The All Seeing Eye

The All Seeing Eye

Have you ever wondered  what the 'All Seeing Eye' and the 'Pyramid' on the USA 1 dollar bill symbolizes?

          Annuit coeptis

I will briefly write about this today, but in another blog, at a later date, I will expand on this topic.   

I did a lot of research and concluded that  they mean the following: 

Eye:

The Eye symbolizes the omnipresence and omniscience of God watching over all things.  It's also associated with the "Trinity".  Also, The Eye is regularly associated with spiritual knowledge in scripture. 

Pyramid:

The Pyramid symbolizes a connection of "three".  The Father, Word and the Holy Ghost are "one".  

Man is made up of three parts: body, soul and spirit.  

Time is: past, present and future.  

All colors derive from three basic colors (plus white which is the absence of color): red, blue and green. 

Matter is: liquid, vapor (gas) and solids. 

In life, everything is in threes and therefore often symbolized in the three lines of a triangle.

Sincerely,

Ben

  

The Colors of Galatasaray

The Colors of Galatasaray

The choosing of the 'colors' of the football/soccer team of Galatasaray, Istanbul, Turkey, is the topic of my writing today. 

The love of Galatasaray to her current colors, was a 'love at first' story, as the saying goes. I will explain.  

One of the founders of Gala was Mr Ali Sami Yen, and this story is from his recalling of the incident of the decision to choose the colors.  

          Gala of 1909

I will translate this story from author Mr Utku Erisik's book titled: 'Hava Atisi'. 

The first colors of Gala was the colors of Turkey's flag of red and white.  

The very first jerseys were 'hand-sown' by another of the founders of Gala, the goalkeeper Mr Asım Tevfik's mother and his sister.  

Mr Yen states that "When we first wore the red and white jerseys, we as a team got scared, as we did not want to be in trouble with the state and the occupiers of our home land".  

I will need to give some 'historical' background here.  Galatasaray was founded in 1905, and during this turmoil times, before World Was I, the Ottoman Empire was fighting many uprisings from all corners of her territory.  Plus, the British and French, to name a couple of 'opportunistic' countries were busily trying to occupy further territories of this 'collapsing' Empire.  

Therefore, Mr Yen was trying to explain that, him and his team mates did not want to be killed by the occupiers for having the colors of red and white; the colors of the flag for both the Ottoman Empire and Turkey.  

The red and white jerseys were retired immediately, and 20 new jerseys with the colors of yellow and black were ordered from England.  However, when the jerseys arrived from England, none of the founders and players liked this new color combination, and once again, another jersey with the colors of yellow and black, were retired.  

Therefore, the search for the colors of Gala was still quietly in progress.  

The goalkeeper of Mr Asım Tevfik and Left-side defenseman named Mr Emin Bulend, 'informally' took on the duty, to find the 'true' colors of Gala.  

One afternoon when Mr Tevfik and Mr Bulend were walking in the neighbourhood called 'Bahcekapi', inside a clothing store, they spotted, in their own words "Two elegant and soft fabrics, placed side by side, one was a bit darker color of a 'sweet' red cherry fruit, and the other was a 'full', 'bright' yellow, with a tiny hint of the color being in-between yellow and orange.  

When the players saw these colors side by side, a flame was born inside of them, and they immediately knew that all other founders and players would approve this color combination.  

The two fabrics were taken home to be sown into a jersey by Mr Tevfik's mother again.  

The first time the colors of yellow and red were worn on December 6, 1908 against an English team of soldiers from the 'War ship' named 'Barham'.   

Ever since this date, the colors of Galatasaray has stayed the same.  

I thought this was an interesting story and wanted to share with you.  

Thank you. 

Beast with Two Backs

Beast with Two Backs

We have all read the the play/book titled 'Othello' by Shakespeare, one time or prior.  I remember reading this play in High School for my English 30 class.  I remember that I rather enjoyed reading and afterwards, writing an essay about this famous play.  I wish I would have kept my old document/essay, as I could remind myself today, what I 'focused' in the writing about in my youth, about this play.  

Over the years, I have watched 'Othello' in a live-play once, and in a movie a couple of times.  

The other evening, I was enjoying the company of a few friends, when I heard the expression 'Beast with two backs' lipped by one of friends, who was half-intoxicated.  I made a mental note of this expression, as I had heard and/or read it before, but could not remember when/where, I had heard this. 

(Do you know what the expression 'Beast with two backs' means? I would like to explain what this means, but let me do this at the tale-end of my writing today). 

A few weeks went by and I remembered the 'expression' again and decided to 'google' it.  I was truly fascinated to see that the expression had originated from a play/book, which I enjoyed reading, however, never comprehended the expression when I read the play in 'High School', or watched the play 'Live', and finally watched the movie of the 'Play'. 

I finally read the play again and wanted to bring to the attention of everyone the 'confrontational' conversation between Roderigo and Iago, where the expression was authored.  Below, is the lead-up to the expression:

-------------

Roderigo:

Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you.

Iago: 

Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you.  Because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

Brabantio:

What profane wretch art thou?

Iago: 

I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Brabantio: 

Thou art a villain.

Iago: 

You are a senator.

Brabantio:

This thou shalt answer; I know thee,

-------------

Fascinating scene, I thought. 

Now, let me explain briefly, what 'Beast with two backs' mean, even though I imagine you know what this means. 

'Beast with two backs' is a metaphor used to describe two lovers, who are in the act of 'love making'.  

I confess, I did not 'catch' this expression in High School, I wish I would have. 

Hope you enjoyed today's topic, try another of my writings, 

Add me to your circle, if you like, I'll add color to any gathering. 

Thank you for visiting, leave a comment ehhh,

Ben here