It occurs to me that I've done a couple of at least vaguely interesting things in the past few days and have neglected to mention them in my little blog world. So this is me, sitting in front of the computer on a Friday evening, updating my blog. (hey, it beats trying to decide what to make for dinner) So Tuesday afternoon nobel laureate Seamus Heaney spoke on campus. He's an Irish poet, and apparently a friend of our retiring president. The reading was thoroughly enjoyable, even if Anna and I did arrive too late and had to stand through the whole thing. He read mostly his own stuff, but also this:

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When we sit at home and find
Entertainment for our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

Against the wall he sets his eye
Fierce and strong and sharp and sly;
Against the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve those doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night,
Turning darkness into light.


Which sounds oddly familiar to me, though I've no idea where I would have heard it before. It's an Irish poem written in the late eighth or early ninth century by a scribe in the margin of St. Paul's Epistles, translated by an English scholar named Robin Flower. Kind of makes me want to name my next cat Pangur Ban, though I guess then s/he would have to be white (Ban means white). There's a certain symmetry about owning one black and one white cat that's rather appealing.

Then on Wednesday was former President Carter's 22nd annual Town Hall Meeting. Much like watching old reruns of the West Wing, it made me sad to think about our current government. Granted, I know very little about Carter's actual administration, I only know that I admire the work he's done since and agreed with the majority of what had to say on Wednesday night. Much like the fictional president Martin Sheen portrays, Carter spoke about living by a strong set of principles, and making decisions based on said principles. Apparently when he was running for president he told people that he would always try to tell them the truth and that if he ever made a misleading statement, they shouldn't support him. Can you even imagine a candidate today telling people not to support him? It would be considered career suicide. Like I said, I really don't know much about Carter the president, so I don't know if he lived up to that statement. But the fact that he puts honesty so high in his list of priorities appeals to me. I sat there feeling much like I did last summer in DC, wandering around the Lincoln and Jefferson monuments, reading JFK's quotes at Arlington - whether or not the particular administration in power agrees with my specific beliefs is small matter. I can trust and support a government that truly seems to make decisions based on the betterment of the country. I can get behind a president who owns up to his mistakes, who says, yes, I made that decision and I committed that action for these reasons and I take responsibility for them and I stand by them because they were based on what I believed to be right.