tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post6496992092783074193..comments2023-09-24T03:18:15.557-04:00Comments on Guanaguanare: the laughing gull: Blogging The DeadGuanaguanarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-67476657663292036892008-05-10T21:17:00.000-04:002008-05-10T21:17:00.000-04:00Thanks for your comment, tennischick. You have giv...Thanks for your comment, tennischick. You have given me something to think about.<BR/>Blessings.Guanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-4840509336109794312008-05-10T16:54:00.000-04:002008-05-10T16:54:00.000-04:00the dream is about disrespect. either you have bee...the dream is about disrespect. either you have been feeling disrespected or your conscience is flogging you because you disrespected someone. in any event, there is a need for reparation. unearth the wrong and deal with it face on without cowardice (whimpering). <BR/><BR/>the blog was the context of the dream but thankfully dreams are never that literal. keep writing man.tennischickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14542967574561107186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-75775838942091477392008-05-02T15:18:00.000-04:002008-05-02T15:18:00.000-04:00Excerpt from Part V of the First Quartet "Burnt No...Excerpt from Part V of the First Quartet <I>"Burnt Norton"</I> from T.S. Eliot's <I>"Four Quartets".</I><BR/><BR/><B>For Elspeth</B><BR/><BR/>"Words move, music moves<BR/>Only in time; but that which is only living<BR/>Can only die. Words, after speech, reach<BR/>Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,<BR/>Can words or music reach<BR/>The stillness, as a Chinese jar still<BR/>Moves perpetually in its stillness.<BR/>Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,<BR/>Not that only, but the co-existence,<BR/>Or say that the end precedes the beginning,<BR/>And the end and the beginning were always there<BR/>Before the beginning and after the end.<BR/><B>And all is always now.</B> "Guanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-79085677033156259622008-05-02T12:16:00.000-04:002008-05-02T12:16:00.000-04:00Sometimes we need to step away to come back (or no...Sometimes we need to step away to come back (or not, as the case may be):<BR/>http://nowiswowtoo.blogspot.com/2008/05/dream-trees.htmlElspethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08818240263719381120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-19469904385096567732008-05-01T20:01:00.000-04:002008-05-01T20:01:00.000-04:00Lab,Forgive me, I'm sleeptalking.No, don't be unea...Lab,<BR/>Forgive me, I'm sleeptalking.<BR/><BR/>No, don't be uneasy about what you decided for your father. Some people leave very clear instructions about where and how it should be done but you knew only what he didn't want, so I believe that you made the best decision that you could. <BR/><BR/>Did you know that Roi always wanted to return eventually to Trinidad? <I>"And yes, I wish in Trinidad to end my days, if I may..."</I> he said in "Cascadura". And he also wanted to be buried there. Do you think about what you'd want for yourself. If you already know, tell someone else so that those remaining behind won't have the doubts you are having now.<BR/><BR/>For me it doesn't matter where my physical remains are deposited. My spirit would be glad at last just to ayo and be free. <BR/><BR/>I will continue my response to this comment by e-mail.Guanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-45149657300954172182008-05-01T03:39:00.000-04:002008-05-01T03:39:00.000-04:00My father's birthday is April 21st and your entry ...My father's birthday is April 21st and your entry made me get up from my ass and look on his death certificate to find that piece of information out because it is something I have been walking around meaning to do because one of the things I must do is build an alter for the memory of my father--the other thing I wanted to do was to commemorate his birthday on my blog. I haven't done either of these things. My father died (or committed suicide?) in the streets of Brooklyn. I asked that his body be cremated and my mother mailed the remains to me, here in Denmark. I had my father's ashes with me, in my closet for 2 years because I didn't know what to do with it. I felt safe with them here with me. Finally, in 2004, I returned to Brooklyn with my son and scattered his ashes in Prospect Park. I have fond memories of him there and it is a neighborhood he loved. I do always wonder though, if I should have taken him back to Trinidad...a place he said himself, he never wanted to return...<BR/>This is what your dream makes me think of. <BR/>Thanks for your presence, <BR/>the labblackgirl on marshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03497832506757310228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-5290424167839119612008-04-25T12:41:00.000-04:002008-04-25T12:41:00.000-04:00Thank you for visiting and for your very, very kin...Thank you for visiting and for your <BR/>very, very kind words. You have caused me to look at this dream in a different light. I was upset because of what I had been doing to the body. It just didn't seem right, but when I revisit the dream, I realise that the body itself never complained about being used in this way. I was just so disturbed by what I saw as my disrespect. <BR/><BR/>It is a form of consumption, I suppose, to use any subject matter as fodder for blog posts, so maybe at that level I was consuming the corpse. But I am really reluctant to associate Roi with this dream because it would mean that I accept the implication that he is dead and I will never believe this.<BR/><BR/>I can only admit that I have really wished to internalize his benevolent spirit so that he is no longer external but my indwelling muse. If this is what you mean by cannibalism then yes, I have tried to eat him...alive.Guanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-31678533477623193242008-04-25T12:02:00.000-04:002008-04-25T12:02:00.000-04:00This is a fascinating blog. I don't actually read ...This is a fascinating blog. I don't actually read it as often as I like, or should, even though I subscribe to both your RSS feed and receive posts by email. But everytime I come back here some new gem awaits my reading.<BR/><BR/>Allow me my comments on your dream, since there is a tremendous "coincidence" here. It seems that Roi Kwabena has touched us both, and other Trinidadian bloggers too (two that I know of with some certainty). It seems that both you and I have been blogging in memory of Roi Kwabena, and I have heard the great music you added to the Indigenous Caribbean Network--thanks again for joining. Recently I decided to honour Roi's memory on another blog as well, <A HREF="http://openanthropology.wordpress.com/" REL="nofollow"><B>Open Anthropology</B></A>, where I credit him with inspiring me to think about what a future anthropology could look like, and I have a little memorial to him permanently affixed to my sidebar.<BR/><BR/>I believe that your dream is about Roi's body, and his spirit. This is what Roi, and of course many others, call remembering the ancestors. Roi frequently remembered the ancestors on his own blogs, like <A HREF="http://roikwabena.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-memory-of-ancestor-andre-tanker.html" REL="nofollow">his post about "Ancestor Andre Tanker"</A> when he died. I believe this dream is a good sign, and a sign of that tradition.<BR/><BR/>There was a cannibalistic element to your dream as well. Now, I have to be careful here, as I certainly do not want to add any weight to the myths of Carib cannibalism. At least on the mainland though, a number of nearby Amazonian groups engaged in ritual cannibalism as part of funerary rituals, as a means of coping with grief (as anthropologist Beth Conklin has written), where one consumes a small part of an ancestor's body to preserve, perpetuate, and absorb part of that person's spirit. This element of your dream only reinforces the idea of remembering a spirit, and it may also be what some indigenous peoples in the Americas believe is a "body memory"--the body remembering practices from ages ago. I say this since you have also identified your own indigenous heritage, even recently in a reply to Elspeth Duncan that I just read. By the way, thanks for your recent dedication, I was extremely touched by that.<BR/><BR/>Incidentally, I not only find that there is nothing objectionable or morally reprehensible about funerary/ritual cannibalism, I think it is extremely touching. Would I engage it in myself? Probably, if this were allowed here. Unfortunately, so many of my family and relatives have passed on that this might not even practical, especially as they are spread out across continents.<BR/><BR/>So do not be depressed, this was a great dream in my view. Roi is making us into his spirit blows.<BR/><BR/>Thanks so much for the gift of your blogging.Maximilian C. Fortehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11209329841918356753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-10404636655672331232008-04-25T11:06:00.000-04:002008-04-25T11:06:00.000-04:00Dear GirlBlue, thanks much for the link and the ad...Dear GirlBlue, thanks much for the link and the advice. I've started to read the pamphlet and I am swinging between laughter and taking it very seriously. No, this is too funny to be true...but what if it is true, then it's not funny at all. <BR/>Blessings.Guanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-26686118065949357012008-04-25T09:27:00.000-04:002008-04-25T09:27:00.000-04:00I don't know why a recent post I read which led me...I don't know why a recent post I read which led me to this <A HREF="http://thenonist.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/a_nonist_public_service_pamphlet/" REL="nofollow">link</A> came to mind when I read this.<BR/><BR/>Time to step back and away when it starts to manifest itself in dreams methinkGirlBluehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08375968122212076375noreply@blogger.com