Medieval Faire 2007

Aaaaarghh!! It do be Medieval Faire time again and this last Saturday my son Zach and I set sail, bound for Geneva, Ohio, and our annual trip. The luck was with us, as it happened to be "Pirate Invasion" weekend, which is always good for me as it do match me garb. This year I dressed up but chose not to carry me trusty cutlass, opting instead to bring my camera, but fear not, it wasn't as if I was unarmed as it's a "canon", which every good Pirate should have. I would have posted this tale sooner but it took all day Sunday to edit these pics as I fired off me canon 432 times, nearly emptying my one gig hold, by three quarters, of all the shot I had on board that day. It was a good thing that I brought it with me as there were all kinds of strange folk and creatures about, the likes of which I have never seen in all me travels. I swear it be true, there where men with horns, and Elvin folk with pointed ears, tinkers and alike, and even belly dancers who would come brazenly up to the camera shaking their wares and tempting a man to... take their picture... As Poseidon is my witness there must have been evil spells and incantations being cast as to ensnare a brave mans soul. I tell thee there was indeed wickedness about, but I had me Canon with me, so not to fear from the temptations about... but I digress...

There were many Knights about with their trusty steeds doing battle, though their show of daring seemed much shorter than previous festivals I had attended. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they seem to have a different group of knights every year and this group seemed to be made up of lords a bit long in the tooth to be jousting. Also the showing off of their bravery included very little jest and boasting as I had come to expect of men of high honor, nay they had very little to say at all, just straight into battle they went. Still it was good to have them about to help protect honest sailors from eyes as green as the deep sea which peered deep into the lens as if to enthrall a brigands heart (sigh)... but alas I digress again...

My son Zach did seem to enjoy the Faire, though I sometimes wonder if he comes along just to please the old captain. This year, more than any, he really seemed to enjoy it even if some of the shows like the Falconer and the Tortuga Twins were not there, and even the brochure that you get at the entrance had been reduced from a booklet to a mere single page. He especially liked these large oxen though the sign in the back did say "Black Ox Good Food", which kind of made me wonder what manner of creature would want to eat such a beast after they had petted it. No doubt it was one of those Gypsy Queens that can vex a mans brain by flaunting their scantily clad midriffs, shaking themselves all about... hmmmm, I do be having problems concentrating on the tale at hand...

Some of my favorite minstrels, "The Pyrates Royale", where on hand singing their bawdy tales again this year. I watched their show last year but forgot to pick up a cd at the end of the show, a misgiving that I remedied this year. It's hard to find good pirate music, but these buccaneers are definitely first rate. I especially enjoy their song, "Hellship", a story about being clubbed by a comely wench in a tavern and spirited aboard a pirate vessel and forced to man the ship, and also their ballad, "The Boatman", a story of a woman longing for her man lost at sea. This ballad has an enchanting tune just like I've heard the sirens sing tempting a man to dive overboard. There must be some wicked magic about that can stop the heartiest of souls dead in their tracks and take the wind right out of their sails with a mere come hither stare... (Keep it together Dagoth)...
As always there where lots of wares for sale many of which would cost a Pirates treasure.
The "Washing Well Wenches" and the "Battle Chess" were back again this year, along with some new shows, so all in all it still made for a good Medieval Faire, even if some things seemed to be cut back. If you wish to see more pictures they are posted here at my Flickr site.
The weather was much better than last year when it was very hot and humid, and my pirate boots served me well for sloshing through the mud, everything was pleasantly dry this time. This will probably be the only weekend I will go to the Faire this year as there are only two weekends left and I didn't get a seasons pass this year...No I mean it, I'm not going back, no matter how much the gods tempt me!... Someone lash me to the mainmast!... Arrrrgh!!!

"Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell."
-Anon

The Path to Emptiness

The other day I went to the bookstore even though I now have so many books to read that I really don't need to acquire any more. I wanted to get a book on Buddhism and of course had to pick up a few others while I was there, all the time trying to restrain myself from simply going hog wild and doing serious damage to the budget.

I didn't have any particular book in mind and if you have ever been in that section of the book store you know there are quite a few to choose from...hmmmm, how to decide... So I used pure Buddhist logic in making my choice, I picked the book with the happiest looking monk on the cover. I know, I know, but when you are taking a shot in the dark, any little bit of logic surely helps, no matter how off the wall it may seem. It turns out I made a good choice. The book I picked out was "The Joy of Living" by the Buddhist Master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and I certainly have not been disappointed. I'd like to share a small excerpt from it just to give you an idea of what I mean...

"Learning to appreciate the clarity of the mind is a gradual process, just like developing an awareness of emptiness. First you get the main point, slowly grow more familiar with it, and then just continue training in recognition. Some texts actually compare the slow course of recognition to an old cow peeing - a nice down-to-earth description that keeps us from thinking of the process as something terribly difficult to abstract. Unless, however, you're a Tibetan nomad or happen to have been brought up on a farm, the comparison might not be immediately clear, so let me explain. An old cow doesn't pee in one quick burst, but in a slow, steady stream. It may not start out as much and it doesn't end quickly, either. In fact, the cow may walk several yards while in the process, continuing to graze. But when it's over - what a relief!"

Now if that doesn't give you insight into "the path to emptiness" I'm afraid nothing will. So if you are so inclined to read such things and get the opportunity to pick up Yongey Mingyur's book (Rinpoche is a title given to a great master which roughly translates as "precious one") "The Joy of Living" I promise you won't be disappointed. You may be surprised (as I was) how much physics and modern science are intermixing with Buddhist beliefs that have been around for countless centuries...


"Looking again and again at the mind which cannot be looked at, the meaning can be vividly seen, just as it is."
-The Third Gyalwang Karmapa

Battlewagon Blues

Tonight my van decided I should stick around at work a little longer than usual. I went out after work, as usual the last one in the lot, and started it and it immediately died. In fact I started it 6 times and it stalled each time right after I turned the key. After that it simply refused to turn over at all. Fortunately the guard was still there and he helped me jump it, but still no dice. The lights wouldn't even turn on. We did have to do a lot of work on my old jumper cables as they had become quite rusty sitting in the back of the van. After working on them a while we were able to get quite a bit of spark, but she was still being stubborn, so I had the guard drive me to the auto parts store to get a new battery.

Now I didn't really think it was the battery, as the one in it is only two years old, but I didn't have many other options at that point. The battery that was in it my ex wife had put in before she gave me the van and it had to be the cheapest battery on the planet, it looked like it was made for a garden tractor. I decided I had very little to loose by buying a better battery.

So we got back and put in the new one and turned the key... no dice. At that point I was quite ready to give up, so I packed my tools away and was going to go back inside to see if I could call someone for a ride when I decided to give it one more shot. I pumped the pedal once (don't ask me why) and low and behold it fired up and stayed started.

I took the old battery back to the parts store to get the deposit (should have brought it with me the first time) and had them check it while I was there and sure enough the battery was fine. Now it has left me wondering what is going wrong with it now. It could be the starter or the fuel pump, but I can't say as I've ever had one of my vehicles act quite like this before. Now I get to wait and see what's going to give out and where it's going to strand me...

An Imagining...

I became aware... At one point in time and space, I understood that I was energy and matter and time and space. I understood that I could absorb more energy and more matter and become more than I was. I understood that I could touch a thing, such as holding a cup in my hand, and at the level of the very small, my atoms would mix with it's atoms, for there was more space between our atoms than there was matter itself, the boundary between it and myself would merge. I learned that I could bring down that barrier and take it's matter and energy into my own and we would become one, and I would be increased. Just as when you consume, you take into yourself some of the energy and matter of that which you consumed. My desire to consume increased and I reveled in the joy of it. For as I consumed more, the power, the energy that I was, became more, and there was a great joy in this.

This joy was caused by my increase in energy, because as I became more powerful, as my energy increased and I became larger, encompassing more matter, I became safer. Safer in the knowledge that no other separate energy, no other separate matter, could absorb the energy and matter that I was. The fear of this happening to me lessened.

It became like a drug, this need to be safe, and I consumed more and more. Growing ever larger, expanding, first consuming planets, and then whole solar systems. I continued forever increasing in mass and size to eventually consume whole galaxies and beyond. Eventually absorbing even time itself, for I knew it could harm me as well. Eventually all that was had become part of me. I had absorbed all energy and matter and space and time that existed everywhere. I became all that was, and all that was had become part of me. There was no separate energy, or matter, or space, or time, I did not encompass. I was everything... Except...

As I reached the end, encompassing all things until there was nothing left that was not me but the most tiniest of single particles, with the least amount of energy, holding the smallest amount of space for the least amount of time, I stood poised to absorb it, but hesitated...

At that point I looked down upon this smallest of things and realized that it could not harm me, for I was everything and it was merely the smallest of things. I looked down upon it and cherished it and realized that if I consumed it, I would be alone, and a new fear overtook me. Yes, I was on the verge of being all things, all matter and energy, all space and time, wherein nothing could harm me, but I was also on the verge of being alone, a type of aloneness almost unimaginable. For there would be nothing else that was not me, forever, and at this point even forever had lost it's meaning, as I had absorbed all time as well.

I looked down upon this one last spec of matter and energy and space and time and thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. After all it was the only thing left to keep me company, the only thing left between me and forever being alone with nothing... but it was not enough...

I needed more things that were not me. I began to regress back the way I had come. I began to cast off the energy and matter and space and time that I had absorbed. Shrinking forever smaller and I reveled in this, the smaller I became, because there were now many more things to keep me company. I was no longer alone.

I continued until I was as that last spec had been, the smallest of things, holding the least amount of matter and energy, encompassing the smallest amount of space and time, and once again I stopped, though this time, not because I wished it, but because there was nowhere left to go. Beyond this smallest of things, there was neither time and space, nor matter or energy, there was simply nowhere to go beyond that. Beyond that, there was no existence, a place I could no longer go... I began the journey back upwards again...

I finally reached the place where I had started this journey and stayed there content. I knew that if I grew to encompass all things, I would be safe, but alone. I knew if I was reduced to the smallest of things, I still could not be reduced beyond that, and was safe. I knew that whenever you consume something, making it part of yourself, you will take in some of it's matter and energy, but not all of it. I knew there was no need to fear that my matter and energy and time and space would be consumed by something else, I could never completely wink out of existence. I could exist here, both gaining and casting off energy, both gaining and casting off matter, taking all the space and time as I needed, without any fear. I understood that having all the energy, and matter and space and time in the universe meant being alone, and having none of it was ok as well, because it meant I had an entire universe to keep me company. What I possessed was not near as important as the company I kept along the way...


How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

-Albert Einstein

Photographic Expedition No. 1

Yesterday I went on my first photographic expedition. I thought there would be many when I purchased my new camera, but life has conspired to delay my first one, as life often does. I felt that an expedition should involve a quest, so I decided to make my first quest the U.S. Brig Niagara, which is a recreation of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship and is based right here in Erie, Pennsylvania...

When I got downtown to the ships birth, there was no tall ship to be had. I know it had been here on Wednesday when I had passed by this place... I wondered where it had gotten off too and decided to look around for it...I found many sailing vessels, but not quite the one I was looking for...I even found old sailing ships, though they were still not quite the tall ship I was looking for...I looked out over the bay, and though I found Perry's monument over on our peninsula, Presque Isle, I did not find his ship...
I even zoomed in on his monument, thinking perhaps it was hiding (though how could you hide such a large vessel? I just like the zoom feature), but alas still no ship...I searched the waters of the bay for this ship, but found only ducks...And more ducks...I found a new Convention Center being built...I found a tall tower... and I thought, if I went up in it, I could see the whole bay and find this missing ship...Yes, a very tall tower...But alas the tower was closed so I could not use it to find the Brig... Where else should I look? I decided to journey around the bay, and go out onto the peninsula, where I could see Lake Erie, and perhaps find my lost ship out there plying the waves, as tall ships often do...On my journey I found a clown fish, though there are many fish here...I found a big blue frog, there are many of them here as well, if you know where to look... This one's in love...I finally made it out to Presque Isle and looked back to where I had come from, thinking perhaps it had come back, but still no tall ship...I found Perry's Monument that I had seen from the other side of the bay, but his ship was still not here... I grew dejected...I peered out onto Lake Erie and my heart rose! There were many boats here, perhaps one was the one I sought...But I found only beautiful sandy beaches, and the blue water of the lake, and no tall ship...
I found many colored flags fluttering in the wind, but these were not the big white, square sails and the rigging that I was looking for...I even found seagulls flying in the breeze, but they were not really seagulls at all... But a mere illusion...

So, sadly I headed home... My grand quest a failure... and when I got home I checked the Brig's website, and found that the Niagara was off visiting neighbors... Which had I checked before I left, I would have known she was not here, and there would have been no need to go off on this foolhardy expedition. I could have saved my self all this time and trouble...

Afterwards I realized that journeys do not always take you where you thought they would, and you do not always find what you are looking for...

Sometimes marvelous things find you instead...

"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."

-Ursula K. LeGuin