Sunday, January 04, 2009

Raven Steals the Light

The season of revels is coming to an end. Tomorrow is Twelfth Night and i had hoped to finish preparing a bankelsang of a raven story based on a story from J'net's culture found in E. Richard Atleo's Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview. Well i'm still working on the story, but i offer you this clip from the 1990s TV show Northern Exposure. The winter solstice has, for many cultures, been a time to mark and celebrate the relationship of day and night, the coming and going of the sun. And human imagination has created a beautiful diversity of ways of making meaning of this time. I like the notion of twelve days of christmas (christian doctrine aside). In principle i think there should always be a season of the year to celebrate abundance. I'm also partial to theft stories which carry tricky lessons about life and creativity and more.

I have a real soft spot for Northern Exposure and, as with other literary worlds (such as Armisted Maupin's San Francisco), the characters feel like old friends. I recall this performance of "raven stealing the light" and seeing it again, i am as moved as i was the first time i watched it.

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