13,037. RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,138

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,138

(incense and peppermint / magic and vice)

I saw a sign the other

day, something about

tori amos, which I read,

unfortunately, as 'oat rims.'

which is close but not exact,

and I wasn't even sure who

she was  -  just one of those

names you get by osmosis.

And then, unbelievably, as I

was leaving the state I saw a

building clearly marked, 'New

Jersey Department of Inspiration.'

Except it wasn't that; it was

'Transportation.' Too bad.

My life is all about such

disappointments.

-

Which led me to other things, as

usually happens : I remembered

there being something called 'The

Magnificat.' It's a prayer, I guess

it's Catholic only, not sure, or a

reaction anyway, by Mary,

supposedly uttered after the

'angel' announces to her that

she was to carry and give birth

to Jesus, in whatever mysterious

way those Bible tales tell it.

All well and good, and believe

what you will. It was all a long

time ago (even though in reality

such matters become part of the

'eternal present,' and have little

to do with time). I was once again

thinking about it, as I remember

I used to do a lot, long ago, in

seminary days. I always figured

all that pre-societal and biblical

stuff to be before any of us had

the inklings of social order, income

variations, levels, etc., by which

current society, with its millions

of special niches, made us and the

present day what we are. So it

surprised me to realize (apparently

it's now simply called 'Song of Mary'

and the 'Magnificat' thing goes unused.

Anyway, it's also Luke 1:46-55), that

deep within it are the following two

lines : "He has filled the hungry with

good things but has sent the rich away

empty."

-

Man, that's a real slammer, and to

think that it's from 2000 some

years ago is even crazier. Tiered

society? Anger and envy? Greed

and revenge? What weird sentiments,

and what an odd view of God that

all is. I was floored to realize that

some sort of insidious rich vs. poor

strife was always going on, and

had been  -  even in that context.

Super-strange to me. And then,

if you recall, that whole Jesus

thing about how it would be

easier for a rich man to pass

through the eye of a needle 

that it would be for him to 

enter Heaven! Man, that must

have come across as some pretty 

radical stuff. No wonder he got

the death penalty (even though

they say he was always supposed

to), and by his own people no

less! The entire thing came across

as so bizarre  -  seemingly a ton

of cosmic preparation, into which

every little piece fit, all that

Line of David stuff, etc., for

the sake of three short years of

public ministry, then Death, and

then three more days in a tomb?

Nothing seemed right about it,

even taking it all on faith and 

such. You take it out of the

story, and its context, and then

the whole thing also has to stand

outside of Nature. Why? because

Nature is efficient, doesn't waste

steps, and doesn't throw morals

or values around. The leopard

kills the antelope, or whatever,

and the dead carcass is meat 

and bones for others' feasts,

not a deal wasted at all.

-

I have to be truthful and say that

growing up American, I really

never had an issue with that idea 

of stratified society and rich people

and all that. The contrasts never

meant anything to me -  all those

Cadillacs and Imperials and the

rest, some people just had that

stuff, others had 6-year old Fords

or Chevies. So what? Some people

were doctors and lawyers, and

some kids were doctors' and 

lawyers' kids. Money wasn't all

it was cracked up to be, and I

was quite happy, it seemed, with

my own meager level of existence.

On the other hand, all that angel

annunciation stuff, and all the

preparation and events and drama,

seems to have all gone for naught.

Inefficient use of time and of 

resources.  I'm talking here from

Nature's view, not religion, which

anyone can take up on their own

and the faith angles and all that.

I'm just saying, we're physical

beings in a physical plane and

Nature doesn't skip beats in

order to make miracles.
-
Another thing, if one is inclined
to think along those terms of
His ministry and miracles and
walking on water and raising the
dead and all that, was how, if
so, I felt that a person should
accept those things and go all
out for them. Stand for something.
Yes, your guy walked on water
and made water into wine.
But instead, what you get are
all these half-witted  slackers
who, while acceptant of it all, do
profess that one needn't believe 
any of that, that those New
Testament stories are merely 
allegorical, symbolic  -  even that 
the 'eye of the needle' image didn't
mean what it said. That it was
called that and was actually a
real place, a 'narrow passage in 
the Sinai that camels and travelers 
had great difficulty getting through 
on their treks. That it was all story-line 
and another one of the visual allegoric 
scenes,  as presented by Jesus for the
everyday person to grasp. What a
load of bunkum! Stand up for yourself
and for your beliefs, if you've got them.
Or I'll have to come up with some
allegorical story about a weasel so you'll 
understand it in very common terms.

-

That's a whole lot of learning

to take up and absorb, and all

through History it's the religion 

guys who were always trying to 

STOP things from progressing 

or moving on. They had too

much invested, all around, in

keeping people weak and 

fettered, shut down and, as

well, convinced they were

powerless. Incense and

peppermint? Magic and vice?

Yeah, go ask the Vatican

about all that.