Twentieth of September, 2022 - Online Gathering Planning and Agenda

Next Tuesday is the Twentieth, and current thinking is that we will not hold our usual Wednesday meeting in and instead focus attention next week on the Twentieth. Please post your ideas and thoughts in this thread and mark this for your calendar.

Thanks for asking Onenski! We have now settled in to 8:30 PM Eastern time USA for all of our recent meetings unless we clearly state otherwise, so everyone please mark that time and join us then if you can.

Yes we will miss those who can't attend. For those who can't, here is the material Kalosyni has delivered as an introduction for the last several meetings:

20th Celebration Opening Statement

Welcome friends, and thank you for joining us today as we commemorate the life of Epicurus!

On the 20th of every month we hold this meeting in accord with the instructions of Epicurus himself to celebrate the memory of the founders of the Epicurean School.

The significance of Epicurus is summarized in the Torquatus narrative, where Epicurus is referred to as the "great discoverer of truth and... master-builder... of the life of happiness."

Torquatus wrote also: "Here is indeed a royal road to happiness-- open, simple, and direct! For clearly man can have no greater good than complete freedom from pain and sorrow coupled with the enjoyment of the highest bodily and mental pleasures."

"Notice then how the theory embraces every possible enhancement of life, every aid to the attainment of the Chief Good which is our object. Epicurus, the man whom you denounce as a voluptuary, cries aloud that no one can live pleasantly without living wisely, honorably, and justly, and no one wisely, honorably, and justly without living pleasantly."

And further on he continues:

"If then the doctrine I have set forth is clearer and more luminous than daylight itself: if it is derived entirely from Nature's source; if my whole discourse relies throughout for confirmation of the unbiased and unimpeachable evidence of the senses; if newborn children, even speechless animals, led by nature's teaching, almost find voice to proclaim that there is no welfare but pleasure, no hardship but pain -- and their judgement in these matters is neither sophisticated nor biased -- ought we not to feel the greatest gratitude to him who caught this utterance of Nature's voice, and grasped its import so firmly and so fully that he has guided all sane-minded men into the paths of peace and happiness, calmness and repose?"

Epicurus died in 270 BC, after having lived and taught in Athens for 35 years. In his will he asked that his commemoration of the founders be continued into the future.

Almost two hundred years later, we have record of Philodemus of Gadara commemorating another twentieth in writing: "Tomorrow, dearest Piso, your friend, beloved by the Muses, who keeps our feast of the twentieth, invites your annual visit after the ninth hour to his simple cottage. If you miss udders and draughts of Chian wine, you will see at least sincere friends and you will hear things far sweeter than the land of Phaeacians. But if you ever cast your eyes on me, Piso, we shall celebrate the twentieth richly instead of simply."

Now today we gather once again, to raise a toast to Epicurus and in the words of Lucian of Samosata, to "strike a blow for Epicurus, that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all who consorted with him."

I have never heard of that - will have to look into it more! Did you take a picture of what the full tree looked like? Just last week I was walking and the person I was with saw something that had fruit that sort of looked like that but smaller than the photo. Are they full grown and ripe this time of year?

Should have said too -. We had a good get together with Fernando, Steve, Kalosyni, Joshua and even Martin got up in the middle of his night and joined us. So hope to see you and others next month.

Thank you! I will go investigate the example I saw recently and see if it looks similar. It definitely had an elongated green fruit of a kind that I had never seen before.

Yes I just verified what I was looking at and it was a vine growing in a tree rather than a tree itself. After reading the wikipedia article I am beginning to think I remember hearing of this somewhere and reading that the trees are not highly desirable around houses because they stink (?) Will have to look further but I will NOT be eating what I saw