I made you many and many a song,
Yet never one told all you are—
It was as though a net of words
Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand
And dipped sea-water eagerly,
Only to find it lost the blue
Dark splendor of the sea.
by Sara Teasdale
Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
–
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;
–
Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;
–
Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
–
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.
This post has an odd assortment of songs included. Below you will find Enya songs rubbing elbows with Skillet tunes and one song by Hillary Scott. Despite the strangeness of this collection, I hope you enjoy at least a couple of the songs. If you do, then my work here is done.
‘Til next time!
The Mithril Guardian
The Humming by Enya
Echoes In Rain by Enya
So I Could Find My Way by Enya
Dark Sky Island by Enya
Aniron by Enya
(The theme for Aragorn and Arwen, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.)
May It Be by Enya
Thy Will Be Done by Hillary Scott
Lions by Skillet
Stars by Skillet
Bully: “You just don’t know when to give up, do you?”
Steve Rogers: (Panting) “I can do this all day!”
That was one of the best lines in Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger. I saw that movie after Marvel’s The Avengers came out, but it only confirmed what I had seen of Steve Rogers in that film. Though I sometimes wonder about Chris Evans, I know there is no need to wonder about Cap.
I am sharing a picture with you today. It was made for the backs of certain comics issued by Marvel several decades ago – at the time when we were still intent on travel into space. I have no idea what the “Young Astronaut” program being hyped in the small white print was or is, and I do not really care. The picture of Captain America standing behind two stargazing children is what I want to discuss today.
A number of years ago, I ended up with some leftover comics. There was some housecleaning going on, and these books were on the chopping block. I was asked if I wanted any of the comics, since I had begun perusing them curiously instead of helping with the packing and the cleaning. I said yes after making sure the original owners did not want them back, then packed the books away for some time. Oh, I read a few of them, but I was interested in other things when I first acquired the stories. I felt a little silly reading the comics, too, despite the fact that I loved the characters in them (or most of them).
Also, at the time my ability to read comics was almost non-existent. I had been raised on normal books, so it took a while before I figured out how the story in a comic book progressed from panel to panel. In my limited defense, there were no comic book stores in my vicinity, and I usually eschewed graphic novels. Garfield comics are not nearly as detailed or involved as Marvel’s were, either. No one I knew at the time was a big comic book reader, so I was on my own.
Eventually, though, I decided to tackle that stack of comics to find out which ones I really could not live without and which could go. Some of the comics were easy to ditch; they were pieces of story arcs, and I did not have the rest of the story. Flick, there it goes. Some of the pieces were not to my taste. Flick, there they go! One of them was from the Dark Phoenix Saga – I hated the cartoons based on that storyline, so I was not interested in the comics, period. Bye-bye!
Others stayed. They were fascinating, as much for the advertisements as for the stories. The ads were like snapshots of time. There are not many comics – or other media, for that matter – which advertise Daisy rifles or BB and air guns these days. To see them displayed on the back cover of a comic in the same way as video games was refreshing. It was like stepping into a previous, freer era I had heard about but which I had never really seen in a concrete way before.
Then I closed one of the comics and found the above picture on the back.
It took my breath away. Literally, all the air went out of my lungs and I know my eyes nearly popped out of my head. If advertisements for rifles and BB guns are rare today, posters encouraging space exploration have gone the way of the dinosaur in most media outlets. Even the few we have now are not always this poetic.
You look at the picture and the first thing you see is the blue background. It makes you sit up and pay attention. You notice the stars peripherally as the star-gazing figure of Captain America pulls your eye toward the center of the page. Then you see he has his left hand on the shoulder of a boy who is standing in front of him. The boy cannot be more than twelve. He in turn has his left hand resting on the shoulder of a girl who is probably his younger sister. All three are gazing up at the star above the R in Reach.
If you look closely, you will notice that the boy and girl’s mouths seem to be slightly open. The sight of the stars hanging above them is so spectacular that they have forgotten to keep their mouths closed completely.
Cap does not have this same look of slack-jawed wonder. He is looking at the stars in a different way. You can just imagine him telling the children that, someday, they are going to get to explore those stars. That he wants them to go where no man has gone before, to see things and new worlds he will never get to explore. The life of an Avenger, like the life of a soldier, means that you get to visit all sorts of wonderful and amazing places, but you barely get glimpses of them while you are there. Cap has been to the stars…. but he has never seen them except in passing flashes.
These kids, Cap hopes, will be explorers. They are the future, the next generation, the heroes of tomorrow. Not heroes like him – they will be heroes for the territory they open up, the discoveries which they make, and the worlds which they find.
The boy and his sister will not be alone when they go out to do this, either. They will have each other. You can see that in the way the boy’s hand lies on the girl’s shoulder, assuring her that he is there for her, as her standing in front of him reminds him that he is not alone.
I think I nearly cried when I saw this picture first. It still makes my eyes a little wet as I look at it now. It reminds me of when I was a child, dreaming of being on the starship Enterprise. It recalls my old dreams about the unending possibilities there would be for being a hero, like the characters I admired and loved and watched so faithfully.
I wish Marvel had more posters like this. Not posters with just any old hero on them, readers, but posters with a hero who adds dignity and honor to the picture. Cap does that here. If you tried to redo this picture with Captain Marvel, or Iron Man, or Black Panther, or Star-Lord, or even my other favorite Avenger, Hawkeye, it would not work. Because the only hero who looks at the stars in that way is Captain America/Steve Rogers; very few of the other heroes would be able to do it, and even they would fall short of the gravitas he adds to this picture.
Not that I think Marvel would not try to have them do it, mind you; I just know the attempt would fail. I could hope for it to backfire in their faces spectacularly, but I already know that does not learn ‘em. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.” Marvel is repeating its mistakes over and over again, while expecting a different result.
We live in a crazy world that is always on the brink of falling apart, readers. I know that. I just wish that there were not quite so many of us going crazy right along with it, destroying so many good things as we go. This picture – this understanding of Captain America and Marvel Comics which the writers once had…it was a good thing. It is too sad that their heirs and maybe even some of the original writers themselves threw it all away in an attempt to be “hip” to get in the good graces of the in-crowd.
In the interest of ending this post on a happy note, readers, please take another look at the photo before you leave. Feel free to copy it, if you like. But whether you do or do not, please, look at it one more time. Look at it and remember it. Look at it and remember the Latin word for “ever higher”: Excelsior. Look at it, and remember your own dreams.
Let’s try to keep reaching ever higher, readers. Even if it is just a little bit higher than before, a little is better than nothing at all.
Excelsior.
STARS of the summer night!
Far in yon azure deeps,
Hide, hide your golden light!
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!
Sleeps!
–
Moon of the summer night!
Far down yon western steeps,
Sink, sink in silver light!
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!
Sleeps!
–
Wind of the summer night!
Where yonder woodbine creeps,
Fold, fold thy pinions light!
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!
Sleeps!
–
Dreams of the summer night!
Tell her, her lover keeps
Watch! while in slumbers light
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!
Sleeps!
Andre Norton had many titles conferred on her in life. The one that is best known and oft repeated is “the Grand Dame of Science Fiction.” You regular readers of this blog have perhaps seen posts I have done about some of her other books – three Witch World novels and Star Gate (no relation to the TV series). I have not found many Andre Norton books which I dislike. This novel, Star Guard, is no exception.
The year is 3956 A.D. Man pushed into the stars only to meet with a galactic government – Central Control – which saw something dangerous in them. Deeming the Terrans too bloodthirsty and primitive to be allowed offworld of their own accord, Central Control told them they would only be permitted to leave their planet in a capacity the government assigned to them. Since Central Control had far more power than the Terrans, humanity had no choice but to accept these terms.
Labeling humans “barbarians,” Central Control put all of Terra on a leash. Now the only way offworld is to become a mercenary. Humans can only travel the stars as contract soldiers divided into units called hordes or Mechs. The hordes fight the old-fashioned way, with swords, spears, knives, bows, and other weapons. The Mechs get to use the latest technology in their fighting work.
Kana Karr, Arch Swordsman, Third Class, is a rookie who has just arrived at Prime, the capital city of Terra. An eighteen year old Australian-Malay-Hawaiian “greenie,” Kana overhears startling news on his first day in the city. The modern, up-to-date Mechs have recently lost two Legions – two more to add to the twenty Legions they have already lost over five years!!!! For these units – dispatched to “civilized” worlds – to lose so many contingents signals danger of some kind. And if they have been so badly decimated, then what of the hordes – those corps of human mercenaries sent to “barbarian” worlds? How bad have their losses been?
He finds out just how bad things are for the hordes when his is dispatched to serve on the planet Fronn. Kana soon discovers that someone in Central Control has it in for humanity. Perhaps more than one – the whole government is determined to wipe out the upstart Terrans. The C.C. has been denying Terrans equal citizenship with its other political members since it accepted the humans’ presence in the universe. This is well known.
Central Control claimed that, if humanity were allowed full citizenship in the government at once, their primitive will to fight would drag world after world into an age long war – or series of wars. The only way for humanity to enter the galaxy, they insisted, was as mercenaries. Then, when they had become more civilized, they could become full citizens.
On Fronn, though, Kana and his horde face enemies who have tech that is superior even to that of the Mech units. Fronn, a medieval world, should not have this kind of tech. The only reason this machinery would be on this planet, facing Kana and his unit, is if someone wanted the horde dead.
Through his adventure Kana learns this is just what Central Control is after. They either believe humans will always be barbarians, or they fear them for their growing sophistication. Whatever the specific dread, the alien government has absolutely no intention of allowing humans to enter the galaxy as full citizens. Ever.
Now, trapped on an alien world with the remnants of his horde, Kana Karr must do more than survive this treachery. He has to return to Earth and tell his superiors what is going on. This betrayal cannot be swept under the rug. Humanity has to know what is happening, and soon, before they are once again denied their desire for the stars. Kana is determined that neither he nor the rest of his species will be forced to stay on Terra as slaves. This time, he intends to see that the stars are ours!
Star Guard is a great story. Though Miss Norton is vague on the tech and how it works, the thing is that she never really took a shine to computers and machinery. However, her characterization of Kana, his friends, and his enemies is spectacular. And as always, her description of the aliens and their world is fantastic! I definitely recommend Star Guard to you, readers. This post is skimpy on detail, but that is to whet your appetite. If you want to know what else happened in the book, you will have to read it to find out! 😉
To the stars!
The Mithril Guardian
Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. – William Shakespeare
To err is human; to forgive divine. – Alexander Pope
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. – Plato
The poetry of the earth is never dead. – John Keats
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body. – William Shakespeare
Scratching is one of nature’s sweetest gratifications, and the nearest at hand. – Michel de Montaigne, French essayist.
Don’t let schooling interfere with your education. – Mark Twain
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving! – George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through on what you feel able to do. – Johann Goethe
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies. – John Donne
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. – Buddha
Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends? – George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Thoughts on the Edge of Forever 