Why the North Star and More

I admit to being more than a little eccentric. At least I thought I did until it struck me that I better be darn sure of the definitiion! So, this was a defining moment - "Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern." On the surface I may appear to be conservative and more than ordinary, but I love to shake it up now and again. Maybe "quirky" is a better description of this personality that zigs and zags from the usual straight line.

It is more about my thinking that takes twists and turns that seems to belong to different centuries, locations and people rather than just to myself.

For instance, before there was the "Bucket List" I had my own. A dog named Jake and a cat named Kalamazoo from Hoyt Axton's song turned into my Lynx, Michaela Ann, Wiley and Ginny Beth oh yes, and Coco Rene'. Each having a name full of personal meaning. I believe that we make our "Bucket List" and then God fills the bucket with the things that may not be exactly what we had listed, but a better shopping choice than we could have picked for ourselves. Consider it a gift!

My list includes adopting a Greyhound and naming him "Joe Drury" after my great uncle who raised greyhounds in South Dakota. It also included another Golden Retriever, this one named Maggie in honor of Margaret Adkins who gave me my first retriever named Suzy Q when I was just five years old. Add on a few adopted Mustangs, at least one named George after George Strait and property named El Dorado (reference John Wayne's movie of the same name where James Caan's character, Alan Bourdillion Traherne ('Mississippi') quotes Poe's "El Dorado") - see below.

Then, there is the North Star. As a child my favorite Christmas song was, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and the star always drew me in when observing the Nativity. But, when I watched one of my favorite movies, "The Patriot," I was totally drawn in to the symbolism and spirit of the North Star as found on Elizabeth Martin's gravestone and as her children saw it each night using it to represent her spirit. The necklace presented by Benjamin Martin to his daughter-in-law has lead me on a search for it's duplicate. He explained to her that the North Star was a guide. It was the only star that never moved. It is how I believe in what matters to me. You can't shake or move me from my belief. My Lord, the people I love and the things in life that truly make it worth living.

NOW, as for El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe:

El Dorado has been thought to be the lost city of gold sought by explorer Hernando DeSoto who is ironically buried near Lake Village, Arkansas in the Mississippi River. It is also thought Poe wrote the poem during the California Gold Rush as a response to the event and people's reaction to the event.

I've ready many interpretations of this poem and mine leans toward El Dorado being something we may try to attain, but isn't the truth. It isn't about material wealth, it's the joy of the search for the things that make our hearts glad and truly happy. If we search with an open heart for that which matters we will then be rewarded in many ways. It may also be that it is what we are always searching for and never find. What eludes us is wanting more and not being content or appreciative of what we have at this moment.

El Dorado (1849)
Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight, A gallant night
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.

But he grew old --This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.

And, as his strength Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"

"Over the Mountains Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,
"The shade replied --"If you seek for El Dorado."