Religion Is a Patterned Reminder of Childhood

I have long understood but only recently realized that periodic religious observations (like Sunday service in the west) revolve primarily around the reenforcement and propagation of pleasant memories (and unpleasant consequences), which are impossible to communicate without music; not just the conventional worship hymns and choruses, but also the written word, which, before ink and vellum was not written at all, but was spoken and sung, and is to this day "sung" from the pulpit.

(The act of reading holy texts is musical, rhythmic in every tradition. And before fundamentalist Christians take issue with me, consider the KJV, which contains some of the most beautiful poetry in English, some of which IMHO equals in modern prosody what the original achieved in poetry.

I understand that in Homer's time, poets could entertain guests with an epic abridgement or an unabridged version spanning days. The tradition continues in parts of Turkey to this day, of course with Turkish stories.)

Religion is a patterned reminder of childhood, order, meaning, hope, safety, reward, and all the counter examples to each (age, chaos, punishment, etc.). And of course patterns are perfect learning tools, so they serve not only to reinforce and comfort, but also train and channel new generations.

All human ideals are mental constructs that make sense of physical realities. There are a million ways to organize events, opinions, people, and the natural matrix that suspends them.

Some of these ways are indistinguishable from childhood fairy tales, and some are just enough delightfully different to sustain the disbelief of adults.

I am too furious for words

I am uncharacteristically angry with a building contractor that misrepresented an agreement and whose boss will not budge. I am too furious for words. But soon, I will not be, and that's when the fun will start.

Champion of Kentwood

Sort of Gay but Not That Way

I recently heard the term "man crush" on NPR, which I gather is intended to communicate strong attraction in a way only sexual words can do but in a sort-of-gay-but-not-that-way way.

It seems to me though to be an artifact of our growing acceptance of homosexuality and will one day be relegated to the lexical midden, forever fixed in the provenience of popular culture to be unearthed and studied someday like an ancient bone alongside "gaydar" and others I will not put here.

(Intolerant language can sometimes be embraced by an offended community to increase identity and cohesiveness; I am not referring to that type of usage here.)

I was aware of this but didn't know the source:

New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal
http://www.philosophy-religion.org/handouts/homophobia.htm

I worked once with a fellow who, after learning of this, said something to the affect that he'd better stop criticizing homosexuals for fear that he would be regarded as one. He presumably didn't have the same fear over his racial language.

3 Minutes from a True Story

The most simultaneously romantic and melancholy 3 minutes of film from my youth, from a time when an airplane trip was the event of lifetime, when Tahiti was a far-away place only experienced through books and movies. It was a period that fit neatly between the overacted wooden Clark Gable version filmed through a Western lens and the overacted jaded Mel Gibson version layered with sexual orientation psychobabble.

David Lean was planning a version, even built a Bounty replica that still sails today, but alas it was never filmed.

In my opinion, Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando (and the entire cast, including the islands) are the best presentation of this true story.





Fletcher Christian's descendants live still live in Pitcairn to this day.

http://www.government.pn/

The movie at IMdB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056264/

A recently former colleague of mine (whom I respect) characterized my social presence with the words "conspiracy theories". Hmmmm, not sure what to make of that. I think he's out to get me.

I've discovered (realized) a pattern in conservative criticism of liberals - it's often speculative and posits future behavior based on a scenario in which past behavior is layered over current events; we see this all the time, but it's usually associated with spouses, parents, children, authorities, etc, where one person assumes something (usually bad) about another person because that person has lied or stolen or bullied consistently in the past.

It is almost always discouraged in reference to large groups, because it is then usually stereotyping and there is a general sense that this is unfair.

I most recently heard this type of stereotyping this morning during Rush's morning update (through which I must suffer to get local weather and traffic); he was remarking why liberals, in response to the actions in Libya, weren't smearing themselves with fake blood and carrying signs painted with 'no blood for oil' messages etc.

I can only presume that since he had nothing of value to say about the subject, he simply criticized an entire group for something they didn't do at an event that hasn't happened; apparently anachronism doesn't get in the way of good ol' fashioned name calling.

Every jot and tittle, every word and letter, every breath and coda has meaning for a writer, and if they don't, or you can't hear it, enjoy the ride while it lasts, for that's all it is.

Were I to repeat a slice of time...

Were I to repeat a slice of time, it would be the brief childhood years painted on clear bright cool Saturday mornings, festooned with wild grape vines running over craggy shale walls between backyards, and the sweet sour grapes that the birds don't eat, and wild pears and apples and mulberries and rhubarb, and an ancient willow (that must have been there since our backyards were carved from a cornfield and has been dropping worm skeletons every fall ever since) and tall leafy oaks and birches and maples through which I watched the sun set from my upstairs bedroom;

and bicycles with stingray handlebars and banana seats and clothes-pinned playing cards trilling the spokes;

punctuated by Jimmy and Pufnstuf, Tiger Beat, Chief Jay Strongbow and Andre the Giant, Love Boat and Fantasy Island and Saturday is bath night, time to get ready for Sunday dress up and go to church so different from sunny Saturday;

and garlanded with holiday fancies that come out of the attic once a year - cornucopia, pilgrim candles, Indian corn, hinged cardboard scarecrows and turkeys that smell of must and kindle Christmas anticipation;

and swarming with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, the smell of Lemon Pledge still on furniture polished yesterday, the best china and silver, and later pie and coffee (and a little melting ice cream), and later still leftovers that are a little better if left over a little longer;

and silent nighttime prayers through the window that overlooks the street with the trees that lift up the moon and stars above distant trundling train wheels;

;

An old Sunday school teacher of mine said back on one of those occasions recalled best with SpaghettiOs and cartoons that you can tell where Satan is working to overcome the message of Jesus, and if you don't see Satan there, that's because Jesus isn't there either. That's why we have the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but for Thanksgiving only turkeys.

Modern conservatism is not intellectually honest.

Litmus test: Picture the words of William F. Buckley (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYlMEVTa-PI) coming out of Rush's or Hannity's or Beck's mouth. You can't (if you  are intellectually honest), and there's a good reason.

True conservatism is more akin to libertarianism, and Bill Buckley, who certainly understood the entertainment value of cat-and-mouse (you can see it frequently in his wry smile) was less an entertainer than a philosopher. I grew up watching him, reading his column, reading The National Review (I was a subscriber to the old-fashioned paper version in college, http://www.nationalreview.com/, but this too, alas, is more more like FOX News than Barry Goldwater).

Buckley had no agenda but to demonstrate his view of right-thinking (in both a political and semantic sense).

When you see someone with an agenda, they are not primarily concerned with acting out of what is right for a particular purpose (eg, getting to heaven or maintaining order or making money), but what benefits them.

Ripped form today's headlines:
"Strip Search Finds Crack Between Buttocks"
http://www.wyff4.com/r/27200800/detail.html

If you spend much time watching the cable news channels, try this: During an epic disaster somewhere else in the world, flip back and forth among FOX, CNN and MSNBC. FOX will more often than not be covering a domestic story or angle, usually political (partially because they don't have the correspondents where they need them but mostly because IMHO their unspoken mission statement is to focus on American stories), hence I saw more on FOX in a couple days of channel surfing after the Japan earthquake about the American swept away on the California coast and affects on Hawaii than about Japan.

I can't imagine FOX was caught short-handed in Japan the way they were in Egypt and Libya (at least I can only presume since they didn't cover them well), so the only reason would be they think the stories they did cover were more important, drew more viewers, attracted more advertisers, satisfied network leadership, or met broadcast standards the rest of the world doesn't have.

A quick search found a report that CNN viewers rose 172% during disaster coverage while FOX rose only 46%:

http://www.realtvcritics.com/reviews/cnn-fox-news-viewership-jumps-with-japan-earthquake-coverage-video/

More #'s I don't totally understand but show CNN clear winner:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/03/15/cable-news-ratings-for-saturday-sunday-march-12-13-2011/85825

I actually saw FOX covering the Wisconsin/labor controversy with the Wisconsin governor instead of the earthquake, during Hannity I think. I understand how important that must have been for them, since conservatives suffered a (deserved) thrumming from most outlets, but the contrast between what FOX was covering and nearly every other news source was enlightening.

The choice of what you cover is just as important as what you say.

I've always liked lounge music, especially Denny Miller. It's a genre from my youth that conjures up images of the South Seas, grass skirts, a life of no responsibility (or perpetual irresponsibility). Turns out I'm a product of Gauguin's innocent complicity in the French travel industry's propaganda near the end of the 19th Century (so happens I heard that today on  NPR, 3/15/2011). 

BUT I heard this delightful tune today by Youtubing for some info on Alice Cooper's induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Go figure the subatomic vibrations that brought all THAT together.

Listen to Kinobe's "Slip Into Something More Comfortable" here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oonHquCgFl4