George Wilson cover from
Gold Key Comics found on
The Bristol Board.   I have
(a) no idea what the story
was like and (b) no desire to
find out for fear it will fail
to live up to the glorious
insanity of this cover.

…are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls

Some years ago I put out a set of records called Love, Serve, Remember.  The records – which had music, readings from the Gospel of John, and all kinds of neat things – came in an album with a beautiful booklet with text and pictures.  It was a wonderful package, and we sold we sold it by mail order for about $4.50.

I showed the album to my father.  Dad was a wealthy Boston Lawyer – a conservative Republican, a capitalist, and, at the time, the President of a railroad.  He looked over the album and said, “Great job here!  But, gee, you know – four and a half dollars?  You could probably sell this for ten dollars – fifteen dollars, even!”

I said, “Yeah, I know”

“Would fewer people buy in if it were more expensive?,” he asked.

“No,” I relied. “Probably the same number would buy it”

“Well I don’t understand you,” he pressed on.  “You would sell it for ten, and your selling it for four- fifty? What’s wrong, are you against capitalism or something?”

I tried to figure out how to explain to him how our approaches are differed.  I said, “Dad didn’t you just try a law case for Uncle Henry?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “ and it was a damned tough case.  I spent a lot of time in the law library.”

I asked, “Did you win the case?”  And he answered, “Yeah, I won it.”

Now, my father was a very successful attorney, and he charged fees that were commensurate with his reputation.  So I continued. “Well, I bet you charged him a hand and a leg for that one.”

Dad was indignant at the suggestion.  “What, are you out of your mind?  That’s Uncle Henry – I couldn’t charge him.”

“Well, that’s my problem,” I said.  “If you find anyone who isn’t Uncle Henry, I’ll rip them off.”

– Ram Dass

“The truth is, evangelical Christians have already ‘lost’ the culture wars. And it’s not because the ‘other side’ won or because evangelicals have failed to protect our own religious liberties.  Evangelicals lost the culture wars the moment they committed to fighting them, the moment they decided to stop washing feet and start waging war.  

“And I fear that we’ve lost not only the culture wars, but also our Christian identity, when the  ’right to refuse’ service has become a more sincerely-held and widely-known Christian belief than the impulse to give it.” – Rachel Held Evans

Life is like a s4!t sandwich:  The more bread you’ve got  the less s4!t you eat.

But maybe the eating of s4!t is inescapable if one insists on eating bread

Maybe we’re better off consuming something else

If you can only think in terms of bread, you will always be consuming s4!t

Maybe the people who disagree with this
are people who lack the imagination
to eat something else

Or maybe they are people corrupted by bread
and support the system because if they have to eat s4!t
they’re gonna make dang sure other people have to eat more

Looks nice, doesn’t it?  This long exposure photo was taken by Cui Yongjiang in rural Yunnan Province in southwest China.  Look at the soft glow of the village lights…the way the stars reflect off the terraces of water…

Wanna see what the area looks like in daylight?

Quite a difference, huh?

So, is beauty an illusion,
an artificial construct of the mind?

Or is it always there, and
we just have to have the wisdom
to know where to look for it and
the patience for it to present itself…

found via Astronomy Picture Of The Day

“So exactly what does ‘han’ mean in Korean?”

“Well, it can have several meanings depending on the context.”

“What about the one that means ‘loneliness’ or ‘isolation’?”

“Hmm, I suppose it can mean that,
but that’s only a small part of it. 
It would also include great sadness and hatred.”

“So, it’s kind of like the blues.”

“No, not like the blues.  That’s too soft. 
If you say your heart is filled with han,
it means you are full of anger and sadness
and hatred and despair and loneliness past
the most extreme feelings you can bear. 
It means you’ve gone to the end and
there is no turning back.”

“Oh. 
So in other words,
Batman has han.”

“Yes!  Exactly!”

art by Frank Miller
Batman (c) & TM DC

…are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls

You’re stepping out for a night on the town with your beloved and just as you’re about to enter the very very tres ritze’ restaurant where you’ve booked reservations months in advance…

…you encounter the town’s most notorious hamster diddler.

And there’s no doubt this person diddles hamsters: 
Not only have they been convicted of hamster diddling in the first, second, and third degrees but they also have a website where they’ve uploaded selfies of themselves diddling hamsters.

And as you’re entering and the hamster diddler is leaving, they lean over to you and say:

“Don’t go in there,
the kitchen is on fire!”

Now, do you:

(a)  Ignore whatever that damned hamster diddler has to say because =feh!= they’re a hamster diddler, f’r cryin’ out loud! and proudly march into the restaurant.
………………… …or…
(b)  Do you look inside to ascertain if you can see smoke and/or cooks running around screaming with flames billowing off of their chef’s hats?

Because if — if! — the hamster diddler is telling the truth that’s valuable information to know!

Got into an interesting
online discussion with
someone regarding
the previous post.

Essentially the person I was discussing the topic with wanted no part of Bertrand Russell on the grounds he was an atheist[1] who favored big government.[2]

Okay, be that as it may,
does any of that negate
the validity of what he said?

The truth, as Agent Mulder frequently reminded us, is out there.
And it doesn’t matter from whose lips or depraved fingers it may fall.
It’s either true or it’s not.

The ancient church had no problem accepting the findings of pagans, polytheists, Mithrans, Muslims, Hindus, diests, Gnostics, and agnostics in matters pertaining to things outside the theological realm.

Their findings in science & math & metallurgy & medicine & engineering either worked…

…or it didn’t work.

And if it didn’t work it didn’t matter how bona fide their bona fides were:  It didn’t work!

And if it did work — It worked! — no matter how how suspect their philosophical and/or theological roots.

You are not betraying your faith — whatever it may be — to look at something a person of another faith[3] did and say, “Yeah, in that particular area they’re right”.

It doesn’t touch your theological underpinnings,
it doesn’t crumple up your church.
You just acknowledge it

Accept it

And move on.

We have far too often allowed ourselves to be divided[4] and have far too often followed blindly when some pundit tells us “We are always right, they are always wrong; ignore everything they have to say and especially don’t listen to anything that contradicts what you’ve been told by us!”

First off, anybody who is confident they speak / write the truth has no bashfulness re confronting contrarian opinions:  They will either expose weaknesses in their own thinking, or at the very least give us an opportunity to understand why those with opposing points of view possess those views.

Second, no mortal human being, not even yrs trly is always 100% right all the time[5], and even a sincere person who is absolutely right re a particular situation today may be wrong on that same situation tomorrow as new evidence comes in or conditions change.

‘Twas ever thus…

Bottom line:
Don’t automatically dismiss something a hamster diddler has to say.

Not unless you want to have your after dinner mints in the burn ward.

art by Drew Friedman

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[1]  Yes.

[2]  Arguable.

[3]  Or non-faith. 

[4]  And, truth be told, too willingly — nay, eagerly! — participate in the divisiveness.

[5]  Although some folks have some pretty decent batting averages.