Not Fare Well...

by Cheryl Rofer

We actually have a few clouds in the sky today, and I'm wishing that my blogfriends would send some of their excess rain rather than another of these silly memes. Both Shane and Dave tossed this one my way. I'm wondering how many times it's been around the world electronically. It resembles some I've seen before, with mutations. If we knew the rate of mutation, we might be able to calculate how many times it's been around the world.

The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you'd like.

1. Done
2/1. I have an aunt named Albert. (Extra credit to anyone who can tell me where this comes from.)
2/2. I lost my little brother on the New York Subway on the way to the Museum of Natural History.
2/3. I can't think of four more things.
3/4. I don't do this. You guys should know that by now!
5.

The post that I didn't get to writing in place of this one involves India, so here is Krishna instructing Arjuna at the battle of Kurukshetra. I'm not much of a student of the Bhagavad Gita, so I may be getting some things wrong here.

This encounter, as I've understood it, has always bothered me and seems to have some resonances for today. Arjuna looks at the field of battle, sees his relatives on the side he will fight, and says no, I just can't do it, I don't see any way that any good will come of this. The god Krishna sees Arjuna's hesitation and instructs him that the war is his destiny, and therefore, no matter what Arjuna's mortal mind tells him, it is right for Arjuna to use his bowman's skill to kill his relatives. Arjuna goes along with this, and the end is far from a marvelous triumph.

T. S. Eliot used this moment in The Dry Salvages, one of his Four Quartets.

So Krishna, as when he admonished Arjuna
On the field of battle.
Not fare well,
But fare forward, voyagers.

I've found that admonition sometimes to be comforting on a personal level, but as a collective justification for war, it's been too much used.

Image from here.