A new meme for your reading enjoyment: I will list 10 things that begin with my assigned letter. If you would like a letter, post saying so,and I will give one to you. In turn, pick 10 things that begin with itand post that to your journal. I think this is an interesting meme wellworth doing and reading because not only do we learn more about afriend, we learn more about the world, potentially. The restriction ofthe letter forces us to think, and all too often, we drift through our lives without doing so.
Dindrane consulted the sacred scrolls and learned that my destined letter is....... H
1. Hawk. Hee hee. How could I not start with my last name when it is also such a cool bird? A revered and sometimes reviled bird of prey, depending on who you're talking to. I happen to think they're cool, and that's not JUST because I am now in the bird of prey family. They are classified into three subcategories (genera): "the Accipiters, the Falcons and the Buteos". (from here. Yes, it is true, falcons are hawks, which I find particularly cool. Some varieties of hawks are monogamous breeders, wherein both the male and the female share nest-building duties as well as hunting/feeding duties. One example of this is the red-shouldered hawk, a particular kind that can be found in Alabama.

2. Hell. Hrm. Interesting one, huh? Why do we assume that hell is down when heaven is up? Is it a Western construction that highlights the Platonic sense of Ideal Form? Probably something like that. In any case, Dante gives us 7 circles of it, culminating in the inner circle where various sinners are being consumed by Satan himself. (more or less; that is a very simplified version, and I haven't read it in a while). The interesting thing about Dante's construction, to me, at least, is that one's primary sinful tendencies are played upon ad nauseum in one's punishment. If you are a glutton, you will be eating literally ad nauseum in hell for all eternity. "You are made to suffer as much fire inside/as falls upon you. Only your own rage/could be fit torment for your sullen pride" (XIV. 61-63).

3. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. (1770-1831) Post-Kantian idealist. Most well-known for his teleological account of history, a concept taken over by Karl Marx. Dialectic, and so forth. Ask me more after the fall, and I am sure I will be able to expound upon him for hours.

4. Havisham, Miss. A critical character in Dickens' Great Expectations. The quintessential lovelorn character who refuses to move beyond heartbreak. My hero. ;) Just kidding.

5. Headroom, Max. Those at or around my age remember this guy. Click this link if you are too young to remember. I didn't notice until oh a couple of years ago that Headroom was actually Head Room. Maximum head room. What a moron. Just goes to show what we sometimes accept without looking more deeply into. Which actually speaks to what this show was about. Smack in the middle of the 80's and quintessentially postmodern--you gotta love it.

6. Hayden, Alabama. My hometown. Moved there when I was 4, went to kindergarten through my senior year there with the same peeps. One zip code: 35079. No stop lights. But it is still growing. A popular place for people who work in Birmingham but who don't want to live in the suburbs to move to. Though, if that keeps up, it will eventually BE the suburbs. A fair share of rednecks, it's true, but also lots of pretty country land. And the Locust and Mulberry Forks of the Warrior River. A pretty place, and it will always be what I think of when I think of home.

7. Huntsville, Alabama. The other place I think of when I think of home. A city that was built on the cold war and now thrives on the war on terror. But in spite of that, it has a lot of charm. Where kids from all over Alabama come on their 6th grade field trips to see the Space and Rocket Center. :)

8. Hannigan, Alyson. Le sigh. The red-headed woman of my dreams. hee hee. See userpic for more details. ;)

9. Happiness is. . .Charles Schulz gave us so many reasons to be happy with Peanuts. A warm puppy is only the first, but arguably one of the best.

10. Heaven. So why do heaven and hell start with the same letter? Dante gave us the structure of it as well, and incidentally, in his language the two realms do not start with the same letter. As bad as hell is, heaven is as good. If only I were headed there. . . ;) Interestingly, people remember Dante's Inferno far more than they do his Paradiso. Wonder why that is? Even in the lower realms there is happiness: "Brother, the power of love, which is our bliss,/calms all our will. What we desire, we have./ There is in us no other thirst than this" (III.70-72)