Bracing against the cold. Was it Prometheus who brought the fire? My mythology is ragged and torn, I'll admit. And there's the common experience of people who have died who speak of going into that tunnel of light, and heliotropes bending toward the light. We're drawn to light as moths to flame. That's one reason Frost's "November Guest" is interesting and amusing--see the poetry thread; Frost poses a character who finds beauty in the darkening days. I even heard a brief discussion about Joyce's use of Molly Bloom and the daughter Millie, the open, warm vowell in Molly over the yet undeveloped, more closed vowell in Millie, not as warmed and developed as Molly. Yesterday in music class I worked with some seven-year-olds in developing a warm tone quality and used many images of heat and light to help them move from a decidedly harsh, cold, brittle tone to a warm one that I wanted in the passage we'd been working on, not that a cold, brittle tone isn't a useful part of the auditory palate at times.
Now the sure test of a person's warmth is the buttercup blossom placed under the chin! Sure wouldn't want to use deadman's fingers for that test!
Butter regards,
WW
