I’ve talked about time before. In the 24 years of the WonderBlog, with three thousand posts, a search reveals I’ve mentioned time in half of them.

That sounds right.

And I think of this line:

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons

T. S. Eliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. But let me read the poem to find the line. I dissect out this cross section:

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,

Yes, Prufrock. Time, like the green then yellow lemons on the tree. Hanging with promise for so long, ready for harvesting anytime. I could pluck it. Or cherish the unspent future.

Lemons look great on a tree. I’ve found the bright yellow promise can deceive. They age well on the branch, looking bright and cheery. I finally pick it to find a dry husk.

I hate to waste time. I feel it move over me. My habits—to see the morning, greet my day and make something of it—are part of redeeming the time.

But I don’t always get what I want. I didn’t expect to be out of work since September.

The sun rises without my help.

My best quote for the feeling is my own from The Russian American School of Tomorrow:

“We had crossed the International Date Line, so it was..yesterday? Tomorrow? Time hung spinning in the now with nowhere to land”

Time vertigo.

On May first I signed a contract. The wheels touched down on the track again.

I am moving forward.Fast.

Oh yeah. I missed this. I’m good at this. It’s high time I found my way back to it.

Inertia can mean being stuck in one place.

It can also mean gaining momentum on a path. I’ll do that now. Holding my hands up on the plunge of the roller coaster..heeeere I go!

Reading Deuteronomy as an adult, I was impressed with chapter 28

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God

The blessings go from verse 2-14. Very nice things will happen.

Then come the curses. Those last from verse 16-68. Some horrifying curses pour out from this book of Moses. I will not soon forget.

Blessings are clearly not enough motivation, there are four and a half times as many bad things pending on my choices than the rewards.

This is ancient horror. It’s been popular since the dawn of history.

Greek curses are truly memorable. Narcissus fell in love with his reflection and couldn’t bear to leave it. He wasted away into a pretty flower (I know it as the daffodil).

But Prometheus is chained on a mountaintop and every day an eagle eats his liver out. While he’s alive. But he grows one back every day in order for it to be eaten again. A violent painful life, but with a lovely view.

Sisiphus has to roll a rock up a hill perpetually, and every time he crests the rock falls down. He’s a hardworking curse victim.

Dante’s Inferno draws inspiration from these Greek curse examples, showing the perpetual tortures of hell.

Demons in The Journey to the West aka Monkey King(a 15^th century Chinese classic, featuring Buddha) operate under a different system. The Emperor of heaven will dispense curses on humans for their wrong that makes them demons. Two of the main sidekicks (a pig and a dragon) are working out their curses in the hopes of being restored. Other demons are firmly evil and may or not be under a curse. They were defensively killed before we learned their history.

WARNING! DANGER! STAY AWAY!

Curses are meant to remind people to stay on the right path. For my here and now, I have a concept of what the right path is. I’m less sure about what the Greeks or Romans considered the right path. The ancient Chinese right and wrong is further removed.

These curses are a strong reminder to keep to the straight path.