Rather than begin this post by saying that there will be no great insights or writing proferred within (at least by me), I won't say that and discourage your reading onward. What follows is an example of what we call in blogging a "stream o' conscious" post, as well as a cutting & pasting of stuff that didn't make the cut the first time. (By the way, didn't Andy Rooney make millions with stream of conscious stuff? I mean weren't books like "And More With Andy Rooney" the precursor to some types of blogs, the sort that notice the oddities of everyday things?) Anyway, without further ado:
More here."The ball just didn't go in the hole today, there are times when the ball has its own consciousness." “A hole in one is amazing when you think of the different universes this white mass of molecules has to pass through on its way to the hole.”
St. Pio is a saint who lived in our times, having died in 1968, yet I don't think I've ever seen an article or documentary on him in the secular media.
A year or two ago there was a miracle at our local hospital that was as inspiring as it was believable and verifiable. Again, unreported.
So riddle me this: why do "miracles" such as seeing Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich played up in the media and others given no attention at all?
I received a sobering email from Steven Riddle, who is feeling the scrupulosity of scribing posts of a spiritual nature. He/we would be interested in your thoughts concerning his thoughts (permission was granted to post this):
Recently I've become very concerned about blogging on matters spiritual. When I look back at things, it strikes me as the height of arrogance to presume to "explain" or talk at length about matters that really are so much above and beyond the place where I spend most of my life. I was thinking about blogging some thoughts/prayers surrounding "The Imitation of Christ" but when I read them I realized my presumption. Now, I have nothing to say but the occasional book or movie review. You can get those, and far more insightful anywhere on the web. It hardly seems worth keeping the place open for that. Is it hubris for someone in my state to be sharing/commenting on his/her betters? If not, in what ways can it be helpful? How does one avoid the harm that might proceed from one's own incorrect understanding?
Good days spring like stag deer
from April’s meadow;
The air is still of talk,
all are disassociative
after winter’s nap.
Men wear their gratitude
by removing their shirts;
words aren’t necessary
under the rays' influence.
___
The old water tower
stands like a veteran at parades,
with ‘1853’ scribed on a side
and the rust upticking counter-gravity
like brownish blood stains
the rail segregated into
Xs across each balcony
like little Confederate flags.
Here's a song parody that wasn't good enough to make the first go around last week but made this hodge podge post (and now seems like minutiae in the wake of Virginia Tech):
To tune of Juice Newton's "Just Call Me Angel of the Morning"
Al Sharpton was there to bind your mouth
Since love won't bind your heart.
And it's too late to take a stand
For it was you who chose to start.
I have no wish to see you fired,
Though the show was getting tired,
I'm old enough to face the dawn.
There's no more Imus in the morning...
By Rieff’s analysis, the central and defining purpose of culture is to regulate the always-troublesome relation between the No-imposing voice of commandment and the Yes-seeking desires of the individual. According to Rieff, the traditional approach to the felt difficulties of bringing personality into coordination with authority involves internalizing and intensifying cultural norms. Religious at their core, traditional cultures stamp our inner lives with their creeds and, in so doing, deliver the human animal from its slavery to instinct. Charisma, then, describes the gift of what Rieff calls a “high” and “holy terror,” which installs the power of divine command so deeply in the soul that we can bear the thought “of evil in oneself and in the world.” A charismatic gives this gift with special force. He or she is an exemplar and virtuoso of personality fully governed by creedal authority. St. Francis energized and haunted the medieval world, not because he was an original genius, but instead because his inner life was so completely defined by imitation of Christ that even his body was marked by stigmata. As Rieff writes, “There is no charisma without creed,” and the gift of life gains precisely in proportion to the power of the creeds that grip our souls.
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