This Title Is Not A Title (similarly productive reasoning follows!)
Today I was out driving in the bright sun, on a shopping errand, when something caught my interest on the radio. My perverse interest.
There was a radio preacher apparently advertising trips to the Holy Land. He wasn't just giving it a passing mention–there was more salesmanship than that. A significant portion of his airtime was being used. He even gave the mic to a middle-eastern-sounding tour guide, who said travelers would be eating fine cuisine, staying in some of the finest hotels in Israel (porters would be provided, of course), and riding in the most luxurious of tour buses.
In total luxury, they would hit all the hot spots: the cramped stable where Christ was born, the wilderness where He went without food, the hill where He died thirsty and bleeding, not to mention the location where Christ told us "blessed be ye poor," and "woe to you who are rich."
I thought it all sounded strangely medieval, maybe something to be pedaled by one of the more corrupt characters in The Canterbury Tales. Or maybe like something from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Celestial Railroad, in which the hard path to the Celestial City had been improved with a convenient train system.
It's the kind of thing that makes me want to sell all my stuff, including this silly laptop, and give graciously to the poor.
Because maybe then I could say someday, after much poverty and toil, not with a lot of outward arrogance, but softly to myself, "Now, Mark, you–as opposed to them–have lived an exemplary life."
I could maybe quote Robert Frost or something: "Two roads diverged in the wood, and I–I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Yeah, all the difference, you opulent tax collectors.
Maybe, on second thought, I could just pray for the radio preacher and all those rich crusaders. Because, I believe in God, you know. At least I'm not like those heathens.
Or maybe I could just ask for mercy.
2007-01-26 at 11.39 pm
I like reading your posts, Mark! And for the record, I don't think your reasoning is unproductive. :)
2007-01-27 at 12.08 am
Hmm, read this soon after reading the Slacktivist's latest Left Behind review — for those not familiar with that blog, he is doing an in-depth analysis of "Left Behind", a few pages every week. In this one he bemoans the characterization of the antichrist character, and inspired several readers to come up with "anti-beatitudes" which a real antichrist might espouse. You know, along the lines of:
"Blessed are the rich in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"Blessed are those who rejoice, for they shall be comforted."
"Blessed are the proud, for they shall inherit the earth."
It's surprising how completely reversing the meaning results in what sounds, at first, like such a subtle difference.
2007-01-27 at 10.56 am
"Fail. Fail again. Fail better."-Samuel Beckett
Good luck. That's a tricky one. I myself am setting up a new project/profession for myself, partially out of ethical concerns.
2007-01-28 at 8.04 pm
Thank you, Karen.
Kevin, that's interesting–reversed meanings give me an oblique sort of insight into the original meanings.
John, I totally agree with Beckett. I would be interested to hear about what sort of project you have.
2007-01-29 at 11.36 am
I had an earlier version of this post that got lost. Alas, it was much clearer.
I am restarting grad school in Fall 2008 in order to examine the question "Can public/open and personal planning be integrated via synthetic means at the scale of the general public?" both theoretically and by constructing a preliminary software platform. I have interest from both the Future Studies and Participatory Geographic Information Systems communities. If the answer to the research question is affirmative, I will be pretty far along in constructing a distributed social-networking/decision planning tool that will allow people to hook into careers, lifestyles, and communities based on their consensus with others about how they want the future to unfold. Currently, I'm trying to work out the funding situation and build up an understanding among possible power-users and co-developers. This goes slowly.
2007-01-30 at 10.34 am
Kevin is adjusting the spam filter.