something something handmaid's tale...

What if - now go with me here, this is kind of crazy - what if - and I know how this is going to sound - what if we're not - look, I can hardly believe I'm saying this - what if we're not living in a television show or even a movie? I know, right? It's just crazy, but there it is. I can't shake this feeling that this is all *real*, you know? That it might even be bad for us to explain this real life using the plots of television shows and movies. Like, maybe we should, I don't know, life life straight with no chaser. Who knows? This lived life could then help us understand television shows and movies. If I really wanted to go completely off the rails I would say there is a stark difference between life and a work of art, that life never has the completeness, the sense of timelessness, of a great film or even a great television show (there have been only a few of these, and sadly, The Handmaid's Tale isn't one of them). But no, you're right, these are the warblings of a mind under strain from overwork and time spent away from the comforts of home. This is a time of national crisis. It has to be. Movies and television shows tell us it is. They tell us that dark forces are encircling us even now, dark forces that will create a dystopia we can binge watch through our living room windows.

playing along with the Prologue (which isn't a prologue) to the Gospel of John

     Here we have John 1.3. Please pardon the rough translations, which are hardly original or interesting; I'm just trying to work things out.

All things through him came into being, and without him nothing came into being. That which has come into being in him was life, and life was light of humankind... (πάντα δι᾽αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων…);

or,

All things through him came into being/were made, and without him nothing came into being which has come into being. In him was life, and life was the light of humankind... (πάντα δι᾽αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν ὃ γέγονεν. ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων…).

     So much hangs on the placement of a period. For what it's worth, to my ear the second makes more sense. Come to think of it, though, if you have Robert Grosseteste's De Luce in mind, the former begins to make more and more sense. For Grosseteste, light, as in a pure, metaphysical light enlivening all that was and is to come into being, was the first created substance. He even conceives of what we might call a singularity of light that then expands in all directions instantaneously (that last point is perhaps a matter of interpretation). So it's possible to say that 'What came into being in him (Jesus, the Logos) was life, and life was the light of humankind.'

P.S. - What if, instead of ‘came into being,’ or ‘was made,’ it’s ‘came to pass’? Does that work here? It enfolds making, sustaining, and providentially guiding all things to their ends. Need to think on this.

venus calling...

It being a long hot summer, the surprising news might have escaped your attention. There appear to be traces of molecules in the atmosphere of Venus, molecules that should not be there. Before any of us get too excited, we should realize that this could be the result of odd photochemical reactions we don't understand. That said, one real possibility is that these molecules, called phosphines, could be traces or echoes of life, at least at the cellular level. Odd to say, these phosphines seem to be riding currents some thirty miles above the surface of Venus, a surface that is about as inhospitable as you can imagine apart from the very real vacuum of space itself. One article I read (I didn't copy the link) suggested that these phosphine molecules could be the last remnants of a biosphere that once thrived a billion years ago. That's possible, as Venus isn't so different from earth, except for all the ways it is different. The pressure at the surface is like that found at ocean depths of 900m, and the surface temperature is about 740K, or about 860 degrees American. Why is it so hot you ask? The pressure for one thing, but mostly because the atmosphere is 98% carbon dioxide. So, I don't know if Venus has an atmospheric biosphere, or if we've detected the molecular echoes of life long extinct, or if it's simply a chemical anomaly. I do know that I have an interest in heat, pressure, and CO2.

a thought...

     This brief thought is offered on the way to something I intend to write at some point in the vaguest of futures.
     Whatever it is that we call 'mystical' is ingredient in the Christian life itself. Mystical must remain undefined at this point. 

karma karma karma...

    'He kicked his dog so a tree fell on his house. Karma!' 
     Look, I don't believe in Karma, but if you're going to talk about it, at least try to be in the vicinity of kind of getting it right. 
     Y'all don't even know you're on the Wheel of Samsara, suffering birth death and rebirth world without end, and yet you're out there talking about Karma. Y'all are just so totally ignorant of Krishna/Vishnu's disinterested creative destructive compassion for all beings because they don't really exist yet they do. And don't get me started about how this is all Brahma's dream - that would fry your world. But then, none of you want to stay in your lane and do what it requires. Y'all just want to be free to be whatever. Boy will that just keep all y'all on the Wheel of suffering until he wakes up (though he neither sleeps nor wakes) and this dream comes to an end.
     That, my friends, is Karma.

war and rumors of war...

     So there's a chance that Greece and Turkey may go to war in the next few days or weeks. At the very least a naval skirmish seems likely at some point. Well done, 2020. A small, regional war between two members of NATO is just the sort of thing to take my mind off my troubles.
     It would remain a small, regional scuffle, right? I mean, Russia would probably steer clear on principle, and Germany is unlikely to intervene even if the story of Merkle's fictional phone calls does cause a little embarrassment. Germans, after all, don't fight wars anymore. They peacefully sell weapons. They're a force for good really. Anyway, where was I?

i'm begging you...

     Stop talking about 'herd immunity' for the love of God. Please, just don't use those words again. Do it as a personal favor to me. Please.

it's been a while...

     Good evening to those of you who accidentally stumbled on this post while searching for the latest meme depicting Herr Donalt the Orange as either the destroyer of worlds or the latest overweight savior. I haven't done anything with this here blog in ages. Since last I was here the world lurched into flat spin, and we're about half-way to impact by my reckoning.
     So welcome! I hope you stay a while, because I intend to return to my old habit of posting regularly about any and all matters that strike my fancy. It isn't 2007, or even 2012, and Blogging in Blogdom ain't what it used to be. In fact, this is, oddly, about the most retro thing I can think to do on Teh Interwebs as we now know them. That makes it all the more compelling for me. So, I'll keep writing though I doubt anyone's around. It'll be good for me, and really now, isn't that the most important thing.
     So peace out, keep your distance, and for God's sake, where a mask, especially when going to the bank.