RUDIMENTS, pt. 515
(penitential omnipotence)
My own ways of processing
thought, I think, were always
different. I was never one for
much of that slap-back happy
guy stuff, and I liked to measure
progress (and prosperity) by
intangibles; things other people
would look at me crazily for.
(They would also look at me
AS IF I was crazy, but that's
a different thought - if you
take the time to compare the
two statements, you'll see).
Items that would preoccupy
me for hours would make
other people deliriously
bored. I got away with a
lot of that in the seminary,
because it could all be easily
concealed as either 'praying'
or 'studying.' One great hook
in to a million things language
wise was the study of Latin.
Like the word omnipotent -
it was most often, in seminary
days, used as the character
description for God - The
Father. These distinctions had
to be made, because, I don't
think, the claim of omnipotence
was ever given to Jesus - a
chip off the old block, if you
will. That always struck me
as strange, that diminishment,
but I guess it wasn't hereditary.
It kind of always baffled me, but
no one really dwelt too much
on that stuff. They just went
along. I always felt as if I was
on a pony express wagon, one
surging westward - the wagon's
running, it's loaded up with mail,
everything's running along, so
DON'T stop and inspect the
wheels, OK (?). OK.
-
If you break it down, Latin wise,
it's merely the combined effort
of OMNI, which means 'all' -
like a bus has 'omnibus' plates,
and POTENT, which, obviously,
means power, strength, potency.
OK, that's pretty clear. (You can
do that with Latin, because must
of our words now, or a lot of
them anyway, can easily be
distilled down to their roots).
It all always fascinated me,
and a lot of really magical
stuff, by it, has come through.
Like the simple word 'today.'
Way back, in Latin days, it
was 'hoc die' - which means
'this day'. Then, still in Latin,
it was shortened down to
'hodie,' (ho-dee-ay) which
is Latin for 'today.' Then,
over the years and through
all those settlements and
tribal meshes and wars and
all long after the Romans,
it entered the Germanic and
English tongues, as they
slowly developed, as a
variant - our 'today.' So
very cool, no? This sort of
thing happened thousands
of times, and if you still
study the language and its
uses, examples of such can
be found most everywhere.
-
So, back to omnipotent -
man, that was quite the
concept to throw around.
It is, in its reality, just a
word, but these doctrinaire
clerics and religious guys,
they handled that word as
if it was nothing more than
some scrambled eggs on a
platter. 'Ho-Hum, so boring!'
Not for me, ever. (And another
thing, how did 'clerics' - church
people, who do clerical things,
how did that word get turned
over to the sort of boring
office work and 'clerical' details
that keep so many so busy
for so little. Talk about
diminishment!)....The
complete concept of 'God'
and the extent of omnipotence
baffled me. First off, it is NOT
in any way a comparative word,
which makes it already difficult
to grasp. There can be no
'degrees' of omnipotence; it's
either all or nothing. And if
one guy has it, like this God
concept portrays, then no one
else, no other entity, can
equally have it, nor any part
of it, since it's not a comparative
word, as I said. It was always
my personal inclination to see
that as the origin of 'Devil,'
such being another (losing)
claimant to 'Omnipotence'
or even some part of it
(though impossible). That
then was the breaking point
among all those Divine
creatures. Lucifer, after
all (Latin again) being
made up of the Latinate
factor for 'light.' But,
apparently, 'fallen' too.
I could see all this with
the ancient Gods, all
those Assyrian, Egyptian,
and Mesoptamian Gods,
and the Greek Gods on
Mount Olympus and all.
always brawling and
fighting with each other,
stealing God wives and
special talents and the
rest. But the Judaic
thing, One G-d, amid
reverence and perfection,
anger, war, no foibles,
and then its influence
and transfer into all the
Christian later civilization
things we know of - it
just never washed. I had
more faith in those twisted
weirdos from the Salem
Witch Trials than I did
in these stories of power
and glory. At least the
witch goons, and the
accusers and torturers
and killers, were tainted
and flawed people. Any
'Omnipotence' was the
last thing on their mind.
More like 'Pittance.'
-
Does all this get pretty
boring? I'm not sure
people even really like
to read anymore, but
these strings of words
that I patch together, I
always try to keep ideas
twisting within them,
and, as well, I throw
in zingers that become
un-missable. Remarkable.
Like 'able to be remarked
upon,' which is somehow
a combination of 'mark' and
then 're'mark, as in go back
and do it again. If you can't
be quite, well Hell, say
something, anything.
Lucifer.
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