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Welcome to Week 4 of the Big White Farmhouse’s Summer Integrated Humanities program! This week’s task is to explore the themes of courage and bravery.
Just jumping in? You can find the links to the previous weeks here: Week 1 // Week 2 // Week 3
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: JOSEPH M. W. TURNER
“Joseph Mallord William Turner, known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolorist. He is known for his expressive coloring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings.” (via)
Spend some time studying these beautiful pieces. I especially love all of the architectural details.
“IF” by RUDYARD KIPLING
This poem ranks among Rudyard Kipling’s most beloved works and is about a father giving paternal wisdom to his son.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
THE VIRTUE OF FORTITUDE
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. “The Lord is my strength and my song.” “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1808
What does Thomas Aquinas have to say about the virtue of Fortitude? This video from the Thomistic Institute could be helpful.
BACK TO THE STARS
This week, we’re returning to the night sky and learning about two important constellations known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big and Little Dipper or the Great Bear and the Little Bear.
The Great Bear
Long ago in Arcadia there lived a king named Lykaon who had a beautiful daughter called Callisto. The princess was a huntress and a follower of the virgin goddes Atemis and had sworn to her that she would never love any man. But one hot summer afternoon while Callisto was sleeping under a tree in the forest, Zeus, the king of the gods, saw her and fell in love with her. At first, remembering her promise, Callisto resisted him; but presently she returned his love.
When Artemis’ other maidens learned what Callisto had done, they would hunt and play with her no longer. Sad and lonely, she wandered off into the woods of Arcadia, where there were no people, only wolves and bears and other wild beasts. There she gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Arcas.
Now when the queen of the gods, Hera, heard what had happened she became jealous. She descended to earth and appeared before Callisto, full of rage. Calling out words of power, she flung her to the ground. At once the princess’s robes dropped from her, her arms and legs thickened and became shaggy with fur, and her face lengthened into a muzzle. She tried to beg for mercy, but her voice had changed into a roar; she had become a great white bear.
Her little boy, Arcas, did not know her any more; he screamed and ran away out of the forest into the open fields. There he was found and adopted by a kind farmer. Callisto could not follow him, but had to hide deep in the woods to escape the hunters, her former companions.
As Arcas grew up he inherited his mother’s skill at hunting with bow and arrow. He ranged further and further into the great forest, and at last one day he came upon Callisto. When she recognized her son she forgot her bear’s shape and ran to hug him, growling with joy. Arcas thought he was being attacked, and drew his bow. He would have shot Callisto to the heart if Zeus, who sees all things, had not come to her rescue. Zeus seized the bear by her tail and swung her up among the stars. Then, so that Callisto might never again be separated from her son, he changed Arcas also into a bear, and tossed him too into the heavens, where they became the Great Bear and the Little Bear.
– from The Heavenly Zoo: Legends and Tales of the Stars retold by Alison Lurie, p.11-13
Things to Do…
- After dark, look up at the night sky and find the North Star and Big Dipper. “There are four stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper and three in the curved handle. A line drawn through the outer two stars of the bowl, if extended, will touch the North Star, or Polestar. It is very important for us to know the Polestar, because the northern end of the earth’s axis is directed toward it, and it is therefore situated in the heavens almost directly above our North Pole.” (from Handbook of Nature Study, p.818)
- Now find the Little Dipper! “The Little Dipper lies much nearer the Polestar than does the Big Dipper; in fact, the Polestar itself is the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. Besides the Polestar, there are two more stars in the handle of the Little Dipper, and of the four stars which make the bowl, the two that form the outer edge are much the brighter. The bowl of the Little Dipper is above or below the Polestar according to the hour of the evening and the night of the year, for it apparently revolves about the Polestar as does the Big Dipper. The two Dippers open toward each other, and as someone has said, ‘They pour into each other.'” (from Handbook of Nature Study, p.819)
- If you’re more of a visual learner, check out this interactive sky chart.
MISCELLANEOUS RABBIT TRAILS…
+ “In World War II [Corrie ten Boom] and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazis. In 1944 their lives were forever altered when they were betrayed, arrested, and thrown into the infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her family survived.” Read Corrie’s incredible story in The Hiding Place or you can watch the movie adaptation too.
+ The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the quintessential series for finding themes of fortitude and perseverance. Those humble hobbits have a lot to teach us!
+ Inspired by Turner’s art, learn more about classical architecture with these lectures from The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.
“Suite bergamasque is a piano suite by Claude Debussy. He began composing it around 1890, at the age of 28, but significantly revised it just before its 1905 publication. The popularity of the third movement, Clair de lune, has made it one of the composer’s most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.” (
