The above painting: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Pieter Brueghel, as it relates to Musee des Beaux-Arts http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html

A link to Pablo Neruda’s Ode to My Socks. https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/ode-my-socks

A link to Dylan Thomas’s Do not go gentle into that good night. https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night
(Back story: My cousin Dylan was named for this poet. He passed away three years ago today from complications due to Cystic Fibrosis. This poem is the source of my Rage, rage too on my right forearm. His birthday was just four days earlier. He was 30 years old.)

Epictetus’ Discourses. This stoic philosopher has come through for me during many a dark time. Some argue that his physical disabilities informed his “let it be” way of thinking. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourses_of_Epictetus

Thales

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales_of_Miletus

From Bukowski’s The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories, “The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California.”

“And you’ve been fucking dead women all your life — dead women with dead souls and dead pussies — only you didn’t know it! . .”

From Star Trek: The Original Series. Season 1, Episode 4 The Naked Time: https://youtu.be/xSkI32GQMy4

Mr. Nimoy writes in his autobiography I am Spock (another favorite!) that this scene was supposed to show Spock being pranked by another crew member drawing a moustache on him. Mr. Nimoy wanted something deeper for Spock, so he fought for the scene to be rewritten as we see it now. He urged his colleagues that this, the naked time for Spock, is an upheaval within himself between emotion and logic, love and math. These are battles I am familiar with, and I think this is why I always favor Spock. It is one of few times we see Spock emote. Another favorite from this episode that really encapsulates this entire mood is below, Spock puzzling over how to “LOVE MANKIND.” This image also reflects some of the sentiments of the times, the peace and love and hippiedom of 1966.