have left Delaware. The junior of the two was a blacksmith. Soon after the respective departures of these two men, two corresponding James Claytons, father and son, appeared in Hyde County, N.C. The junior of the two was a blacksmith. Attempts to locate additional evidence of these moves is on-going.

Indirect evidence appears in the coindence of names of some of the Hyde County people with those of Delaware. The most notable of these is the name Stuckberry

Several other names also appear in both locations. Of particular interest are Brooks and Morris.

-----------------------------------

There is a record of a James Clayton in Edgecombe Co. N.C. as early as 1735. He appears on a list of people present in Edgecombe County found among miscellaneous papers in early Edgecombe court files (cited in N.C. Hist and Gen. Register V.2 p 465 1901).

The first reliable records of our ancestor occur in 1744 in the Currituck tax list. In 1745 James Clayton received headrights from William Brooks. The same year a portion of Currituck County, namely the Lake Matamuskeet area, became part of Hyde County.

In 1747 James Clayton made his first application for a grant on Lake Matamuskeet and over the next 15 years he received patents of land along the lake totaling some 3000 acres. When he died he left very little in the way of personal effects. Before he died he had sold a good part of the land he had acquired. In various deeds he is described as carpenter, giner, joiner.

In 1759 and 1760 he sold several tracts of land to James Clayton, Jr., blacksmith. The original James Clayton appears often in Hyde County court minutes: recording deeds, serving as juror, and once as commissioner of the roads on the lake.
(See Land dealings of James Clayton of Hyde.)

James Clayton, Sr. died ca 1760. Many other conveyances were made by James Clayton, Jr.
N.C.Hist.Rev. Vol 47 (1970) p 52 footnote gives Hyde County Deed Book B, 571 (1775) in which James Clayton, Craven County, blacksmith, transferred to John Jones, of the same county, 80 acres on the N side of Aromuskeet Lake. For additional land deals of John Jones in Hyde County see pages 607,782,792,800, 804,891. This suggests that the 1774 deed to Blackledge, Jones, Spencer, and Neale was his first venture into Hyde, Jones had at least two deals with Clayton and very likely took his place as a primary owner of the lakeshore. -------------------------------------
In June of 1762 James Clayton moved in court for an order to sell the goods and chattels of James Clayton, decd. In 1762 James Clayton, blacksmith disposed of 200 acres left from the 1756 grants, claiming it as "lawful heir of my father James Clayton, decd." So far as is known, this James Clayton, blacksmith, and his children were the only descendants of the original James Clayton, the carpenter of Hyde County, originally from Kent Co. DE.

Three people who were later closely associated with James, Jr. in Craven County appear in the Hyde County records:

Francis Delamar was an executor of the will of John Martin in 1737, as was also John Carruthers, Martin's brother-in-law. Wm and Elizabeth Carruthers were witnesses. Years later when James Clayton, Jr. moved to Craven County, he acquired one tract of land from Thomas Delamar and two others from John Carruthers. (In the will Martin mentions his "lower plantation at mouth of Broad Creek", which presumably may be very near the area where James Clayton, Jr. settled in Craven (now Pamlico) County.)

(In 1767 John Carruthers , (husband of Patti Carraway), purchased two tracts from John Moore on the Lower Broad and almost immediately sold them to James Clayton for the same price. It thus appears he was acting as agent for one or both. Was this John Moore part of the family of Ann Moore, who had married William Carraway? one tract was on the N side of Lower Broad, and the other on the south side of the head of Lower Broad, said to be John Moore's 1730 patent.)

BUTTERFLY

 

The season is ending with a whimper.

BABY JESUS

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/William_Blake_The_Virgin_Hushing_the_Young_Baptist_Butlin_406.jpg

Infant riding on lamb

https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AG/2006AG3522_jpg_l.jpg

https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AM/2006AM2160_jpg_l.jpg

google photos

INDIAN LAKE

 Dear Kema,

I appreciate your comment on Indian Lakes album. You can see that the location offers tremendous opportunities for photos. I've been going there off and on for over three years. Indian Lake is less than 10 miles from home in a State Forest.   

About a month ago when I visited I found that the water level was way up. In fact I couldn't walk all of the way around the lake because of flooding. It turns out that there is a prairie, something like Paynes prairie, which drains into the lake. Apparently the prairie had accumulated so much rainwater that the lake took the overflow. Within a few weeks the water had receded; maybe it found its way into the aquifer.

I keep finding more places to take little hikes around here. I'm always glad to find another opportunity to take a picture. My android cell phone sends the photos right to my computer and stores them in Google Photos.

CREATIVITY

The evening before my sister went into the hospital suffering form a ruptured appendix I talked to her on the phone. She didn't say a thing about feeling sick. We talked about the normal things which interested us - family, activities, weather, memories. As the conversation was ending I remember saying to her that she and I spent our time doing completely different things. She continued to be involved primarily with quilting and gardening. I had given up sewing and my yard got minimal attention. Now my time was occupied with studying and writing for maintaining the Blake blog. However as I thought about it later I realized how similar our activities were at a deeper level. We were both gathering together material from whatever source we could find and assembling the pieces into a whole which was greater than the sum of the parts. The pieces of fabric and the plants were the material from which she created the designs which came from her imagination, just as surely as were my posts to the blog coming from thoughts and ideas which my imagination assembled.         

2020 ELECTION

 

I went beyond the duty to vote (which I had already done) on this election day. Although I had volunteered to be a poll watcher I was not required for that post. However on Saturday I got a call from Oregon saying that poll greeters were needed in Ocala. I had my email sent to the local chairman of Democratic volunteers and learned of a opening at a precinct at a church nearby. I agreed but without enthusiasm. I just didn't want to feel like I had not done as much as I could. I picked up a Biden/Harris sign and some sample ballot material from Democratic Headquarters so I was ready to go on Tuesday morning at 6:45.     

It was a chilly morning but I and the voters were ready for an early start. There was a line of people waiting for the doors to open. I set up my lawn chair and tray table and sign outside of the 150 foot perimeter as required by law. I was just there to hand out material to those who requested it and very few did. After the initial surge of voters things got pretty slow. I walked around a bit trying to keep warm. At one point I stood in a sheltered, sunny spot and though of how Larry always looked for the early sunshine to help him get moving.   

Later there were two events to spice up the morning. First I saw a man with a professional style camera walking around trying to get a picture of what was happening at this precinct. Eventually he wandered over and we started a conversation about election turnout and different parts of the US. He is a photographer named Doug Engle for the Ocala Star Banner, so he asked to take my picture with my Biden sign. It was a pleasant experience on an otherwise dull morning.

Later in the morning I saw three people on the other side of the parking lot, apparently engaged in a long discussion. After putting up a couple of signs in the vicinity of signs for a variety of candidates they headed in my direction. The man started a conversation so I reported on how voting was going at this polling place. He spoke of the turnout at other sites he had visited and mentioned the heavy early voting in Alachua and Clay Counties. He was accompanied by two young women and a small, friendly dog. They too asked to take a picture. This was a group picture of the Biden sign, me, the dog and the young man and one of the women. The photographer was pleased that she had gotten a good picture of the dog. The young man seems to have been the candidate for congress for this district, Adam Christensen (the commotion with the dog made me unsure of his name.) If he were to win his race, he would be the youngest member of congress.

It was definitely a more interesting morning than if I had stayed at home.

https://demcastusa.com/2020/06/11/meet-the-candidateadam-christensen-florida/

https://i1.wp.com/demcastusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/20-IMG_1605-2-Essential-Validation-Services-Adam-Christensen.jpg?w=2160&ssl=1   

 

SHARED LIFE

Dec 21, 1957

Does life come to us or do we go out and fetch it?

I lived with Larry for 59 years, we adapted to each other but maintained inner experience which was unknown to the other. When I read what Larry wrote - his journal, his book, his autobiography, his letters - I realize how separate his inner experience was from what I knew of him. And, of course, I knew that he knew little of my thoughts and feeling from my perspective. As much as we might have shared experience, it meant something different to each of us. I like to say, 'the darkness cannot impinge on the light;' in the same way another's consciousness cannot impinge upon our own. 

Life comes to us like a series of cars on a train - multiple cars but one train - and there are others on the train with us. But what life means to me I have to fetch; that is the part that is unknowable to anyone but God or providence who arranged it.

______________

 My own serious interest in Blake began in 1977 when my wife brought Blake a psychological study by W. P. Witcutt home from the library. I had been on the point of a commitment to the study of Jung's voluminous writings, which at that time seemed the most creative intellectual work at hand. Witcutt diverted my commitment to  Blake, which we have now.

5-18-1978

Following his study of Witcutt

Some ideas about Blake's poetry:

It is naming of the selves. Sharing his visions gives great help in understanding, in gaining detachment from the hardening and rigid concrete of opinion, prejudice, passion - the principalities and powers - that work to make us automatisms, zombies, denizens of hell. It offers fresh and new ways of perceiving life - ourselves and others - it detaches us from the old man - this body of death, makes us aware of the spiritual struggle going on - we have been asleep to it - tossed under the waves, the prostrate Albion, the sick king. Blake's vivid imagery may shock us into consciousness so that we may begin to act purposely.  

Blake must have been an imaginative young boy and at some point found thinking very oppressive. Did he go from permissive and indulgent parents to a brutal taskmaster who used 'geometric logic' like Quigg did. (in Caine Mutiny) He found reason and feeling horrible and his visions of them seem to center on calamity - the Fall.

He shared his visions in such a way that one might hope to understand him at a deeper, more profound and real level than do most folk including ourselves. Thus if we can achieve this understanding of Blake, we may progress in learning of others including ourselves. Then love may come forth.

The woes of Urizen do indeed move us strangely, perhaps they may evoke the Holy Spirit in a powerful way. Hurrah!

In the Four Zoas, fallen Albion gives the scepter to Urizen who builds a steel trap world, which 'has done so much harm to our imagination's elastic and vital power.' Thus he didn't hate creative thought & law but only the worship of the created good. He hated the reactionaries and identified them with reason which, no doubt, they used as a weapon against visionary liberals.  

 

OPEN THE DOOR

Wikipedia Commons
Book of Urizen
Copy G, Plate 26

When I asked Larry which of Blake's pictures he liked best he selected this one without an explanation. His response to the picture was not rational but emotional and intuitive. I can now give a rational explanation to his reaction to the image.

Larry saw through the image to those who stand outside of the closed door. The pleading child and the howling dog are on the outside without a way to get in. To Larry and to Blake this was the plight of humanity; the door is not closed because we are locked out of Eden but because we fail to open it. Built into the mind of man is his Divine Humanity but it is up to the conscious man to open the door or gate and invite the expression of his spirit into his expanded mind.

The poignancy of this image to me is that in adolescence when individuals are re-accessing the assumptions of their childhood, they may close the door to a perception of the internal vision of the Divine. Once the door is closed there has to be a decisive action to reopen it. If the mind of the individual has been turned over to the reasoning faculty exclusively, and the intuition and imagination have been stifled, there is little probability that the door to spiritual experience will be reopened. 

But all is not lost. Some become disillusioned with a one-sided dependence on reason through seeing its failure to provide a balanced way of living. Some are given an opening into a fuller life through a spontaneous awakening of the spirit. Some quietly find the lost piece from their childhood by continuing to seek for it in beauty, truth and love. As Pilgrim learned in Pilgrim's Progress we already possess the key, we needn't wait for someone to give it to us.

 

OPEN GATE

 O Christ, who holds the open gate

O Christ, who holds the open gate,
O Christ who drives the furrow straight,
O Christ, the plow, O Christ, the laughter
of holy white birds flying after.

Lo, all my heart's field red and torn,
and thou wilt bring the young green corn,
the young green corn divinely springing,
the young green corn for ever singing.

And when the field is fresh and fair
thy blessèd feet shall glitter there,
and we will walk the weeded field,
and tell the golden harvest's yield.

The corn that makes the holy bread
by which the soul of man is fed,
the holy bread, the food unpriced,
thy everlasting mercy, O Christ. 

________________

https://artandtheology.org/2016/02/01/excerpts-from-the-everlasting-mercy-by-john-masefield/

In 1911 he wrote “The Everlasting Mercy,” a long poem that tells the tale of a man’s conversion from a life of sin to life in Christ. Masefield takes us down into the darkness felt by the poem’s antihero and speaker, Saul Kane—a belligerent drunk and a womanizer—and then up into the light he experiences when, in his own words, “the Lord took pity on me” and “brought me into grace.” The bulk of the poem takes place during one of Saul’s drinking binges:

___________

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2009/4-december/faith/christ-holds-the-open-gate

JOHN MASEFIELD’s narrative poem The Everlasting Mercy (1911) is the searing tale of Saul Kane, a young reprobate who ultimately finds re­demption through Christ. His life is a playing out of the four great Advent themes of hell, death, judge­ment, and heaven. Lord Alfred Douglas called it “nine-tenths sheer filth”. It was denounced from pulpits, avidly recited in pubs, and hailed by J. M. Barrie as “incom­parably the finest literature”.

 

THE VOID

Jerusalem, Plate 1 (E 144)
[Frontispiece]  

[Above the archway:]

"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above                
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion

[On right side of archway:]

Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment 

[On left side, in reversed writing:]

Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!"

---

Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat

"In Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality of everything in the universe.

"...Unseen and not directly measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence, like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum. Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."

________________________

Northrop Frye, The Double Vision;
Page 84
"If the spirit of man and the spirit of God inhabit the same world, that fact is more important than the theological relation between them."
 
Page 85
"There is nothing unique about death itself...
In the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present, every moment we have lived through we have also died out of into another order. Our life in the resurrection, then, is already here, and waiting to be recognized."  

_______________________

LISTEN

The Sound of Silence

Simon & Garfunkel

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

Within the sound of silence

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Paul Simon

The Sound of Silence lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

CONNECTIONS

In our weekly family zoom call we touched on the unexpected connections in unpredictable ways which we come across a we travel through time and space. Rob mentioned seeing and meeting people in Thailand who went to the schools he attended. I though of the woman who sat next to me in Gainesville Meeting who had grown up in Algiers the same neighborhood as I did, although at a later date. Her father worked around the corner from my home. Mark was reminded of the close friend in San Luis Obispo who knew my father through another friend. I remarked that these surprising connections never really come directly but come through second or third parties. Often we have to probe below surface acquaintance to find the threads which tie us together.

I knew Sally had a sister who lives in New Orleans and who has one of the amazing stories to tell about surviving Hurricane Katrina, but I had never met her. A while back I learned that Sally's sister has a blog titled angels and people, life in New Orleans. It takes very little time to follow this blog because several times a week she will post a photograph which she has recently taken, along with a title which may suggest what she sees in it. I am grateful for the connection I discovered with Suzanna through Sally.

This I found particularly moving: Figure By Mount Olivet Cemetery fence

 

I try to hold this picture in my consciousness as reminder that we have built a wall between our comfortable, middle class existence and the lives of those whom we have excluded and denied opportunities because of race, class or traditional barriers. The walls will not fall of their own accord nor can they be removed by those who are imprisoned by them. We who built them, benefit by them, and who keep them in repair to protect ourselves, must be the ones who remove them.      

FAMILY

My thoughts have turned from my nuclear family to a wider, longer view of relatives and generations.

My parents provided my sister, brother and me with a secure comfortable childhood, in which there was no food insecurity, fear of abandonment or threat of physical violence. We grew up in the house we were born in, we lived in a established neighborhood where all necessary services were provided. Our parents worked together to maintain a unit which could endure the stresses of changing circumstances. We were blessed with good health, a variety of neighbors, caring teachers and adequate finances. 

We three children each met expectations: we made friends, studied for school, graduated from college, married and produced another generation to follow. If we were a disappointment to our parents, they never let us know it.

Looking from this perspective, everything was simple, straightforward and predictable. But there is another way of looking at family history. Both Mother and Daddy were from broken homes: Mother lost her Papa when she was 10 and moved from the country to the city. Daddy's father was an alcoholic whose wife and four children had to live in an orphanage.

My sister and her husband adopted a son before two more sons were born.
My father's sister and her husband (an alcoholic) adopted a daughter.
My oldest son, who did not marry, looked after an underprivileged child in his neighborhood.

Among my sister, brother and I, we have 7 natural children and 7 grandchildren. However through the adopted son and the informally adopted daughter there are three more grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

The point I am trying to make is that family is more than direct descends or blood relatives. Family is the unit of people who claim one another. We are fortunate if our family extends beyond the nuclear family because each member who enters has unique contributions to make to the others.

In this family picture are:
The woman who lost her father at 10,
The woman who grew up in an orphanage and adopted a daughter, 
A child who was a friend of the family.

The building is known as the camp, our version of a vacation home. It is about 15 feet from the bayou which floods in hurricanes. In fact it is now on stilts because of the extreme flooding during recent hurricanes required that it be raised.

I think that the total message of this post is that there are no pretensions in our family. We accept what comes to us, we apply ourselves to finding solutions. The important thing is not to think of yourself as a victim; depend upon your personal assets and upon the strength of the family to pitch in when needed.

______________

 

  
   

Joel & Austin

RAVINE GARDENS

Dear Sally,

I wish you could have been with us yesterday. (You were there in
spirit.) The continuation of the lunch group you used to get together
with, met at Ravine Gardens. Only Jeannie was one of the originals, but
there were connections which drew us together. Besides Jeannie there
were Dick, Susan Cary, Gary and me. Laura didn't feel comfortable with
joining us because so many in Florida have the virus. Her son Phil had
the virus but recovered.

We had a big picnic shelter all to ourselves so we didn't get close. It
was interesting to hear people share past experience and get better
connected in the present. One thing we talked about was interracial
families. Dick and I remembered Isis from Friendly Eights. She is 18
years old and finished high school. Apparently Susan is much involved
with the adult children of her adopted biracial daughter.

Jeannie has arranged her Montessori school so that she can open in a
month. The parents are very cooperative and anxious for the children to
be in a classroom even though many safeguards will be practiced. It is
very encouraging to hear how schools can be adapted to changing
circumstances. Children don't have the preconceived ideas about how
things are supposed to be. With adequate resources and innovative
leadership, it can be done.

I hope that Lucy's and Maisy's schools are making the adjustments that
will make it possible for them to join their teachers and classmates in
a safe setting.