Daphne and Apollo

Main moral of the story: don't get Eros mad at you.
(I feel there's a running theme in all Greek mythology.)
So Apollo didn't realize that having Eros mad at him would be a bad idea, and he made fun of him and teased him. Eros, angry, shot Apollo with one of his golden arrows (which I just realized sounds like his name, something very revolutionary to me) so that he would fall in love with Daphne, a dryad who was the daughter of the river god Peneus. Eros also shot Daphne with an arrow, but instead of a golden one, it was leaden, and she could never love Apollo back. Apollo followed her as she ran away, and when she came to her father's river, Apollo somehow made her think that stopping to bathe would be a fantastic idea. Peneus took pity on his daughter, and in order to protect her from Apollo, he transformed her into a laurel tree. Apollo was heartbroken and declared the laurel tree his sacred tree, and then, to honor Daphne, prevented the laurel tree from ever rotting so that it still remains green.





I don't think this is actually a laurel, but I figured I'd include it anyway because it reminds me of this story and I really just love it. I realize that this does not make me sound like a particularly sane person, but I'm starting to wish I could be as carefree as this tree.

Senior year does things to you, man.















I cannot make up my mind about what I think about eternal youth. Generally, the stories centered around it advise against it--think Peter Pan and Tuck Everlasting, both of which featured characters who offered eternal youth to a young girl (Wendy/Winnie... interesting similarity there) only to see her turn it away and value her life through aging. But at the same time, there's really not a big part of me that wants to grow up. I'd rather stick around as a seventeen-year-old than worry about adult problems; who wouldn't, right? Or maybe I'd rather be in college instead of high school... I don't know. Regardless, eternal anything would be great in some ways, but it might also lose meaning at some point, it seems to me. I guess it's fortunate that I'm not being offered the choice now because I'd probably sit and debate with myself for so long that I'd be old before I could ask to be young again.