Category Archives: St. Isidore

Pub Theology 6/19/2018 Wrestling with Angels

Flying: How do you make sure to be on time for your departure on commercial travel (airline flights, etc.) these days? What are your rituals, checklists, notes, and secret strategies? Talk about a time your flight prep wisdom failed you? Talk about a time your strategy saved you?

Jacob Wrestles with an Angel (Genesis 32:22-32) In this biblical story, Jacob wrestles with a man (thought to be an angel or God) and the angel does not prevail. Jacob will not release the angel until the angel blesses him. The angel’s blessing is to rename Jacob to Israel, meaning, roughly, to prevail.
We wrestle with mankind and heavenly spirits our entire lives.
Can you relate to a monumental life struggle in which you prevailed even though you didn’t technically win?
Upon reflection, do life’s most devastating struggles seem to be strategic challenges for growth or demonic curses meant to demoralize?
Have you had pointless struggles which did NOT benefit you later in life? If so, who do you blame?

Self-Authoring: You decide to write your autobiography. In your memory search, you discover that there is someone who contributed mightily to who you are today. You are out of contact with this person. You never said thank you. What can you do to thank a long-lost person who was instrumental in your development? What if they are gone?

Sisyphus: Albert Camus ~ The human condition is characterized by the probability of suffering and the certainty of death—a fate which human reason cannot accept as reasonable.
If Camus’ characterization is right, what can a human do to be able to accept his/her unreasonable fate?
If Camus’ is not accurate, how should his prophecy be re-written to become reasonable?

Dante’s Inferno: This 14th century epic poem puts flatterers in the Eighth Circle of Hell, and condemns them to “living in excrement”, among other things. Betrayers, on the other hand, are directed to the Ninth Circle of Hell, which features sinners being “encased in ice” – and that’s just for starters.
Aren’t you occasionally guilty of both flattery and betrayal? Did you consider these common human behaviors as sins or merely means to an end? Are you less guilty of flattery and betrayal today? Why or why not?

Better Living Through Beowulf: Chinua Achebe (from Things Fall Apart) ~ Okonkwo … strives to show no weakness. He wants to dispel his tainted legacy. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise on this is swiftly destroyed. He has attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.
When has your striving for something brought you down? How can distancing oneself from their disavowed legacy become a liability?

Philosophy: Václav Havel ~ There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world.
Can a recommendation of perspective and distance be also a guideline to living in awareness?
Does an awareness of all the most dangerous kinds of vanity protect us from both others and ourselves?
Can a good mind and a modest certainty about the meaning of things in turn transform our innocence?
Is having a gratitude for the gift of life and the courage to take responsibility for it a result of:
• a vigilance of spirit or
• merely the result of the circuitous struggle with life and our own stubborn selves?

This Day in History: June 19, 1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
What legal, social, or political restrictions are being resurrected in the U.S. or around this world?
When have you emancipated yourself from the restrictions imposed by feckless rule?

When Doting Parents Care

As a child, I was well loved, but… One time, when I was a young boy, my old man (Dad), yelled at me, “You have the temperament of an old man.” Not knowing what temperament meant at that time, I didn’t have an immediate retort.

Dig if you will the picture, a local winery event with band and vendors and a Saturday family crowd. Two uninterested vino connoisseurs (NOT winos) seek out a spot far from the madding crowd. A place where they can share stories and observations which challenge veracity. There it is! A pergola covered courtyard opposite the banter and the band with the expansive winery buildings in between. With appropriate glass wear and beverage acquired, seats in a semi-sunny spot are selected and the games begin. But the skeptic in the pair somehow knew that serenity found would soon devolve into paradise lost.

Dream, if you can, a courtyard. First, there arrived a quiet lady with a glass who sat an appropriate distance. Next, they came, a romantic couple who chose a table as distant as possible. After them…the deluge. Prominent among them was the young fit couple with a baby carrier and a noisy gaggle of boys trailing off after those youths spotted a corner for creating mischief. This young couple, with expansive seating still available, sat European close to our perimeter table. So be it.

“Brunswick!”, thundered the parental scream. The startling break in the quiet almost bowled me out of my chair. It seems the fit couple dad had a fit because his boy baby (improbably named Brunswick) split out of sight with the soccer jocks. Slipping out of sight with this dad ran a foul of his rules. Ok, enough, nothing to see here. Settle back into to your conversation. But minutes, seemed like seconds, later…

“Brunswick!”, boomed the now familiar mezzo-frantico voice.

Maybe I’m just too demanding. My lofting impatience hitting the ceiling, I directed barely audible invectives at the near table – you know, the kind you hear in the background when you’re giving your monthly committee status report.

“What?”, yelled back the puzzled little Brunswick. I was puzzled, too. He was clearly visible this time through the glistening concertina wire, between the deep effluent filled roadside gutters and he looked to be escaping the several stray dogs playfully chasing the urchins.

Why do they scream at each other? This is what it sounds like when doting parents care.

Yeah, Dad, I get it now.

Pub 5-15-2018: Youth, the Past, Going Mad; a Robin, an Eagle, a Wulf; Thesis for an Anti-Thesis

Memories of Youth: Talk about an achievement from your youth that seemed to have gone unnoticed then.  That effort is still sitting proudly in your memory and holds as a reminder of who you were and what you can accomplish.

How does this past effort affect your present?

Today in Church History: Isidore the Farmer, was a Spanish farmworker known for his piety toward the poor and animals. He is the Catholic patron saint of the farmer. His feast day is celebrated on May 15.  The story of St. Isidore is a reminder of the dignity of work, and that ordinary life can lead to holiness… St. Isidore’s life demonstrates that: If you have your spiritual self in order, your earthly commitments will fall into order also.

How is the work you do dignifying?  In what ways is the life you live ordinary?
Is your spiritual self always an asset in your earthly commitments?

Don’t go away mad… Members in your family are mental.  Friends in your friendship are fiendish.  Characters in your corporation are corrupt.  How do you survive inextricable relationships?  Fix? Suffer? Abandon?

If I don’t allow you to choose any of the aforementioned three options, what is the best way to handle relationships conceived in hell and neglected by heaven?

Who Killed Cock Robin?… is a poem thought to originate in a Celtic myth.  In that myth, the red sun of summer, a robin, is killed by an arrow shot by the god of winter, a sparrow.  The image of birds is predominant because of the Celtic belief that souls became birds after death.  For the sake of argument, assume the soul physical attributes.

How do you envision your soul as manifested in the following presentations:
Before conception?  During life?  After death?

Are you an ethics eagle or a foul falcon?  Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon (1931), created the character Sam Spade.  This fictional private investigator solved mysteries with hardboiled, sometimes illegal and often unethical methods, giving up lovers and friends.  Hammett himself professioned also as a PI.  He neither broke the law nor gave up sources (even spending time in prison) – The antithesis of Spade.

When have your personal ethics stunted your professional ambitions?
As a result, did you recalibrate your ethics or reevaluate your profession or simply temporarily ruminate on your ethical enigma?

Better Living Through Beowulf… St. Mary’s English Professor Robin Bates’ BLTB blog entry, Which Fictional Death Still Haunts You?, inquires as to your most enduring fictional fatality, be it book, movie, or play.

Do you have one?
If so, why do you think that fictional tragedy evoked such real pathos in you?
Did the writer draw you in?  Did you have a relatable personal encounter?

Not a Joke: Police interview three people at a crime scene, a priest, a lawyer and the victim.  The priest describes the crime in detail.  The lawyer describes the crime in facts.  The victim tells the truth.  The ability to articulate requires one to concisely give the facts.  The ability to express emotions allows one to tell the truth.

What is it about emotions which make them superior to facts when the truth is the pursuit?

This Day in History: May 15, 1941, Joe DiMaggio begins his “unbreakable” 56-game hitting streak.  In 1967, Simon and Garfunkel’s song “Mrs. Robinson” featured the lyrics: Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.  Simon concluded that DiMaggio was the antithesis of both the authority-defying “hippie generation” and the hypocritical “older generation” of the 60’s.

Who would you consider the respectful and genuine role model of our age?  Can you lyricize it?

Rob Bell Meets Supertramp

Sunday, our house church watched a video titled Rain performed by American author and speaker Rob Bell.  When it came time for group discussion and my turn to answer a question, I was like a deer in the headlights.  But Monday morning, I sought solace for my aforementioned silence in the lyrics of Supertramp, hoping that inveterate English progressive art rock band (formed in 1969) could help me answer Rob Bell’s probing questions put forth in his video’s spiritual narrative.  Singing true, I present some of Mr. Bell’s questions with answers parsed from the Supertramp’s lyrics to “It’s Raining Again” with my annotations as parentheticals:

 

Rob Bell Supertramp
What are some of the storms in your life? It’s raining again (memories of the 2016 Magnolia flood disaster…thought to be a Fluke)
Is it raining now? Oh no, it’s raining again (Hi! Fluke II Harvey… recovery)
Do you think God intentionally puts us through trials? And you know it’s hard to pretend (it IS a trial and it SEEMS intentional…a curse?)
Looking back, do you still feel the same? Oh, will my heart ever mend (trauma waters run deep but eventually run out)
Have you ever felt like God failed to come through for you? La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Do you ever act like everything is okay even when it isn’t? You’re old enough some people say
To read the signs and walk away (acting okay is what we do)
Looking back, do you still feel the same? It’s only time that heals the pain
And makes the sun come out again (when faith betrays – cliché!)
Why do we do this? La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Do you have anyone in your life who you would do anything for? Too bad I’m losing a friend (in crises, some relationships break allowing new ones to blossom)
Do you think that’s how God feels about you? Come on, you little fighter (an ethereal voice keeps singing)
When you’re going through really hard times and everything seems hopeless, do you still trust that God knows the way and that you’re going to make it? And get back up again (that’s hope He’s bringing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prVZv2Yq70Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUE4_PtOk0

 

Pub Theology: Fun Lying, Medium Well, Mean Genes… 4/17/2018

Fun Lying

Take turns.  You make three statements about yourself — two true and one untrue (c’mon, you can do it).

The rest of the group votes to try to identify the falsehood.

Repeat

Medium Well

From Peter Kreeft’s provocative Socrates Meets Jesus ~ Socrates: I did not only read the New Testament – I met a real person. The book was not the object of my experience, only the medium for it. 

Can you explain the reality of medium creating the phenomenon of reality?

If we can find the people and things and faith we desire in a medium, what is the utility of reality?

When have you found nurture in a medium, be it book, song, movie, etc.?

Is it possible for medium to substantially fill the void of neglect?

Mean Genes

ZZ Packer – Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ~ When you’ve been made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others.

(Are you) Encountering meanness from strangers?

(Are you) Inflicting meanness on strangers?

What is your first reaction to a “mean act”?

When you try to trace your own “mean genes”, where does it take you?

Insanity on Earth and in Heaven

  • Joseph Heller’s – Catch 22 ~ …any pilot requesting mental evaluation for insanity—hoping to be found not sane enough to fly and thereby escape dangerous missions— demonstrates his own sanity in creating the request and thus cannot be declared insane.

Have you voiced concerns to persons of authority — hoping for resolution — only to have yourself implicated or impugned?

In an organization, given a choice of laying low or speaking up, which one has proven to be a better long-term philosophy for you?  Why?

  • Headline: Romanian Court Rejects Man’s Claim That He’s Alive: Man’s mistaken death certificate cannot be reversed because he appealed too late.

Imagine the gods lost their divine minds and reverted to humans’ frail bureaucracy.   Saints sent to hell because of a typo.  Sinners manning the gate of heaven by fraudulent election.  Faulty rulings being final unless the appeal included incentives.  Deportations from the ether to the nether and vice versa, based on polling results.

In what ways is faith affected in substance when the errant hand of man touches its tenets?

Talk about the challenges of maintaining dutiful faith in man or country when traditional morals and ethics fall prey to prevailing expediency and low expectations.

Cowardice Lost

From Socrates’ Meno Dialog ~ Cowardice is failing to fear the right things and fearing things that should not be feared. Courage is therefore a form of knowledge.

When has healthy fear kept you from harm?

When has unwarranted fear kept you from safety?

First You Seer Her Then You Sear Him

Would you talk about someone who had passed away but who was spiritually present differently than if that someone had simply gone away and was only physically absent?

Benign Cursing

A ruler in southern Nigeria, put a voodoo curse on anyone who abets illegal migration.  At the same time, he revoked the curses (invoked by traffickers) that hold victims of human trafficking in fear and subjugation.

What forms of “voodoo” percolate in America’s hinterland of media distortion?

If you had the power to put a curse on someone, what would that curse be?

Why would you put a curse on someone?

When have you ever believed you were cursed?

Lonesome in Langlade?

A bit of France off the coast of Canada.  The islands of St. Pierre, Miquelon and Langlade are rich with anomalies, not the least being their status as France’s last foothold in North America.  A hermit of Langlade off the coast of Miquelon island rich with mysteries, not the least being his status as Langlade’s last human inhabitant of this soon to be uninhabited island of France’s last foothold in North America.  Not much is known of this individual, but with our application of creative non-fiction, let’s fill in the blanks.

 Where to begin?  The mouth hell, shall we?  The waters between Miquelon (Michael) and Langlade (a corruption of “l’île à l’Anglais” or Englishman’s Island) are called Gueule d’Enfer (Mouth of Hell).  More than 600 shipwrecks have been recorded in this point since 1800.  Half-wild horses, the survivors of earlier ship wrecks, graze on the grassy hillocks.  The accidental equine tourists or Langlade, are joined by the intentional residents – white-tailed deer, brought over from Canada in the 1950’s.  These fully-wild forest cattle have proliferated in the thick brush and stunted spruce forests.  I’ve described how the largest of the four-legged creature of Langlade arrived.  How the bi-pedals?  That’s where creative non-fiction comes in.

According to the 1999 census, Langlade Island was almost deserted.  Only one inhabitant.  Langlade’s sole year-round inhabitant being Charles Lafitte.  That’s it.  Census data is sparse and anecdotal info curt, but the imagination can inveigle what’s missing.  We know how the birds and the bees and horses and the deer got here.  How did Charles la light here?  And wh why does he stay?  Perhaps, he prefers the anonymity of the near permanent fog to the exposure to the madding crowd.  Or, more likely, a woman put him here (if he were to explain).

Assuming old Charles is no horse whisperer, who does he talk to when no one is listening?  Mr. Lafitte has dogs.  Those dogs surely accompany him in all kinds of weather, whether it be meteorological, psychological, or philosophical.  The gods didn’t burden canines with the curse of mood.  When a man locks his wife and his dog in the trunk of his car, when he lets them out, he always knows which one will be glad to see him.  What kind of dogs were they?

If it were me, because my own experience with dogs, they would be Turkish shepherds.  I love the hilarity of dachshunds, but the eventuality of back issues and totality of their uselessness would prohibit them from being companions at my hermitage.  The beauty and power of the German shepherd appeals greatly to my esthetic appetite, but in a starvation scenario I might appeal to those great big teeth she has.  No, give the soft mouth and hard bark of an Anatolian mix.  Enough Pyr (Great Pyrenees) in her takes the lion out of Anatolian.  Or Akbash (white face) mix, cousin to the Anatolian (Karabash = black face).  You can’t beat having two companions, one of which you always know will be there, the other you never know where she is.  But, the most curious thing about Charles Lafitte is not his chance to be a hermit or his choice of canine companions, but his nickname.

The hermit Charles Lafitte, at some point, acquired the moniker “de Gaulle”.  I doubt that this name stuck simply because he is French.  I would have thought Napoleon would have better suited for a superficial and derisive reference.  I guess having the first name Charles would be a good start towards the application of “de Gaulle”.  Seems too easy.  Maybe he had a big nose.  Well, come on, a Frenchman with big nose…doesn’t that go with the territory?  Possibly, it disparagingly likens Mr. Lafitte’s estrangement to man as a distant comparison to Charles de Gaulle’s government in exile as a resistance to the Nazi occupation of France in WWII.  If Charles’ isolation was known to be connected to some criminal connection, I imagine he would be known as “Jean” Lafitte, you know, like the 19th century pirate.  If a woman sent him to Langlade, I might call him Charles “Defeat”.  If he was simply a mad man, how about “Chucky”.

I could go on, but interest is probably waning for you the reader and the morning sun is waxing for me.

P.S. Charles Lafitte passed away in July of 2006…just before the road on the isthmus between Miquelon and Langlade opened to traffic.

P.P.S.  I researched Charles de Gaulle and was reminded that the french general led the government in EXILE against the Vichy Government.  This explains Charles LaFitte’s nickname.

Do Not Leave Children Unattended in Waiting Room – Episode #79

Last week, four blond, blue eyed, fare skinned people sat in the a medical clinic waiting room.  One would guess these people were related based on the physical characteristics.  I was one of them.  Heck, I thought, we could have been related except…  The other three, all children, took up all of the other chairs in the room.  The youngest, a boy, sat sideways with feet on a second chair and a ballcap on a third.  The oldest, a teen girl, sat on two chairs with a windbreaker on another and a purse on a fourth.  The middle child, a gangly boy, laid across three chairs, his boat like shoes snaked through the armrest of a fourth and his handheld video game extending under the armrest of a fifth.  It occurred to me, who raised these kids?

I heard the staff behind the window complaining loudly about these discourteous folks.  I agreed but ignored it.  Don’t meddle.  The voices I heard were clearly meant to alert the rude guests to straighten up and act properly in public.  Several times a clinician poked a head through the window and glared out.  To no avail.  I thought, they want someone to be embarrassed.

Eventually, the female of the group stood, grabbed her stuff and walked through the patient entrance.  The youngest boy hurriedly followed with his stuff and was whining about being left behind.  The gangly boy, who was left behind, sensed the absence of his family at some point and went to the window to ask where his sister and brother went.  I wondered, where are the parents?

The woman, confronted by the deserted boy, instead looked out the window at me, puzzled, and asked, “He’s not yours?”

Pub Theology Points Brown, Branches Pruned, Full Blown Contagion 3/20/2018

Ice Breaker

Brownie points.  When the modifier is capitalized, “Brownie”, it refers to merit points earned for advancement (origin: young Girl Scouts known as Brownies, merit Brownie points for advancement).  When the modifier is lower case, “brownie”, it refers to the credit one gets from their boss (manager, spouse, etc.) for sucking up (origin: brown nosing, ingratiation, flatterer).  Can one advance in any organization by accumulating only one kind of B(b)rownie points?  What is your experience with advancement with regard to merit and ingratiation?  Can ingratiation be a promoting factor in family and social hierarchies?

 Question of the Night

John 15.2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 15.6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
When does the spiritual pruning of the human soul bear fruit:
When you develop character from the hard lessons you learn?
When you acquire discipline which brings respect and the ability to earn?
When you accept deep flaws as fruitless branches, which you and your spirit then prune, pile and burn?

Other Questions:

Emotional Contagion (EC) is the tendency for humans to feel the emotions of people around them.  The ability to transfer moods between humans is innate.  This is a powerful fact and behind some the world’s religions, dictators, and the history of war.  When have you been affected by EC?  When have you subjected others to EC?  Do you always know when EC is active?

Pagan Kennedy ~ Want to know the secret to a longer life? Don’t ask these dead longevity researchers.  The greatest gains in longevity have occurred not because of longevity research but because of public sanitation, clean water and the control of infectious diseases.  However, Environmental activists are being jailed and government research is being curtailed.  For you, what environmental or social issues would you join in mass protest for or against?  Which government research would you contribute your money to?

Diesel therapy is a purported form of punishment in which prisoners are shackled and then transported for days or weeks. It has been described as “the cruelest aspect of being a federal inmate.” It has been alleged that some inmates are deliberately sent to incorrect destinations as an exercise of diesel therapy.  If this “therapy” only promotes cruelty and results often in insanity, why does this form of torture continue?

Lyric Notes: The Beatle’s lyrics for “Girl”:
Was she told when she was young; That pain would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said:
That a man must break his back; To earn his day of leisure? Will she still believe it when he’s dead?
John Lennon ~ “I was just talking about Christianity, in that – you have to be tortured to attain heaven… be tortured and then it’ll be alright…”
Wow, your comments, please!  Who tells young girls what to expect from a painful adult life?  Are pain, backbreaking work, and then death a proper instruction to the young for the intermission between childhood and heaven?

Imagine …you are a hermit/hermitess living on an island separated from humanity by a strait called the “Mouth of Hell”.  The last census counted the island population of 1.
What is the appeal of isolation and separation and being far from the madding crowd?
Mainlanders gave you a descriptive nickname.  What is it and what does it describe about you?
The sea currents slowly reconstruct the ancient isthmus to land.  Soon, a road will bring a throng of day trippers to your quiet paradise.  For you, is losing solitude and gaining companionship too often like trading your hermitage for hell?

God Is Not Great – but sometimes I wonder…

God is not great.  Must be an atheist.  Doesn’t believe in spirits, let alone God.

I just finished reading Christopher Hitchen’s book, titled as GodIsNotGreat.  You find me sitting in the quiet of early morning. Reflecting on all his conflicting thoughts. Contemplating an existence and end without spirits and souls.  Without God.  Though sincere, sometimes funny, but not entirely convincing.  Mr. Hitchens claims that he has been writing this book all his life.  His conclusion: there is no God, there are no spirits, and your soul is dust in the wind.

There are conflicting thoughts and quotes.  If you are in the dark, it makes sense to follow a blind man who knows the way.  But once it is light, you are foolish to follow a blind man.  He is referring to the scientific knowledge and discoveries of the present era.  However, he also infers that if you only believe in that which can be proved, you eliminate everything else.  I sat in my ghostly quiet living room, with darkened hallways, pondering a life of false beliefs, of unproven gods, of no proof that a spiritual dimension exists.

Moments later, a familiar sound startled me.  The laundry room came loudly alive with sound.  It’s 5 a.m.  My wife still in bed.  Me still in my easy chair.  Up I stood.  In I went.  The washing machine running.  But no lights indicating washing cycle. These new electronic contraptions!  Couldn’t turn it off.  Couldn’t change its cycle.  Could only unplug it.  Quiet.  I could tell you it kept running after unplugging it but that might give you the impression that this anecdote is fabricated…

When all else fails, read the instruction manual:

Top Load Washer Motor Reset (i.e. washer turns on by itself)

  1. Unplug the washer for 1 minute from the electrical outlet.
  2. Plug the washer back in and lift and lower the lid 6 times within a 12 second period.
    • You have 30 seconds to start lifting and lowering the lid.
    • The lid must be raised a minimum of 2″ ensure the magnetic connection on the lid is interrupted.
    • Make sure you close the lid completely each time.
  3. The motor has now been reset and is ready for you to start a cycle.

DIDN’T WORK!  Washer still churning. Spirit skeptic starts to wonder.

Next, I called the GE Customer Service Hotline.  Eventually, a reassuring female voice told me that “we” would fix the problem over the phone.

Voice: Ok, let’s go through the Top Load Washer Motor Reset.

Me: I already did this.  Maybe I held my mouth wrong.

To myself I think: Ok girl, here “we” go.

Voice: Step one, “We” unplug the washer for 1 minute from the electrical outlet…

To myself I think: Yeah, it will work for “us” this time.  Maybe “we” held “our” mouth wrong the first several times “we” followed the washer reset instructions.

To humor myself during this futile exercise, I opened my mouth wide and turn my head into a hideous tilt.  “We” follow the instructions, the same instructions.  “We” finish the sequence. “My” belief remains hopeless.  Miraculously, the lights come on.  Divinely, the washer then stops.  Now, I’m a believer. But I’m still agape.  The Voice says one last thing:

Voice: “We” can close your mouth now.

Pub Theology Getaway, Got a Way, Possession, Procession, Craft Singles 01/30/2018

Icebreaker:

The human species is an animal species without very much variation within it, and it is idle and futile to imagine that a voyage to Tibet, will discover an entirely different harmony with nature or eternity.  What harmony have you discovered on “getaways” to foreign lands, religious sites or nature’s kingdom?  Do you find anything disagreeable in this Icebreaker statement?

Question of the Night

Religions form around great shards of fabrication adhered together by thin layers of profundity and empirical truths while being coated with miraculous and unprovable myth.

Does this statement sound like other religions or your religion?  What tenets in other religions sound fake?  What preaching in your religion sounds profound?  What provable truths evidence themselves in any religion?

Other Questions:

From Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood ~ A psychologist analyzing a murderess, theorizes that she has been possessed by a dead friend, who orchestrates the murder without the actual murderess’ knowledge.  Ha, if getting away with murder were only that simple!  Do you have acquaintances possessed by long “dead” friends (i.e. traumatized by the transgressions of family, teachers, preachers, jeepers, creepers, etc.)?  Do you allow that “the Devil made them do it”?  How long will you endure this “possession” before cutting them off?

Northern Uganda 2005, kidnapped village children are tortured by their cruel captors and converted from innocent wretches into a stone-faced zombie army.  A grieving tribal elder portends ~ Children who have felt cruelty know very well how to inflict it.

When have you been a witness to the conversion of an innocent to an inflictor by way of cruelty?

Just as spilled milk can never be recovered, lost innocence can never be found.  What is to be done with the spilled, the spoiled and the subjected?

To know a person, don’t watch the mouth but watch the feet.  Do the preachers and prophets also believe, or do they too just “believe in belief”?  When leaders implore you to follow, are their feet going the same direction as yours?  Discuss.

Do you think irritating people should only be discarded from your relationships when they have full awareness of their malicious behavior? If so, how do you decide when to move them OUT?  Is it by severity of injury or by accumulation of bad behavior – to a breaking point?  With the arrival of your new friends with better benefits, do the burdensome and vacuous soon depart of their own accord?  Or does it take a long while until ex-friends in low places get the hint?

Craft Singles (One sentence with questions)  Take a bite!

What if there is an afterlife but no god? What if there is a god but no afterlife?

What happens when a plain racket turns into a serious religion before your eyes?  Vice versa?

Dalai Lama ~ You can visit a prostitute as long as someone else pays for it.  Who gets the change?

Is a high moral character a precondition for great moral accomplishments?  Examples?  Exceptions?

When priests go bad, they go very bad.  When lay people go good, they keep bad as an option.  True? False?

Pope John Paul II ~ An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.  Discuss?

Holy Cow Part Deux

Pious Jews are at this moment trying to breed the spotlessly pure “red heifer” mentioned in the book of Numbers, chapter 19, which if slaughtered again according to the exact and meticulous ritual will bring about the return of animal sacrifices in the Third Temple and hasten the end of time and the coming of the Messiah.  Where is more money spent: On proving religious beliefs?  Disproving secular science?

The Guide for the Perplexed, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon’s book seeks to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Hebrew Bible theology, by finding rational explanations for many events in the text.

When you try to rationalize theology with philosophy what do you get?

When you try to rationalize philosophy with theology what do you get?

Just like one can take vengeance only to its extreme, so it is also with deception, exploitation, and abuse.  Is it exhaustion or loss that cures the morally corrupt?  What extremes in human degradation can cause such bromides as “honesty is the best policy” and “to forgive is divine” to root profound and grow within?