We are suffused and surrounded by vatniks.
Vatnik (Russian: ватник, pronounced [ˈvatʲnʲɪk]) is a political pejorative[1][2] used in Russia and other post-Soviet states for steadfast jingoistic followers of propaganda from the Russian government.[3]
I suspect, in due time, they will see the error of their ways, go through reeducation and rehabilitation, resign from congress and the current administration, and settle back into America.
Bless their hearts!
Again, thank you.
One additional “ethical option” might be called “enlightened self/other interest.” This is perhaps more a strategy above and beyond ethics, bordering on something of a spiritual/mystical stance in the face of behavior that has ethical and disciplinary consequences.
Namely: The option of self-sacrifice. Standing up, slowly looking around classroom, and declaring “I did the deed. I’m sorry. I accept the consequences."
What might result? The whole class isn’t blamed. The culprit isn’t outed. Brother has some closure. And your status, as self-sacrificing agent, is left to the character of your classmates — forever — to ponder.
I said “enlightened self/other interest” above for the following reason: if we were to eliminate the dualism/dichotomy from this kind of situation, is there any benefit? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It might evoke a moment of honest fessing up on the person who did the deed. But more than that — it might seep deep into the character/consciousness of all experiencing it that there is a more profound morality than our rational mentality usually addresses.
As a Christian (God help my failures) this taking on of one another’s burdens sounds familiar. I’ve not always liked it, not always understood it -- but your paper helped.
Cheers,
wfh
Dottore Nulla è Niente
Having taught philosophy (not well) and ethics (not well) at university, I retain the privilege of responding (not well) when students make the mistake of sharing their current studies with me.
It passed me
at 5:01AM --
then again,
everything passes
me -- how
fortunate,
really -- spring
(thanks, winter
for everything)
--for Chris, Doris, et al
I imagine
friends sit zazen
equanimous with
equipoise, finding
succor in stability
turning inner the
outer, rage trans-
formed into deeper
emotion -- consoling
understanding, no
blame, no vituperation
no hideous rash of ire
instead, nurturing fire
of compassion, fierce
and strong, unbending
yet gentle -- these folks
befriending the awful
taking in the strange
breathing out solace --
they are what family
should be -- there --
no matter what, no
matter the disgrace
no -- MU -- undoing
the multiple, the additive,
resting and residing with
what is here, as it is here
until what will come
is what will be, here,
with their composure
and grace, revealing
Where have I heard this type of thing before?
Trump and today’s MAGA Republicans are proudly ignoring those laws, not only in Trump’s attacks on the judiciary but also in things like the administration’s lie, reported today by Andy Kroll of ProPublica, that nearly 7,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service were fired for poor performance despite the repeated warnings of a top IRS lawyer that this was “a false statement” that amounted to “fraud” on the courts.
The administration’s attempt to ignore the laws the Constitution charges it with executing amounts to an attack on the right of the American people to establish the rules under which we live.
In a webcast on Monday, Trump ally Steve Bannon defended the deportations even if, as his guest said, they swept in “some gardener or something who’d never been in trouble.” Bannon replied: “ Big deal…. Maybe some people got caught up in it. Who knows?... I think they got everybody who was a bad guy, but guess what? If there's some innocent gardeners in there? Hey, tough break for a swell guy. That's where we stand.”
(—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 19mar25, Substack)
Oh yeah . . . in the same place (ibid) where it all goes down the toilet. That’s where I’ve heard it before.
One car
Heading east
This vigils time
I am always
In monastery
Even when not
Einstein was right
Pollen and photons
At night in dooryard
Fall through light
Seen differently
By two beings
Maybe…angels
In that instant
Space moving
through time
It takes dog
And me to pee
Joseph, they say,
Worked with wood
That’s all we know
mentioned in passing
Remarkably little
It’s all folklore
Made up saga, myth
Hearsay, sawdust on
Floor, the scent of it
Still, I like him
Deep brown companion
Maybe celibate, who cares
He disappears from narrative
Maybe he hung around edges
Sanding smoothing rounding
All we know is his name,
Joseph, that’s it, not much more
Someone hardly on any page
But there
As sawdust is
Telling
sitting in dentist chair
cars pass by on route 1
my life remembering
fillings and fallings
failings and flailings
fulsome and foolish
fantastical fandangos
finishing fruitlessly
She was my sister
We were there for her final breath
Then, into the night
She was my sister
The night was deep and quiet
As is, each breath, given
Today, her birthday
Night gives way, breath
Sistering each and all
let's think about Jesus
as having come to earth
think about the creator
as having spoken the earth
think about air and breath
as holding everything on earth up
now, let's think about
"we all have to find a story
to live by or live inside
or we couldn't endure
the certainty of suffering"
(Niall Williams, in Irish novel
“This is Important”, 2019)
I'll take the story of the earth
which comes, from which all
comes, into which all returns
as the life of God, the life of
Christ, of all Breath Holy, all
experience and consciousness
longing for our listening, our
respect and compassion, a story
we must begin to hear, to feel
before and after one another
above and below nodding tree
The hoops
to cancel
unwanted
subscription purchase
charge
oy gevalt
They took a turn at march 17, came down the hill, and saw no flag on the stick.
if you want
to know
what I think
ask me
if you want
to think you
know
ask yourself
what is good
and stay still
while God
listens
I'm uncertain
a turn to evil
isn't the case
no one is arguing
the turn, as faces
smirk and snarl
and in homes
across the land
guns are loaded
all because
a little rich boy
lost at marbles
there is something
going on in america
that is more than cute
disagreement, we are
suffering a real death
some want to say
this harsh lawless
administration will
soon come to an end
I'm beginning to sense
it will be our end
with freedoms gone
it certainly seems some
perversion is afoot, no one
able to stop the bleeding
. . .
Prorsus credibile est,
quia ineptum est*
i've been thinking
about the man from Queens
occupying the Oval Office --
not. much.
*(It is wholly believable,
because it is incongruous**)
(Tertullian, d.240AD, in
De Carne Christi, V, 4)
**out of place, out of keeping, inappropriate, unsuitable, unsuited, not in harmony; discordant, dissonant, conflicting, clashing, jarring, wrong, at odds, in opposition, contrary, contradictory, irreconcilable; strange, odd, absurd, bizarre, off- key, extraneous; informal like a fish out of water, sticking/standing out a mile; rare disconsonant. ANTONYMS appropriate. (apple dictionary)
Maine is really part of Canada
We touch borders, love the sea
And are embarrassed by the same man
There is
Only
God
Here is
Only
God
At window
Cat
Investigates
Finding
Nothing —
Returns
A.N. Whitehead was mentioned this morning.
This afternoon, this:
Whitehead’s ontology cannot be disjoined from his theory of feelings. The actual occasions ontologically constituting our experience are the elementary processes of concrescence of feelings constituting the stream of our experience, and they throw light on the what and the how of all actual occasions, including those that constitute lifeless material things. This amounts to the panexperientialist claim that the intrinsically related elementary constituents of all things in the universe, from stones to human beings, are experiential. Whitehead writes: “each actual entity is a throb of experience” (1929c [1985: 190]) and “apart from the experiences of subjects there is nothing, nothing, nothing, bare nothingness” (1929c [1985: 167])—an outrageous claim according to some, even when it is made clear that panexperientialism is not the same as panpsychism, because “consciousness presupposes experience, and not experience consciousness” (1929c [1985: 53]).
Good word, "concrescence" | kənˈkresəns | noun Biology --the coalescence or growing together of parts originally separate.
Is all "matter" capable of experience? (panexperientialism). Does everything material have an element of individual consciousness? (panpsychism).
Is there consideration here of the origin myth that infuses all of matter with divine and creative energy?
We then ask, what does it mean to say that the universe might be conscious and capable of experience?
Is "democracy" too limited to human beings? Is "communism" too limited? Fascism? Socialism?
Is the environmental movement one step shy of finding a way for the earth, sky, water, and fire of this creation to be represented, not merely by opinion of researchers, but by direct communication with fellow sentient beings?
Have we been too narrow in our understanding? Too insular? Too unimaginative?
Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 19, King James Version:
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
This is not just about Jesus. This is pointing to something beyond our ordinary understanding.
We've long held that the story of Jesus was one of atoning for sin. But perhaps we've been obtuse. What if the "sin" Christians are so taken with has to do more with failure to understand the whole living universe we dwell upon and within? That we have carved out and ignored 98% of the existing, experiencing, conscious companions in this reality we blithely call the known universe?
That it is mostly unknown?
Unseen?
Unheard?
Unloved?
At prison this morning, this poem:
Backward Miracle
By Kay Ryan
Every once in a while
we need a
backward miracle
that will strip language,
make it hold for
a minute: just the
vessel with the
wine in it—
a sacramental
refusal to multiply,
reclaiming the
single loaf
and the single
fish thereby.
(from Poetry)
And these words by Jay McDaniel.
The seven of us, fully engaged, playfully insightful, and remarkably helpful.
Birdseed is birdseed
mud is mud
warm porch is warm porch
now dusk
evening walk taken
door to porch closed
Was researching MT & LXX (Masoretic Text & Greek Septuagint) with regard to translations of the Hebrew Bible and came upon the following:
One more point before I answer your question head-on. With respect to the page you linked on the significance of Mary's virginity. William Yarchin may think that he has discovered the real reason for the virgin birth, but Luke makes that clear in his gospel. It's not simply a question of the prophesy of Isaiah, it's a question of paternity: Jesus is the son of God like Adam is the son of God, because both have no other father. Whoever wrote that answer on the page you linked clearly has a cursory knowledge of marriage customs, but he's clearly only read the cliff-notes and not the ethnographic studies. The central issue in virginity is ultimately inheritance and who carries on the family line, not women being property or "damaged goods". I'm not saying bride price had no legal significance (but in its conception it is not about the woman being property, though it has become that in various cultures at various points in history), but that significance is completely dwarfed by the issue of inheritance and - in the gospels - paternity. If Mary is not a virgin, then there is little reason to believe (from a first-century standpoint) that her offspring is the Son of God. Whether or not the translation of נערה into Greek is accurate (and for all we know it may have been accurate for the usage of bilingual speakers in Alexandria at the time), the virginity of Mary in the gospels carries a theological significance far beyond the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah.
Then the word נַעֲרָה in Isaiah:
נַעֲרָה • (na'ará) f (plural indefinite נערות, masculine counterpart נער) [pattern: קַטְלָה]
wiktionary
I'd been looking into book "The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions" by Kelley Coblentz Bautch, John C. Endres S.J., Angela Kim Harkins, Editors.
From Fortress Press website:
At the origin of the Watchers tradition is the single enigmatic reference in Genesis 6 to the “sons of God” who had intercourse with human women, producing a race of giants upon the earth. That verse sparked a wealth of cosmological and theological speculation in early Judaism. Here leading scholars explore the contours of the Watchers traditions through history, tracing their development through the Enoch literature, Jubilees, and other early Jewish and Christian writings. This volume provides a lucid survey of current knowledge and interpretation of one of the most intriguing theological motifs of the Second Temple period.
Scholarship has its value in our thought. What is this? Why this? What might it mean?
What does it mean that Adam had no recognizible father? That Jesus had no recognizible father? Neither, other than what-is-called-God?
How do things or beings come to be of themselves? How does creation, the cosmos, all that is, come to be (according to the narrative of our founding mythology) by dint of the energy of the Logos issuing forth from Creator God, Father, Supreme Being?
And where is that utterance today?
What insufficiency forestalls corrective intervention into human flaw and depravity in the realms of war, abuse, cruelty, injustice, or suffering?
What rationale is posited to explain away the erstwhile benevolent divine from the dimension of everyday human discourse and intercourse?
Are we still dependent on the positing of heaven and hell as either reward or punishment for human behavior or mental fabrication?
Or...
Or are our stories obsolete? Have they devolved into obscure mentation? Are we currently bereft of stories but for psychological profiling and DSM-ing one another?
Has once faith handed its satchel over to current fear?
Is anyone watching?
And our stories and our storytellers -- who are they and where do they begin?
And, mirabile dictu -- will the story be one of cheer and quiet appreciation?
Christmas Mail
Poem copyright ©2012 by Ted Kooser,
Or, Ach du meine Güte -- will it cause us to hesitate and speculate?
Abandoned Farmhouse
They say that careful listening is also participatory creation.
What do you see?