Jehovah's Witnesses/admire and confused by them.
God is very large in comparison to most people's concept of the Divinity.
They arrogantly put Him into their back pocket. I arrogantly think that
my liberal, fuzzy-edged view of God is superior to that of others. That's
because it's my concept of God and not someone else's.
Fast food kills. Fast food profits from sickness and long-term ill
health mortgaged in exchange for short-term gratification... And
yet, I eat fast food. I lack the strength of will to go macrobiotic. I'm
too lazy.
What is the real voice of Michele de Montaigne? Is he really someone
of the middle road with a humorous and ironic voice? I want to transmit
my love of him as well as my love for Voltaire.
And while we're on the subject of literature, let's comment on Blake, Whitman, Dickinson, and Berryman. And any other surrealists or artistes Brut. Also, state the case for Whitman and Dickinson (and Blake) to be surrealists. Because, in terms of the realist/idealist thread of most Americans, Whitman and Dickinson are not goddamn practical enough to be realists or idealists. Being an idealist requires one to at least believe that you have enough grasp on reality to come up with a better alternative to the present reality.
Diet Coke. Good friend/Hired killer for corporate America/amorica.
Why do I want to return to the safety of my childhood and at the same
time hate my parents (at times) and hate their efforts to chain me with
what I perceive to be their mediocrity.
Neurosis vs. Psychosis. Who will win? Which is preferable? Is there
some real, healthy model? My character would hate such a model if there
was, detesting it as bland and lacking in intensity of soul.
I'm always trying to get something for nothing. I have been ever since
I lost faith in myself when I was 11 years old. Lottery tickets, raffles,
contests, sweepstakes-even keeping my eyes open for 20-dollar bills that
might be lying in the gutter or next to the sidewalk. I'm always trying
to put myself in a place where the hand of God might touch or at least
lightning might strike. The thought is that even if I don't win out on
the touched by Divinity sweepstakes, at least I get taken out by a thunderbolt
from Zeus.
And, speaking of Gods, I need to include some Zen/Buddhism/Hindu cosmology
"kalpas of time"/Gnostic Christianity/ Apocrypha/ Sufism/ Tarot/ Native
American stories "Humans are cursed with rationality"/Kabbalah.
And the fact that the arrogance of the West won't account for ideas such as Feng Shui, Chi, or even acupuncture and ginseng.
I need to get a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons. Not because I want to take the usual tack that American society is heading the way of the Roman Empire, but to critique that notion. I think, rather, that it is like the decline of the Celtic culture of Western Europe (Don't forget the Stone of Scone, or the act of English Parliament which outlawed the bagpipes, or the fact that in the Middle Ages [and beyond?], a Welshman could be hung for being past the Offa's Wall past sunset). Or the genocide we visited upon the Native Americans slingshotting back upon us. There's lots of ground there in that topic: the appearance of the white buffalo, the fact of living in Mahkato/Mankato, watching the Dakota and Lakota up close through the powwows at Land of Memories Park and at Mystic Lake, etc.
There's still a lot to be said for the tower of Babylon metaphor. What did I hear on the news today? That a 63-year-old woman gave birth to a baby. Now is that catalog-shopping for human life even though God and Nature have said the answer is "No"? We so often seem prepared to do an end-run around the absolutes of nature and God. But, then again, it could be looked upon as a compassionate gesture to give a child a chance at having a child to raise and love. You could go that route if you were so inclined.
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