Thank You Aunt & Ganesh

I am so glad to learn tonight, the story of Ganesha. I have some friends and family who are pretty versed in different cultures and religions and I don't know much about all of them. But it's strange bc tonight I learned about Ganesha, who is an Indian god of Remover of Obstacles and I am not kidding, weight off. And I love this story too.

I looked him up on wiki and found out that even the word "piille" which is for "child", meant something to me in a good way because the other day I was in the college library and maybe someone expected me there or not, I don't know, but this book was standing out, "howard pyle" and it made me feel bad, about all the howards who have been killed, (bc it was pulled out after I had written my post about all those who have been killed) and I know it sounds weird, but I like thinking of it now as howard's child. I was just going to tell a family member about it and then got word to think of Ganesha.

That is a really small personal use of things, but everything else I like too. So I'm going to research and read about him more. I also love the paintings! The art is so beautiful.

His story is very interesting...I literally felt better as soon as I started reading about him. I also like the number 8, which is featured a lot for some reason.

I also read about him with the sweets and remembered one small part of my dream last night. I had a short little section where I had all these sweets before me and everyone was watching which ones I chose. I remember I took a few small candies and then saw a rolo and unwrapped it, thinking of my Dad (rolos are chocolate and caramel), and then I had a pastille like my great-grandmother had in a dish and was choosing all these sweets from my childhood and with good memories. Oh, I remembered it bc it talks about sweet balls of candy being offered and I chose a truffle too, and looked at it, wondering what kind it was bc it was wrapped.

That doesn't have to do with Ganesha, but it reminded me of one of my dreams last night. I like the part about the story of how he got the elephant head too, and all of his symbols, with the ax and serpent and hook. I don't know, and the divine flower that the enemy succumbed to.

It is also nice to read about Indian culture again because one of my good friends from Oregon loved India and wore the saris and even took belly dancing lessons there and showed us all the photos. I am out of touch with her and haven't talked in a few years even, but I still remember. She wasn't Eastern Indian but she invited me and others over for dinner parties and cooked Indian food and played the music. So, it's nice to remember this.

I like this basoli miniature of Ganesha, c. 1730. All of the detail and it's still balanced. I know it's a bad description, but this is what I think of when I think of detail or ornamentation. either it's done well or just doesn't look right...like patterns, which either look trendy and maybe a little bit cheap, or then you have a really beautiful artistic design that could be busy but it's still right.