Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Thursday, November 18, 2010
it's beginning to look a lot like Advent...
Of course the stores put out their Advent displays way too early - I mean, we aren't even out of Ordinary Time. O well. I could complain all day about the commercialization of Advent, but that would dilute my happy sense of anticipation.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
reflections on 9/11...
'9/11' - the mere mention of it trumps all reason. A mixture of fear and sentimentality prevails over any fact on the ground. The date itself has acquired an apocalyptic significance. Just what the events of that day reveal, beyond the horror of utopian fantasies and the predictability of evil, is anybody's guess. Pay that no never mind - we can justify any war, any act of torture by the mere mention of 9/11. Speak that magic incantation, and people will surrender all their liberties, degrade themselves, and buy anything that seems to offer safety.
The events of that day have indeed left us traumatized, but not because of the obvious outrage of the attacks themselves. No, once again, our putative innocence was lost; once again, we were brought face to face with history, that inescapable saeculum we all share. For America, history is the temporal realm of The Fall, and by definition the US is such a novum, its founding such an eschatological watershed ushering in a New World Order no less, that anything that reminds us that we are, you know, folks emmeshed in fallen history and subject to all its shocks and terrors, seems to cause what I can only call a collective fugue state. That the attacks of 9/11 were the climactic acts of an enemy with whom we had been at war for nearly a decade; that the attackers were helped by insiders who brought the weapons aboard ahead of time; that the attack was the result, not of a failure of airport security, but of incompetence and a criminal lack of cooperation amongst the CIA, NSA, and the FBI; all of that gets lost in a fog of sentiment. We surround the sites of our trauma with shrines of kitsch, and stifle all argument with manipulative, and tearful, recollections of the victims. Just so we conspire to hide the hard meaninglessness of that day's violence.
The violence of 9/11 was, and is, an outrage. It should not have happened. Those who took those planes and flew 'em into those buildings committed great evils. Thousands died simply to satisfy the fantasies of a group of well-funded, uselessly intelligent nihilists. It was in fact a skirmish of sorts in a global war that started years before and that has cost millions of lives in Africa and Asia, a war that has seen millions of others enslaved by a new wave of fascist nihilism that is all the more virulent than that of the 20th century for being decentralized and mobile. Given the scope and persistence of that war - which ramifies throughout Oceania, Asia, Africa, and perhaps even Mexico with it's current war - that there has not been a repeat of 9/11 on these shores is likely due to thousands of hours of painstaking work by wonkish analysts and spies and the like, and for that we should be grateful.
All the same, we cannot pretend any longer, if we ever could, that we are exempt from history's terrors. That isn't a reason for resignation or timidity, but a summons to risk and bold action in the name of the Good, knowing that all things in this world will end, and that we can only do many goods in approximation and yearning for that Good. We must, finally, remember that history is the theater, if you will, wherein God accomplished all that was necessary for us and for our salvation. We have nothing to fear from fallen history, or from the repetitive emptiness of evil, for he brought all newness in bringing himself.
So, forget the false eschatology of the American Myth, put aside the kitsch and the shrines and the dreams of safety, and look the enemy in the eye, facing the uncomfortable truth that we both inhabit a small planet emmeshed in a common history. And above all, don't be afraid.
Peace out.
The events of that day have indeed left us traumatized, but not because of the obvious outrage of the attacks themselves. No, once again, our putative innocence was lost; once again, we were brought face to face with history, that inescapable saeculum we all share. For America, history is the temporal realm of The Fall, and by definition the US is such a novum, its founding such an eschatological watershed ushering in a New World Order no less, that anything that reminds us that we are, you know, folks emmeshed in fallen history and subject to all its shocks and terrors, seems to cause what I can only call a collective fugue state. That the attacks of 9/11 were the climactic acts of an enemy with whom we had been at war for nearly a decade; that the attackers were helped by insiders who brought the weapons aboard ahead of time; that the attack was the result, not of a failure of airport security, but of incompetence and a criminal lack of cooperation amongst the CIA, NSA, and the FBI; all of that gets lost in a fog of sentiment. We surround the sites of our trauma with shrines of kitsch, and stifle all argument with manipulative, and tearful, recollections of the victims. Just so we conspire to hide the hard meaninglessness of that day's violence.
The violence of 9/11 was, and is, an outrage. It should not have happened. Those who took those planes and flew 'em into those buildings committed great evils. Thousands died simply to satisfy the fantasies of a group of well-funded, uselessly intelligent nihilists. It was in fact a skirmish of sorts in a global war that started years before and that has cost millions of lives in Africa and Asia, a war that has seen millions of others enslaved by a new wave of fascist nihilism that is all the more virulent than that of the 20th century for being decentralized and mobile. Given the scope and persistence of that war - which ramifies throughout Oceania, Asia, Africa, and perhaps even Mexico with it's current war - that there has not been a repeat of 9/11 on these shores is likely due to thousands of hours of painstaking work by wonkish analysts and spies and the like, and for that we should be grateful.
All the same, we cannot pretend any longer, if we ever could, that we are exempt from history's terrors. That isn't a reason for resignation or timidity, but a summons to risk and bold action in the name of the Good, knowing that all things in this world will end, and that we can only do many goods in approximation and yearning for that Good. We must, finally, remember that history is the theater, if you will, wherein God accomplished all that was necessary for us and for our salvation. We have nothing to fear from fallen history, or from the repetitive emptiness of evil, for he brought all newness in bringing himself.
So, forget the false eschatology of the American Myth, put aside the kitsch and the shrines and the dreams of safety, and look the enemy in the eye, facing the uncomfortable truth that we both inhabit a small planet emmeshed in a common history. And above all, don't be afraid.
Peace out.
Monday, November 15, 2010
AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
Good God, the 'Christmas Songs' are here! Make 'em stop! I don't want to pretend a Snowman is Parson Brown! 'And don't forget to hang up your sock' - don't play that song! in the name of all that's good and holy don't do it! Thanksgiving ain't even here, and I've had to endure the ringing of Sleigh Bells in a Land That Is Glistening...the torment! the emptiness! For the love of...God...save us...
can i put this on my resume?
So, it seems I've balanced the budget. I wonder - if I ran for office on such a collection of taxes and spending cuts, would I get shot the day after I started the campaign, or the day before the primary? 'Tis a poser, my friends...
Friday, November 12, 2010
plus la change...keep the change...it's all the same...
Work has slowed to the point that I can often get home before nine in the evening. That doesn't mean the season is officially over - I signed a new customer last night, and have several contracts to close before the end of November. Still, the end is near, my rest is at hand.
Didn't have the best year; at least, I didn't have the year I wanted. Around the middle of the summer, I took several blows that nearly undid me, from stunning denials by insurance adjusters, to customers who backed out of agreements without so much as pretending to have a conscience. It all brought your humble narrator quite low, and had me noodling over quitting yet again. Surely, surely, my instinct told me, there must be something better.
I didn't quit. In fact, after losing so many battles in the middle of the season; after getting beat to hell; after falling to the bottom third of sales reps company wide; after all that, I say, it has all turned out all right somehow...somehow, again let me say, somehow, because don't know how or why it has all worked out all right. I just know it has. I've come from near the bottom to right around fourth place, with third in view. Now, I wanted to be number one my friends, but no, I apparently needed humility. Well, I don't know if I feel humble - in fact, I doubt that has anything to do with humility. I do know that I've been brought low, and then allowed to get back up.
In short, this is nothing new at all, nothing spectacular. Grace inscrutable and incalculable saved me once again from disaster. And that, dear reader, is nothing new either - so it is with all of you, with all that is but would cease to be without that act of being that is at once gratuitous and expressive of the nature of God as one who diffuses goodness, beauty and truth in the very act of making and sustaining all that is seen and unseen.
For me, the least important person in the whole story, all this is a gift - I get to earn a living, working honestly for my customers. There's nothing spectacular, nothing particularly interesting about it. What's more, it could be taken away at any moment. As I consider the careening stupidity of leaders elected and otherwise, which stupidity pales compared to my own, I realize more and more how powerless I am over anything out there. All I can do is show up every day and do my job. The wider world will have to take care of itself...or, rather, it is taken care of, so I needn't worry about it.
Peace out.
Didn't have the best year; at least, I didn't have the year I wanted. Around the middle of the summer, I took several blows that nearly undid me, from stunning denials by insurance adjusters, to customers who backed out of agreements without so much as pretending to have a conscience. It all brought your humble narrator quite low, and had me noodling over quitting yet again. Surely, surely, my instinct told me, there must be something better.
I didn't quit. In fact, after losing so many battles in the middle of the season; after getting beat to hell; after falling to the bottom third of sales reps company wide; after all that, I say, it has all turned out all right somehow...somehow, again let me say, somehow, because don't know how or why it has all worked out all right. I just know it has. I've come from near the bottom to right around fourth place, with third in view. Now, I wanted to be number one my friends, but no, I apparently needed humility. Well, I don't know if I feel humble - in fact, I doubt that has anything to do with humility. I do know that I've been brought low, and then allowed to get back up.
In short, this is nothing new at all, nothing spectacular. Grace inscrutable and incalculable saved me once again from disaster. And that, dear reader, is nothing new either - so it is with all of you, with all that is but would cease to be without that act of being that is at once gratuitous and expressive of the nature of God as one who diffuses goodness, beauty and truth in the very act of making and sustaining all that is seen and unseen.
For me, the least important person in the whole story, all this is a gift - I get to earn a living, working honestly for my customers. There's nothing spectacular, nothing particularly interesting about it. What's more, it could be taken away at any moment. As I consider the careening stupidity of leaders elected and otherwise, which stupidity pales compared to my own, I realize more and more how powerless I am over anything out there. All I can do is show up every day and do my job. The wider world will have to take care of itself...or, rather, it is taken care of, so I needn't worry about it.
Peace out.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
a calm reflection on recent actions by the federal reserve...
You know, as I ponder the new Fed policy of 'Quantitative Easing', or QE3 for cuteness, many questions come to mind, like 'How much will the silverware fetch on the black market', and, 'Does cat *really* taste like chicken'. These are good times, my friends, good times...
Monday, November 8, 2010
a happy poem...
Wherein We Prepare for Another Apocalypse
O for God’s sake, what have I to do
with congresses or congresses with me –
for my house, if it’s all the same to you,
we’ll take our books, and perhaps our pets, and flee
to the hills before the parties all agree
it’s better to clean the rolls and start anew.
I fear those who hope, on bended knee,
to reap an Eden sopped with morning dew.
Call it, year zero for the happy few:
against this dream how can we hold a plea –
the merely human’s worth less than a flea
when utopia calls; and let’s admit we knew
all along that there could be no place
in that nice world for such a fragile race.
with congresses or congresses with me –
for my house, if it’s all the same to you,
we’ll take our books, and perhaps our pets, and flee
to the hills before the parties all agree
it’s better to clean the rolls and start anew.
I fear those who hope, on bended knee,
to reap an Eden sopped with morning dew.
Call it, year zero for the happy few:
against this dream how can we hold a plea –
the merely human’s worth less than a flea
when utopia calls; and let’s admit we knew
all along that there could be no place
in that nice world for such a fragile race.
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