man o’ war.

just to start this off, the Portuguese Man O’ War is probably the coolest name of any animal that I’ve ever heard of.

from what I can tell, it is not technically a jellyfish, but a colony of many other organisms that work together in unison and ultimately act like a jellyfish. Idk if you’ve seen these things, but they look nuts. apparently these creatures got their names after war ships in the 1700s.

in Spanish, jellyfish are called ‘agua mala’ or ‘medusa.’ I guess they got medusa from the tentacles looking like the snake hair from the mythos.

don’t look into those eyes, they’ll turn you to stone.

metaphors and allegories are my favorite parts of literature (when I can come to a point). when thinking about the myth of Medusa, I would think that people would just completely turn into rock, I think that’s a strong visual, but at a more real level, the ancient Greeks were using these stories to give warnings and/or to explain how the world works. a beautiful women who intimidated a god was cursed with snakes for hair and a hideous face that would turn people to stone. whether that meant they were petrified or just shaken to the core to where they couldn’t move is up for interpretation I guess. after doing some digging, I’ve seen some talk about people’s souls being rendered heavy with sin or guilt and that causes them to become motionless, and I can understand that.

when thinking about this, I am reminded about the story of Lot from the bible. after fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah, angels tell him and his wife to not turn back to look at the destruction of the cities, but the wife does and she is turned into a pillar of salt. I think about this a lot, like so much. I think the bible is trying to get at being obedient to the divine, but I think that it also has some other implications as well. life has to be lived looking forward. looking back while moving forward will get you stuck in place. I’ve been there too many times. I keep looking back and when I get a chance to remind myself of the story of Lot’s wife, I make myself look forward, but it’s a constant battle.

look forward and walk. look beyond the horizon because that is where we are going.

from the chateau.

action / everything.

all praise is due to the most high.

P.S. I still have not figured out the comments thing, I’ve toggled on the settings, it should be up, but I will be working on this.