Ithaca

I went to the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition yesterday. I highly recommend it, there are some amazing pictures. There's not that long of it left, so go while you have the opportunity! http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/world-photo-london

The images from all over the world have left me with a craving to go away. This is nothing new for me, I love travel but that intense longing to be in different surroundings, to be on the move and experience the new all the time reminded me of one of my absolute favourite poems.

Ithaca, by Constantine P. Cavafy. Read it here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ithaca/

(In case you wondered (as I did when I first read this), the Laistrygonians are an ancient mythical Greek tribe of cannibals)

When I read this, I think of Ithaca as a symbol for life itself, and all the places I want to go to along the way. The emphasis here is all about the journey, not the destination: 'ask that your way be long' is repeated, and the reader is advised not to hurry but to appreciate the experience, be satiated in joy, in newness ('ports seen for the first time') and in learning ('gather knowledge from the learned'). These are the things I love about travel, the expansion of the mind, the improvement in understanding of the world and its people. There is so much to see and do and we're only here for such a short time; when my desire to make the most of this and get out is so intense, I sometimes find it hard to relate to people who have no desire to experience anything other than their own immediate surroundings.

The references to the Laistrygonians, Cyclops and Poseidon are metaphors for fear, in my reading of this poem: they can be present if you let them, and sure, there's lots in the world to be terrified of - but you can't let it hold you back. 'You will not meet them unless you carry them in your soul'. Let your approach not be dominated by anxiety or the fear of threat, but by all the wonder you can experience.

Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

I spend quite a lot of time around some people who could be considered, in a slightly archaic sense, 'mad'. This isn't a harsh criticism of my friends, but rather a reference to the fact that quite a few of the residents who live in the homeless hostel where I work have varying degrees of mental health problems. This week, I have experienced one person having auditory hallucinations while I was talking to him, another who recently attempted suicide, and one who came to me to talk about how disjointed he feels, how disconnected from the world and everything around him.

Today's poem is by Emily Dickinson who, to be quite honest, I generally really don't like. I think I could find much more poetry out there about madness that I would like much more than this one, however I think this one makes some interesting points. And also, I'm tired and don't want to spend too long looking right now...!

Much Madness Is Divinest Sense, by Emily Dickinson. Read it here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182156

What's this one about? In my view, the perception of madness. What's 'true' can vary for different people. When I was talking to my client earlier this week and all I could hear was the sound of my voice, but he could hear other voices that were equally as loud and clear, that was real for him. Because I am in the majority of people who cannot hear those voices, he is considered to be ill. I won't start getting into a long discussion about the mental health industry as a whole, but I think Dickinson makes a valid point here that 'madness' and its various definitions are based on majorities. The majority of people generally don't think that the CIA has implanted a device in their heads to monitor them, so if you think that, it could be a sign there's something wrong. The majority of people don't believe that they have met Santa Claus and they have angels in their minds who guide them, so if you believe that, it could be a sign there's something wrong.

Having said that, some of the maddest sounding things can actually be true and Dickinson compares much sense to 'the starkest madness'. How many movies are there involving government conspiracies, people being spied on, evil agendas etc that turn out to be based on true stories? (The movie 'Fair Game' immediately comes to mind). Governments that punish people for being gay with the death penalty. People with so much faith in God that they spread hate. Sense to them. Absolute madness to me.