So I was looking through my old journals that I wrote for Core I, and found some really interesting ones that I completely forgot about. Apparently I had a tendency to write LOOOONG journal entries, which makes me feel sorry for my professor, but my tangents are really cool to go back and read now. I was under the impression that I barely understood some of the readings, but this visitation has made it clear that I was indeed on the right plane of thinking.
I thought I'd share the following journal entry, which is a response to Thomas A. Cahill's essay "Journey in the Dark" from The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels. The prompt has been lost to time, as it has changed for the classes that came after me, so take this as a meditation on the piece. I think it reads well that way, too.
Without further ado, here is the entry.
Subject: Cahill's essay "Journey in the Dark" and the meaning of thinking differently about time as something linear rather than circular or cyclical.
Answer: According to Cahill, most of the world’s beginning religions or beliefs were based on the cyclical nature of all things. This meant, looking from this perspective, that all things came in a certain order. Everything from the Mayan and Chinese calendars to the moon were cyclical, dependable and perpetual, in nature. As something that is so rigid and precise in its repetition of the perpetual wheel, it cannot be stopped by either man nor God’s hand. However, in today’s world, most believe God is beyond the “wheel” or any of its constraints to space and time, and that, in the end, we can achieve oneness with God. In this approach, man can actually reach beyond the wheel of time and not succumb to its eternal nature. This view was brought about, in legend and lore, by Avraham, or Abraham, an ancient Jew, who, in his heart, listened to God’s plan of spreading Abraham’s seed in a new land where his fruits would be many and good. His wife was barren, and they lived in a city more prosperous than the desert or a foreign land with no cities there. However, God’s offer was to transcend the wheel, to give Abraham his children, his land, his prosperity, against what had seemed to be his fate. He was off in search of a better life when it would have been obvious to all around him that he had the best possible life given his situation.
Through some connecting of the dots, the ideas formed by Abraham’s journey into the land of Canaan and past the Great Wheel and the ideas supported by the Ten Commandments can be related. The main point for all to notice is that though the Ten Commandments are law (perhaps guidelines for people in modern times), they are law not for law’s sake, but for the sake of each individual soul. In following these codes of conduct, one appeals to bit of God in each of us. In Genesis 27, it is said that man is created in the image of God. Most cultures consider God to be great in wisdom, fairness, and love. By following the “Decalogue” and other commandments, man ultimately becomes wise, fair, and loving, in Jewish theory. In doing this and becoming this, man becomes more like God. In becoming more like God, man begins to reach beyond the wheel of time, of space, of life, of Earth, of the universal truth, and reaches another universal truth – that God is behind the machinations of the universe itself. And God being behind all this, ultimately controlling it all, and a simple soul of his creation reaching out to him and becoming him (that is, God), actually surpasses the root of time itself.
I believe that, in a lot of ways, this is true. However, I think most humans are more ambitious to find God as a way to immortal living, not as a way past the Great Wheel of All Things (I suppose this is as broad and encompassing as I can get). Cahill (as I found through a little research) is a historian. Therefore, his views aren’t that metaphysical, but factual as to the events of 3000 and 4000 B.C.E. He was making a purely factual connection between that so distant past and the world we are living in today. Though spiritual matters and customs are big impacts on history, the constant human nature is not necessarily looked at as in depth as a philosopher or student of religion. Kellner, however, was making his points from a religious standpoints, as he teaches Jewish history, religion, and ethics. His spiritual standpoint on the Ten Commandments and their godliness (as well as the alternate Golden Rule) are more based in common spiritual thought that scholar-agreed-upon history. I think that, if Kellner had been given a different subject, more room to write, and a little artistic license, he would have come to the same conclusion – many are looking not for oneness with God, but an alternate to absolute darkness in death.
So, California
Prop 8 passed.
Equality rallies have been organized across the U.S. as a response. There have been some radical rogues, but for the overwhelming majority of the time, they have all been peaceful protests.
Now the Catholic Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints (which gave over $20 million to the ad campaign for Prop 8) are crying foul... that protests are a violation of free speech.
From the
LDS website:
Quote:
It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election.
Members of the Church in California and millions of others from every faith, ethnicity and political affiliation who voted for Proposition 8 exercised the most sacrosanct and individual rights in the United States - that of free expression and voting.
While those who disagree with our position on Proposition 8 have the right to make their feelings known, it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.
Once again, we call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information. |
From the Catholic Church
| "Proposition 8 is not against any group in our society. Its sole focus is on preserving God's plan for people living upon this earth throughout time," Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement Thursday. |
Effectively, as I was told while discussing this with a few of my friends, California now has at least three classes of people. Heterosexuals who can marry, homosexuals who can only have civil unions, and homosexuals who have been married. That is a house that cannot stand, I assure you.
But what I don't understand is how LDS can say that the very act of protesting is stepping on their rights to free speech and voting, when they went so far as to
try and blackmail opponents of Prop 8 into giving them money. Now that the
Anti-Gay Blacklist is up and running, people are screaming all over the place. I've seen it called militant homosexuality, Nazi tactics, Gay Gestapo, etc. etc.
I'm not sure I have a question here, but I'm really just disgusted at what's been going on. I don't think that the blacklist was necessarily the best course of action to repairing gay-straight relations in California and in the U.S. as a whole, but I don't think it was violating any right.
I'm incensed that LGBT groups have been treated as a group that can arbitrarily be denied or given rights. Either they can marry across the U.S., or they can't. Either they can adopt children, or they can't. Either they can be foster parents, or they can't.
There can be no gray area here. These episodes in California, which will only continue to get worse as the class differential starts to wear down on those in the gay community who have been denied, will either end up overthrowing the entire system of inequality there and everywhere, or do the opposite in all the same places. The anti-gay movement has begun a fight that I wish I knew it couldn't win, but hatred runs deep in people. We never know how deep until the end.
To deny gay rights across the board is to completely disenfranchise so many - these people are your mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, (and, for some and someday) sons and daughters. Many of us have LGBT friends. They are human beings like everyone else, right?
But that's not what the arguments and the laws would have you believe. How many times have you heard the argument, "If we let gays marry, then what's next! Polygamy! Incest! Pedophilia! Bestiality!" How
degrading. Their right to love and marry whoever they see fit is compared to having sex with animals and small children? Not only is it a non-sequiter to give this line of argument, but it is deliberately demonizing a very human group of people.
I'm exhausted with the debate, and I have come in only in the last few years of a many decades long fight. I don't see how these arguments can stand. How they cannot be challenged. How they can
actually be made into law.Mike Huckabee recently wrote a book called
Do the Right Thing. In it, he writes this:
| [Heterosexual] marriage matters . . . nothing in our society matters more. Our true strength doesn't come from our military or our gross national product; it comes from our families. What's the point of keeping the terrorists at bay in the Middle East if we can't keep decline and decadence at bay here at home? |
Yes, nothing in our society matters more.
Nothing. Let that sink in before you move on.
This is going to become the prevailing narrative of social conservatives, which will come back to bite in 2010 and 2012. Sarah Palin, the one 64% of Republicans would like to see on the presidential ticket in 2012, has a
better record than you would think on these issues, but supports an
amendment to the constitution.
What a fight there is before us. It's not best to think of it that way (you tire long before the end), but it's the only way to prepare.
Time for another Firestarter. Guess what? No news links this time! But damn, is the list random. And long.
- Tao Te Ching
- This is a Taoism resource, for a philosophy not oft considered by Westerners.
- Religion Facts
- Facts on religion that go more in depth than a casual reference. Taoism is included.
- Dining in 2015
- How to Learn Any Language
- There's a part of me that wants to be a polyglot. For those of you who are like me, read the tips on this site and feel incredibly lazy because you know you'll never be able to dedicate yourself. Don't worry. You're certainly not alone. We can lament together.
- 36 Beautiful Resume Ideas that Work
- Some very interesting designs for resumes. I don't know that I'll ever be able to use any of them for one of mine, but they are certainly attractive designs.
- CalorieConnect.com
- Food name in, calorie count out. Just a cleaner application than I've seen in the past. It all comes up on one page without reloading.
- How Stuff Works
- Self-explanatory, methinks.
- Dinosaur Comics
- I'd heard of it and read one or two beforehand, but I didn't realize how hilarious it is until I ran across it again. Always silly, but always funny.
- Microsoft Interview Questions
- Can you answer any of those? I knew there was a reason why I wasn't a computer programmer. Besides the math bit. And the logic.
- How to Draw a Woman (video)
- Cool sorta kinda tutorial. I've never seen someone start from the skeletal structure.
- How to Detect Lies
- Always a useful tool, especially in those casual interrogations that we all conduct in our basements, right? Saves on mess.
- Why we do dumb s@#$.
- Ten social psychology studies that explain why we don't always make the best judgment we could, among other things.
- Test Your English
- Can you say all of the words correctly the first time?
- Cooking By Numbers
- A good site, if rudimentary. Hilarious sidenote: Some friends and I put what they had in their fridge, and they only complete recipe that came up said, "You have 100% of 2 ingredients to make a Cup of Coffee." Even better: "You have 50% of 2 ingredients to make Scrambled Eggs." What were we lacking? Eggs.
- FilmSecrets
- Make your own films for a fraction of the cost. A cool guide to help those trying to make it on their own.
- Write Your Name in Elvish in 10 Minutes!
- If it was a real language, it would soooo be the best language ever.
- "Street Installations"
- Some very cool street artwork. It would be freaky to happen upon, but it's very cool at a distance.
- The Table of Condiments
*deep breath* Whew.
6-12-07
CT 2:47
IT 9:47
Back and Barely Kicking.
Today was my first full day back “home” from Rome. It was interesting how quickly I latched on to Florence after coming back. I feel like a little girl who’s gone to the big city from her country home only to find it unwelcoming. Though I would hardly call myself a little girl, or coming from a country home in Florence, the situation was most certainly comparable. The sights, smells, and feeling of Florence was welcoming to me, and I felt like I’d come to a place where I could at least rest.
We met at the school at 10:00 this morning. Apparently Rome was kind enough to give us some type of plague, as we acquired somewhat of an “attrition rate” with sick people. One couldn’t even show up, and five or six more were sick but able to come. I was relatively fine, though I was a bit upset that I was in my very last set of clean clothes. As far as the condition of the group went, I was in tip-top shape. We stopped at the American Express so Dr. Bane and Paulette could buy our train tickets to Venezia (Venice). While we were waiting, I asked Natalie about the Cat Sanctuary in Rome, because she happened to stumble across it after I’d been looking for it for an hour. She said that the sanctuary is actually part of the ruins, and for 7 of the 14 years they have been in them, the police have tried to kick them out for technically being illegal. Cats that wander into the ruins are spayed and neutered and given free surgery if they need it. If someone calls them, they can go get the cat, spay and neuter them, let them heal, and release them back into the neighborhood. If they’re in the ruins, they can keep them. They said they get a lot of eye infections, so they have quite a few blind cats that can’t go back out. But after they have their own cage for two months, they are put in a room together for two months. If that works out, then they are released back into the ruins. During surgery, the sanctuary will clip the tip of the cat’s ear as an identifier. Turns out most of the cats they take care of stay in the ruins of Torre Argentina. Natalie said she applauded their work, as it was all volunteers, and that they have done a lot to help the cat population in Rome. Apparently, Italy doesn’t support spaying and neutering because they believe it will put vets out of business. (Side note: Natalie also said that after WWII, Italians vowed to never eat cats again even if times were as desperate as they had been.)
Our first stop was the Church of Santa Maria Novella. For those of you who have read or heard of (or done neither) Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”, the characters in the frame story are actually in this same church, hiding from the plague. Though the story is just that, Dr. Bane said they do believe people came to the church to hide from the plague. The church was absolutely gorgeous. It felt as big as the Duomo without the dome. There were famous pieces in there by all different artists. The stained glass windows were beautiful. Some of them were positioned just right to allow the sunlight to carry the colors. There were no pictures allowed, or I would have taken a million photos. Instead I bought an 8 Euro book with full color photos to commemorate the experience and to help the church restore the paintings (ticket and gift shop proceeds go to restoring the pieces in the church). It has the first and only nude crucifix I’ve seen in all of Italy (by Brunelleschi) and huge floor to ceiling frescos that were absolutely breathtaking. (This is also where we saw a fresco with something like a hundred saints in it with one of them holding a Gremlin-like creature.)
Next we went to the Medici Chapel. This was probably the highlight of the day, simply because of its ostentatious ugliness. When we entered we were ushered into the reliquary room. Bones of saints were in impossibly elaborate vials, cases, and chests. There was even a jaw bone. I remember reading about St. Peter’s Basilica and how it was formed in a time when a church’s worth was judged by the gravity of its relics, which is why St. Peter’s became the most well known church in the world. I think the Medicis had the same thought, though the relics held in the chapel were in the philosophy of “quantity, not quality.” Thus saints I had never heard of had bones I had never thought of inside glass cases for the purpose of power. How ironic to live such a life of pious devotion, only to be used for someone else’s means in death.
We went up into the actual chapel part of the church and were absolutely stunned at what we saw. Everything was made from different types of marble. Marble sarcophagi as big as a bedroom, decorated with the crest with six circles, housed the most important men of the Medici family. I thought the marble was absolutely hideous, with its greens, maroons, and purples, but others thought it was gorgeous. So goes taste, I guess.
The next part of the chapel we entered was the “famous” (though none of us had ever heard of it) tomb of Lorenzo il Magnifico (the Magnificent). The tomb was decorated with sculptures by Michelangelo. The men were pretty, but two of them had unfinished faces. However, the women were so grossly incorrect that we all had to stare and point out exactly what was wrong with them for ten minutes. “They” were off to the sides and muscular. Like the master had started them like a man’s and then tried to mound them off. We then discussed the possibilities of him being gay as well as what a cadaver’s breasts would look like (since Michelangelo dissected them illegally to understand anatomy). Then we carried on to the exhibits and the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
We went ahead and did the exhibits first, which included the Laurentian Library - a room of desks connected to a library (all designed by Michelangelo), and an exhibit of animali fantastici – imaginary animals. It was extremely interesting to look at illuminated manuscripts and see what people thought existed. Sirens (sirene), satyrs (satire), dragons (draghi), phoenixes (fenice), centaurs (which I don’t remember the Italian for) etc. They even had 14th or 15th century editions of The Aeneid (Eneide) and Divine Comedy. Dr. Bane was very pleased.
San Lorenzo is just as beautiful as Santa Maria Novella. It was consecrated in 393 and then reconsecrated in 1059 after being “considerably enlarged,” reads the brochure. However, I will say Santa Maria is not only prettier but better for this reason: San Lorenzo was the Medici’s private church. Symbols are everywhere of their power and influence. The church is huge, but it hasn’t got as much heart as others – at least, that’s what I’ve gathered.
Anyway, after this we were free to go. I decided to buy a gelato just for kicks since I saw limone (lemon) for the very first time. I got it and fragola (strawberry) in what I thought was a small cup. It ended up being a 6 Euro cup, but it was as big as three little ones (or at least I fooled myself into thinking of it this way). Either way, it’s more than I ever meant to pay. I went back to the room to find Rachel, who had disappeared during the last part of our outing (she said she had thought we were done). I gathered up Dante for a good read, but found I was too tired for his words and fell asleep without a hitch. Turns out Rachel did too, so we both got up about 3:20 and got ready for class at 4.
Dr. Bane zoomed through the rest of the Divine Comedy without any hitches until we reached the end of Purgatorio. He asked if we caught what was going on during one of the chapters. Purgatory is shaped like a mountain. In Canto XX or so, Dante asks Virgil what’s going on when the mountain shakes. Virgil tells him that the mountain shakes when souls have walked through the fire and have been thrown up into the heavens, singing and shouting, “In Excelsis Deo!” Dr. Bane asked us again, after reading it, if we got it. I got it when he said it, but the rest of the class just stared at him.
“The mountain shakes… * crazy hand motions * People say, ‘Oh God!’ * hands up in the air * and are shot out, purified.” Most of the class doesn’t get it, while I crack up at him trying to mime what’s going on. Finally, after two or three more tries and writing the word “phallic” on the board and discussing what a phallic symbol is, people finally began to get it. Then we started talking about if that was overanalyzing it, and somehow we got to discussing the origins of art (Michelangelo’s Pieta was put on powerpoint to talk about how he researched cadavers to get the anatomy correct – do we really want to know the origins of art?). Then we talked about the commercialization of religion and how “Piss Christ” (a cheap crucifix in a jar of urine with light shining on it) is less offensive than Buddy Christ and Jesus is my Homeboy t-shirts (I argued it wasn’t because “Jesus is my Homeboy” is doctrine for many people, as opposed to the symbolism behind “Piss Christ”). Then we got into the role of women, and I talked about a friend who had taken Gender and Sexuality, and how they had to watch a video about women in Judaism. The woman, a lesbian, had gone to the Rabbi, asking what she was to do about her feelings. The Rabbi told her a) get married and have as many children as possible, because that is a woman’s role after the Holocaust, and b) if you can’t manage your feelings, have someone “on the side.” My argument in this being that culture has changed to allow for traditional roles and personal desires to coexist. Then we got into the reasons why people have children, including the new conservative movement that says it’s every man’s duty to have as many children as they can so they can breed out the liberal population. Finally, class was over.
We all went to a nearby market, where I didn’t see anything in particular, and decided to go on back to the apartment. I really wanted to eat out, so I stopped at a Mesopotamian restaurant and got a “doner kebab con formaggio.” It had veal, lettuce, cabbage, creamy sauce, tomatoes, and delicious cheese – all wrapped in a pita. It was absolutely divine. It was 5 Euro and pretty filling, so I’ll only go there in a pinch. I went back up to the room, played a bit of Command & Conquer: Red Alert, finished a journal entry, worked on this one, drank a 1.5 Liter bottle (bottiglia) of water (acqua) in one sitting, and washed a load of clothes. I’ve been fairly productive while people went out and saw Ocean’s 13 (I hadn’t seen the first two).
And now I’m so tired and still have to read. Sugarfoot.
