Outside the Cycle

When Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and St. Valentine’s Day fall in the
same week, how is the self to move so quickly through the cycle of
revelling, repentance, and romance?

And what of Lupercalia, the old spring holiday? With orgiastic
rites, the she-wolf was honored in Rome, after which naked youth
traveled through towns for purification. Ah, they moved quickly.

A manifesto of self is always despised, but who has not written
one? The self remains, even when given away. There is a direction
in which the self is moving, but it is not discernable.

Lupa was a formidable mother, too wild to be of use to any save
her foundling sons who themselves founded Rome. She was entirely
outside the cycle. For her there was only Romulus, only Remus,
and Rome.