Believe

Ever notice the emphasis of the supernatural on believe?

Santa Claus---believe

Peter Pan--- believe

Just about everything Disney--- believe

See a connection?

Evolution--- come on now... you want to believe it so badly that you hold on to every claim of evidence like you are on Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest.

Why then is it such a crime for Christians to exhort you to believe? - John 3:16

I think the counterfeits are there as evidence to the validity of the original...

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Know your Molech

Hi Melissa,

I would like to point out a few things based on your insight.  First, art is not limited to the message  or intent of the artist.  It is through individual interpretation that art impacts throughout society.  In the case of “Howl”, there may even be a question of whether any of us have understood his intent.  We assume based on context, content, and our own accumulation of experience and knowledge, but who can say if he had something else or something more in mind.  This is the power of poetry.  I suppose that if he could give us his own explication, we might learn that we have been wrong, at least on a few points.  So, one of the sections that clawed at me from the pages of this work was section 2.  Ginsberg’s reference to Molech while is somehow related to the Bible, and by extension, the conservative world-view, has a specific parallel to our society in spite of its anachronistic timing.  The worshippers sacrificed their children.  Let’s not mince words, their children died a cruel and unusual punishment of death who had done no harm to merit such a doom on the whims of and devotions of their parents.  Like it, love it, hate it, or reject it, Our society has done the exact same.  I know that this is not the proper forum to discuss the semantics of this social issue, so I won’t argue the validity of the points.  I will simply say that millions of children have lost their lives at the hands of their mothers.  We have yet to see the full repercussions. 

The Time of Peace

This post was too good to pass up... sometimes I bring myself to tears...

Hi Su,

Thank you for your kind words.  Our 20th and 21st centuries (so far), with the exception of our Ted Roosevelt, are so obsessed with peace, and for good reason.  It seems, however, that so many think of peace as the absence of armed conflict.  What exactly is peace?  Is it not that inner rest that transcends our situation?  Nelson Mandela did not let his wrongful imprisonment rob him of his peace.  His purpose was set and his path was clear, he chose to not let his environment rob him of his peace.  Similarly, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of my American heroes because of his approach to solving the problem of racism.  He was determined while at the same time at a state of peace.  This is further evident in his method which garnered much more support than the use of violence.  In my own life, my time in the combat zone came with excessive stress due to the nature of my job.  Any time we came under fire however, I found myself at perfect peace.  For me it was a matter of knowing my end, of knowing that someday will be my last day on this earth and I know where I will be the day after that.  I did not know if my last day would be in Afghanistan, but I do know Him who gives peace with God and that meant that whenever my last day arrived, I would be ready.  It is actually a great relief of a great burden that many of us bear without sometimes even realizing it until we can lay it down.  I don’t mean to veer off topic except, I am convinced that this has more to do with the matter at hand than any other conversation.  The previous literary periods we witness society casting God aside and then we see society searching for what He provides everywhere else.  This unrest… whence does it come?  Shall we ever consider these heavier matters or will we ever scour the outer rim in search of what we can only find in the core?

My DejaVu Moment

Deja Vu is a creepy thing... I 'm having one right now... checking out the SW7 premiere red carpet event and checking the twitter feed while trying to cram in for a paper.  Yes, I know this sequence from another time, but is it a time that I have been before?  I find myself time and again remembering dejaVu events from actual dreams in my past.  So here is the next question... if we see in our dreams what we later recall in a DeJavu moment, what does that tell us of our dreams or better yet, their source?  I have my theory; what's yours?