"Worked hard all mah life
no help from mah friends
O Lord, woncha buy me
a MerRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRcedes BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBenz -Janiz the J
"I get by with a little help from mah frens" the? Guess Who? Answer will be on Google; but not at the Superbowl halftime show..............grrrrr........garn!!!!!!!
Who said: re:LIFE,,,,,,,,," To have lived is not enough" --now say that a second time-- "They have to talk about it."??? One point for the author;two points for the players. Hint: Think E.G. Marshall and the Cowardly Lion . Heh. "Such GoodFrenz" deserve each other; whoop I mean another."Do me no harm, my good man" said Henry the 8 ball--"She's been married 7 times before --every one was an 'Enry--Enery the 8th Iam I amm.."
That's bloody well enough of that Herm, go back to yer English 'ermitage and yer bloody 'Ermits! So many interruptions, eh...as I was sayin' look 'ere:
in the second ring: a double bladed ancient riddle:"Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." WINNER TAKE ALL out to Starbucks with that foe of all that is evil, MOCHA MAN!!! (Thanks for the tip, Dad) -Heh.
"This is the end, my only friend, the end." byThe Doors (of Perception), with a little help from a real friend, A. Huxley......... This was a"fun" (as in funeral) song to play while James James Morrison Morrison was still around, before his Mother went down to the end of the town...and just FYI The END was a version of Oedipus Rex--and the only version that is musical!!!)::( ..which puts it, for me, in the same genre as The Music Man and now Zac Efron's High School Vehicle ; and in the immortal words of Saint Tim Leher: Re: King Oed--" He loved his mother!" How can you dis a person like that???
On a darkless, or less dark note, our garage DOOR is made by Raynor Doors from Dixon IL---and the logo is exactly the same as the Doors band, letter for letter---who sold out, Jim? Ray? Raynor? Father Dixon? RONNIE RAYGUN????????? Who votes to call the grand jury?
The name of our band was The Sunday Pigeon Massacre, from a humorous column and anti -pigeon screed by Robert Benchley..whose son went on to write "Jaws"--- Peter Benchley never recovered from his fear of water--couldnt walk on it- ha-so he stayed in Manhattan and got a novel out of his novel experience. Needs to move further North..
Our band name never caught on, nor did our band--so for apt simplicity people called us "The Junior Doors."
I am so glad you are all so interested in this............
It's all good fun until some rock god (stone temple american idol) gets hurt. ( we never had these problems even once; no one got trampled at any of our shows AND I do not remember that anyone even stubbed their toe.. probly becuz our songs were completely undanceable... that's the price of being a sensitive artist and before your time etc. Just ask The Mothers..of Invention.. Howsoever...If any one got trampled leaving-- as in"fleeing"-- from one of our shows...I have no idea. And no, it is not mea culpa...
More, Over: Andy Warhol and Lou Reed wrote Heroin--which will be made into a musical shortly ...if we can get Mel Brooks or Mel Gibson interested.........these ol' antiheroes survived by objectifying the stuff, and not killing themselves with it. If Lou Reed can be more sensible than sensitive, anyone can.
On Friendslips: attributed to Saint -not-a-mother- Theresa but- a good invention of the part of the girl from Avila:
After Theresa's most terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day then she was thrown down into a very bad and naughty mudpuddle.........SHE SAID TO G_D: "If this is how you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few of them!!!"
Frank Zappa's only song with commercial potential i.e., a minor radio hit= Valley Girl--I have a 45 of this if anyone still has a turntable for vinyl. My sister did not.......I think I'll play it for Flo at midnite..or not.. Hey John! if you are reading this, make a copy for everybody in the whole world-- We owe a lot to Frank for all the rock poverty he endured--it's a good thing he conceived a girl cause Frank's voice uh.........well........FREAK OUT!!! (the neglect of the DJ can lead to jazz.. madness..or o bloody hell...........Frank's album, "Jazz from Hell" is still available..but quite Frankly this rock god is dead-----but his disciples carry on. Orange you glad?
Confused? I am,two; cogito ergo===>forgive me peoples, I know not what I write........but I hope someone does...Anyone? ANYONE?" Let go of the branch, son." (anyone else up there I can talk to?)(your reponse here >>>>>>>>>>>>>____________<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< would be mos' welcum.
"There is is, then. Too many notes."
goodnight moon good night light, g'nite Amadeus. Write if you get works.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
mr. mephistof-o-fleas the Kringle Kat sez:
"I'm a qualified brain surgeon..I don't have to do this. You know....besides, it's hard to pad these shows out to 30 minutes.............no one enjoys a good laugh more than I do....but now it's just gotten....entirely too silly..........actually almost every enjoys a good Laugh more than I do............(compliments of Monty the Python, season one, the naughty bits bit by bit.............and many happy returns of the year of their Big Reunion -a tight squeeze on Broadway since the gentlemen have put on many bits of weight...but it all worked out, I hear, and no Pythons were hurt in the making of this show.
Semi-seriously, we do have a mysterious Christmas Cat who showed up on our front porch and is just the cue-test being---Hello Kitty!!! (can you say hello back? Anybody?) He is surely an (r)eject ed Haus Katzen and we are hot on the trail of a hot house--just a warm garage would be ok too).............wait a minute>>>>C Cat is trying to say something.........what's that?..........O....I see...well. I'll tell them. (HE'S GOING TO TELL HE'S GOING TO TELL HE'S GOING TO HELL..wait a minim.............)
CC tells me to tell you he will go anyplace warm on one condition...no, TWO conditions:...there has to be at least one Catalina--he means a female Kat-- the Krazier the better--and, the more the Merrier ladies, the Merrier old soul will CCat be. O ho ho ho..the other stipulation is that he will immediately be promoted to the Alpha Caliphate.....and all other so- called uncle toms will be exiled, as the song of the cat sez, "Far Beyond the Northern Sea!" (Mr. Fawlty adds,........"or preferably, IN IT!--a Stage Whisperer so to speak.............."do not go softly" sez Dylan--the dead Dylan-- and the Big Stick is optional.
I f none of this makes any sense, all the reader needs to view is the Complete Fawlty Towers and the Collected Works of Monty Python( in 14 volumes). And after you do that..........
then we'll see if you like a good laugh more than I do!
Semi-seriously, we do have a mysterious Christmas Cat who showed up on our front porch and is just the cue-test being---Hello Kitty!!! (can you say hello back? Anybody?) He is surely an (r)eject ed Haus Katzen and we are hot on the trail of a hot house--just a warm garage would be ok too).............wait a minute>>>>C Cat is trying to say something.........what's that?..........O....I see...well. I'll tell them. (HE'S GOING TO TELL HE'S GOING TO TELL HE'S GOING TO HELL..wait a minim.............)
CC tells me to tell you he will go anyplace warm on one condition...no, TWO conditions:...there has to be at least one Catalina--he means a female Kat-- the Krazier the better--and, the more the Merrier ladies, the Merrier old soul will CCat be. O ho ho ho..the other stipulation is that he will immediately be promoted to the Alpha Caliphate.....and all other so- called uncle toms will be exiled, as the song of the cat sez, "Far Beyond the Northern Sea!" (Mr. Fawlty adds,........"or preferably, IN IT!--a Stage Whisperer so to speak.............."do not go softly" sez Dylan--the dead Dylan-- and the Big Stick is optional.
I f none of this makes any sense, all the reader needs to view is the Complete Fawlty Towers and the Collected Works of Monty Python( in 14 volumes). And after you do that..........
then we'll see if you like a good laugh more than I do!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
TODAY I WALKED ON WATER;
again. WW JVD?-Seems to be some medical term here I don't know............
"I don't care if it rains or freezes
As long as I got my plastic Jesus
Sittin' on the dashboard of my" used Camry I don't care if it's dark or scary etc. etc. etc.
Speaking of incidents, may I suggest having look at one or more of the following:
Headline: Garrison Keillor attacks Unitarians on their own turf: "Let's take back Silent Night!"In Salon magazine no less!
Garrison Keillor's parents, very strict Brethern, small size sect: "Some of his stuff is okay."
picky picky picky.
On line response probably not from a Christian or a Unitarian, "Right! Don't change it, it was bad enough in the first place! -Probably he is shopping in the wrong stores and is getting sick of the whole thing.
Corollary question: The ancient Greek author Aristophanes wrote the great comedy, "The Clouds". I believe that one of the brain -foggiest clouds in question was Socrates. This Komical Kat, Mr. Artist himself didn't help Socrates' case when it came time for the Hemlock...Society. Is Socrates walking on water/clouds right now? How but Aristophanes? How about Dr. Death? I haven't the foggiest notion, haha............. seriously if anyone knows the answer or even wants to speculate please give me a post ."The Truth is out there."
I always wanted to say that..
"She never says that!"
Consumer Warning: While I wish to continue to give you fragments and the freedom for you to connect the dots any way you wish, sometime in 2010 I may have to give you a story which might even have to be done in installments. Most magazines in the past have serialized short stories and books. We now all have that option, and anyone can do it without owning a magazine or looking silly bending on their knees in front of an editor- caveat emptor; and do see the cover of current New Yorker featuring Obama Santa Summit- feel free to skip over the naughty bits, depending on what your limbic system defines as Naughty. I do have a Christmas sweatshirt that says Naughty on the front. I would be happy to loan to anyone if they need it, keeping in mind that it was a Christmas gift from my Unitarian friend and partner in crime/THM, and it seems to fit quite nicely, double entendre intended.
scream of consciousness enough? O---- too much......("I was blind but now) I see." "You say you see. Hence your blindness remains."
Monday, December 28, 2009
New,clear physics
I notice that I mentioned First Things as the alter ego of the New Yorker but I have not included anything as yet from their pages..Bill Maher as told us that religion is a neurological disorder, a somewhat ambitious speculation. To be a disorder however would require us to find the order, that is what is normal. It seems to me that everyone has a religion, even Bill Maher. Especially Bill Maher; his statement is not testable or falsifiable but is a faith statement. He does not say "maybe," or "perhaps."
Nonetheless I do not defend religion.. I don't think religion--or politics--are a satisfactory response to Life.. In a cosmic sense, religion is abnormal, which is why most people can't get enough of it--it certainly can be an opiate--but it never satisfies anyone either. I have a religion but Jesus is not a religion, He is a Person. Religions can be broken down, but a person is a singularity. My religion,like my opinions,can change in an instant--but like Popeye, I yam what I yam..........
But this is not First Things' opinion however I do not take their opinion slightly, like the New Yorker they have excellent science writers such as Stephen Barr. In his book review of "Neuroscience and Religion: Delusions, Delusions, and Realities about Human Nature by Malcolm Jeeves and Warren S. Brown, he reflects:
"Fundamentally, we are in the same position today as Newton was: He discovered precise equations describing how mass in gravity effect each other, but he famously said, in his Principia, I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity........ and I frame no hypotheses,............ to us it is enough that gravitational forces really exist, and act according to these laws."
"It is no less reasonable to except the existence of both mental and physical aspects of reality and to say that they do in fact effect each other in predictable ways that can be described, without having and hand or even supposing that there exists a mechanism for that interaction. Indeed, this is really all that neuroscience itself can do. For instance, it can tell us that a lower than normal concentration of dopamine in the brain ways to the subjective experience aborted more apathy. It can find that electrical stimulation of a certain tiny region of the brain produces mental status reaching for mild amusement to hilarity"
Saturday, December 26, 2009
LIFE
(A Dashboard Confessional)
Q.: What is life?
A.: Life is a magazine.
Q: How much?
Assessment: $0.75
conditioned response: That's a lot of money!
Conditional assessment: Well, that's life!!! (Insert emoticon of choice here)(but do not lol or even to yourself. Those who laugh at life are doomed, for revenge is Life's.)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!Chaim!!!!!!!!!!
"New Paragraph"
It may help to think of this "bloating" (Dragon speak means "blog") as:
1 ; a very very very very long Xmas card
2: Like a magazine: Specifically like the college magazine,Carleton Miscellany-but much more miscellaneous.
3: A very efficient filter number from which one can extract as many as 3 thoughts in one sentence. So says Flo.
4: The latest form of stream of consciousness writing: My stream : Your consciousness.
5 colon a book: Specifically a reverse dictionary. I create the word and you tell me what it means! It is also useful as a lead-in document to force the reader to use the Internet even more than you do; to prevent the blowing of minds. Primarily mine, already mined.You can Google all my sources and then tell me what I meant! ( Most Reliable Source: Donovan's flip side of Sunshine Superman: "The Trip: Its central thought: "I really wanna know.") (do I slash we?)
6: A dialogue between magazines, for instance, The New Yorker and the other New York Magazine, First Things. But no name-calling allowed. This should eliminate 90% of the "dialogue." A wonderful way to reduce verbiage/baggage!
7: A perfect mass/mess/AGe, a potpourri that includes not only sweet Flo-wers but also equal amounts of
skunk cabbage and essence of wormwood. Inspirational, yes? Or not..........
Addendum: Pearls Before Swine! Stephen their Creator loves bloggers. His blogger is Goat, PhD. But he only gets a hit once a week: From Rat. I may be the escaped goat i.e. Charlie Brown. He did not get even one Valentine. So Charlie, wherever you are, this blog is 4 u + all ur funee palz. Mary Xmas, Charlie Brown-Mary being the name of the little redhaired girl of course. The Year of the Card. Ha ha. But. The football has es-caped!
God: Forgive me, for I have sinned. Forgive all these careless words; but even worse, I have thwarted many a missal, missing the mark. It would be much better if I would tow the Mark and his little Book,too.......... and if You forgive me, praise You; the rest of these readers will have to,too. Two for one-- and One for all!!!!!! also. Thanks: A lot, you lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Heppy Heppy Yom Xmas Navedad
to salve the mistri of the mizzil;here tiz:
Krazy Kat by Mastah Hairiman waz sanctioned by William Randolph Hearst. His altered ego, Charles "Kitizen" Kane was very like unto WRH in that they both were lonely geniuses too wealthy to be healthy who wanted to have everything their way. Hence their blezzings on KK was as mixed as the morality of Ignatz Mouse the tormentor of Kat. The strip was not liked much by the public but since Hearst and Herriman were friends at the paper, the strip was published all over America;but like Walt Kelly's "Pogo", it went over most peoples' heads and sensibilities; but the deep fantasy land of Coconino County was a favorite among other cartoonists and artists, as it is to this day. Some of the drawings of moons in Calvin and Hobbes are drawn as a direct tribute to Ignatz and Krazy.......well........it's complicated........
Glossary:
"mizzil" (missile) is the brick Ignatz would, as a standing gag, hurl at the head of Katz
"twarta" (thwarter) witch in this gag is a steel helmet given to KK by Senor Coyote to protect Kat's Dome from said Mizzils/miss -ives.
The rest of the story-yetz Ill give it a retz zoon enuf-Mousy the villain attaches a classic gag cartoonish gift-a magnetized horshoe- to a ballon and bids it to float over KK's head, to remove the twarta. But, as the brick approaches Kat, deus ex bird sees balloon and in a Kase of Mistaken ID, sed boid pops ballon, metal lid falls back on KatDome to mek a long story less long:KK Kommitz sin of thwrting mizzil. Sad, huh?
well you hadda bee der as we wud say in Chicaga.........it was funny 70 years ago......ile send thee the original copy of the streep if anybunny haf innerest...........
{for future refernce itz EZ to de-complxifie these cultural references of any kind--simply (Barnea) Google any of these names and you will know than I do about these in 5 minutes or less. Or if you like walking on the Dark Side Wicked Pedia can be just as good..google also wicket gate and you'll find the Ultimate Alternative News Source of Bunyanesque proportions
Ima Heppy Heppy Ket in a land fur aweh.........Lve and Mercy!Mercy!Mercy! on me and my Krtistmas Ket (she sez helloo to y'all)
Krazy Kat by Mastah Hairiman waz sanctioned by William Randolph Hearst. His altered ego, Charles "Kitizen" Kane was very like unto WRH in that they both were lonely geniuses too wealthy to be healthy who wanted to have everything their way. Hence their blezzings on KK was as mixed as the morality of Ignatz Mouse the tormentor of Kat. The strip was not liked much by the public but since Hearst and Herriman were friends at the paper, the strip was published all over America;but like Walt Kelly's "Pogo", it went over most peoples' heads and sensibilities; but the deep fantasy land of Coconino County was a favorite among other cartoonists and artists, as it is to this day. Some of the drawings of moons in Calvin and Hobbes are drawn as a direct tribute to Ignatz and Krazy.......well........it's complicated........
Glossary:
"mizzil" (missile) is the brick Ignatz would, as a standing gag, hurl at the head of Katz
"twarta" (thwarter) witch in this gag is a steel helmet given to KK by Senor Coyote to protect Kat's Dome from said Mizzils/miss -ives.
The rest of the story-yetz Ill give it a retz zoon enuf-Mousy the villain attaches a classic gag cartoonish gift-a magnetized horshoe- to a ballon and bids it to float over KK's head, to remove the twarta. But, as the brick approaches Kat, deus ex bird sees balloon and in a Kase of Mistaken ID, sed boid pops ballon, metal lid falls back on KatDome to mek a long story less long:KK Kommitz sin of thwrting mizzil. Sad, huh?
well you hadda bee der as we wud say in Chicaga.........it was funny 70 years ago......ile send thee the original copy of the streep if anybunny haf innerest...........
{for future refernce itz EZ to de-complxifie these cultural references of any kind--simply (Barnea) Google any of these names and you will know than I do about these in 5 minutes or less. Or if you like walking on the Dark Side Wicked Pedia can be just as good..google also wicket gate and you'll find the Ultimate Alternative News Source of Bunyanesque proportions
Ima Heppy Heppy Ket in a land fur aweh.........Lve and Mercy!Mercy!Mercy! on me and my Krtistmas Ket (she sez helloo to y'all)
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Mizzlils (non toes)
And now for something completely shorter.............
Who said this?
"I wunda if it's sinfil to be a mizzil twarta?'
Who said this?
"I wunda if it's sinfil to be a mizzil twarta?'
Sunday, December 20, 2009
POST:WASHINGTON POST-PREVIOUS POST,TOASTED
Hey Joe! Wattaya know? I just got back from the rodeo show. I took my show on the road, you see. And now I'm back. See. Any questions?
I was visiting my sister, who teaches at the University of Maryland, and she and Flo helped get me out Washington DC prior to the giant northeaster that hit the area yesterday. While flying back, I met some wonderful folks from the Chicago area, who were going to see a Chicago show, presumably musical, which purportedly represents an historic session featuring a jam with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins; this was not unlike my comments from last week about the Traveling Wilburys, who played together for more than a year. So, John, there is some more pop culture here; happy for your comments.
Seriously, 2009 and this Christmas/new year season has been a watershed for me, as I hinted earlier in this blog. Subsequent events indicate that, as the year draws to a close, that which I have been seeking, and seeking to share, has only intensified. This blog does not represent just me but all the people that have brought us to this moment of communication. There is not a language on earth that I can use to even describe this, much less analyze it or control it. In addition, it has taken me 60 years to get out of my little boxes, as Pete Seeger used to sing, and to understand that something much larger than my understanding, reason, emotions, or will is involved here. The 3 pound brain that we all each have is in itself physically irreducibly complex. The added factors of billions of these brains any one of which represents the most complex organized unit in the known universe, attempting to communicate from vastly different experiences, genetics, and other influences even harder to define, makes it a genuine miracle that we can talk together and know one another at all. People that I thought I knew, it turns out I didn't know very well at all. Considering the complexity of just existing as a human being, I am not sure why I would've assumed that I even know myself, much less anyone else.
Existentialism is one modern way to evade reductionism and still retain materialism, but even with pure existence being philosophicaly affirmed, there are still many questions; many are looking for a third way between right and left, ideologies, and parties. We are constantly and often unconsciously searching for a happy medium or some third way which probably does not exist except at some locus outside of ourselves, it does not seem to be within ourselves, unless we count mere diversions as alcoholism, drug abuse, and apathy as, "alternatives."
Paradigm shift? New perspective? It may be something more than that and even more difficult to understand, much less accomplish.
But I do know that having spent time with my sister Catherine and watching her at home and at work, has given me another level of understanding of how little I understand another person, who is an unrepeatable singularity and not just a shadow of my own thinking or fantasy or dream life as sometimes artists and even physicians tend to think. Again, I can take only a fragmentary response to a Reality that is far bigger than any of us. C.S. Lewis once commented that if we really knew and could see the immense reality of the person next to us, we would be tempted to worship her or him as a god. But like the proverbial iceberg that sank the Titanic --( "even God could not sink this ship!" )-- most of our soul is under water and not seen; but even before we see the person we may run aground and sink on the unseen and unknown bulk we cannot begin to appreciate / perceive. This may be an aspect of why our relationships are so complicated and why they so often are ruined/shipwrecked. As Murphy's law suggests, the more complicated something is, the more there is to go wrong, the more often it goes wrong, and usually at the worst possible time. Corollary: if you fiddle with something long enough, you'll break it. The more interventions, as with mutations, the more of a monster you will have and not a hopeful monster whatsoever regardless of what Stephen Jay Gould may have thought.
Perhaps the best approach to these matters is the approach that the poet and the parable spinner are forced to take. The Canterbury Tales are certainly one of the first of many approaches- in the English language- to the problem in which we are forced to abandon artificial concepts and boxes in favor of individuals who will outlast the homes they live in and the monuments around them, but not the souls in the midst of whom they dwell. Bon mots, as Einstein said about Christ, are amusing but not pertinent to the enormity of the subject.
Not to trivialize matters, but to use some pop culture to make a point, Dr. Seuss said about Christmas, "it came without ribbons it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes, or bags. Christmas can't be bought from a store......... maybe Christmas means a little bit more." The younger we are, the less we tend to appreciate this; but as we get older, stuff on the material plane begins to shred and fray to show another dimension, a much larger dimension which we can more easily appreciate; or allow it to sink our ship by piercing our hull. Certainly the former scenario has happened to many "larger than life" people such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington, T.S. Eliot and WH Auden and, as I just learned, Dave Brubeck the jazz artist who is the only artist I know who had a hit song in 5/4 time! The end of the year and the December season can be very difficult to endure but the opportunities to add a dimension of understanding may be unprecedented. Human beings naturally have ever marked time by seasons, occasions, anniversaries, festivals, birthdays, important dates in history, and so forth. That is in our nature. Indeed, we often use these cyclical days, dates, and seasons to plan for change, when on any given "ordinary," day we will tend to put things off as being too important to do without foreseeable contingencies. There are many theories of time and how we perceive it -- linear, cyclical, and infinite/without dimensions just to name a few. The Bible shows us linear time but also shows us that God is not limited to linear time. Science, prior to quantum physics, used and uses biblical/linear time to mark history, all very legitimately. But more recent discoveries suggest that just as God is not limited to linear time, neither is His physical universe. Reductionism however depends ironically, as does materialism, on the Biblical concept of linear time, coupled with cyclical time as marked by feast days and even returning miracles such as at the pool of Bethesda, where God/Jesus broke into his own linear/cyclical arrangement and reversed everything and broke every rule in order to heal one helpless individual who answered affirmatively to Him, "Yes, I do wish to be healed."
These are, again, fragmentary thoughts that are hopefully going to cohere eventually in my own mind and hopefully the individual who reads this will be able to connect their own dots given the points of light that I can see from here. We may be able to collectively see certain constellations if we cannot see the whole of the night sky any more than we can see patterns by looking directly into the sun. To me, if I appreciate what any given person is or has to say, even a single sentence or phrase could change my life. This is what happened to St. Augustine and probably to John Wesley and millions of others. If this has not happened to me yet, it would certainly be my desire and goal to undergo such changes in my 61st year and onwards. I hope what I'm posting will help some but I cannot begin to even appreciate much less summarize 2009 from this the limited location of this temple "of The Holy Ghost". Ask Him if true truth is your passion.
I was visiting my sister, who teaches at the University of Maryland, and she and Flo helped get me out Washington DC prior to the giant northeaster that hit the area yesterday. While flying back, I met some wonderful folks from the Chicago area, who were going to see a Chicago show, presumably musical, which purportedly represents an historic session featuring a jam with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins; this was not unlike my comments from last week about the Traveling Wilburys, who played together for more than a year. So, John, there is some more pop culture here; happy for your comments.
Seriously, 2009 and this Christmas/new year season has been a watershed for me, as I hinted earlier in this blog. Subsequent events indicate that, as the year draws to a close, that which I have been seeking, and seeking to share, has only intensified. This blog does not represent just me but all the people that have brought us to this moment of communication. There is not a language on earth that I can use to even describe this, much less analyze it or control it. In addition, it has taken me 60 years to get out of my little boxes, as Pete Seeger used to sing, and to understand that something much larger than my understanding, reason, emotions, or will is involved here. The 3 pound brain that we all each have is in itself physically irreducibly complex. The added factors of billions of these brains any one of which represents the most complex organized unit in the known universe, attempting to communicate from vastly different experiences, genetics, and other influences even harder to define, makes it a genuine miracle that we can talk together and know one another at all. People that I thought I knew, it turns out I didn't know very well at all. Considering the complexity of just existing as a human being, I am not sure why I would've assumed that I even know myself, much less anyone else.
Existentialism is one modern way to evade reductionism and still retain materialism, but even with pure existence being philosophicaly affirmed, there are still many questions; many are looking for a third way between right and left, ideologies, and parties. We are constantly and often unconsciously searching for a happy medium or some third way which probably does not exist except at some locus outside of ourselves, it does not seem to be within ourselves, unless we count mere diversions as alcoholism, drug abuse, and apathy as, "alternatives."
Paradigm shift? New perspective? It may be something more than that and even more difficult to understand, much less accomplish.
But I do know that having spent time with my sister Catherine and watching her at home and at work, has given me another level of understanding of how little I understand another person, who is an unrepeatable singularity and not just a shadow of my own thinking or fantasy or dream life as sometimes artists and even physicians tend to think. Again, I can take only a fragmentary response to a Reality that is far bigger than any of us. C.S. Lewis once commented that if we really knew and could see the immense reality of the person next to us, we would be tempted to worship her or him as a god. But like the proverbial iceberg that sank the Titanic --( "even God could not sink this ship!" )-- most of our soul is under water and not seen; but even before we see the person we may run aground and sink on the unseen and unknown bulk we cannot begin to appreciate / perceive. This may be an aspect of why our relationships are so complicated and why they so often are ruined/shipwrecked. As Murphy's law suggests, the more complicated something is, the more there is to go wrong, the more often it goes wrong, and usually at the worst possible time. Corollary: if you fiddle with something long enough, you'll break it. The more interventions, as with mutations, the more of a monster you will have and not a hopeful monster whatsoever regardless of what Stephen Jay Gould may have thought.
Perhaps the best approach to these matters is the approach that the poet and the parable spinner are forced to take. The Canterbury Tales are certainly one of the first of many approaches- in the English language- to the problem in which we are forced to abandon artificial concepts and boxes in favor of individuals who will outlast the homes they live in and the monuments around them, but not the souls in the midst of whom they dwell. Bon mots, as Einstein said about Christ, are amusing but not pertinent to the enormity of the subject.
Not to trivialize matters, but to use some pop culture to make a point, Dr. Seuss said about Christmas, "it came without ribbons it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes, or bags. Christmas can't be bought from a store......... maybe Christmas means a little bit more." The younger we are, the less we tend to appreciate this; but as we get older, stuff on the material plane begins to shred and fray to show another dimension, a much larger dimension which we can more easily appreciate; or allow it to sink our ship by piercing our hull. Certainly the former scenario has happened to many "larger than life" people such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington, T.S. Eliot and WH Auden and, as I just learned, Dave Brubeck the jazz artist who is the only artist I know who had a hit song in 5/4 time! The end of the year and the December season can be very difficult to endure but the opportunities to add a dimension of understanding may be unprecedented. Human beings naturally have ever marked time by seasons, occasions, anniversaries, festivals, birthdays, important dates in history, and so forth. That is in our nature. Indeed, we often use these cyclical days, dates, and seasons to plan for change, when on any given "ordinary," day we will tend to put things off as being too important to do without foreseeable contingencies. There are many theories of time and how we perceive it -- linear, cyclical, and infinite/without dimensions just to name a few. The Bible shows us linear time but also shows us that God is not limited to linear time. Science, prior to quantum physics, used and uses biblical/linear time to mark history, all very legitimately. But more recent discoveries suggest that just as God is not limited to linear time, neither is His physical universe. Reductionism however depends ironically, as does materialism, on the Biblical concept of linear time, coupled with cyclical time as marked by feast days and even returning miracles such as at the pool of Bethesda, where God/Jesus broke into his own linear/cyclical arrangement and reversed everything and broke every rule in order to heal one helpless individual who answered affirmatively to Him, "Yes, I do wish to be healed."
These are, again, fragmentary thoughts that are hopefully going to cohere eventually in my own mind and hopefully the individual who reads this will be able to connect their own dots given the points of light that I can see from here. We may be able to collectively see certain constellations if we cannot see the whole of the night sky any more than we can see patterns by looking directly into the sun. To me, if I appreciate what any given person is or has to say, even a single sentence or phrase could change my life. This is what happened to St. Augustine and probably to John Wesley and millions of others. If this has not happened to me yet, it would certainly be my desire and goal to undergo such changes in my 61st year and onwards. I hope what I'm posting will help some but I cannot begin to even appreciate much less summarize 2009 from this the limited location of this temple "of The Holy Ghost". Ask Him if true truth is your passion.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Mercy, mercy. (mercy!)
Now for something totally different Greetings from Merry Land University, home of my sister,Professor Catherine Schuler, who got me into the performing arts library where I viewed an exhibit on Roy Orbison, who played with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty. Most of them looked to Roy as the real pioneer. They were delighted to have him join them in a joint effort called The Traveling Wilburys. ( willbury comes from Harrison's name for a studio technique of "burying" mistakes in the recording by making them sound intentional and contextual.) Rolling Stone did a tribute in which each artist gave an impression of who they thought Roy was.. I thought that the most interesting statement came from a manager or studio head who remarked that when most musicians would make a mistake they would say mostly unprintable (herein) remarks but Roy would just say, "Mercy, mercy......."
"Grace, grace, unto this mountain......."
Mercy is not much discussed or much understood; but I understand that its core meaning would be not receiving what we deserve; grace would be receiving what we do not deserve, i.e. an unearned and unexpected gift.
Coming to a place so unfamiliar to me--urban, sophisticated, and fast-moving--has been an intensely humbling experience for me (thanks Dennis for your comments on true wisdom!) But wherever I go, I am overwhelmed by the Grace and Mercy (and long-suffering of those who put up with me and put me up as well) I receive from virtually every corner, and intense reminders of my utter dependency and weaknesses, so that I am amazed and thrilled at every moment. Thanksgiving can't be over........
I think that Orbison's influence on at least Dylan and Petty, was more profound than musical technique and styling.. I wish that I might have heard him when he was alive but, like missing out on Johnny Cash, I totally opted ignorantly out on the older influences appreciated by genius level musicians but not their fan base. This is all the more poignant now that I also am older. In my present context I/we may be observed to be a mistake--evolutionarily speaking perhaps, although I don't personally know anyone who would say so.....but it would seem to me that each one of us is either a kind of mistake or a kind of "grace observed," as well as "A Grief Observed". As Walker Percy observed, this life is entirely too much trouble and too beautiful and too complex to be a long string of expensive mistakes--see Percy's Interviews with Myself--Questions No One Asked Me So I Asked Them Myself"
Mercy.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
"I think I'm allergic to criticism." --Linus Van Pelt
12-10-09
Oswald Chamber's devotion for today:
"The discerning power of The Holy Spirit is not for purposes of criticism...........Criticism is not a healthy habit for a wholesome spiritual life. When criticism becomes a habit, it destroys moral energy, kills faith, and paralyzes spiritual force. Criticism becomes deadly as it decomposes. If you are much criticized, it has the effect of decomposing you."
"That is never the work of The Holy Spirit,nor the work of the saint; it is the work of [Baal-zebub]."
"Abstain from criticizing others."
"Beware of the attitude that puts you in the place of superiority."
Criticism is one of the essences of a dualistic worldview, which as Augustine and Auden-and Stephen Schuler- pointed out, can only be one of conflicts that do not reflect a larger Reality, which are, "bound to the ground," that not being The Ground of Existence but the Gabbatha stone pavement of judgement of the party spirits, i.e., that of the Pharisee, the Sadducee, Rome and Edom (Herod's place), the religio-political axis which has always, always,always dominated world "discourse" Truly, "Dialectic," which never achieves real synthesis only compromise, has been the rule since Day One.........."the more things change...."
After 60 years of compromise and futile conflict, it is my personal goal to not so much achieve a superiority of view, but more of an inferiority complex, like John the Baptist was forced to accept--"He must increase, I must decrease." But even John could not resign his post without The Spirit and a little help from his friends.
Speaking of Jesus, He said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." ---which is more often than not--and so000 ironically-- used by people of any persuasion to hurl a subtle invective at the other side. I would like officially here to invoke two helps; that of the Holy Ghost primarily and prayerfully; and that of my readers--please be my watchdogs and accountability partners in this project of letting go of carnal habits of thought and action. Not if, but when I lapse into a critical spirit, I would like not to be criticized so much as to be brought up short, in the manner in which Nathan revealed to King David his murderous ways. See II Samuel 12. Parables are a great thing--be creative!!!
Oswald Chamber's devotion for today:
"The discerning power of The Holy Spirit is not for purposes of criticism...........Criticism is not a healthy habit for a wholesome spiritual life. When criticism becomes a habit, it destroys moral energy, kills faith, and paralyzes spiritual force. Criticism becomes deadly as it decomposes. If you are much criticized, it has the effect of decomposing you."
"That is never the work of The Holy Spirit,nor the work of the saint; it is the work of [Baal-zebub]."
"Abstain from criticizing others."
"Beware of the attitude that puts you in the place of superiority."
Criticism is one of the essences of a dualistic worldview, which as Augustine and Auden-and Stephen Schuler- pointed out, can only be one of conflicts that do not reflect a larger Reality, which are, "bound to the ground," that not being The Ground of Existence but the Gabbatha stone pavement of judgement of the party spirits, i.e., that of the Pharisee, the Sadducee, Rome and Edom (Herod's place), the religio-political axis which has always, always,always dominated world "discourse" Truly, "Dialectic," which never achieves real synthesis only compromise, has been the rule since Day One.........."the more things change...."
After 60 years of compromise and futile conflict, it is my personal goal to not so much achieve a superiority of view, but more of an inferiority complex, like John the Baptist was forced to accept--"He must increase, I must decrease." But even John could not resign his post without The Spirit and a little help from his friends.
Speaking of Jesus, He said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." ---which is more often than not--and so000 ironically-- used by people of any persuasion to hurl a subtle invective at the other side. I would like officially here to invoke two helps; that of the Holy Ghost primarily and prayerfully; and that of my readers--please be my watchdogs and accountability partners in this project of letting go of carnal habits of thought and action. Not if, but when I lapse into a critical spirit, I would like not to be criticized so much as to be brought up short, in the manner in which Nathan revealed to King David his murderous ways. See II Samuel 12. Parables are a great thing--be creative!!!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Advent
From W.H. Auden's "Advent"
Semi-Chorus
"Can great Hercules keep his
Extraordinary promise
To reinvigorate the Empire?
Utterly lost, he cannot
Even locate his task but
Stands in some decaying orchard
Or the irregular shadow
Of a ruined temple, aware of
Being watched from the horrid mountains
By fanatical eyes yet
Seeing no one at all, only hearing
The silence softly broken
By the poisonous rustle
Of famishing Arachne."
Semi-Chorus
"Can great Hercules keep his
Extraordinary promise
To reinvigorate the Empire?
Utterly lost, he cannot
Even locate his task but
Stands in some decaying orchard
Or the irregular shadow
Of a ruined temple, aware of
Being watched from the horrid mountains
By fanatical eyes yet
Seeing no one at all, only hearing
The silence softly broken
By the poisonous rustle
Of famishing Arachne."
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
147 years ago today:
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation..........
We-even we here-hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth.
-A. Lincoln 12/1/1862
We-even we here-hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth.
-A. Lincoln 12/1/1862
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