My grandfather told me this story from the great depression. He was one of 13 boys, living on a farm. His mother had a rich vegetable garden, but meat was so hard to come by due to rations. When he was in third grade, he decided to become the best at winning marbles. He got to be nearly unbeatable. With his marbles' surplus, he would slingshot rabbits. Each time that he would bag a rabbit, he would walk home past the known mobster's house with the ears sticking out of his pocket. The mobster wanted the rabbits because they had no bullet holes, and he wanted to intimidate his friends I guess. My grandpa would usually be able to get two bullets per bunny. Then his brothers were able to hunt larger game to feed the whole family. I don't think I can ever become quite that resourceful, but I did inherit his marble jar.
Lorem Ipsum
I used Claude because I don't know Latin
Pain itself smells of love, following after leanness, chosen. Through the day, arrows, wedding hymns; a patron through the day, spoken, at the limits, adorned. Not Shem, bronze time accomplishes, until fattening. They fret, a ferryman of laughter, unless born of sadness, giving bad advice. Greatest hatred, pure, drinking in the valley, loves real estate, to have inhabited, poisonous.
Eligible course, household gods, a loan would wish to be. Pregnant with pain, a finch, but arrows of the earth. Chosen, reaching, pregnant, accomplishing. A small boat, the powerful, whole fermentation, vehicles, a lion, a ferryman, now. A fringe from performance, cat, laughter, love. At the limits, adorning, a bureau, a carton, not a fringe, a civet, making easy.
An urn, a weekend, wedding hymns, but it had pleased, it was, it will be cared for, poverty. A fleet, a mouse, how, but a finch, through, not a loan, players. Accomplishing small whale-grief, through it is said, well, also. Chosen old age, a throat, they inhabit some, this, born of good fear.
It follows disease, time, propaganda, at present, at the limits, it pleased. Wickedness, giving bad advice, small, following a fleet, pregnant, it caresses. Cares, let it be, they are giving birth, old age, but itself, the powerful. Our companions, a ferryman, javelins, a fringe, always through the day.
Ullamcorper accomplishes a little tongue, two, driving away, unless following. Ugly money, most worthy, having suspended, it follows, a fringe. A loan, the author, until a cushioned seat, greatest, now. Drinking and giving bad advice, old age, wickedness, a bow.
Hair loss, grief, money, anxiety, to place, and it pleased, until. Itself will be cared for, poisonous, [i like gonads], eligible, they stain, it will be cared for. Before most worthy, sometimes old age, a plow, unless from [i like gonads] wedding hymns, laughter. Making easy, wise, who accomplishes arrows.
Our patron frets over the earth, cares, bed, of life, to have inhabited. Ugly grief, course, players, companions, fear, grief. Accordingly, plow, tomorrow, goals, element, not drinking, a street. A bed, each places from a cat, than powerful, now, accordingly.
[I like gonads] from it undertakes, no, let us live toward drinking. Dark, sometimes a small boat; a throat, a bed, but always. Vehicles, let it be various vehicles, some who hate, making easy, a street. Whole, no, and companions, a loan, a ferryman, birth.
To place, a bureau, a torturer, grief, until this, it needs, who, a bureau, dark. Would want to have inhabited, now, poverty, Ullamcorper companions, birth, they twist, it is. An urn, some love, powerful, then, a throat, soft, or.
Acres in drinking, seasoning, it caresses, most worthy, most worthy, Ullamcorper. To the street, laughter, than laughter, seasoning, fermentation, or hatred, dark. No beginnings, a fringe, ridiculous, an urn, a ferryman, a street, until.
Hard to find Latin to English translations
feugiat: fret/goals
nibh:small
ullamcorper: maybe a family name
euismod: performance
congue: loan
volutpat: weekend
hendrerit: bureau
lobortis: carton
nisl: players
eleifend: eligible
vulputate: (guessing) might be a sexual reference, but this is not for sure. maybe "i like gonads"
augue: propaganda
accmsan: accordingly
fusce: dark
proin: then
duis: two
dui: money
mattis: real estate
aenean: bronze
imperdiet: hair loss
ainteger: whole
acras: acres
ultricies: street
sem: Shem, son of Noah
Hard to find Latin lore
The ferryman appears three times. Romans took Charon deadly seriously — you placed a coin in the mouth of the dead so they could pay the ferryman across the Styx. A body left unburied, without the fare, was a genuine spiritual catastrophe.
Urns; Cremation was standard Roman practice for much of the Republic and Empire. Keeping an ancestor's ashes in the home was normal, even intimate.
"Nunc est bibendum" — "now it is time for drinking" — is actually the opening line of one of Horace's most famous odes.
Real estate; Land ownership was the measure of a man's worth, his political eligibility, his social class. The census was essentially a property register.
The cushioned seat; (pulvinar) is a very specific one — it was the sacred couch placed at the Circus Maximus where effigies of the gods were seated to watch the games. The gods needed good seats.
The torturer sits in a legal context that Romans would have understood immediately. Testimony from slaves was only considered legally valid if extracted under torture. The quaestio was a recognized judicial procedure. The torturer was an officer of the court.
Propaganda — Romans essentially invented the political image campaign. Coins, triumphal arches, public games, the carefully managed biography — Augustus in particular was a master of it. That it appears alongside disease and time feels right; they understood power came in many forms.
Original Latin
Lorem ipsum odor amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Diam sagittis himenaeos maecenas diam dictum finibus ornare. Non sem tempus aenean efficitur, donec adipiscing. Torquent feugiat porttitor risus nisi natoque tristique malesuada. Odio maximus purus bibendum convallis amet mattis habitasse venenatis. Eleifend cursus penatibus congue velit sit. Gravida dolor fringilla sed tellus sagittis. Elit aptent in gravida in efficitur. Phasellus a potenti integer fermentum vehicula leo porttitor nunc.
Lacinia ex euismod felis risus eros. Finibus ornare hendrerit lobortis non lacinia viverra facilisis at. Urna volutpat himenaeos sed placerat erat curabitur egestas. Class mus quam sed fringilla per non congue nisl. Efficitur nibh orci luctus per dictumst eu etiam. Elit senectus faucibus habitant aliquam hac, natoque eu metus. Consequat morbi tempor augue praesent finibus placerat.
Scelerisque malesuada nibh consectetur class gravida blandit. Curae sit parturient senectus sed ipsum ut potenti. Nostra sociosqu porttitor iaculis lacinia semper diam in. Ullamcorper efficitur ligula duis pellentesque nisi consectetur. Turpis dui dignissim suspendisse consequat lacinia. Congue auctor donec pulvinar maximus a nunc. Bibendum et malesuada senectus scelerisque arcu. Imperdiet luctus dui sollicitudin posuere et placerat donec. Ipsum curabitur venenatis vulputate eleifend tincidunt curabitur.
Ante dignissim interdum senectus rutrum nisi ex vulputate himenaeos risus. Facilisis sapien quis efficitur sagittis ac. Nostra maecenas feugiat tellus curae lectus vitae habitasse et. Turpis luctus cursus nisl, sociosqu metus luctus. Accmsan rutrum cras feugiat elementum non bibendum platea. Lectus quisque posuere ex felis quam potenti nunc accmsan. Vulputate ex suscipit nullam vivamus ad bibendum quam.
Fusce interdum phasellus; faucibus lectus sed semper at. Vehicula sit varius vehicula, aliquam quis odio facilisi platea. Ainteger nullam et sodales congue porttitor netus. Posuere hendrerit tortor luctus donec hac eget quis hendrerit fusce. Velit habitasse nunc egestas ullamcorper sodales netus torquent est. Urna aliquam eros potenti, proin faucibus mollis vel. Acras in bibendum condimentum blandit dignissim dignissim ullamcorper. Ad ultricies risus quam risus condimentum fermentum vel odio mauris. Nullam inceptos lacinia ridiculus urna porttitor platea donec.
Some professional translations:
Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC1914 translation by H. Rackham
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"
Section 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC
1914 translation by H. Rackham
"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."
Hestie
TW: child abuse, religious extremism
Athena goes to church. It's a church that her husband's mother, recommended to them when they moved to the area. Her husband is a musician, and has found his path for the lord through closely watching his mother playing and playing and playing the piano. It's a safe space, to be a church musician. You do not have to use the same parts of your brain; the parts of your brain that hatred is stored. You get to use the parts of your brain and soul where you can express the parts of you that you do not have the words for.
"IF YOU SPARE THE ROD, YOU DAMN YOUR CHILD TO HELL!" The three of us listen, meekly. Athena looks straight ahead, and nods, recognizing the proverb. She is on a subscription that allows her to read through the entire bible each year. She's found some time with her husband, Socrates, to enact their devotion together, reading the words, over and over and over again. Their child, Hestie, gives up hope as she hears the preacher man, foaming at the mouth, fomenting violence. Fists slamming the pulpit meant he was moved by God himself.
Athena loves music. She loves the music programs of the church, and she gets to make music with Socrates. A union blessed by God. Music blessed by God. A leader, who heard God's voice is such a shepherd to his flock. One afternoon, after quite a severe whipping, Hestie starts asking Athena some philosophical questions, because Socrates could not be questioned. Athena is able to center each answer around a Bible verse. The living direct word of God. The Bible always had an answer, and that was that. Maybe the answers did not satisfy, but those are the mysteries of God, because "His ways are above our ways". Athena studied Hebrew. Athena had a Strong's Concordance. Athena journaled her prayers, and then looked up key words in her prayer to find corresponding verses, to be God's word as an answer to prayer for her to meditate on in times where it didn't make any sense. She mentioned that she struggled with her faith, but this held her and kept her through.
Athena "cried unto the Lord", especially in her closet, and especially when Socrates was away longer and longer. Her body wouldn't listen to her. Hestie wouldn't listen to her. Socrates wouldn't listen to her, but God listened. She knew He heard her prayers. She must deserve this. When she was "but a sinner", she experimented with drugs and alcohol. Her sister, Ermengarde, followed in her footsteps, and died when her fiance drove drunk, and wrapped her around a tree. But God's grace alone allowed Athena to find forgiveness for her sins. She swore she would not ever lead Hestia astray. Her one mission in life became perfection through Sanctification.
The preacher man outright claimed to be perfect, because he KNEW he was Sanctified, and his flock must also become Sanctified, so as to never "backslide". "THOSE KIDS START LISTENING TO SECULAR PROFESSORS IN SECULAR COLLEGES AND START BELIEVING IN EVOLUTION! YOU RAISE THEM RIGHT, AND THEY WONT GO TO A SECULAR COLLEGE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEN THEY WONT GO TO HELL". His flock would always come forward in droves, crying at each and every alter call. Crying in the aisles, crying in the pews. No one wanted their family to be separated in all of eternity. "IF YOU DIE AND DONT BELIEVE IN THE WORD OF GOD, YOU WILL BURN ETERNALLY IN THE LAKE OF FIRE! THERE THERE IS WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH." Terror slid through Hestie's veins. She could feel the hellfire. She knew she was damned. Oh how it burned. "LUST IS A SIN". "SINNERS GO TO HELL". "ONCE YOU GO TO HELL YOU WILL NOT EVER GET OUT". "YOU WILL WISH YOU LISTENED".
Hestie never went forward during alter calls, because that would be an admission of guilt; and an invitation to investigation by every adult who saw her go. They would have prayed with her, asked her to confess her sins, and made her promise to never sin again. A promise to God can never be broken, because "GOD KNOWS YOUR HEART, AND HE KNOWS IF YOURE LYING! LIARS SHALL GO TO HELL". It all made perfect sense. It all tied together in a neat bow. Hestie took comfort in stories of people dying of cancer, because then they would have time to repent, and go to heaven just like the theif on the cross. "TONIGHT, I WILL SEE YOU IN PARADISE." The theif on the cross always held a special place in Hestie's heart. He knew he would have to account for his sins, but he knew that God would have mercy, because he was "right with God" before he died.
This is why the flock would go to "old folks homes". This is why the flock fed the people on the street. This is why the flock visited the sick. This is why the flock visited prisoners. They found a way to express mercy on the people who might meet their maker sooner than later. The odds that they would die while simultaneously right with God was higher than your average Josephus. Kids camps were integral though. Parents in the community were so drunk and strung out that they stopped caring about if their kids were being indoctrinated! They just wanted a break.
Hestie did everything in her power to feel her body, but it wasn't her doing it... It was satan working through her. She had cursed him to hell when she was around 4 years old. Sneering at satan about how since he hated us, we could hate him. Hestie really wanted her body to feel like her own, but she never did. When Socrates noticed her impudent speech, he beat the hell out of her. Roughly undressed and laid over his lap, he coiled his leather belt up and left welts up and down from her back down to her thighs, panties around her ankles.
He definitely didn't want Hestie to burn in hell. He was so determined to protect her. "ALL LIARS SHALL GO TO HELL" he cried, as she felt the flames coursing through her veins. She couldn't remember what she lied about this time, but she took it to heart. Funny enough, she loved speaking the truth. That usually got her into more trouble though, so she embraced the cowardice of learning to split herself into two parts; Holy and Unholy. Holy Hestia learned to embrace music, sometimes more than other times, but it was a safe place for her soul to rest.
Music
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