Birthdays: the price of surviving another year.

How did I spend mine? Slept in until nearly 7:00 AM--well, that's sleeping in for me. Went into work to help my boss who's been off for six weeks after surgery get his office back in shape, then went to Oakville Place to pick up a few necessities. Saturday's are usual a day I spend catching up on my reading and web browsing and this day was no different. I did manage to catch up on my Tabloid reading and listen to podcasts and a book streamed online at CBC--Tom King's The Red Power Murders read by Graham Greene. It's good that CBC is finally streaming these books as 10:40 PM is not usually a time I manage to stay awake for long. Ended my day in front of the TV.

I've reached the halfway point in The Iliad. The Gods continue their meddlesome ways in this Trojan War. It's finally struck me that every time these Greeks pour themselves a libation of wine they tip a portion of their fast cup out onto the ground in honour of the Gods. Is it any coincidence that early Christians, when they met for their communal meals, used specially consecrated wine to honour the Christ? I do find it ironic that whereas the Greeks honoured their Gods by tipping wine unto the ground; the Catholic Church has long considered it an unforgivable sin to spill the consecrated "blood" of Christ. Of course this tradition of symbolically eating and drinking the body and blood also earned them the accusation of practising cannibalism on the part of non-believers.