February Lovers 1: Tristan & Iseult (Isolde)

This week's tale stems from a Arthurian legend.  It's the tale of Tristan & Iseult.  It's another cautionary tale of course and a fascinating one. I heard first when I was little and I haven't stopped loving it since.  It's the Celtic Romeo & Juliet before Shakespeare was even a thought.

Herbert Draper 1863-1920

Isolde was a golden haired  Irish Princess, who healed the orphan Tristan of a serious side wound, a lingering ailment similar ot the one affecting the "Maimed King" in the story of the Grail.  In these times a maimed man could not rule as King, so when Tristan was to be named his heir by his uncle King Mark of Cornwall, his advisers protested.  King Mark gave in, and decided he would marry the woman whose hair had fallen from the swallow's beak.

Sire Tristan recognizing the hair as belonging to Isolde, decided to champion his Uncles' cause for her hand.  When he reached Ireland he discovered her home being terrorized by a dragon.  Knowing the best way to get her hand for his uncle was to get rid of the beast, Tristan tracked it home & fought it. It was a hard battle and Tristan was greatly wounded, being knocked out by the beast's poisonous breath as it died.

While he was out another man attempted to claim the victory but Isolde & her mother sensed that there was something wrong with his story & went seeking the true hero & found Tristan   While nursing him back to health Isolde realized that Tristan's sword was missing a piece, a piece that matched exactly the metal found in the head of Morholt, Ireland's champion. Furious, Isolde attempted to kill him, but found that her heart wouldn't let her kill him.  It came as a shock, when recovered Sir Tristan asked for her hand on his Uncle Mark's behalf & her father agreed as a way to heal the wound between Ireland & Cornwall. Iseult however was still upset at this. Knowing her daughter would need a happy marriage, her mother made a love philtre meant for Iseult & King Mark to drink & gave it to her maid Brangaine.  If the potion was drank on their wedding night it would make the couple love each other forever.  All would have been well if Tristan hadn't accidentally drank some & shared the goblet with Iseult on the journey to Cornwall.

John Duncan's Tristan & Isolde canvas, 1912

Although Iseult married the King, on the wedding night, under the cover of darkness Brangaine took her place in the royal bed so the he would suspect nothing.  For a while the lovers managed to maintain their affair before they were discovered.  King Mark found the lovers asleep with Tristian's sword lying between them, he decided not to slay them then & there, but exchanged his sword for Tristian's.

When Tristan woke he was stunned & overcome by the mercy shown by his uncle, Tristan persuaded Isolde to return to her husband & he volunteered himself for exile in Brittany.  There in Brittany, he married but it was not a happy marriage, because the bride Iseult of the White Hands, loved her husband more than he could love her.  Several times in secret he would sneak back to Cornwall and met with Isolde in secret, but the war in Brittany kept him too busy to return often. During a battle Tristan was severely wounded & sent for Isolde.  He asked his friend & fellow Knight to sail back with her under a specific set of sails.

Their code was for Isolde to sail under a white flag when she was close. If the Knight was returning without Isolde to sail beneath a black sail.  Jealous & angry at the imminent reunion of the lovers, Tristian's Bretton wife Iseult of the White Hands, told him that the ship was sailing beneath a black flag.  Losing his will to live, Tristan threw himself on his sword & died before Isolde could reach him.  Heartbroken, Isolde followed him into death not much later.

When they were buried, a hazel tree and a honeysuckle bush sprung up & grew together.  Three times King Mark had the branches cut back to separate them and each time they grew back together. Eventually he left them alone.

The End.

@Britannia Travel website

The Tristan stone: on the Britannia travel site gives a great tourist guide to the stone & places from the legend.

"The Tristan Stone (from Wikipedia)  Known as The Tristan Stone, or The Longstone (Cornish: Menhir, meaninglong stone), is a 2.7 m tall granite pillar near Fowey in Cornwall. The stone has a mid 6th century AD two line inscription which has been interpreted as reading DRVSTANVS HIC IACIT CVNOWORI FILIV’S (‘Drustan lies here, of Cunomorus the son’). A now missing third line was described by the 16th century antiquarian John Leland as reading CVM DOMINA OUSILLA (‘with the lady Ousilla’). Ousilla is a Latinisation of the Cornish female name Eselt, otherwise known as Isolde. The disappearance of this third line may be as a result of the stone being moved several times over the past three centuries."

A bittersweet romance. Have you heard the tale before?? I personally didn't like the Hollywood remake, what did you think?? They changed way too much for me, adding in people and taking out many others, It wasn't close to the legend at all. Have any favorite stories? Share in the comments please.

 Happy Monday

Febuary Lovers: Mr & Mrs. Loving

Welcome to episode 1 of the February Lovers of 2012.

Have you ever seen a couple she beautiful, him handsome walking down the street, nothing about them is truly particularity different other than they are a interracial couple, maybe one is Caucasian & the other Black, maybe they are Asian & Black; whatever they ethnicity it's the love that shines through. You yourself (like me) maybe involved with a interracial relationship, I am a product of an interracial relationship, I like many of you have the right to these relationships due to those who came before us and fought for those rights.

Let’s be real the mixing of races here in America has not always been for love, or by choice. Many times it was the way to survive to make sure you progeny got a better life than you did, sometimes it was due to rape.

There are instances however that show us that it does happen for love, that there are people who would willingly stand up and fight for their heart’s true desire, and such is the case of Mr and Mrs, Loving. the couple from Virginia fled to Washington DC to get married due to the law on the books in Virginia which prevented the intermarrying of Caucasian and Blacks, this law called the “Racial Integrity Act” made it a criminal offence to knowingly have sex with another race, & a federal offence to marry another race. 

Arrested, tried and found guilty in Virgina they were sentenced to 1 year in jail or a suspended sentence if they left the state for 25 years; they took the suspended sentence and fled to DC, there they met with lawyers from the ACLU and on November 6, 1965, filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia for violation of the 14th Amendment. As noted by the fact that you and I can date, have sex with and marry whomever we wish (I’m not discussing the LGBT community at the moment) you can tell they won.

On January 22, 1965  the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court, the judges upheld the Virginia Law.  The people who actually helped the ACLU team were the churches, the Presbyterian Church, then UU Association, & the Roman Catholic Church stepped into say

"laws which prohibit, inhibit or hamper marriage or cohabitation between persons because of different races, religions, or national origins should be nullified or repealed."^{[ (wikipedia/loving v Virginia)}

Prior to the Loving case, there were a few others that challenged the law including Pace v Alabama, Perez v Sharp, each laid the groundwork which allowed the Loving case to proceed to the Supreme Court; on June 12, 1967 the court ruled in favour of the Lovings with this statement: 

“Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”

Despite the ruling, many of these laws remained on the books although un~ enforceable until Alabama repealed the law in 2000.

Yes you read that right, until 2000.  Now I didn’t mean to give you a history lesson, but every time I look at my partner, every time I look at my siblings & my Grandmere (or her pictures, since she has passed) I see the descendants of interracial love, and I am grateful everyday for these people.

Now to make this story even more personal, my favourite place to be during high school was the library, I volunteered there during my free periods and during my senior year when I only had homeroom & 1 other class, I was there all the time. My school librarian, one of the coolest women I knew and was very into discussing Black history with me, her name was Ms. Loving, as in the granddaughter of Mr & Mrs. Loving. When I saw the movie and went to school that Monday, she laughed when I walked in and said yes she had seen the show, she gave a talk during Black History Month and brought along family pictures, and shared those with us.
Talk about touching history, this is the story of a love that took on a state and went to bat for all those who couldn’t, This was a love that lasted until Mr Richard Loving preceded his wife into death in June 1975, and she later passed on May 2, 2008

Officially Loving Day is the day the courts overturned the rule, June 12th, but every Valentine’s Day, when my partners & I are enjoying this day for Lovers I always stop to light a candle for the ones who helped to make this love possible.

Even if your aren’t in an interracial romance, can you please light a candle today for all the lovers past and present who are in need of passion, comfort, Love and romance.

**If your in NYC they have a display of pictures from the Loving family, intimate portraits, why not take a look and see. Link is above with their names.**

Be Blessed, be happy, Be Love

“I’ll Take care of you”

And the Greatest of these is Love

In my job, working with the masses, you sometimes are treated to the dregs of society, you sometimes see great heartbreak, and feel such deep loss that  you have to learn to harden your heart or the burdens of the people will burn you out. So when I’m out and about I create the NY city attitude, with the “don’t mess with me” face, the “I’ll kick your ass” body language and block out anything I can.

Normally when I ride the public transportation I ride with my ears plugged, and my music loud enough to drown the noise, but not enough to damage my ear drums. this is because sometimes the humanity that takes the bus or train is just too full of ignorance, despair or are sharing way too much info for me. It’s also a good way as an empath to aide in blocking the overwhelming amount of info coming in off the masses.

Today was different, it's a balmy and gorgeous 50 degrees outside.  At my stop was a mother and her  seven maybe eight year old son and they got on the bus with me (it's a stop many buses come to) Once we get on the bus I notice something immediately, perhaps the melting snow has made others feel nicer because the people on the bus are calm today; I decide to read. The mother sits in the seat in front of me, and her son sits in the seat in front of her.
When I'm reading i like to take little breaks to digest what I have read just to make sure the info has sunk in properly so I'm not too overwhelmed or miss the really good parts (plus it's good to look up every once in a while to make sure you haven't missed your stop). 

A few stops later, they took a seat together and I sat behind them, somewhere along the way I stopped to look up and was pulled in my the most amazing feeling coming from them and was treated to this piece of beauty

" One day mom I'm going to take care of you and you won't have to work"

and then he hugged her, and she said "awww" and returned his hug.

In that moment, I felt a sweet deep rush of love, and of hope. Turning on the news, sometimes sitting on the bus, you are bombarded with these horrible images of the future,and of humanity. It's sometimes enough to make you want to hand in your humanity card and tell the world to 'eff off', while you bury yourself in some log cabin in the woods. Yet, here in this moment, on a cool 'spring' day, a young man reminded me that like winter comes to an end, so too must the strife. And here was a little boy making a promise, a wish, to a woman who is his Mother, who has worked, and sacrificed for him, that one day all her hard work will come to fruition and it will be his turn to take care of her.

This dear readers is love, it's one that can't be fabricated, can't be purchased, and is very easily lost it's the love of child to parent, this is true "agape", as the Greeks would say.
There is a feeling of hope, and I sent a wish, with his to the angels, and to the Goddess, that one day his wish will come true, that he would live a wonderful healthy life and be able to make this wish this promise come true. This day I felt a lightening and knew that his wish had been heard. And for me, the guarded empath on the bus, i was given a sweet taste of love, all with sincere promise of a child, and like the snow outside, a small part of my 'hardened' heart melted. I didn't worry about what would come for him in the future, here was a shining light, a ray of hope, a promise of tomorrow:

"one day...... I will take care of you..."

There is no better 'love' tale than this.
Be Loved, Be Blessed

February Lovers

Love recognizes no barriers

it jumps hurdles,

leaps fences

penetrates walls

to arrive at it's destination

Full of HOPE

---drahjehul

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, the day we are supposed to let our loves know how much they mean to us. Sometimes we buy them flowers, get them pampered, purchase that expensive gift, or do that sexual trick that we save only for special occasions O_o.. Love is a many splendorous thing, but love isn't always hearts and roses.I wish to share with you my all time favorite love stories. Some are from myths, some are fictional, some are true, some are so awe inspiring that they change the laws of the land.  I will highlight loves that showcase the good, the bad and the ugly side of this thing called love.

There are many tales in which we grow up with which tell us, how to love, whom to love, and what love looks like, myths, legends, or our own family love stories, I wish to share as many as I can think of.

Here are a few I will be covering, if you know any others, leave a comment, and I will share them:

• Tristan and Isolde (the real tale, not the Hollywood version)
• Isis and Osiris (Aset & Asar)
• Psyche and Eros
• Echo and Narcissus
• Cleopatra, Julius Cesar, & mark Anthony
• Mr & Mrs. Loving ~ Post Here
• Dr King & Coretta Scott King
• Malcom X & Betty
• Aphrodite & Hepaestus
• Hades & Persphone
• Zeus & his many lovers
• Orpheus & Eurydice
• Oedipus
• Paris & Helen
• Becuma & King Cunn

You only need to turn on the TV to Snapped to see the bad side of love or any true crime show to see that many times that feeling of love can go very very wrong. Some of the fables, can be seen as warnings or a what not to do post.
Take these tales as you see it

Be Blessed