Echo and Narcissus

Cupid and Psyche

Today is all about lovers, love, loss and infinite possibilities.

CH called last night. She said that one of her friends recently had a baby and called it Echo. I don't know if it is funny or just silly. But then at dinner last night we spent a long time discussing AW and EJ's baby names (some of my favourites were Homeboy, Jewish, Just and Scrotum). I would have trouble with a name like Echo because I would want to call the kid Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo.

Orpheus and Eurydice




This next thing really appeals to me. It reminds me of a group of girls at school when I was in grade 9 coming to school and saying that they had a seance and contacted Roy Orbison. But really, imagine this:

Imagine John Lennon spinning in his grave.The ex-Beatle, who was murdered over 25 years ago, is the latest subject of a pay-per-view seance arranged by the producers of a 2003 attempt to contact the dead Princess Diana.That show made money but was slammed by critics as hitting a new low in television tastelessness."People say this is disgusting and I accept that criticism, but we're making a serious attempt to do something that many, many millions of people around the world think is possible," said Paul Sharratt, who heads Starcast Productions, which made "The Spirit of Diana." The Lennon show will air on April 24 on a pay-per-view channel and cost $9.95. Sharratt himself is a "non-believer," and admits to not being totally convinced otherwise after psychics attempted to contact the dead princess in the 2003 program. Nevertheless, it made for some great television, he said. Sharratt said he chose Lennon because the former Beatle, like Diana, is an icon and was also a deeply spiritual person. The special will culminate as psychics, colleagues and confidantes sit at a seance table for 30 minutes surrounded by infra-red cameras that can capture any "presence" or spirit that enters the room.

Aren't we all very spiritual people when we choose to be?

Perhaps this is in fact a spiritual person? I don't know who this is, but I like what this guy has decided to do with himself. It is supposed to somehow represent Echo and Narcissus.

When do we decide to be spiritual? How do we do it and why? I sometimes wonder if it happens somehow in conjunction with some transcendental realisation about mortality? Or perhaps it is the realisation of human neediness/desperation. I pretend to be solid, and not in need of anything spiritual (not like Sian, who I clench my teeth with derision over), but perhaps I am, and in fact everything I do learns toward the spiritual? The thing that is funny, and confounding, is that whenever I attempt to define something, it becomes absurd, and I realise that all I do is attempt to break things apart. That is how I feel safest. Perhaps though, spirituality requires you to desire unity and oneness. I believe that we are obsessed with the number 1, the idea of one. It seems to be what we wish to reduce everything to. When you can reduce to one, nothing else matters.

This is Echo and Narcissus. Echo on the left, speaking, Narcissus looking into a mirror, and Narcissus again once turned into the flowers.