Day #121

[shadowkat]

I skipped the Zoom chat Bible Study for a walk around the Cemetery. Within fifteen minutes of walking, all the stress, anxiety, etc melts away, and its just me, the trees, the sky, the birds, and the graves. Nothing else. I find it ironic that I'm spending so much of my time wandering around this Cemetery in 2020, when just ten years ago - I thought I'd never ever visit the cemetery or see it - it was too far away or inconvenient, and just a year ago, I rarely if ever walked it - preferring the Park or the Ditmas residential streets instead. Now, it's my sanctuary. A place that I can leave the world behind. I don't bring work there, nor do I talk to anyone in it or listen to music. The phone is used as a camera nothing else.

Yesterday I watched a woman doing Tai Chi behind one of the graves. The world seems to melt away there. I see people, but not quite as many as I saw in the spring. It was pleasant today, with a nice breeze. And it struck me as odd - how it almost felt normal now to be wearing a mask. (I've a new one - that is splashed with purple and red. Softer than the others, with filter inserts. Also lighter and easier to breath, and covers more of my face. ) Almost normal. I've gotten used to it. It's now part of my routine to throw on a mask before I leave the apartment. Interesting how our brains find a way to make sense of things - to find normalcy in absurd situations.




I read the plaque on this odd statue, which was originally elsewhere in the City, and transplanted here. Entitled CIVIC VIRTUE - it was originally a fountain that got exiled to Queens, then eventually was restored and transplanted to Greenwood in 2012.

The marble fountain was commissioned in 1909 by Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr., with funds from a bequest by Angelina Crane, and cost US$90,000 to complete. The 17-foot sculpture group depicts a heroic-sized male nude, "Civic Virtue" (often mistaken for "Hercules"), with sword on shoulder, standing above two writhing female figures – the sirens of "Vice" and "Corruption." The sirens, with the heads and torsos of women and the tails of serpents, have failed in capturing the man, and are caught in their own nets. Although there is a legend that bodybuilder Charles Atlas posed for the male figure,[1] a 1922 article identifies the model as Edward Raffo, an Italian-American bicyclist.[2] The sculpture group was placed upon a square pedestal adorned with dolphin heads that spewed water into basins attached to its sides. The water spilled from the basins into a pool shaped like an irregular cross, set upon a 3-stepped plinth.

The choice to use a male figure to represent "Virtue" was unusual.[why?] Even before its completion, the sculpture was controversial because of its treatment of the female figures: "[MacMonnies's] conflation of the public (municipal) and personal (psychological) disturbed many people. American women had just gotten the right to vote in 1920, and the sculpture group was seen as misogynistic.

In short? Controversial - so restored and exiled to the middle of a Cemetery - yet pretty. I choose to ignore the intent behind it, and just find it pretty.

I think there are a lot of frustrated egyptologists buried in Greenwood Cemetery.



And lots of interesting Japanese Maples...which I've fallen in love with.




As previously noted...in our most recent update on New York vs. the Corona Virus "At the request of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, New York is sending 7,500 test kits, 30,000 pieces of PPE and 1,250 gallons of hand sanitizer to Atlanta by Friday. Mayor Bottoms, who along with her family recently tested positive for COVID, has shown great leadership during this ongoing crisis. We are proud to send aid to Atlanta as their city fights a new surge in cases. " New York has also been praised in its handling of the virus...and is considered first among states (honestly since everyone else screwed up royally, this isn't saying much) in how it handled the virus... HERE.

On Twitter (I get notifications emailed to me, okay?) -romance novelist, Cat Sebastian tweeted that she didn't know how people were getting through this without a supply of Xanax and fanfiction. My response? I'm doing it with a daily meditation practice, and meditative walks around a 549 Cemetery where I take photos with an iphone.

Walking around the Cemetery is often the highlight of my day. I look forward to my walks.

What did you do this summer?

Me: I walked around a cemetery.

I leave you with...wildflowers...lots of purple wildflowers..