Saturday, June 24, 2017

The Physics of Heaven

When one thinks of the speed of light and how when things approach it they approach infinity, the place where time does not move forward but stands still---should this fact not fail to astonish? That even at 93 million miles away in cold space the sun's rays, only a small proportion of which actually make it to earth, can sufficiently heat it? That as I write this little thought down I'm in a t-shirt and shorts on a June day and am not anxious that when I step outside into the world I will not be fried with Mercurial heat or have a blast of absolute zero freezing me solid? And not only is this not an anxiety but the fact that these photons travel 186,000 miles per second---this the Einstonian speed limit for the universe---doesn't make me duck in a hopeless gesture of avoidance (as you would expect)? This bigness for bigness it is...doesn't it make humility of the human an easy thing to accomplish in such a light?

Friday, June 23, 2017

The Micro Evolution of This Afternoon's Sky

Clouds fatten. The white darkens to a bruised blue and then to slate. It is like the gathering of gargoyles. Then the bass timbre far off. Then. Suddenly. Climactic crack. Thunder has its own theology. It is immediate theology.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

While We are in the Ahistorical Mood

Since we politically correct self-righteous pharisees are now in the ahistorical habit of taking down monuments that offend us may I suggest the destruction of the Colisseum in Rome. It fits the bill doesn't it? It is historical and it was used for the violent gladitorial contests and I as a Catholic-Christian am quite offended at so many of my theological ancestors who were fed to the lions there while Nero watched. So let us get our pick-axes and shovels and get busy razing Rome.

Monday, June 12, 2017

A Flatlander Throwback Offers His Opinion


A couple of new friends were showing a woman from France about the old town. They expressed they were all concerned about the Paris initiative and how America has withdrawn. When I mentioned that I didn't believe in 'climate change' they were all aghast, incredulous as if I had stated I am one that still holds to a flat earth cosmology. I replied to their astonished faces that I am always suspicious of ideas and movements that must change the phrase by which the idea or movement is known. When the phrase 'global warming' (which actually says something) a concept that could be refuted, was changed to the new term 'climate change' (which only states the irrefutable obvious) I was even more suspicious. Especially in its change to a something that no one can argue against. Climate (like everything) changes. It is simply the nature of existence. As I mentioned that I was very much in favor of America extricating herself from the Paris Agreement, they expressed, a disappointment and surprise akin to a religious refutation. Why, that their new friend should be so blind to the obvious to which all science has validated beyond any doubt! How could such a thing be in a time and place where such things are readily known? Was this new friend a flatland throwback? The man of the trio shook his head mournfully and said it was too depressing to continue along this thread. Yet, I was glad that they were still open to the friendship and the visit was salvaged as we came to inspect the sycamore maple whose limb had come down in Friday's storm. And I think they were encouraged a little that their new friend was not as he seemed to be for a moment: an enemy of nature. And yes, we all saw that, trees too, change.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Cry Foul!

Does anyone get the sense that the whole Comey investigation smacks of someone who loses in a game and must charge the winner with cheating? So am I supposed to believe that it is too much to conceive lovable Hillary could not have lost if things were truly on the up and up. By the way on this election, in contrast to the last, there were no BLM and Panthers acting as voting filters, no bussing of the homeless to the voting booth who by the way needed voting instructions along with a carton of cigarettes and a five dollar bill. And for me the other thing that puzzles me is that I had always thought Russia was the darling of the Left---oh, but that was when they were the tolerant and diversity promoting USSR. I get it.

The Crime of Faith Healing

A story comes out from Oregon about a couple that believes in faith healing and because they didn't make use of the medical profession and the baby died are being charged with murder. The story lampoons the fact that they prayed for their baby (heaven forbid!) and used natural medicinal oils in anointing and application. So had they forcibly had the baby suctioned out of the womb before the actual birth they would've been lauded as a modern emancipated couple not being tied to any outworn notion of the sanctity of the womb...but because this is after the fact of birth and I do indeed wonder if the fact that the couple actually believes in God's ability to heal---we know this now through science that this is a fallacious superstition---that this does not lend them sympathy in our Darwinian age. And of course we know that the State and Culture love children, and it is for this reason and this reason alone that they wish, through the full force of the law, to persecute. It has nothing to do with this so culpable couple being so superstitious, superstitious as Jesus who believed in the power of His Father to heal. All I can say is we better go back in time and jail Jarius who had the temerity to seek out the carpenter from Nazareth to heal his daughter.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Limited Spaces

Sign on private school reads: "Limited Spaces Available for Admission for the 2017: Sign up Now!" Well. Is there any question that the spaces are limited? Had the modifier not been used would anyone be under the impression the spaces were unlimited? Would anyone be of the opinion that the amount of chairs, pencils, labtops desks, would reasch into infinity? So if it is unwarranted for such a clarity "Limited" must have some purpose. It does. It manipulates us to cry: "Oh my goodness! I'll have to sign up, pay the tuition, enroll without a second to spare. The spaces are after all: LIMITED."
Using language without the intergrity words deserve we get into a sloppy habit of allowing ouselves to be seduced by language. We become open to propaganda. I think we do well to interrogate the texts. May our eyes and ears be filters for the falsehood so fashionable today.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Walking Tour with Another

There is nothing better at the end of a windswept rainy walking tour of Boston's Freedom Trail and the taking in of the Isabella Gardner Museum with a dear friend than visiting a Eucharistic Shrine and both of you staring ahead at the Creator of everything free and good and lovely.