{"id":343707,"date":"2021-05-07T06:04:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=343707"},"modified":"2021-05-07T06:04:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:04:50","slug":"virtues-vices-tranquil-vs-chaotic-slices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/virtues-vices-tranquil-vs-chaotic-slices\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtues & Vices: Tranquil vs. Chaotic Slices"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have chosen to use the word \u2018peace\u2019 for my virtue here. B. Franklin uses \u2018Tranquility\u201d (his spelling) for the 11th virtue listed in his The Thirteen Virtues found in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which I\u2019m using as inspiration for this sonnet series. \u201cBe not disturbed at trifles,\u00a0or at accidents common or unavoidable.\u201d (B. Franklin, 1793).
\n\u00a0
\nI Will Give Peace About Fourteen Lines<\/strong>
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cI lived for a moment in a world so lovely, so inept\u00a0
\nAt twisted words and crooked deeds. It was as if
\nI slept and dreamt.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u2014Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1892-1950<\/strong>
\n\u00a0
\nI will give my friend Peace about fourteen lines
\nand try to get her to bring more peaceful things
\nif we are lucky we will hear how freedom sings
\nwith calm and courage much a part of her designs
\nshe conquers all that surrounds confuses and confines
\nanger and disorder with a soothing balm of serenity
\nshe holds hands with agreement and compromise
\nmixing order together with justice and joy combines
\nfor the many days and years ahead a constant press\u00a0
\nof attention to our arguments likes and dislikes
\nshe\u2019ll give us direction and infuse us with love
\nwith a Quaker\u2019s gentle persuasion to be understood
\nshe will kindly not make us feel guilty and confess\u00a0
\nthat it took us so long to learn to be kind and good.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nButterfly Wings and Chaotic Things<\/strong>
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cI will put Chaos into fourteen lines\u201d is the title of a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 -1950) that was published in 1954.<\/em>
\n\u00a0
\nI will give comrade Chaos just fourteen lines
\nriotous, rambunctious, raw, and ridiculous
\nrambling about with new physical confines
\nbig stakes no stakes make mistakes meticulous
\n\u00a0
\nNow many books are written on Chaos theory
\nformulas and equations involve serious science
\nperusing randomness choosing using inquiry
\nas chaos upsets the apple cart with defiance
\n\u00a0
\nThen there is the famous (graph)* butterfly effect
\nwhere a butterfly\u2019s wing changes the world
\ndon\u2019t rufous hummingbirds get any respect
\nhow about how a baby\u2019s eyelashes have curled
\n\u00a0
\nOr the McCartney Beatle that gave it a try with
\n\u201cthe butter wouldn\u2019t melt so we put it in the pie.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\n(The term \u2018butterfly effect\u2019 comes from a graph of\u00a0 \u201cchaos\u201d or chaotic things that looked like butterfly wings. \u201cThe butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in a large difference in a later state\u2026\u201d) and the butter pie?<\/p>\n

Joey ‘Pepe Batbon’ Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong>
\nJoey \u201cPepe Batbon\u201d Connolly is a retired teacher and has been named a poet laureate of Tinian. He has taught English in CNMI public schools for the past 30 years. He has also taught in Alaska, New Orleans, and Las Vegas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have chosen to use the word \u2018peace\u2019 for my virtue here. B. Franklin uses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":322001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,304,5148],"class_list":["post-343707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-las-vegas","tag-new-orleans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}