Who doesn't want to escape a circle of harm? For that matter, who is not from a circle of harm? Freudians, perhaps Jungians, too, as well as anthropologists, sociologists, historians, biologists, theologians, philosophers, pornographers, and poets would note that the circle of harm we all experience is birth, the trauma of passage through the dark and narrow avenue of the womb to the rude light of day in the fresh and brutal but necessary air. (Some theologians would hearken farther back, all the way to the birth of the human race and its rupture from Paradise.)
Harm might be the wrong word. How "harmful" could it be if we're all in the same boat (or ark)?
And why a harmed circle? Why not a harmed square, rectangle, oval, or triangle? That's easy. I hardly need to type it. Who hasn't at one moment or another (maybe many or most moments) felt like a hamster on a wheel of frustration, pain, or madness, in an inescapable loop? The circular treadmill might even be jubilant, pleasurable, or poignant. Good or bad, it's hard (impossible? barely possible?) to extract oneself from that furiously spinning circle.
It might not be harm at all! You might be in a circle of charm. You might be hamster-running under a spell, on an intravenous-magical-mystery drenching of espresso, sex, drugs, religion, righteousness, reason, anger, angst, success, failure, danger, or drama.
Can the circle be unbroken?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Aha! I got it. Eureka. I have found out how to wed harm and charm (lucky or not), quirk and quark (charm, it turns out, is an elemental particle; don't ask me why they chose that word; channel Stephen Hawking). The enchantment of charm can dispel harm, singing an aria (that's right, charm circles back to song, incantation, chant, verse) of freedom and release.
Before we get too excited about the charm bracelet of etymology, before we decide it always works like a charm, bear in mind that a charm can be a curse or a blessing. No less than Jakob Grimm, of the Brothers Grimm and their grim fairy tales, reminds us of this in 1883. To be effective, Grimm says, a charm "must be a choice." He claims it can't be a blessing and a curse. It's got to be one or the other, "either/or" (which is the title of a work by the philosopher-theologian Sören Kierkegaard).
Take your pick.
Or flip a coin.
Charm or harm.
Give or take a letter.
Who said "spelling" wasn't important?
3 comments:
No 'harm' in the leagacy of a 'charm' when it comes to a campfire cooking up vittles full of 'Spam'! Charm creditied to the long haired golden fleeced Lady with nothing more than a fig leaf to 'charm the gullible existence of the male psyche. Or was the apple a mere aphrodisiac of 'harm' to 'charm' .
She can 'charm' me into 'harm' anytime, fig leaf et al!
A Cannon of Chants as we emerge from darkness to light via the proverbial passage way.
As Archimedes demonstrates the principle of buoyant force while in the bathtub!
Have no rhyme or reason idea how that pertains to any of this OR maybe Archimedes was Charming the harm! UGH! I need more wine! Yep, its 1:30 but somewhere in the world corks are popping!
Enough spewing random thoughts of I don't know!
Did a hybrid daemon of Dylan Thomas-Bob Dylan-William S. Burroughs possess you?
The albatross that is/was Willie Nelson, Cheech & Chong, White Fang of Soupy Sales fame with a hint of Pinot Noir!
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