They have shared our hearths and meals and affections for longer than any other animal. A 12,000-year-old grave in Israel contains the skeleton of a woman holding the skeleton of a puppy. We have even shared death with them. How could they not make their way into our imaginations?
Monday, March 12, 2018
The funny images
Man created dog, or dog created man, about 30,000 years ago somewhere in east Asia. Dogs witnessed us when we were still part very much part of the animal kingdom, marginal creatures foraging for a living, before we had stone tools, before we mastered agriculture, invented money, built cities, and polluted the earth. Dogs are like a first lover who knew us when: they know where we really come from, and who we really are.
They have shared our hearths and meals and affections for longer than any other animal. A 12,000-year-old grave in Israel contains the skeleton of a woman holding the skeleton of a puppy. We have even shared death with them. How could they not make their way into our imaginations?
They have shared our hearths and meals and affections for longer than any other animal. A 12,000-year-old grave in Israel contains the skeleton of a woman holding the skeleton of a puppy. We have even shared death with them. How could they not make their way into our imaginations?
Saturday, March 10, 2018
The Garden of Paradise (audio books for kids)
The Garden of Paradise
by
Hans Christian Andersen
(1838)
THERE was once a king’s son who had a larger and more beautiful
collection of books than any one else in the world, and full of splendid
copper-plate engravings. He could read and obtain information respecting every
people of every land; but not a word could he find to explain the situation of
the garden of paradise, and this was just what he most wished to know. His
grandmother had told him when he was quite a little boy, just old enough to go
to school, that each flower in the garden of paradise was a sweet cake, that
the pistils were full of rich wine, that on one flower history was written, on
another geography or tables; so those who wished to learn their lessons had
only to eat some of the cakes, and the more they ate, the more history,
geography, or tables they knew. He believed it all then; but as he grew older,
and learnt more and more, he became wise enough to understand that the splendor
of the garden of paradise must be very different to all this. “Oh, why did Eve
pluck the fruit from the tree of knowledge? why did Adam eat the forbidden
fruit?” thought the king’s son: “if I had been there it would never have
happened, and there would have been no sin in the world.” The garden of
paradise occupied all his thoughts till he reached his seventeenth year.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Audiobook for kids: The Butterfly
The Butterfly
by
Hans Christian Andersen
(1861)
THERE was once a butterfly who wished for a bride, and, as may be
supposed, he wanted to choose a very pretty one from among the flowers. He
glanced, with a very critical eye, at all the flower-beds, and found that the
flowers were seated quietly and demurely on their stalks, just as maidens
should sit before they are engaged; but there was a great number of them, and
it appeared as if his search would become very wearisome. The butterfly did not
like to take too much trouble, so he flew off on a visit to the daisies. The
French call this flower “Marguerite,” and they say that the little daisy can
prophesy. Lovers pluck off the leaves, and as they pluck each leaf, they ask a
question about their lovers; thus: “Does he or she love me?—Ardently?
Distractedly? Very much? A little? Not at all?” and so on. Every one speaks
these words in his own language. The butterfly came also to Marguerite to
inquire, but he did not pluck off her leaves; he pressed a kiss on each of
them, for he thought there was always more to be done by kindness.
“Darling Marguerite daisy,” he said to her, “you
are the wisest woman of all the flowers. Pray tell me which of the flowers I
shall choose for my wife. Which will be my bride? When I know, I will fly
directly to her, and propose.”
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