Don't know too much about sheep. [Recite in cadence & lilt: don' (leave out the 't') know too much (roll higher) 'bout sheep (a lower high-roll; barest hint of two-syllable). Musical, you see].
In any case. Don't know too much about lemmings, either, save that famous joke (Far Side) about lemmings going over the cliff edge--it was my oldest (longest?) housemate's favourite joke--(he has graduated from my former spin of "X," tossed off as though it were a title, hard-won.
For both of us. But to borrow from Yeats (and poorly), marriages come; marriages go; all things remain in God).
One should always keep an old friend or two in one's back pocket.
Don't remember the punch line.
[In cadence (my preferred language): I never pronounce the "t" in don't. It's almost like an affected Mafia 'tough'--I do like the high drama of the fiction of our lives & play it whenever I can. Makes me hard to live with, I'd imagine.
But nobody lives with me, so there.]
Just remember all those lemmings going over the edge of the cliff.
Sheep--lemmings--now, I do know cows. But only b/c I'm an American & I have a TV & I watch it every day (it keeps me company) & I see cows on a whole lot of commercials (& even the news). [Who' lot--the Southern, sometimes, resembles French in leaving off/slurring into the next sound, even without the Mafia tough.]
In any case. Don't know too much about lemmings, either, save that famous joke (Far Side) about lemmings going over the cliff edge--it was my oldest (longest?) housemate's favourite joke--(he has graduated from my former spin of "X," tossed off as though it were a title, hard-won.
For both of us. But to borrow from Yeats (and poorly), marriages come; marriages go; all things remain in God).
One should always keep an old friend or two in one's back pocket.
Don't remember the punch line.
[In cadence (my preferred language): I never pronounce the "t" in don't. It's almost like an affected Mafia 'tough'--I do like the high drama of the fiction of our lives & play it whenever I can. Makes me hard to live with, I'd imagine.
But nobody lives with me, so there.]
Just remember all those lemmings going over the edge of the cliff.
Sheep--lemmings--now, I do know cows. But only b/c I'm an American & I have a TV & I watch it every day (it keeps me company) & I see cows on a whole lot of commercials (& even the news). [Who' lot--the Southern, sometimes, resembles French in leaving off/slurring into the next sound, even without the Mafia tough.]
[Err... :-)
(Just in case you have a Mafia or 2 in your back pocket.)]
[Don't quite know (don' quite no) whether Mafia kind of (kinda) guys have a sense of humor.
But I do.]
And I would tend to describe cows by borrowing the eyes of a sheep (it is getting difficult after that recent news footage
: - (
to even consider hamburger meat, much as I prefer it in my chili, even if it weren't already difficult because of price)--those haunting soft-sad eyes, so big, so liquid, so--err, sheeplike.
All we like sheep. Seems to me the phrasing has always resonated more towards our Complete Stupidity and Inability to Do More than Sway & Chew Cud, dreamlike in our--err. Dreamlike-edness. As much as--okay, need.
Defencelessness.
Inability to get past-- um, something. I don't know what--hey, this does get tiring! Always having an opinion about something!
: - (
to even consider hamburger meat, much as I prefer it in my chili, even if it weren't already difficult because of price)--those haunting soft-sad eyes, so big, so liquid, so--err, sheeplike.
All we like sheep. Seems to me the phrasing has always resonated more towards our Complete Stupidity and Inability to Do More than Sway & Chew Cud, dreamlike in our--err. Dreamlike-edness. As much as--okay, need.
Defencelessness.
Inability to get past-- um, something. I don't know what--hey, this does get tiring! Always having an opinion about something!
Maybe just that necessity to be led...n-e-c-e-s-s-i-t-y (didn't I mention somewhere that little quirk about nobody trusting the language anymore; all these little visuals to get past Those of You Who Skim...)
Which I associate with cows. Umm. Needing to be led. Not skimming.
Which I associate with cows. Umm. Needing to be led. Not skimming.
Though one must wonder...
Moving right along, one must posit, what is the opposite of a cow. Or, as it were, a sheep. Would it be a ram, butting and out for himself? Seems the image does not really have an opposite (the, err, Image Mandated)...all we like sheep: shared humanity, shared distance from the One from-whom-we-are-distinct (i.e., the only One who might gain the designation of Ram...)--.
But that one has never been--.
Hm.
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Okay. A ram, then, though not necessarily butting anything in its path or out for Himself...
But I have tangented. As always. How to tell a tale without tangenting is something I do not know--an older day I spring from--in the South, back in the day, it was too hot to do anything anyway but sit on the porch drinking tea as the day grew long & I can't come up with much of anything that would make a better storyteller.
Not that my stories spring from that day, to be sure.
Can't really imagine anywhere hotter than the Chattahoochee Valley in Georgia, unless it's that geographical necessity to the southern portion of the state; I remember going with the kids to Westville after years of air-conditioned Atlanta (that city forever held as Not Its Own by Georgia rural folk)--to even get from one minute to the next was just not possible in that heat.
But I digress. All we like sheep. Kinda wonder, then, if the image of sheep comes from the reality that sheep were the livestock of the ancient Middle East and had it been otherwise, the phrasing might indeed be, all we like cows...don't know that it would have had the same ring, though mayhap McDonald's has something to do with that. Places anyone who wishes can go with that--cows, sheep, global warming, the current condition of forests being cut down for pastures to feed cows/sell beef, methane gas, greed, automobiles...
You can go just about anywhere with anything these days, you see.
The fiction of 'facts.'
The graver fiction of what we do with facts. And (simply because I must), a reality that even applies to inspiration (which is the tricky delineator in a faith given by Someone Who Can't Be Seen) --what an individual pulls from this fact or that--this book or that--this God or that...
It'll be a long time, you see, before we reach Peter's Gate & find out the real truth. (For each of us, an entire lifetime.)
But that one has never been--.
Hm.
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Okay. A ram, then, though not necessarily butting anything in its path or out for Himself...
But I have tangented. As always. How to tell a tale without tangenting is something I do not know--an older day I spring from--in the South, back in the day, it was too hot to do anything anyway but sit on the porch drinking tea as the day grew long & I can't come up with much of anything that would make a better storyteller.
Not that my stories spring from that day, to be sure.
Can't really imagine anywhere hotter than the Chattahoochee Valley in Georgia, unless it's that geographical necessity to the southern portion of the state; I remember going with the kids to Westville after years of air-conditioned Atlanta (that city forever held as Not Its Own by Georgia rural folk)--to even get from one minute to the next was just not possible in that heat.
But I digress. All we like sheep. Kinda wonder, then, if the image of sheep comes from the reality that sheep were the livestock of the ancient Middle East and had it been otherwise, the phrasing might indeed be, all we like cows...don't know that it would have had the same ring, though mayhap McDonald's has something to do with that. Places anyone who wishes can go with that--cows, sheep, global warming, the current condition of forests being cut down for pastures to feed cows/sell beef, methane gas, greed, automobiles...
You can go just about anywhere with anything these days, you see.
The fiction of 'facts.'
The graver fiction of what we do with facts. And (simply because I must), a reality that even applies to inspiration (which is the tricky delineator in a faith given by Someone Who Can't Be Seen) --what an individual pulls from this fact or that--this book or that--this God or that...
It'll be a long time, you see, before we reach Peter's Gate & find out the real truth. (For each of us, an entire lifetime.)
:-)
And until then--it's kinda dark down here, you know.
All we like sheep. Okay. Bear with me, here. The history of the ancient Church fascinates me--it is a Church administrated, organized & governed by men.
Men (okay, and now, women) trying to legislate the Divine.
Trying to put the spin on that Divine that best fits their agenda.
Sorry about that, but it is true. Wasn't true, in the very earliest formation of the Church--a lot of historians out there who could do with a goodly dose of theology--but we'll examine that another day.
And until then--it's kinda dark down here, you know.
All we like sheep. Okay. Bear with me, here. The history of the ancient Church fascinates me--it is a Church administrated, organized & governed by men.
Men (okay, and now, women) trying to legislate the Divine.
Trying to put the spin on that Divine that best fits their agenda.
Sorry about that, but it is true. Wasn't true, in the very earliest formation of the Church--a lot of historians out there who could do with a goodly dose of theology--but we'll examine that another day.
And it too quickly became a part of it, anyway.
('Nother day, 'nother day.) Being right about a thing matters more to most of us than knowing truth. And for those who are of the Christian persuasion, one might remind that inspiration was extremely important in the early Church.
So important that a parameter needed to be established for it.
(And it wasn't 'what the Elders said.')
Shepherding was likewise of grave importance.
('Nother day, 'nother day.) Being right about a thing matters more to most of us than knowing truth. And for those who are of the Christian persuasion, one might remind that inspiration was extremely important in the early Church.
So important that a parameter needed to be established for it.
(And it wasn't 'what the Elders said.')
Shepherding was likewise of grave importance.
Now it seems to me that making claims on behalf of a Divine would be a matter of Extreme Caution for those inclined to trust inspiration (and I am in their camp).
But it likewise seems that to trust a rule without inspiration would be its own cautionary note, as, indeed, to trust a [human] leader without questioning him every step of the way.
But it likewise seems that to trust a rule without inspiration would be its own cautionary note, as, indeed, to trust a [human] leader without questioning him every step of the way.
And the rest of that will do--I have tangented badly here--for another post.
Because what this is all about is a really vile email that is circulating the Internet these days (I have seen it in various forms) regarding the religion (& other details) of Barack Obama.
This latest version added the detail from both Scripture and a woman's 'inspiration' regarding Obama being--well, right up there with the Anti-Christ.
Because what this is all about is a really vile email that is circulating the Internet these days (I have seen it in various forms) regarding the religion (& other details) of Barack Obama.
This latest version added the detail from both Scripture and a woman's 'inspiration' regarding Obama being--well, right up there with the Anti-Christ.
That kinda concerned me.
Hence all the above.
But it disturbs as well because it quotes--or, as I should--misquotes--misrepresents, to be more to the point, a website known for its fidelity to factual information (that which can be regarded completely & fully under the umbrella term of 'factual')--to ferreting out the facts in similar misuses: it misrepresents that site as agreeing with it.
But it disturbs as well because it quotes--or, as I should--misquotes--misrepresents, to be more to the point, a website known for its fidelity to factual information (that which can be regarded completely & fully under the umbrella term of 'factual')--to ferreting out the facts in similar misuses: it misrepresents that site as agreeing with it.
If you actually go to that site, you find it repudiates completely everything the email says.
Check your sources, sheep!
Don't assume because it says so, it is so!
Barack Obama is a Christian. And--I don't know [leave out the 't', remember] how a man can have a white mother and a black father and be regarded 'black.' (Though the designation "African-American" would cover the bases were it not for the small detail that the designator is a replacement for 'black.')
[And alright already. I do know.]
But I am making a point here. If one is going to introduce/make an issue of racial identity, Mr. Obama dually derives from both black and white ancestry. Equally. His children will not have that reality.
But he does.
Last time I checked, we didn't have a lot of gray people wandering about here in America. Rather a curiousity. People tend to (and historically have) become either white (in the day, that was called 'passing,' if I remember correctly) (and hide their ancestry) or black (and forget they ever had any 'white' in them--or, more to the point--they may remember but the world does not).
But I am making a point here. If one is going to introduce/make an issue of racial identity, Mr. Obama dually derives from both black and white ancestry. Equally. His children will not have that reality.
But he does.
Last time I checked, we didn't have a lot of gray people wandering about here in America. Rather a curiousity. People tend to (and historically have) become either white (in the day, that was called 'passing,' if I remember correctly) (and hide their ancestry) or black (and forget they ever had any 'white' in them--or, more to the point--they may remember but the world does not).
That becomes less so, to be sure, now; both the notion of being bi-racial and the resulting turmoil in choosing 'identity' bring up issues that are ontological & primal & of immense fascination, to be sure, to anyone concerned with What It Is (or Isn't) To Be Human...
But more of us aren't than are (lacking in being fascinated by; not in being human) (oh, that was a joke, & a pointed one) & maybe that is the way of--.
Err.
Sheep. Who wander the pasture, chewing cud. (Ok, I said I knew cows. Who knows what sheep do!)
In any case. In today's world, we kinda prefer a thing to stick to one topic only. The scurrilous email referenced above doesn't stop with just one 'fact' about Mr. Obama.
But more of us aren't than are (lacking in being fascinated by; not in being human) (oh, that was a joke, & a pointed one) & maybe that is the way of--.
Err.
Sheep. Who wander the pasture, chewing cud. (Ok, I said I knew cows. Who knows what sheep do!)
In any case. In today's world, we kinda prefer a thing to stick to one topic only. The scurrilous email referenced above doesn't stop with just one 'fact' about Mr. Obama.
But I will leave it there.
I guess that's why I like blogging.
Wander here at will. N'est ce pas?
[Editor's Note(s). We'd like to hope here that the email in question has bitten the dust by now. But life being what it is...
And it is Mother's Day & seems a certain editor should be able to take off without having to look up all the myriad citations Wren has chosen for her nest this time....
However, as one must:
Crazy Jane on God, W.B. Yeats, turn of the century English poet - "Men come, men go, all things remain in God. "
Very much commend the poem to anyone reading.
And, to be sure, those poor cows of recent footage that were too sick to stand and thus not 'good enough' to be butchered - they must walk to their deaths and these could not. Someone was goading them with pricks to get the poor creatures to stand and move down the line...
And we will leave the ironies inherent in having to walk to your death without further commentary. It is quite sufficient without us.
Okay, okay. No one likes to research citations quite so much as we do so we will at least leave you with the two major ones and you can look them up if needed.
Isaiah 53:6 Genesis 22:13
Prizing blue eyes and red hair quite so much as I do, I can't imagine that we will ever reach a place where the 'colour of a person's skin' is something that does not matter.
But I suspect we will learn to prize it just as much (& as innocently) as I do the above.]
I guess that's why I like blogging.
Wander here at will. N'est ce pas?
[Editor's Note(s). We'd like to hope here that the email in question has bitten the dust by now. But life being what it is...
And it is Mother's Day & seems a certain editor should be able to take off without having to look up all the myriad citations Wren has chosen for her nest this time....
However, as one must:
Crazy Jane on God, W.B. Yeats, turn of the century English poet - "Men come, men go, all things remain in God. "
Very much commend the poem to anyone reading.
And, to be sure, those poor cows of recent footage that were too sick to stand and thus not 'good enough' to be butchered - they must walk to their deaths and these could not. Someone was goading them with pricks to get the poor creatures to stand and move down the line...
And we will leave the ironies inherent in having to walk to your death without further commentary. It is quite sufficient without us.
Okay, okay. No one likes to research citations quite so much as we do so we will at least leave you with the two major ones and you can look them up if needed.
Isaiah 53:6 Genesis 22:13
Prizing blue eyes and red hair quite so much as I do, I can't imagine that we will ever reach a place where the 'colour of a person's skin' is something that does not matter.
But I suspect we will learn to prize it just as much (& as innocently) as I do the above.]
1 comments:
Actually it wasn't a Gary Larson cartoon...though you'd swear it was a Far Side...I can't remember the artist's name now...it was a coffee cup with a herd of cattle following behind a lead cow...all dumbly smiling...none of them realizing that just beyond them was a steep cliff over which they were all about to plunge. The caption read, "As if we all knew exactly where we're going!"
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