She Said
While getting out of the car last night, after coming home from my much-needed yoga class, I noticed two bright heavenly objects in the sky. From our studies the past few years I knew instantly the bright “stars” were Jupiter and Venus. They were stunning together. What was particularly interesting was their placement: they were directly side by side. (“The best Jupiter-Venus conjunction in years” I read later.) I had never seen those two planets in line and so close together. March 2012 is a good month for the planets we heard from Uncle Steve. Elusive Mercury can even be seen at dusk. Maybe it’s a little presumptuous of me but I immediately thought of you, Max, and me when I saw Jupiter and Venus sitting next to one another. But – Well, aren’t Men from Mars and Women from Venus? However red Mars was far off on the other side of the night sky, rising in the east, far from Venus. Mars, Roman god of war really has little to do with love, Venus’s territory as the Roman goddess of love. Jupiter of course is the Roman leader of the gods, the chief Roman god.
I began to ponder an idea of a Roman myth for the celestial event. What would the Romans (or Greeks really – the Romans merely changed the Greek deities names) have thought of great, shining Jupiter and beautiful, loving Venus sitting on their thrones next to one another in the night sky? Was violent Mars angry across the sky? The speedy messenger god Mercury had already set on the heels of the dimmest rays of the sun. Just where was he going so quickly?
The story I invented I have to say helped me process my difficult week away visiting my father. In this Roman myth Max you were Jupiter, head of the household, head of our family, although not a philandering ladies man. (Sorry can’t have everything; you get to be Jupiter though.) I portrayed Venus, your wife. (You had divorced Juno awhile ago– you were both too headstrong. Two enormous egos can’t survive in a marriage.) So here’s my myth.
Venus had been away to for some R&R and a visit to see her father in Florida and the time there had been stressful for her, dealing with her father’s crazy-making anger. Venus believed he must be Eris’s brother, Eris being the Greco-Roman goddess of discord and chaos and the Goddess who started the Trojan War. During the week away in the Sunshine State along the Gulf of Mexico, Venus’s father became full of rage over dinner-making, especially too many vegetables (lettuce and broccoli seemed to bring about an overabundance of wrath), or too many glasses of water at the dinner table, or eating at the wrong time of day.
Venus unfortunately had left her golden protection shield at home in the closet, not needing it for years, and turned into an upset, hysterical, blubbering mess. She lost her voice of love. Venus wanted to hold her phone up to her father and have Jupiter send a lightning bolt through it to make him stop. After sobbing to her beautiful cherubs Sme and Mira, then making a call home to Jupiter, then texting Maia her mother, then facebooking with other goddesses, demi-gods, heroes, fairies, and nymphs, she looked deep inside her and pulled out the hidden love, put away for times of emergency, tucked in the left ventricle of her heart, wiped her eyes, and gained her composure once again. She placed the aqua-marine gem necklace around her neck to bring back her voice and presented herself as once again the goddess of love in the midst of the discord.
Venus’s frog totem appeared one evening in the green lettuce Venus had been washing after having picked it from her father’s garden. She knew the amphibian had been sent as a messenger to remind her to be flexible and adaptable and that her voice was on its way back. Venus wouldn’t have to croak out words anymore. Splendid language of love would indeed return.
Meanwhile back at Mount Olympus, aka as Mount Milford, Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, god of the skies and of weather, drove to work each day at eSOZO – Greek for “to heal computers.” (Being a weather man wasn’t bringing in much income these days.) Jupiter also helped care for his ill mother, Gaia, recovering from cancer treatments. Uncle Vulcan, god of blacksmiths and craftsmen, rode the train out from Long Island to help with the weak Gaia, while also working on a few household projects, one being repairing Jupiter and Venus’s broken shower lever. Canens, the Roman goddess of song, daughter of Jupiter (not really, but in this story she is) was able to tame wild beasts, calm roaring rivers, and move the stones and trees with her singing. She could also bake really well. Canens kept the household going while Venus (not really her mother but in this story we’ll forgive the error) was away.
Jupiter missed his Venus, but found the time away a powerful one for him. He slept better – Venus woke him up too much when he snored. He could ride his motorcycle the way he wanted. Joining the local karate nymphs, Jupiter worked out for the first time ever, wearing his new blue workout shorts and shirt (he texted Venus a photo of himself wearing the outfit). Unfortunately he’s a little out of shape and suffered cramps in both his hamstrings as he tried to sleep that night after the workout. But he could be his own Roman god coming and going when he wanted, not worrying about Venus, except when she texted or called, blubbering over oatmeal and her father’s controlling nature about when it was the proper time to eat oatmeal.
After flying home with her male and female baby cherubs, Sme and Mira, from the Land of Divine Turquoise Water in the Territory of Geriatrics, joy overtook Venus as she spotted Jupiter awaiting her at the Airport Security Check-in Gate, in his eSOZO fleece jacket. (Canens stayed home to make burritos with Aunt Minerva, goddess of wisdom, also out for a visit with Gaia.) Venus wanted to run into Jupiter’s arms like in those romantic movies but thought twice with her heavy bags. They locked eyes for about a second before the cherubs ran to hug Jupiter.
So there they were brightly shining Jupiter and Venus contented sitting next to each other in the night sky happy to be reunited after their week apart, the frogs singing from the pond below. The happy couple were heading west with the already setting sun, bound for Paris.
He Said
Jupiter is heartily entertained...
Your creativity continues to amaze me. Creating a Roman myth to process a difficult time in your life is quite a creative tour-de-force. You have objectified the experience, injected humor and small dose of absurdity all of which help to make the experience less threatening. But nonetheless you are still working through the challenging time and not brushing it under the carpet.
Thank you for sharing this.
