Good Stuff.

odysseus and athena

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Valerio Minato's photo that won the Astronomy Picture of the Day Contest by NASA on December 25th, 2023.

In the picture: the moon, the Monviso Mount and the Basilica of Superga (on the Superga hill) outside Turin are all aligned. it took him 6 years to take this shot (and I take it as an example to never give up on your dreams).

cracking open a cold one with the boys

Black-Backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) in full flight at Etosha National Park in Namibia (1965)

credit: American Institute of the Humanities

Blue Birch Marsh, 2024 by Jef Bourgeau

LOOK…. LOOk it’s all there, it’s right in front of us! Look!!!!!!

Wow, so many props I could put on a play

Was the mention of the volcanoe perchance when Sette wasn't trying to teach Duane to lie and teaching through example she said "I'm the best liar to ever climb to the highest peak of Mt Bloodbasin" ?

You got it first, all the props to you ;)

Re: Vienne, the world tends to be very forgiving of brilliant yet neglectful geniuses who spend their days buried productively in their Great Works and leave the care of their children and families largely to others, provided that they are male. The female ones, not so much. Kasslyne isn't all that different from our own universe in that sense.

Yep.

One thing I wish I’d stressed more in her story and hadn’t left presumed, was the marriage itself. Vienne didn’t particularly *want* to be married to anyone, but that’s not a choice she was allowed. She was happy enough with Mathis but would have been content to remain alone with her work and her business.

Likewise she never particularly wanted children. When she actually became pregnant, she was assaulted by almost overwhelming approval from everyone around her. All of a sudden they stopped making her feel like a freak, and she felt like she’d become the woman that the entire village had all her life expected her to become. This resulted in a lot of emotional pressure to keep the baby. That’s not something Mathis could ever understand. He had his own pressures for sure and she did all she could to help him with those, but he never gave a second thought to hers.

I relate a lot to Vienne. I knew by the age of ten that I never wanted kids or a spouse because nothing was more important to me than art. But even as a relatively privileged girl Vienne didn’t get to make that same decision. Still, she made it work as best she could. And while she was not a superhero able to be a perfect wife and perfect mother and a perfectly self-actualised human being making her art and fighting for her country, she never gave up the dream.