Secular Ravenism
The title this week is taken from Bright River, which I can't recommend enough. After I mentioned it a few posts back I went back and listened, and the incredible act of imagination that the play represents just blew me away all over again. And then I went to my local caffeination station, where they'd just put a up a new art exhibit, including the painting to the right. To my delight, the artist was enthusiastic about sales, and so I was able to bring this raven home as inspiration for the rest of the quarter. I'm kind of hoping they start to appear in interesting and unexpected places more.
But enough about that. I want to talk about ravens in general.
Raven as a mythical figure has proved surprisingly elusive. You might expect that of a trickster figure, but they seem to enjoy being the subject of stories as a rule, or at least don't bother to cover their tracks much. Raven, on the other hand, is a much more shadowy personage, and alternately held in either high regard or contempt, depending on who you ask. It's one of the reasons I felt so drawn to the painting; the juxtaposition of the raven with a heart seems to point to both meanings at once: the carrion bird with its dinner, and the messenger of the gods, bringing a token of love to some worthy recipient. At least, that's what pops into my mind's eye—what do you see?
Podcast Notes
I was surprised at my level of resistance to doing the podcast...definitely some stuff to work out there about perfectionism. I had a lot of grand plans, and in the end, it was so hard just to get myself to record the voice that I gave in and left it at that. In retrospect, it's exactly what needed to happen. And the Code of Conduct (for those of you in the cohort) came in handy here— I held you in my thoughts, imagining you all sitting across the dining room table (where I recorded this), and somehow it became a lot easier to speak naturally.
The other thing I discovered is just how many times I say "um", breathe loudly, and smack my lips. I also have a new respect for the radio announcers who can do this live—I ended up cutting out almost 45 seconds of audio that was purely that kind of stuff, and it went from 1 long track to 112 snippets to get rid of it. So, without further ado, here is my view of Raven on a sunny Saturday morning:
