Here – That is amazing how y’all know how to do all that!
Another poem I learned – A Bird Came Down the Walk (Emily Dickinson) does something interesting like that. While the bird is on the ground, hopping around, the words are “choppy”. As soon as it takes to flight, the words become as smooth as the bird is in the air.
It’s often strange what slips past our radar. I almost completely missed the work of Emily Dickinson during my schoolin’ and one of my degrees is in English lit! (How is that possible? I had quite a good education about most of the literary womenfolk: ** you do not have permission to see this link **. Â
I was in my thirties before I seriously read Dickinson’s work. I remember thinking, This is an American? She has such an “Eastern” sensibility to her work although I’m not aware that she ever formally studied Buddhism or Daoism.  Well I can’t go this far without offering representative examples. Â
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
-If I can stop one heart from breaking
(Isn’t that what truly destroys a person, not lack of love but lack of being able to give it?)Â
I know the Butterfly.
The pretty people in the Woods
Receive me cordially—
The Brooks laugh louder when I come—
The Breezes madder play;
Wherefore mine eye thy silver mists,
Wherefore, Oh Summer’s Day?
Â
When you wander the highways and byways of the social media landscape you encounter all kinds of interesting voices. For example…
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Raymond Ibrahim calls for a “muscular” and “masculine” Christianity. His descriptors. He celebrates “Christendom” and reviles what he calls “doormat” Christianity. This viewpoint overlaps somewhat with Christian Nationalism but it’s not nearly as dumb and ahistorical as that.  Ibrahim sees Islam as the historical enemy of the West and has written books about the old conflict, full of battles and heroes of the Faith. He also decries the decadence he sees undermining the West.Â
You don’t have to listen to much of this stuff to see how it actually winds up mirroring militant Islam. And I hope it’s not too slanderous to point out how much of this rhetoric appeared in historical fascist movements.Â
** you do not have permission to see this link **
I’ve heard of The Chosen which depicts the story of Jesus in a TV series, although I’ve never watched it. I’m not even sure where or when it is broadcast.  The dependable YouTube algorithm has brought it to my attention and I’ve watched a few clips, including a short interview with the actor who portrays Jesus.
What struck me was the contemporary production style and the dialog. Everything is so clean and shiny. Everyone has clean, well-knitted clothes. Everyone has healthy white teeth. Everyone’s hair is well washed and coiffured.  I grew up watching those pious 1950s sword and sandal Biblical epics, usually starring Charton Heston or Jean Simmons with Peter Ustinov in there somewhere. Except for the leads the actors were played by scenery crunching Brits in faux KJV tones. It’s just funny to hear Romans speaking in American colloquialisms. And all the actors in the TV show seem to be Americans. The actor playing Jesus is. Jesus and his disciples speak in a sort of Hollywood version of what a Judean would sound like. An indefinable ethnic Middle Eastern patter. Everyone creates their own Jesus. Â
Everyone creates their own Jesus…
…and here I go again 🙂
As a believer in Jesus and God, I no longer think of them as entities though they can certainly manifest as such. Instead, to me they are as spirit in the form of goodness, truth, beauty.
So, then how can we reconcile being created in the “image of God”? Maybe by being goodness, truth, beauty ourselves at times when we can break through our human foibles?Â
BJH1960 said
they are as spirit in the form of goodness, truth, beauty.
The above reminds me of the Sufi conception of God that I’ve been reading about as of late – especially someone like Ibn Arabi.
 Â
In one of the videos I watched from Raymond Ibrahim he made the claim that Islam has no mysticism, while claiming to be an expert on Islam. I’m no expert but even I know of Islam’s rich mystical tradition. Ibrahim thinks all Muslims are fanatical jihadists. Projection, anyone?  Â
BJH1960 said
How does he pull that off?
Is his claim that Sufism isn’t rooted in the Quran? Of course, Sufis would disagree.
I’m not that familiar with the Quran. but I think it’s safe to say that like the Bible it contains many worlds.
 Â
Well the guy definitely wants to present one image of Islam to his disciples. The Crusader mentality. Â
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As usual the most important news item of the day will get the least notice.Â
** you do not have permission to see this link **
The depressing aspect about this item is that it continues the sequence of the results of the refinement of our scientific models being even more dire than what was expected. Unfortunately the article is not nearly as clear about the issues as it should be. If you don’t know anything about the subject this article is not going to make it much clearer to you. There are articles at the links in the body of the main article that are much better at explaining the point about the importance of the Gulf Stream current, or as the main article insists, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc).Â
Accurate scientific nomenclature is important but it helps to be able to lay it out clearly to the non-expert, a set most of us inhabit. The circulating current in the Atlantic Ocean carries warm water northwards. It cools and flows back southwards. Global warming interferes with the process which was already weakening based on older observations. The circulation is fundamental to our earth’s climate and we know that changes to it have resulted in profound climate changes in the past. Unhappily the system seems less stable than we previously thought.Â
Meanwhile back here in the Loony Bin…
** you do not have permission to see this link **
How will our descendants, those who will endure the consequences of our foolishness, ever comprehend the current level of mass delusion at work in the land? Should we laugh or should we cry?  The problem is that it is almost impossible to get human beings to defer current pleasures in favor of long term consequences. Today wasn’t too bad, and tomorrow will be pretty much like today, so why worry?  Somebody will figure it out. Besides, those scientists, what do they know? Â
The problem is to get attention you are almost forced to express the outlook in apocalyptic terms. But it won’t be the end of the world (which is after all 5 billion years old) but the world will be ugly for a thousand years. It will be a world increasingly unfriendly to us and our prospects. How can we comprehend that the qualities that caused our evolutionary success, our aggressiveness and our acquisitiveness, will be those very qualities that ultimately undermine us?Â
What was it T S Eliot wrote?
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.  Â
I don’t know what the answer is. We’re caught between denialists and folks who think that Jesus will swoop down and save us. Silence seems like an act of cowardice but if you do speak out it’s likely you’ll be treated like a street-corner doomsday prophet and not get invited to any of the cool parties. Â
Maybe a stable, sane civilization can only be built after a time of trouble. But isn’t it sad beyond belief to think that might be true?
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