The Pictish Beast
May. 3rd, 2022 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootBro's had a heart attack.
Turns out it's the second; his first was in 2018. He never mentioned that one. This latest happened to him after he visited an old boyfriend, a gentle fellow now suffering from scoliosis, Parkinsons, and it seems some severe mental issues. In dire need of care, said friend gave bro power of attorney, and bro promptly used it to get him into some form of assisted living as far as I can make out. But old friend hates it and is playing up, Bro is furious and his own emotional stability is not exactly stellar. After one more awful meeting, Bro went to another friend's where he had the heart attack, however, he was able to ask them to call an ambulance, so I am hoping this indicates it was minor. He's been in hospital since Saturday and expects to be discharged today after discussing things with the specialist.
I asked him if he wanted me to come down and he said not to bother, he's fine. He's on morphine apparently.
And all the things I want to say must be expressed tactfully to him, so I had better just blaart them out in bald frustration here before I try. He needs to sort out the drinking and the smoking and if he can't or won't - come to think of it, even if he can - he should get his affairs in order. I don't know if he ever divorced that leech he married, but if he wants to protect his current partner in terms of shared finances, he really must sort things out. Said partner wants them to move to Hastings because it is 'as rough as they are.' Huh. They're not that rough. I have no idea what the gay scene is like in Hastings, but while it has a few chirpy bits, I don't think a man looking for a pleasant, restful and pretty last few decades will get much from the place.
Oh, I want him to take this seriously. Despite the very serious mental health issues around our family, he's found a way of living that makes him happy. That's worth holding on to.
Mother will be like a smashed plate if he dies.
I don't know what will happen to me. The tears are waiting in all their uselessness.
In fact this whole trajectory towards oblivion must be stopped. He tells me he has tried to give up smoking three times. Trouble is, he needs to step back from the whole blokey boozy hard-swillin' hard smokin' ever confrontational rugged individualism thing he's got going, and I don't know if he can do that. A few months in some wellness retreat might do him the world of good. Or it might make him feel he's just gone to hell early.
I must not panic. It is all fine for now. I think.
A friend and I were at Wemyss caves on Sunday, before I knew any of this. Erosion and human damage has not been kind to the pictish carvings there but it was interesting.
This guy just felt like that classic horror trope, the symbol scrawled on the wall telling you to beware and go no further, that something is very close by. Maybe it's just light and lichen that gives him his frown.
The place did have a carving of the pictish beast, but it was destroyed by someone driving a car into one of the caves and setting fire to it back in the 80s *sigh* Someone had thoughtfully done a rubbing of it long before then.
At least other and clearer examples can be found elsewhere of pictish art. Still, poor old Wemyss! Poor old beastie!
No-one knows what these things were, but as a symbol/motif it turns up everywhere the picts went, hence the label as 'the pictish beast,'. There are some excellent theories, including it being a dragon, a kelpie, an elephant, a sturgeon, or a design akin to the dragonesque brooch in the Romano-Celtic hoard found on Lamberton Moor. The below isn't that design but a depiction of the pictish beast found on the Strathmartine stone, added for clarity.
To me the long beaky smile would indicate a dolphin complete with blowhole spouting water, as exemplified by those curling lines from the head and around the body. Maybe the legs at the back indicate flippers. But I can understand why others might not be convinced.
I got a little pebble pendant with an engraved pictish beast on it. Maybe I'll send it to bro and he'll recognise it as a tiny totem, a bizarre creature one can barely identify, not there to make sense to anybody, yet prevalent in the imagination, almost entirely made up of ideas and legends. Or maybe he'll just laugh /scream 'Cthulhu!' In truth, a plushy of the latter would be more his style.
Come on, brother, you're no strange lost beast. Up you get.
Turns out it's the second; his first was in 2018. He never mentioned that one. This latest happened to him after he visited an old boyfriend, a gentle fellow now suffering from scoliosis, Parkinsons, and it seems some severe mental issues. In dire need of care, said friend gave bro power of attorney, and bro promptly used it to get him into some form of assisted living as far as I can make out. But old friend hates it and is playing up, Bro is furious and his own emotional stability is not exactly stellar. After one more awful meeting, Bro went to another friend's where he had the heart attack, however, he was able to ask them to call an ambulance, so I am hoping this indicates it was minor. He's been in hospital since Saturday and expects to be discharged today after discussing things with the specialist.
I asked him if he wanted me to come down and he said not to bother, he's fine. He's on morphine apparently.
And all the things I want to say must be expressed tactfully to him, so I had better just blaart them out in bald frustration here before I try. He needs to sort out the drinking and the smoking and if he can't or won't - come to think of it, even if he can - he should get his affairs in order. I don't know if he ever divorced that leech he married, but if he wants to protect his current partner in terms of shared finances, he really must sort things out. Said partner wants them to move to Hastings because it is 'as rough as they are.' Huh. They're not that rough. I have no idea what the gay scene is like in Hastings, but while it has a few chirpy bits, I don't think a man looking for a pleasant, restful and pretty last few decades will get much from the place.
Oh, I want him to take this seriously. Despite the very serious mental health issues around our family, he's found a way of living that makes him happy. That's worth holding on to.
Mother will be like a smashed plate if he dies.
I don't know what will happen to me. The tears are waiting in all their uselessness.
In fact this whole trajectory towards oblivion must be stopped. He tells me he has tried to give up smoking three times. Trouble is, he needs to step back from the whole blokey boozy hard-swillin' hard smokin' ever confrontational rugged individualism thing he's got going, and I don't know if he can do that. A few months in some wellness retreat might do him the world of good. Or it might make him feel he's just gone to hell early.
I must not panic. It is all fine for now. I think.
A friend and I were at Wemyss caves on Sunday, before I knew any of this. Erosion and human damage has not been kind to the pictish carvings there but it was interesting.
This guy just felt like that classic horror trope, the symbol scrawled on the wall telling you to beware and go no further, that something is very close by. Maybe it's just light and lichen that gives him his frown.
The place did have a carving of the pictish beast, but it was destroyed by someone driving a car into one of the caves and setting fire to it back in the 80s *sigh* Someone had thoughtfully done a rubbing of it long before then.
At least other and clearer examples can be found elsewhere of pictish art. Still, poor old Wemyss! Poor old beastie!
No-one knows what these things were, but as a symbol/motif it turns up everywhere the picts went, hence the label as 'the pictish beast,'. There are some excellent theories, including it being a dragon, a kelpie, an elephant, a sturgeon, or a design akin to the dragonesque brooch in the Romano-Celtic hoard found on Lamberton Moor. The below isn't that design but a depiction of the pictish beast found on the Strathmartine stone, added for clarity.
To me the long beaky smile would indicate a dolphin complete with blowhole spouting water, as exemplified by those curling lines from the head and around the body. Maybe the legs at the back indicate flippers. But I can understand why others might not be convinced.
I got a little pebble pendant with an engraved pictish beast on it. Maybe I'll send it to bro and he'll recognise it as a tiny totem, a bizarre creature one can barely identify, not there to make sense to anybody, yet prevalent in the imagination, almost entirely made up of ideas and legends. Or maybe he'll just laugh /scream 'Cthulhu!' In truth, a plushy of the latter would be more his style.
Come on, brother, you're no strange lost beast. Up you get.
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no subject
Date: 2022-05-03 11:56 am (UTC)You don't need me to tell you, though, that people will only do what people do. He already knows all the tactful things you want to say to him.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-04 06:54 am (UTC)Yes, he knows. He ignores and avoids, and I guess that's his choice really.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-05 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-06 09:17 am (UTC)Apparently Hastings is 'up-and-coming.' Hmmm.