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Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Monthly Archives: July 2010

Tripping the Light Fantastic

31 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in Art, Essays, Inspirational, Poetry, Psychology, Sociology

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Art, emotions, life, Music, painting, Poetry, psychology

I’ve been thinking about poetry. In the end that got me to thinking about music and art in general. I’m sure you have found yourself thinking about them too. In case you haven’t, I’ll share.

I have always had a arm’s length kinda thing in regards poetry. I liked some (that which I could easily understand) and didn’t like some (that which I could not understand).  Pretty basic analysis.

I have no idea what poem the phrase “tripping the light fantastic” comes from, but I remember a high school teacher frustrated as all heck because we were bemused by her attempts to get us to “respect” poetry. We thought it all silly, and memorizing any portion of it, a sheer waste of time.

I was troubled by the poetry I didn’t understand, often written by supposed giants of literary ability. Well, no supposed about it, they were such giants, and I was terribly worried at times what I was missing and why. I thought to read it line by line and for all my efforts I still had no idea what was being said half the time.

As I said, some I did get. “By the shores of gitchee gumee, by the shining deep sea waters. . . .” That I get.

I learned that poetry was meant to evoke emotions, yet I still felt there must be actual meaning in the words themselves? Some code I was unable to penetrate. And so mostly I left it alone.

I’m thick headed about some things. Poetry must be one. I mentioned a few days ago, that a poem I read on a site which I linked to had spoken to me powerfully. It felt like someone had dug into my skull and spoke my deepest agonies, fears, sorrows, melancholia. I’m not sure what the poem was meaning, but I finally got it, I think.

It meant what it meant to me. It evoked feelings about my state in the this world. And to him/her it might have evoked feelings about something entirely different. It might have related to an event, a time, an experience quite different from mine, but the emotions were the same.

I’m not sure I’m making much sense, but I hope you are seeing what I mean in some way.

Music is the same. Musical compositions often have names, they define the subject matter of the composer, “The Messiah,” or the “Rodeo.” Now, common sense tells you that if you were unaware of the name and you were hearing it for the first time, you wouldn’t say, oh my he’s composing a piece about Jesus Christ. Yet, we are carried by the sounds with the title, and we reflect on Jesus, knowing that it is about Him, and we FEEL a kinship to the scriptures that talk of him.

Painting and sculpture are no different. Especially the more abstract kinds, but even those dubbed Romanticism and Expressionism also do this. They may depict more identifiable objects, yet they are distorted in some way that allows us to dig deeper, feel deeper, and connect with our spirit-soul.

At least that is what I think. That is why the arts are essential to our humanity. That is why we started to represent things in our own imaginings almost from the start. From the fertility goddesses we fashioned in the stone age to the cave paintings in Lascaux, France, to Monet and Picasso. We seek to speak the unspeakable and we seek to ask the world to understand what we cannot say.

Poetry is that. It speaks of what is not speakable.

And yet, I would not negate the poetry that tells the story. For it has it’s place. It is the journeyman’s way. It is what I write, and so many of us write, some better, some not so. But it is our ungifted attempt to speak of more than what we can utter in declarative sentence.

It is what caused Dorothy Parker to correct anyone who wanted to talk of her “poetry.” “No,” she would say, “not poetry, but my verses. I am no poet.”

Poetry is the Psalmist who cries for Jerusalem, yet, two thousand years later, manages to still speak to our condition as we cry for whatever is holy and seemingly withheld from our hands and hearts.

Camus suggests that true genius is accompanied by a requisite amount of banality. I have said more than once that every decent thought has been thought, we merely come up with them again and again, until such time as the other pieces are available and we can make something of them.

So poetry reminds us, in the end, of that timelessness. That the same hopes, dreams, fears, jealousies, hatreds are ever with us, no matter whether we awaken upon a mammoth robe or on 1200-thread count linen sheets.  It is all the same.

Nothing new here folks. Just an aging woman finally getting something through a puzzling mind. And I have yet to speak of war and scripture and things more marvelous still. But tomorrow is another day, God willing.

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An Island in the Storm 07/30/10

30 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in An Island in the Storm, Essays, Humor

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Humor

Fitting today is our theme title, since it’s raining once more. A slow, but seemingly very steady shower. How long is any creature’s guess. Let us turn to things of merriment instead.

First offer’s, I just want you to know that I take no offense that hardly anybody has been very talkative the past coupla weeks. And you have been vacationing no doubt and not stopping by as you should. I just want ya to know, that I have worked my fingas to the bone collecting all this humorous stuff for your amusement and to keep anyone from driving off that cliff. Not to make you feel beholden or guilty or nuthin”; I’m a martyr by profession. *wink* J/K and all that rot.

So.

So for all of you who like a bit of nasty yucks, hard humor I call it, visit our dear friend Vodkaandgroundbeef, as she shows us what’s it’s like to be her seat mate on a flight to San Fran. I betcha it will make you look twice before YOU sit down on your next flight.

If taking over the world is more your style, then buzz on over to Writer’s Block and Cappy for some sure fire tips on how to go about that little task. Writer’s block is another new blog that I’ve recently found and am enjoying, for it’s refined humor.

Jan of  Yearning for God has a cute little cartoon on procrastination which is right up my alley. I don’t have an alley, literally speaking and am not sure what a figurative one would look like, but it sounds like bathroom humor to me, and we don’t do that here—much.

I’m fixin’ to head over to 1000 Shitty Things when I am done taking care of your psyches today. I have a post in mind entitled either Tasting Your Toes, or Toes are Better With Salsa. I leave it to you to figure out what it may be about. So look for it.

A couple of recipes. A really  nice New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp recipe. Find it at Uncommon Artistic Endeavors.

And here is the recipe for the 7-grain bread I made yesterday which turned out quite well, and tasted very good, and will make a pretty darn good sandwich bread. It has some definite quirks which can be applied to other recipes and I think they are important developments in the art of bread baking.

7 Grain Bread

Start with 1 ¼ c 7-grain hot cereal mix (you do not need all the various flours!)
Add 2 ½ c boiling water and mix. Let sit for a good hour to cool it down to 100°.
Then: mix together ¼c melted butter, cooled, ¼c honey, and 2 ½ tsp. yeast.
Add that to the cooled cereal
Add 7 ½ oz. or approx. 1 ½ c whole wheat flour
Add 15 oz. or approx. 3 c all purpose flour
Best to do this in a heavy duty mixer. Blend until just blended. Drop the kneading hook into the dough and cover the top with saran wrap and leave for 20 minutes.
(This is the new thing. Apparently this allows the gluten to start working and cuts down the kneading time hugely. It thus makes the bread more tender.)
Now add 1 TBSP of salt and kneed for 3-4 minutes. Dough will be sticky but pull away from the bowl (Kneed on medium speed). The dough is heavy and so you must have a KitchenAid or other heavy duty machine or else very strong arms.)
Add, if you wish ¾ c pumpkin seeds and mix a bit, and then turn out and hand kneed until the seeds seem fairly distributed.
Put into greased bowl, make sure top of dough is oiled and then cover and let rise until doubled. (a good hour or more depending on the house temp)
Turn out on floured work surface and divide in half. Shape into two loaves. you can oil it and roll in oatmeal of not. I did and it all fell off after baking when you slice it, so I won’t bother again.
Place in greased pans and let rise until double. Test by pressing gently on the dough. If it remains depressed, continue to let rise. When it bounces back, its fully extended.
Heat over to 375º.
Spray water on the loaves and place in over for 35-40 minutes. Internal temp should be 200°.  Cool on racks.

When I make this again, I’ll omit the oatmeal and probably the pumpkin seeds. I didn’t let mine rise quite enough before baking and I think I should have remembered to check the internal temp, which I did not, and they seemed a bit more doughy than they probably should have. Still it was marvelous and I used it this morning for toast. Very nice. I froze one.

The main point here is letting the dough rest after the initial mix which is really a new concept. They also did a dinner roll recipe which I will try next and if it is as good, I’ll give you that one too. Both are from Cooks, their new TV show.

Oh, and the other main idea is to always keep the surface of the dough lubricated so that the rising will continue. You don’t want it to dry out. That’s also why you mist it with H2O before putting it in the oven, so the last yahoo of rising from the oven heat will be able to lift it even higher until the top dries and hardens.

And this last from my good friend Carolyn:

The Light Turned Yellow
>
>  The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing,
>  stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light
> by accelerating through the intersection.
>
>  The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in
>  frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection,
> dropping her cell phone and makeup.
>
>  As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up
>  into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her
> to exit her car with her hands up.
>
>  He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted,
>  photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
>
>  After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the
>  door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting
> officer was waiting with her personal effects.
>
>  He said, ”I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind
>  your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front
> of you
>  and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’
> bumper sticker, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper sticker, and

>the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally….

>I assumed you had stolen the car.”


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What’s Up? 07/29/10

29 Thursday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in Constitution, Essays, Foreign Affairs, Humor, Michelle Backmann, Poetry, Sarah Palin, Satire, What's Up?

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Amendments, bread, Constitution, espionage, John Le Carre, Michelle Bachmann, Poetry, Sarah Palin

I’ve always thought the spy business was kinda silly. I mean, I realize it has its importance in times of actual war. Those people who infiltrate to gain information that will help your side win and do so more quickly, are courageous people it seems to me.

But this other stuff? Oh, my, it strikes me about the same as mercenaries. Gosh, gee, no war? I can’t kill no more? I’ll go volunteer to kill for you, for a price. Sick people.

Same for spies. Weirdos who try to inflate the importance of their spooky jobs. It always strikes me that the rest of us sit around making fun of them like indeed they are playing cowboys and Indians. Speaking of which here’s a fine review of Le Carre’s book, and some interesting commentary on the subject.

So who chooses to be a spy? Weirdos as I said. Probably the same class of human who wants to be a cop in a dangerous city. People who feel powerless. Not all of course. But in general I think.

The latest crop of spies are the bunch they recently caught in the US. It made me laugh. Kinda a joke don’t you think? Anybody think they were seriously gonna find out anything actually important? I doubt it. Loved watching the “transfer.” OOOOh so scary, and spyish.

I bet those Russians are kinda pissed now. Life here was probably more to their liking than what they now have in good old Moscow.

~~

Oh, Google musta read my rant, and got my pictures back to the way they were. Good job Google. I’m glad I carry that kinda power.

~~

The article linked above raised another interesting item came to me. The writer says he has read the novel many times. I’m not one to reread much of anything, though I have a couple of things, War and Peace comes to mind. With just so much out there to read, I feel I can’t spare the time to reread anything. The Contrarian is just the opposite.

I’m not sure what that says personality wise. Any ideas?

~~

A terrific REAL poet is amongst us. I suggest you try this one and then browse through the site for other perfect gems. This one spoke so powerfully to me, that I wonder if the author has gotten into my head.

When it comes to thoughtful ponderings, nobody is much better than Tengrain. See his thoughts on our dear Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palin, and her unforgivable use of her son Trig.

D-cap is starting a series on how we might consider changing our constitution to govern better. I’m fully in agreement that something needs be done to at minimum stop the ability of a minority to keep the majority from getting a bleepin’ thing done. So get in on the ground floor of what will undoubtedly be a thoughtful series.

Jaliya at Pushing 50, has a post on Target CEO and his wife who have allegedly given Michelle Bachmann the max in campaign contributions. While I don’t usually shop at Target, I do like their stores, but I will definitely not be spending my money there if this is true. Thanks for the heads up Jaliya!

~~

I just made two loves of 7-grain bread. I got the recipe from Cooks TV show. I love their recipes generally, but they are usually more complicated than regular ones. But and it’s a big but, it’s frankly worth it. They really try everything and come up with the very best. My loaves weren’t as high as hers but otherwise look identical. They are supposed to be sandwich usable (most home made bread is too heavy, dense and dry for good sandwiches). If it’s as reported, I’ll share the recipe with ya tomorrow. They had a nice regular rolls recipe too. I make a batch of them and throw them in the freezer. Works wonderfully to jazz up any meal. Warm them and they are like you just baked them.

Sorry, I don’t seem to be finding much that interests me today. Some days are like that. I luv ya all. Be careful out there and keep your heads down.

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What’s Up? 07/28/10

28 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in Essays, Gay Rights, Humor, Iowa, Media, Muslim, Newt Gingrich, Poetry, racism, Satire, science, What's Up?

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

advertising, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, gay rights, Google, lesbians, Madison Avenue, Muslims, Newt Gingrich, poets, racism, Rag Brai, scientists

You know, I’m all for technology. For the most part. By and large. As long as it suits my purposes.

Do they ever bother to ask me? Before they “upgrade” something? In a word. NO!

And since I am the CONSUMER, you would think my opinion might count. Does it? NO!

Okay, I could be referring to a hundred things I know, but I’m only referring to one at the moment.

Google! What are you thinking? Why can’t you leave chit alone?

Been to Google Images lately? Well, I’m there several times a day sometimes, finding the right picture that captures my senses. Well, guess what. They decided to CHANGE it. Used to be I got the requisite 25 pics or so, and then the ability to go to page 2 and so forth.

Not any more. I get my 25 pics, and NO MORE. Is that insane? And I don’t get the size under the pic any more, no I gotta hover over the pic to get that. And no more getting the pic alone. NO! I gotta get the website it came from.

Nobody asked me. I don’t want all that stuff. Why can’t they freakin’ leave chit alone? I check my e-mail every day, more than once. They never ASKED me what I thought. Idiots!

Anybody who has been around this joint for a goodly while has read a couple of my posts on Madison Avenue and the uber insanity of that institution. Their job is to create ads that make me drool, and whimper that I cannot live without some product. They get paid much moola for this.

Why they get paid a dime, I have no clue, because they generally generate the opposite effect. I vow after watching one of their commercials, never ever ever to buy the product in question.

Example:

Holiday Inn Express has an ad that says if I stay there I can be “myself.” Why I can be myself there they do not tell me. They imply of course that at other cheapy hotels, I cannot be myself. They do not tell me why that is either.

Moreover, they show me utterly dorky people who are apparently being “themselves.” Either they think that I too am a dork or that I will enjoy spending the night with dorks. Neither is true. I will never stay at a Holiday Inn Express for that reason. Hope they paid a lot of money for their ad. It sucks.

Soooo. How’s your day goin’? Mine is goin’ fairly peachy. A bit humid still but they claim a cold front is comin’ on through. That will be a relief. So, let’s straighten our bibs and see what is goin’ on around the intertubes.

Oh before I forget, another posting at 1000 Shitty Things. It’s a pretty good one, if I do say so. So mosey on over via the link at the menu up top. I probably should have made 1000ST’s a page instead of a new website for your convenience, but I didn’t not think of that at the time. So as I said, bookmark or enter into your reader so you don’t miss any installments. And do leave suggestions for other shitty things if you wish. I’ll use any that I can come up with some good fun with.

Lizbeth Hasselbeck, perennial loser in the lib-con debates on The View, has stuck her uber conservative foot in mouth once again. Last week she was causing Shirley Sherrod to roll her eyes as her silly questions (GOP’ers think that charging racism from “any venue” is a good defense to their being charged with racism. They never get the clue that their tactic is the best evidence of the charge against them, but never mind). Her latest sillism is that older women become gay because their aren’t enough available men in their age range. Yeah.  Hey bimbo, you are clueless dear. Video attached.

Highbrow alert! The New Atlantis has a provocative article on poets and scientists. Reviewing a new book called, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and the Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes. The art is worth the trip alone. For the culturally hungry.

Newt “Slippery” Gingrich gets on my last nerve. His latest attack against the planned mosque near Ground Zero is so filled with illogical nonsense as to be nearly unintelligible.  Joe Klein says you can tell when Newty is running for President. He gets angrier and stupider. That would seem born out. And the comments are just dessert!

We have this thing in Iowa called Rag Brai. I think I’m spelling it right. It’s a bicycle tour from west to east, the Missouri to the Mississippi. We have that noted trivia item. Our west and east boundaries are actually coasts, like Florida, except they are rivers not oceans.

The Contrarian hates Rag Brai. He hates bicycles. Well not bicycles per se. But bicycles on roads that cars drive on. He does not hate tractors on roads cars drive on. This is not explained. Tractors are just as slow, have to be gotten around and so forth. One is okay and the other not. Contrarians are contrary about explaining why sometimes.

Each year the organizers construct a different route. The bicyclers stop in various small towns along the way which is good for them, those that sell things that is. One year, not too many ago, it came through Troy Mills. The Contrarian refused to leave the land. “Can’t even go to the Troy Store for milk,” he harrumphed. He’s like that.

About the most exciting thing that happens during Rag Brai is that some poor soul dies along the way. I don’t know if they carry the body along the rest of the way or not. It would seem fitting to get it to it’s destination.

And no, I have no idea why it’s called Rag Brai. I may have at one point, but I forgot. It’s useless information unlikely to appear on Jeopardy as an answer. So I discarded that gem. I leave the accumulation of unnecessary and useless information to the Contrarian.

So, having, as it were, given you a bunch of mostly useless information, I’ve done my duty for the day, and am OFF. Tootles.

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Just Some Observations

27 Tuesday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in Catholicism, Essays, GOP, Humor, Media, Michelle Backmann, Overlooking the Fields, religion, Sarah Palin, Satire

≈ 12 Comments

I’m oddly euphoric today. I have no idea why. It could be that I have dinner already done. A big tuna pasta salad and rolls. Gonna be a scorcher today. Cold food. No oven.

So I feel light and airy. But it could be that I’ve released the last of my “obligations” today. No more obsessing about weather for me.

I was obsessing you know. And I don’t like that feeling one bit. I have better things to do with my brains.

Spooky serendipity kinda stuff keeps happening. I’m reading Albert Camus’s “ The Rebel.” It’s kinda a tough read for me, but it makes me think a lot. So, I’m also reading some old Anglican Theological Journals, and I’m currently reading an article on James Cone, black theologian and black liberation theology writer. He mentioned that Camus’s Rebel figured in his thinking. How weird is that. One now informs the other.

I keep thinking that the Republicans are definitely fruitcake nutty. I mean if they wanna write a book called “How to influence everybody to hate your guts” I’m thinking nobody could do it better.

Some years ago, you see, I realized a very important fact. Most of the world ain’t white. By a long shot. Sooner or later, I figured, all those disparate groups, yellow, brown and black, will join forces and well, you can see the troubles ahead. I figured it was time to tread softly and throw away the stick. Time to TALK and make nice?

No Republican seems to have thought of that. They have managed to alienate black folk, brown folk, the majority of women, working people everywhere. They no doubt will say something nasty about slant eyes and write off a few billion more. So far they only like Jews and that seems more because the Jews must stand in the breach at the End Times. Most of them will die as unconverted. So I figure Jews mostly don’t think too highly of them either.

Ben Stein is a Republican. And he pissed off all the working folks in this nation by telling them that from his lofty point of view, most of the chronically unemployed are so because they are lousy workers or have crappy personalities.

It won’t be long though before the GOP will have done us all a great service. All we need do is collect their GOP registration lists and we know who needs psychiatric commitments. Truly, they are nuts.

I know that a lot of Republicans now call themselves independents. But that’s just cover. Ever have somebody sanctimoniously tell you that “I don’t vote for a party but for the person.” Yeah, I’ve heard that a lot. The truth is, that once in a blue moon they vote for someone from the “other” party. I do too, once in a blue moon. That makes me a Democrat who won’t vote for a slug who carries the D when there is someone better who just happens to be an R.

But, I might have to rethink that. Given the spinning head syndrome that is now the GOP. No sane person, as I said would admit to being one. How does one explain being in a party with the likes of Michelle (Spinner eye) Bachmann, Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palin, Glenn (weepy) Beck, and all the rest?

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but the pope has written a children’s book. Odd, doncha think? On it’s face? Creepy kinda, given the “troubles”? Well, worse than creepy is that it’s something called, Jesus and His Friends. Don’t quote me exactly but, and here’s the rub, JESUS HAD NO WOMEN FRIENDS.  Yep. It appears that the pope and his boy’s club pretty much hate women.

They equate them with pedophiles when it comes to sinfulness, if they should attempt ordination. They are conducting witch hunts throughout Merika of all the women’s religious orders. Not the men’s mind you, just the women.  Yep, they pretty much hate women.

They must have the same disease as the GOP. What we have here son, is a failure to see REALITY.

I wonder if the Vatican has a clue why people leave it? Beyond being theologically still locked in medieval Europe that is? I mean they don’t think much of women, nor gays, nor respectful dissent. Where do they think those people are going? Not in the pews on Sunday.

Perhaps they are also affiliated with Madison Avenue. They are another group of moronic other reality dwellers. Always spinning out commercials that make me hate the product they are pushing. Always. Except for a few. A very few. And those are mostly funny. The really eco-friendly ones are always offered by manufacturing polluters. Ever notice that? Pretty pictures. Like we don’t get that they are the POLLUTERS.

Just some observations.

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What’s Up? 07/26/10

26 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in 1st Amendment, Constitution, Death Penalty, Essays, fundamentalism, GOP, Humor, Muslim, Newt Gingrich, Psychology, racism, religion, Sarah Palin, Satire, Sociology, What's Up?, Zoology

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chimps, Fox Noise, freedom of religion, GOP, human error, Jane Goodall, Muslims, Newt Gingrich, prisons, religious wacko right, Sarah Palin, Shirley Sherrod, Ted Haggart

Mercy mercy me. It’s been a crazy weekend hasn’t it? I mean did ya hear? Fox Propaganda folks and Rush Limpbaugh are suggesting that the White House planted the tape on Shirley Sherrod in the hopes that one of it’s crazy right wing thugs would snap up the bait, and make them all look bad. Yep. I swear.

And Newt and Laura are claiming that they only went with the story because they “trusted” the White House had seen the entire tape. Just another instance they now claim of just how incompetent Obama and his minions really are.

I just love people who can turn on a dime, and actually speak with incredulity such utter poppycock! Oh I love that word. I think I shall poppycock through this post. Word of the day!

Speaking of poppycockers. That would be Ted Haggart. Speaking of himself in the third person, he declares, “Ted Haggart needs to leading a church.” Moreover, he has uttered the words ” I have over-repented.” Now that may be a first. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a human being say that. The cured gay dude wants to put all his “massage gone awry” behind him. And you didn’t think there was humor in Christianity? Oh yes there is! What is apparent here is that Ted needs and more importantly, wants money, and doesn’t want to change occupations, since being a blow-heart evangelist is so lucrative.

Remember when we linked you to the wacko right’s utter shock that Obama used the phrase freedom of worship rather freedom of religion. And that the totals were 9-124 as to the usage, and that Bush used the same two phrases 33-124 times? Well, never one to do their homework, the right wing Faith and Freedom Institute has sent a letter to our Prez, telling him to stop that dangerous talk immediately or they will personally secure his impeachment for this and sundry other violations of the Constitution (one of them being of course his birth certificate non-production). I believe the Prez has gone to his bunker to protect himself from this overwhelming present danger.

Sadly the book Being Wrong, by Kathryn Shultz, will not be read by the above morons, since looking in the mirror is dangerous to vampires. A fine review of  this interesting book can be had at this link. We humans don’t like being wrong, and we sure don’t like admitting we are wrong. But of course, that’s part of growing up–taking responsibility and being an adult. This looks like a most interesting read.

I am alarmed at the utterly ugly rhetoric around the proposed Muslim center being  built two blocks from “ground zero.” I simply am in agony over the hatred being voiced, and the fact that people like Newt and Sarah give voice to this kind of “otherness.”  I’m not surprised, since the GOP in general seems to have adopted in all it’s vileness every form of them against us they can come up with. Do they realize that in the end, all the non-whites add up to more than the whites? The New Yorker has the anti Mosque video and commentary by Amy Davidson.

In a prelude to her upcoming book, Jane Goodall reminiscences on her 50 years in Gombe, in an article in the WSJ. No doubt you have, as have I, watched many a National Geographic on her study of chimps over the years. We have learned much about them, and of course about ourselves in the process. A nice read.

Killing the Buddha has a really amazing interview with Caleb Smith, author of The Prison and the American Imagination. For anyone interested in the state of our penal system and how it came to be as it is, this looks like the book. Read the interview and see if this appeals to you. As an aside, a lifetime ago, I wrote a very long (100 pager) paper on the death penalty in Michigan. Solitary confinement was considered more tortuous than execution. It turned out to be true, and eventually prison authorities pleaded with the legislature to allow the lifers time in the yard. Solitary was driving them quite mad. Smith addresses the history of solitary confinement.

And from Brilliant at Breakfast, we have a delicious look at the cream of the GOP contendahs or hopefuls in some respect. All the nasties are here including the corpse of Ronnie, who may have the best chance of all. Funny stuff.

Okay, enough already. Enjoy your day!

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In the Hands of an Angry God?

26 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by Sherry in Bible, Essays, fundamentalism, God, Inspirational, Jesus, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, religion, social concerns

≈ 6 Comments

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angry God, born again, cleansing fo the temple, compassion, fundamentalism, Jesus, judgment, love, personal salvation, social issues

Yesterday I was reading blogs, and came across a gem from Christian at Sharp Iron. His post is entitled, Mel Gibson in the Hands of an Angry God. Some of the insights Christian offers were profound and helpful in my ever ongoing quest to understand the mind and motivation of the fundamentalist.

I’ll be summarizing some of his points and expanding upon them, but please do go read his post. It is well worth your time.

Christian has that unique position of having traveled from the far right evangelical to the more moderate middle. He speaks with first hand experience of what it means to be of the “born again” genre. Born again seems to refer in the fundamentalist mind, to one who has surrendered to Christ. And that seems to mean one who has publicly admitted that they belief that Christ is savior, come to earth to die for our sins and through our faith in him, guarantees our eternal life.

Christian ponders how this coincides with who Jesus was as prophet, healer, and revisionist Jew. And he offers, I submit, an excellent rationale for how conservative Christians reconstruct Jesus to fit into their already extant worldview.

He in effect claims that they fail in the born again transformation, merely carrying their inborn anger at “the way things are” over into their new faith. God becomes the avenger of all that they dislike, and Jesus, as he puts it, will return with  wrath upon “those who have it coming.”

In this he provides I believe a big answer to why fundamentalists are the way they are.

Let me explain. First lets look at the concept of being “born again.” Although the Right Wing Christian believes born again refers to “acceptance of Jesus as personal savior” it quite clearly doesn’t mean this at all. Refer to John 3:3-8 wherein Jesus explains what it means. He says that being born again is not belief in him but being reborn (transformed) by the Spirit.

Moreover, the Greek phrase is gennatha anothen.  While it can be translated as “born again,” it is more properly translated as “born from above.” This latter is the translation of the NRSV. Indeed, the KJV (preferred text of fundamentalists) ONLY translates anothen as again in these two verses from John: 3:3 and 3:7. In every other place, the KJV translates the word in some other way.

More to the point, the purpose of being born of Spirit, is to be transformed. And this is where Christian makes his point most strongly. They are not really transformed at all.

 One of the most serious errors that fundamentalists make in their “theology” is to equate the bible as some textbook guide to PERSONAL salvation. It is not that, and never was. It is NOT what Jesus taught.

Sure, Jesus spoke TO people, but his message was not directed toward some personal piety that would guarantee  “salvation to individuals. He spoke, rather, against the prevailing cultural consensus of his time–against the Holiness codes and purity codes and that strict adherence to these was what would save Israel. Rather, he charged that one must have a heart of compassion and love, and by following that, they were imitating the Father’s love and compassion, and THAT would save Israel.

What the fundamentalist gets wrong is he “transforms his conduct from drinking, gambling, whoring, swearing, and all manner of PERSONAL inadequacies and presumed evils, and then goes to church regularly, or at least reads the bible a good deal, and declares to everyone within hearing that they too must do as he has done or they will be condemned.

God is the avenger who will punish those who are not born again, Jesus will judge and consign to Hell all slackers upon his second coming. Nowhere is there a true transformation which causes one to love one’s enemies and  that by “doing  unto the least of these” you do it to me.

War and hatred are not discarded as any fair reading of Jesus’ preaching would entail. Instead, the fundamentalist retains all his angers and hatred for others in the guise as Christian points out, of “righteous indignation” which they happily show you in the New Testament. Indeed the “Cleansing of the Temple” is found in all four gospels. It remains the singular statement of perhaps an angry Jesus.

I say perhaps because there is nothing said about anger at all in the synoptic versions. In Matt. 21:10-17, Mk. 11:11, and Lk. 19:45,  all agree, “he came into the temple and drove out the moneychangers and overturned the tables. Nothing is said about anger. Nor  does John’s version, (thought by many to be the closest to accuracy) Jn. 2: 13-17.

As Christian points out, this event could hardly have been a new thing for Jesus. He had been in the Temple many times. There was nothing new in what was going on there. He could not have been truly angry; rather, he wished to make a point, to get the events of his final days in Jerusalem underway. All texts report that the disturbance got the attention of the high priests and the scribes and Pharisees. It was this that was the final straw, and they determined that his ministry must be stopped lest it gain the upper hand. That fairly seems to have been his motivation.

This I think helps us to understand why right wing Christians maintain that war is a viable means to an end, and indeed seem to be in the forefront of promoting it to secure political ends. It explains why the death penalty finds adherents in this group.

It also I think, explains why social justice issues, fall on deaf ears, as regards them. All too often those on the margins, like those in the time of Jesus, were not good believers. Not good followers of the rules. Condemned by the Pharisees as unclean, as sinful by their conduct or failure to abide by the purity and holiness codes, they were the very folks that Jesus spent their time with. But alas, as we are all to a degree wont to do, we discard that which doesn’t fit our preconceived notions.

The fundamentalist finds fertile ground in the Hebrew Scriptures for an angry, avenging God. They relate to this God who will right all the wrongs they themselves perceive, and they then pervert and subvert the message of Jesus to conform as the returning JUDGE of all.

As Christian points out, this is not transforming, but merely recreating God and Jesus to suit one’s own proclivities. Personal salvation is the only goal, the Kingdom is only about heavenly mansions where we will get to live like the rich finally.

It explains a lot.

Amen.

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