Saturday, May 23, 2009

equanimity \ee-kwuh-NIM-uh-tee; ek-wuh-\, noun:

• Evenness of mind; calmness; composure; as, "to bear misfortunes with equanimity."

Equanimity comes from Latin aequanimitas, "impartiality, calmness," from aequanimus, "impartial, even-tempered," from aequus, "even" + animus, "mind, soul."

metatation

• Metatation: The act of contemplating meditation itself, putting oneself outside the very state of meditation.

I was not satisfied with my meditation practice, so I began a metatation.
Trivia

How did horses named Brownie, Bossuet, and Wait A Bit make history at Aqueduct Racetrack in 1944?

• They hit the finish line at the same time in the Carter Handicap—the first and only triple dead heat for a win in a stakes race.

Today in History:

• Captain Kidd: was hanged in London for murder and piracy (1701)
• Mounties: the North West Mounted Police was created; it would later become the federal police force of Canada (1873)
• Bonnie and Clyde: Depression-era outlaws were ambushed and killed by police in Louisiana (1934)
• West Germany: was reconstituted from post-WWII occupation zones (1949)

Today's Birthdays:

• Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778): botanist, known as the "father of modern taxonomy"
• Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815): physician who sought to heal with an early form of hypnosis
• Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974): poet, novelist, dramatist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize for Literature; writers Thomas Hood (1799-1844) and Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952) shared this birth date
• John Newcombe (65): tennis hall-of-famer
• Anatoly Karpov (58): chess grandmaster
• Charles Kimbrough (73): Murphy Brown's Jim Dial; also, actors Betty Garrett (90), Barbara Barrie (78), Joan Collins (76), Drew Carey (51), Laurel Holloman (38), Lane Garrison (29) and Adam Wylie (25)
• Jewel (35): singer/songwriter; other musicians born on this date include Artie Shaw (1910-2004) and Matt Flynn (39)