P.S. In case anyone was wondering what happens to mosquitoes after the Final Judgement, Nate Wilson says “A Heaven for mosquitoes and a Hell for people could be very conveniently combined.

For me, these nights will always be pulsing:
shivers in the moonlight on the water,
the moans from the hills, locusts in the trees,
beamy stars; a harmony of rhythms
pauses for a moment, recommences.
And once more, words raise and bury themselves,
signifying only for a moment,
then soothed by subtle murmurs in the wind.

Once I thought of you, and closing my eyes
imagined you, your moving lips, your voice,
and wondered; but not so deeply before
another lingering dream came moving
through the darkness, a phantom reverie,
and I was much too weary to refuse.

For Red

on the road to my love
I met an ancient hag
(crooked bones and warped skin)
and she said, screechingly,

“adore me my darling
here beneath the dry moon
and below the red sun
hold me against your chest”

so I turned from the road
and I lived with her there
amidst mountains and sand
with the birds and the goats

For Shared Smoke

Make me a leper my dearest friend
Quench my thirst in the gutter
And send me a chaser on the wind

Break my brain on your heavy eyes
Feed my hunger with maggots
And have me throw them up flies

For Browning

“What an horrible scream that was,” I thought,
and continued down the road to my home.
I almost told my wife, but then chose not
to scare her with that kind of dreadful gloom.
She is superstitious with things at night,
and would only worry herself with fear
that such commonplace evening noises might
be prognostications and signs that bear
dark portent; she would hysterically cry
about her friend who had died just a few
weeks ago- murdered, in fact, quite nearby
in the night. Poor woman. I wonder who
could have done something so horribly low
in this quaint town; but no one seems to know.

For Apologists

did you say a cacophany?
I will give you a cacophany.

I see bishops on the branches of trees,
the ships of the missionaries deep in the sea,
flies circling the churches of the cities.

and your innocence is flattering to me
because I can see more than you can see-

I see pretty faces behind the veils,
and pale bearded men hiding their tails.

For England

I am on my way to the house of God
Among the cries of an exultant crowd.

Inebriate me, O Lord, with more beer
Than sanely sober I would have preferred
Until the music screaming in my ears
Becomes your holy and salvific Word:

And here amidst the stale incense turn
This frantic dance toward your greater praise
And while I wait permit my tongue to burn
Upon her ears, and teeth, and throat, and thighs.

Bring before me more beautiful angels
Wiping their bodies with soft white hands
Then, God of wonders, grant me nothing else
But that I turn around before it ends.

For Holly

Well, find morality in sick children,
betray me over a cup of coffee;
catch me running through sewers in my brain.

For Ever Whenever Amen

calibrate my heart
to electrocute musings
rather there than here

reignite my face
to melt retroactively
crooked perceptions

incinerate me
in every predilection
until I find you

and you shall renew the face of the earth.

-
The scene, a large room, luxuriously decorated. The rug is elaborate and persian; the furniture is bright cherry wood; the bed is elegant and antique. The sunset glows dimly through grand red curtains on a large oak bookshelf. On the adjoining wall is a small liquor cabinet undrneath the portrait of a woman. It all looks terribly magnificent. The other man — I mean the one not in the bed — is younger and sits in one of the chairs next to the bed. He wears a dark suit and his hair is immaculately groomed.

“Henry, would you refer me to a glass of the Chianti?” said the man in bed.

“Why, of course,” said Henry, with characteristic good humor.

“What an inhuman world.” He sighed deeply and affectedly.

“Ah, very true, just as you say.”

“What should we do? I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck in this damn bed. What should we do, Henry?” The man sat up and began to cough.

Henry looked at him inquisitively. “Just what we are doing, I think.”

“Yes, I’m terribly sorry. You’re right, of course. Thank you, Henry”

“Nothing to worry about,” said Henry.

“There’s nothing I would like more than a glass of Champagne, I think, just now, Henry.”

“Why, of course,” said Henry.

“She was beautiful, was she not?”

“Mmm,” said Henry.

“I wanted her, you know. I wanted a lot of things, but, well, when it comes down to it…when it all comes out in the wash… well, you know what I mean, don’t you, Henry?

“Yes, when it all pans out.”

“Yes, Henry, exactly.”

“We were brilliant, Henry, weren’t we? We were everything at once; we devoured the world.”

“Of course,” said Henry impassively.

“Sometimes I wonder… you know, whether it was at all…”

“What’s that?”

“Well , whether it was worth it.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t get caught in that.”

“But, well… do you believe in God, Henry?”

“God?” said Henry.

“Oh, well, in my condition, these things, well, they don’t seem like I guess they used to seem.”

“I’m sure you’ll improve.”

“Henry, what about a glass of the old Bordeaux?”

“Why, of course” said Henry.

There was a short pause. The man in bed sighed. “Ah, Henry, you are a fool.”

“Why is that?”

“You don’t see,” said the man in bed.

“What don’t I see?” said Henry”

“What we both are. You know, there never was… Henry, when I die, I will die alone. Do you have…”

Henry waited to see if the man in bed would finish his thought. Then he drew a small revolver and shot him in the head, and shot him again. Then he opened up the old Bordeux.

The End

To begin with, I think we have to ask what a holiday is? Is it essentially just a big celebration or party? If so, then maybe Reformation Day as a holiday should be carefully considered before we make it an institution. A day to say “Yay us!” and “Crush the RCs!” and whatnot might be counter-productive if you take the long view. (although it might be a lot of fun) The same argument could be made about lots of holidays, though. Take US Independence day. We’re celebrating a war with the British, who have been our allies ever since, essentially. Hm. What are we trying to do?

Well, the thing about Independence day is that we commemorate an event that happened “once for all time” as ERH might put it. That is, before that the US did not exist, but on account of that war it came into existence and exists to this day. It is what makes us Americans, and therefore must exist for us in the form of a holiday in order that we may enter into the event too, so that it becomes part of our lives and experience.

Such things are lost if not commemorated. If we don’t celebrate the holiday, we say the thing is unimportant to us, that it may as well have not happened. It doesn’t touch our lives. That was then, this is now. And we may even be lesser men because of this attitude.

Nature cycles endlessly. Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring. Over and over and over. One day or month or year may be different from another but it won’t really be remembered. Perhaps you have a hurricane or earthquake, but doesn’t lastingly change anything; it happens and is forgotten. But we men don’t have to be merely natural, we have a surprising chance to be supernatural by making landmarks in time. If something happens that changes us, we make a holiday and in this way the thing is passed on to our children and becomes a part of their lives too.

So back to Reformation Day. The question should be whether something was gained or recovered then that is worth keeping. If so, it is not only okay, but fitting and right for it to be commemorated with a holiday so that what was hard fought for does not become an event belonging to nature, to be forgotten in the past. Of course, it can be argued about what should be passed on, but when deciding whether a thing should be commemorated by a holiday the biggest question should be whether this event belongs to your age or to the ages. And if it is the second, then you’d better do something about it.

Disclaimer: I only referenced Reformation Day because the post that inspired me was on that subject and because it offers a good excuse to think about the nature of holidays. This post is not about the Protestant  Reformation, so please discuss only the topic at hand.

“But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.” (Matthew 5:34-35, KJV)

These sentiments are nearly identical. We might hypothesize a few historical explanations.

1. Coincidence: they each acquired the sentiment from different sources, or came up with it themselves.

2. Jesus and the Essenes both acquired the sentiment from a third source

3. Jesus acquired the sentiment from the Essenes

4. The Essenes acquired the sentiment from Jesus

(I also note that the early Christians lived communally, and spread throughout many towns, much as the Essenes had. Again, the basic possibilities above apply, except that the Essenes are chronologically prohibited from having acquired communal living from the Christians.)

What do you think?

To provide clarity in today’s discussion, we would like to present –

Observation 1: Definitions

College bound student: any senior student who does not know the meaning of sleep.
SAT I or II tests: evil incarnate.

We would first like to bring the status quo to your attention –

Observation 2: A Fact

Fact 1. The overwhelming majority of American colleges require some form of SAT testing from their applicants.
Fact 2: These tests provide no information on intelligence or education.

The status quo in today’s society has resulted in several grave harms, as we would like to illustrate in –

Observation 3: Harms

Harm 1. Students who take SAT tests wreck their health
Harm 2. Students who study for SAT tests waste thousands of hours
Harm 3. Students who submit to the testing process suffer severe psychological trauma

Because these harms can only be solved by a significant reform in the United States college admissions process, we would like to propose –

Observation 4: The Plan

Mandate 1. All required SAT testing shall be lifted from the college admissions process.

There is no funding required for this plan. It will be enforced by the College Board and Chuck Norris.

Enacting our plan will result in several advantages, as is clear in –

Observation 5: Advantages

Advantage 1. The medical costs incurred by the student population will dramatically decrease
Advantage 2. Students who do not waste time on standardized testing will be able to participate in activities that are actually productive, like debate club.
Advantage 3: The EPA estimates that 2,900,342 trees can be saved every year if the production of SAT preparation textbooks is canceled.

In conclusion, the current standardized testing process is unnecessary and severely harms the student population of the United States. We believe these harms can best be rectified by removing the testing requirements from the college admissions process. Because of the harms solved and the advantages produced by our plan, I strongly urge an Affirmative ballot. Thank you.

[Yes, we are a tiny bit lacking on evidence. All volunteered quotes will be considered for such use.]

But an upcoming presentation in London might change that. Hawking will propose a potentially groundbreaking new theory, which asserts the existence of a dimension called the Grand Ontological Dimension. He has suggested that his theory might elucidate questions about the nature and existence of Dark Energy, as well as the physical events leading up to the Big Bang, two of the most significant problems facing theoretical physics and cosmology today.

Taking questions about his upcoming presentation last week in a conference in Holland, Stephen Hawking (in his signature robotic Texan accent) said about his proposed dimension, “It’s not really what you’d call a dimension, strictly speaking. We named it analogically, because we live and move in it, as in the familiar dimensions. But it is really the structure in which we actually have our being.”

When asked about the theory’s relevance to specific problems of cosmology, such as Dark Energy, he declined to comment, but said that he anticipated that his presentation in London would be “very exciting” and would help unify some of the major concepts of modern physics.

What does it mean to say that God is outside of nature?

I have been long confused by this idea of patriotism. There seem to be three reasons to be patriotic, which I have summarized here.

a) Be patriotic because your country is a country to be proud of. (Michelle Obama, you unpatriotic person.)
b) Be patriotic because your country’s heritage is a heritage to be proud of.
c) Be patriotic because you owe it to your country. Look at what it has given you. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Point out any more. I can think of three very good reasons to reject all three of these.

a) My country aborts unborn babies. You cannot be proud of a country that legalizes what you must, if you are consistent, believe to be murder.
b) My heritage, assuming it is one to be proud of, would inform me that patriotism is not a productive emotion to feel or doctrine to hold in a federalism. (e.g. A. V. Dicey, British theorist—one should feel a greater allegiance to one’s state than to one’s country in federalism.)
c) There is no doubt that I should honor the civil authorities and respect them, so long as they are my civil authorities. I am grateful for the protection they have given me. But my allegiance to the republic for which the flag stands I can not pledge in good conscience, because that republic is unjust. How can you give your allegiance to something that actively pursues injustice?

Is there some other reason I forgot to be patriotic?

The mind is kind of like the soul. It’s not a physical part of your body. It’s what makes you who you are. I believe it’s not the brain that makes your personality, but your mind and your soul. They contain all the information that you gain through lessons God teaches you, and all the little quirks that make you who you are. The loves and the hates are all stored in categories (depending on how organized your mind is, I expect). Actual information, on the other hand, such as history is stored in your brain.

Another separator of brain and mind, is knowledge versus wisdom. Wisdom is learned by going through trial and error. Knowledge is gained by reading books, and getting an education.

I think that’ll be all, for now, on the mind. My mind is whirring and clicking again, busily, and trying to figure out if the soul and the mind are more similar than I thought before. Perhaps I’ll write again on the matter of the mind, but, for now, I think this is enough. I really would love to hear what other people think of my theories (so far, they’re nothing but theories – I probably should put a disclaimer at the end of this post) and if your minds analyze your actions as much as mine does.

On a different topic entirely, Happy Birthday to Hannah. I wish you many wonderful assortment of sail-ish-ness, sea-ish-ness, dancing, insulting Mark, happiness, and anything else important and exciting that I forgot. Have a jolly new year.

Disclaimer: These are all theories of mine (including Han’s birthday – just kidding!), not established fact. I am always eager to hear more theories about the mind.