The Treasure Hunt

I am sitting here spinning my wheels because I cannot go any further with school work until I get some feedback from a couple of professors... and, I'm not holding out hope that will happen this weekend. Regardless, I have a Sunday 11:59 pm deadline and I still have a three hour timed test, and one power-point presentation to do in one class, and an annotated bibliography due in another: then, I will be done for this week and I will be exactly half-way to ending this summer semester.

Before I write another somewhat aimless and most probably pointless blog, I wanted to comment on something else. The last time I saw anything on Facebook was a few days before Christmas, and I spent probably more than two straight hours on it looking at something. Now though, the only news I get from that site is if Deb comments about something she read. Last evening she said there were many reports from people in places we used to live and they had a terrible storm pass by and a lot of them were without power. (And being without power in this extreme heat is really bad!) After she told me I came to my office, closed and locked my door, then I knelt down and earnestly prayed for those I love best!!!!!!!

So, if you are someone I love... I pray you are safe!!! In fact, even if you are reading this and I don't know, or love you (I guess) I still hope that you're safe? (Lol) Seriously, I pray that everyone I know, and even those I don't know, came through it okay?

There is a weekly report sent to my email every Saturday that I usually delete without opening. It probably has been a couple of months since I last looked at it... however, this morning I did. The report is from the tracking company for my blog and it tells me the number of people who opened my blog within the last seven days to read... it also tracks the number of countries besides those in the United States who have logged on. Last week there were 119 people and four different countries represented.

So... if you are one of the fortunate ones to have their power... else, you wouldn't be reading this (lol) please take some time from your day and pray for the people in the area of the storms. Please... please... pray that they will be okay... and if they are without power that their power will be soon restored!

Even if there had not been an email comment to me this morning I still would have blogged today and asked people to pray for my friend(s) and other loved ones I know. I do this because I know that some of you have covenanted and prayed with me in the past about other things and it has helped... that is why I do this. Now, I'll tell the other reason I am writing today.

Today I received an email about a blog I wrote the other night when I had reproduced one of Poe's poems. Because of that I was curious about how many people had read it that week. Usually it takes about 150 people to read before even one might respond? There was a time long ago that a lot more people were reading this blog every week and I would get quite a few emails. Today... not so much.

Anyway... she said she wanted to ask me a question and her question was to know if I thought Poe was wrong to have married his young cousin? Then, she said she liked the poem... and she also thought it was sad.

I gave her my answer and I haven't heard back yet... I assume I will though? I suppose it is really two questions, even though it is framed as one. At least I think she is asking two... and that is how I gave my answer. She used the words, “... young (and) cousin...” First, if I read the family history correctly, this young girl he fell in love with was a (removed) cousin on the father's side: so, no “blood” would have been involved. Ethically, morally, I don't know... honestly I don't... but if they were too have had any children there would have been no risk for mental or physical handicap because of their lineage. At least no more so than with any other two people who marry.

The other answer had to do with the word she used, “young.” Again, it was a different era and people did not live as long... so, a lot of girls married quite young and many times they were wed to a guy who was several years older and already established in the world.

Of course, not so much in our own country but in many parts of the world (even today) it is still a very common practice for girls to marry young and for the guys to be older. (However, for the happiness of the girl I am sure they would prefer someone closer to their own age.) But, in other countries today many of these girls are not given that choice.

Anyway... thinking of Poe while I am waiting to see if a professor emails me with the information I need, I will include another of Poe's love poems.

TO HELEN

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!

(Whether Poe's love was satisfied, as it was with his child-bride Virginia, or forever unrequited as it was with the object of his affection and the person for whom he wrote the above poem... I think from reading what Poe wrote that at least he knew what it was to actually be in love!!!!!!! But, that's just my opinion. lol)

Because some already think him odd, I'm a little hesitant to even tell who it was that Poe was thinking about when he wrote of this “perfect beauty” Helen. It was his first real love, and that was when Poe was only fourteen-years-old. Though there were many girls in Poe's life after her, from that time and forward all of them were always compared to her... she was, to Poe, the epitome of physical  and spiritual beauty.

Her name, in real life, was Mrs. Stannard... and she was the mother of one of Poe's boyhood friends. Later in life, and by his own hand Poe described her as, “... the first, purely ideal love of my soul – Helen Stannard.”

Yep... crazy or not, I think he understood what truly loving someone meant