Posted by timethief in I’ve been tagged by MusEditions to take part in a meme.
Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
– Omar KhayyamThis is perhaps the most famous verse of Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat, and with good reason- it is hard to think of any way in which it could possibly be improved. That’s one of the things I most like about short poems, actually - at their best, they can attain a self-contained, gemlike perfection that longer pieces are hard-pressed to match, and the Rubaiyat definitely take their place among the best of the breed.
Click the image for the YouTube - Dorothy Ashby - The Moving Finger from the album “The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby”, Cadet label, 1970.
Dorothy was a pioneer in her day. She was compared to Alice Coltrane in her spiritual vibes, but in my opinion Dorothy’s song had more of a funk flavor and other artists were heavily inspired by her work. She has also been sampled by many Hip Hop artists.
Feedback
I know the intent of these memes is to get to know others better and to include an every increasing number in one’s circle of friends but, I truly dislike them. Whenever I am ‘tagged’ I feel as if someone is pointing a finger at me and expecting me to respond right (write) now. I also feel that being tagged implies that I won’t be considered to be a “good” person if I do not wish to participate and tag others. This runs against my grain for three reasons. I’m not under any obligation to blog, my face-to-face friends would never make such demands of me and, those readers, who are close to me communicate with me by means other than blog posts and comment boxes. I will not point the finger at 5 more victims but, if any of you below would like to volunteer to participate then, please do go for it and enjoy. 
- adam
- alabaster crippens
- alifeinletters
- atlindas
- b0bbyg
- carocat
- cjwriter
- cornell
- defining moments
- dovelove
- ellaella
- everyoneneedstherapy
- fracas
- juan
- lettershometoyou
- neath
- nitawriter
- Paul O’Flaherty
- poonam
- priscilla palmer
- raincoaster
- renal failure
- ririan project
- roads
- rotus
- skepchick
- stonehead
- sulz
- sunburntkamel
- sylvied
- syros
- terraflora
- thebritgirl
- thesacredpath
- thinksimplenow.com
- wank
- watching clouds
- will rhodes
- wolf
Given your thoughts about memes, bf, let me thank you for participating! I always feel that I have the choice about whether or not to play and/or follow the rules. It seems though, that no matter how much we blog and comment, these memie things show us a slightly different facet of those we care about. I so agree that if it feels like a chore, it shouldn’t be done. And look at all the lovely link love your friends got from this!
The Khayyam phrase is also one of my favorites. Just stunning. Thanks, again, brightfeather, you rock!
H Muse,
As a young person I just sucked it up and did things I really didn’t want to do so that people would like me. Now I’m trying to live my life as authentically as I can. I hoped that if I expressed myself clearly that everyone would understand the feelings that getting ‘tagged’ evoke in me. I love everyone of you and selecting 5 people who might feel the same way I do felt so very wrong that I couldn’t do it. Sending everyone link love and asking for volunteers felt a lot better. Thanks for being gracious.
Links should never be pressured! Links should come from the heart!
In Russia the term Love is a very strong word, Link friends would be better. Link Love implies a committed relationship that has deep hidden and surface feelings.
Link Love in most blogs, just means you link with strangers for any reason.
I think that your feelings are correct and the way you handled it was cool.
I would not have done it! I link because I enjoy the other Blog on a daily bases.
Kyle
I already did this, although in typical raincoaster fashion I didn’t get tagged, I just stole it. Alas, I singlehandedly transformed one of the great works of Christian Allegory into a gay innuendo.
http://raincoaster.com/2008/02/10/exactly-why-i-am-doomed-to-burn-in-hell-for-eternity/
Hi, brightfeather (and Muse!). Thanks for the love and for thinking of me..but MusEditions got to me first.
I like your idea of asking for volunteers. I’m uncomfortable with tagging people and I’m always the one who ruins the chain.
Love your choice of reading material!
@kyle & svet
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you approve of the way I handled this. I was sincere. Others did not feel the same way that you did so, they exercised their right and unsubscribed from my blog and I respect their right to do that.
@rain
I laughed when I read your comment above about “stealing a meme”. Some of us have a hard time giving them away. I laughed harder when I read what you did with it on your blog … burn baby, burn … Maybe what we share can be attributed to Canuckistani non-compliance genes. ;-D
@ella
Ahh … so we both were the kind of kids who tore up chain letters and fed them to the woodstove, eh? It’s good to know that I’m not alone. I have many years of non-participation experience behind me but in the past I’ve had trouble saying ‘no’. This time I found an elegant solution after experiencing a light bulb moment. Let everyone have link love and let those who want to play meme go for it with our blessing.
The link love is mucho appreciato, tho.
@rain
Here’s a big {HUG} to go with it.
Looks like fun!
@therapydoc
Ah Ha! A willing participant. Go for it!
[...] know I’m not alone, because based on what I’ve been reading lately, a lot of people hate memes. Hate writing them. Hate receiving them. Hate reading them. One [...]
I couldn’t agree more with your feelings about being “tagged”. To me, this is a gross presumption of my time…so I don’t play when tagged. So far I haven’t lost any friends
As MusEditions pointed out all of the things we post to draw one another out are, in essence, memes. I recognize this and that’s why it was hard to share my feelings. I was also afraid that I would lose the very few internet friends that I do have so I procrastinated at first. Then, I bit the bullet and shared. Since I did I’ve been crossing my fingers and hoping that my words did not cause so much offence that it made any readers wipe my blog’s url from their Blogroll.
[...] As for me, once again I am begging my readers, PLEASE do not do this to me ever again. [...]