And I don't mean "medieval" in the Pulp Fiction sense, but in the actual sense of meaning "dating from the 5th to the 15th Century." And why is that? A few reasons.
First, last night I dreamed that I was doing Paint By Numbers. Why I should dream this, I really have no idea, but it also inexplicably stayed with me today, so much so that when I got home this evening, I decided to paint by the numbers. I am the type of person who has at least a couple Paint by Numbers kits around the house, and so I dug up one. There were four selections: Vam Gogh's Sunflowers (better save that till I have some practice), some sort of water fowl (boor-ing!), a "San Francisco Adventure" scene which was basically a street car of waving tourists in front of some classic Queen Anne's (and that one looked devilishly difficult) and, the one I chose, a lighthouse by moonlight - which is a bit cheesy but not too hard and wouldn't be annoying to look at once done.
I wanted to paint but my partner wanted to watch something, so I set up my computer next to me and used a very cool pointable, flexible USB "booklight" style light (thanks, ThinkGeek) to illuminate my canvas. With the tiny brushes I was using and the tiny pots of paint, and the odd pinpointed, directed light, I had a sort of monk vibe, like I was painting by candlelight, or illuminating manuscripts. It was all precision and concentration and working around the shadows. It didn't help that J decided to watch Camelot, the recent TV series, which is, naturally, rather medieval.
Morgana - or Morgan le Fay - is in the series, and some scenes between or with her and Merlin are heavy with magic and herbalism - well, also blood, which I *don't* use in my potions, amulets and simmering concoctions, but I *did* identify with the ritualist herbal usage. I myself am currently drying mint, yarrow, verbena, rosemary, an different types of yarrow, St. Johns Wort and chamomile. Some of it for magical uses. Some of it just for fun - or for teas. That's Medieval Thing #2 I am doing.
I recently went to a themed picnic - the Impressionists (that would be turn of the last century) - and I brought along my small ukulele. The really small one, the sopranino, which is so tiny you can practically put it on a hat as a decoration, but not quite. I was challenged to bring songs that would be era-appropriate, but had a small book of "standards" that included folk items, such as The Star Spangled Banner, which was perfectly acceptable.
OK, so I know the ukulele isn't medieval, per se, but it's old fashioned (despite being increasingly hip) and sitting beside a tree, strumming a stringed instrument for entertainment is something they surely have been doing for hundreds and hundred of years. I'm no minstrel, but I do get the crowds singing, and I am boisterously lo-fi....had it been, say, a lute, I'd have been in business 1500 years ago.
Then, there's the garden, which is an ancient art. Not just agriculture - which is about 9000 years old, or more - but specifically herbal gardening. How long have people been smelling lavender for? Using chamomile in calming tea for? Chewing mint to freshen one's breath, or assist with digestion? Medicinal herbs pre-date agriculture. But there's also the rest of it: fighting weeds - a new pernicious strain of crab-type grass has just appeared in the last few weeks, impossible to remove - and pulling out carrots, cutting back flowers, looking at and tending the crops. Fighting the moles. I am certain fighting moles is a very, very old occupation.
Just a quick note about the garden - it was all going so well, and then really just took a dive. It's been *so* cold and foggy and drizzly and gray here - a real San Francisco summer - that all the plants just sort of rotted and withered. Even stuff we don't water or tend in any way - the nasturtiums along the fence, the weeds that cover the compost - all went south too, and I don't know why. A short growing season? Just the bad weather? The sunflowers - and we've got them! - are all stunted, knee high instead of head high, except for one lone powerful triumphant stalk.
The final medieval-feeling activity lately has been my reading The Children of Hurin, a sort of expanded story from the Silmarillion - by J.R.R. but edited by Christopher Tolkien. Unlike The Lord of the Rings, which is told, more or less, like a traditional story, a narrative, the Silmarillion is more archaic, more Bible than novel; it's got long passages without dialogue, and short descriptions of battles and such. It reminds me very much of the Old Testament. It's also very good.
There's something incredibly comforting about doing things that people have done for hundreds or thousands of years. Tweeting and blogging and texting continue to make me slightly uncomfortable, and I'm convinced that computers have a real soul-deadening aspect to them. I don't want a Kindle because I like to read and I want to spend some hours of my day NOT looking at a screen. Between watching movies on the TV, and TV when we fall asleep, and the laptop all day (and sometimes, like now, at night), it can get pretty soulless. I long for things to do that involve my hands, and my other senses and skills. This is why I like naps, and conversation, and walking among the trees - it's all off the grid.
And finally, the last thing I want to mention is a great bumper sticker I saw today, which isn't medieval at all, but rather the most modern idea possible: The real revolution will be with love.
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