Hunting of the Snark - The Beaver's Lesson.

Hunting of the Snark - Fit the Fifth - The Beaver's Lesson - by Lewis Carroll.


Then the Butcher contrived an ingenious plan
For making a separate sally;
And fixed on a spot unfrequented by man,
A dismal and desolate valley. 

But the very same plan to the Beaver occurred:
It had chosen the very same place:
Yet neither betrayed, by a sign or a word,
The disgust that appeared in his face. 

Civilisation and Barbarism

Civilisation and Barbarism - by P.K.Odendaal - October 2014.

Note at the end added on 23 November 2013.
 

I have written a few futile attempts on civilisation, realising that it was very difficult to hunt it down, although not so difficult to kill. It is a very thin fabric and there is a growing concern in the world today that it might be very frail and that it might be under attack and that it might be very vulnerable. It was under serious attack more than a millenium ago and Europe escaped the total destruction of civilisation by the skin of its teeth.

Against civilisation, at the other extreme, I posit barbarism as its antidote, and though I respect both life forms, I only revere civilisation.

Travel is so broadening ... or The Pilgrims Digress

Travel is so broadening ... or The Pilgrims Digress - by P.K.Odendaal - September 2013. 

By this time you have gotten used to my mind wandering in totally different trajectories than my body and you have gotten used to look deeper at things than what you can see. The occasion is my visit to South Africa. I prepare my body for this arduous journey of 25 hours - drastically down from the 43 hours it took me in 2002 - from Canada to South Africa.

Well, the logistics of such an itinerary is quite easy to understand but what we do not see is quite complex and hidden from the eye.

The Hunting of the Snark - Fit the fourth: The Hunting

The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll

 

Fit the fourth: The hunting

The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow.
"If only you'd spoken before!
It's excessively awkward to mention it now,
With the Snark, so to speak, at the door!

"We should all of us grieve, as you well may believe,
If you never were met with again --
But surely, my man, when the voyage began,
You might have suggested it then?