Proverbs 29…remind me not to pamper my servants *whip cracking*
Whoever pampers his servant from childhood will in the end find him his heir.
29:21
[the ESV assures me the translation of “heir” is problematic here]
The Gaeltacht, by Seamus Heaney
Could be the wildtrack of our gabble above the sea.
Seamus Heaney: Walking on Air against his better judgement, by Kevin Cullen
“He represented something better than we have grown used to, something not quite covered by the word ‘reconciliation’, because that word has become a policy word,” Seamus Heaney wrote in a tribute to his friend Sean Brown. “This was more like a purification, a release from what the Greeks called the miasma, the stain of spilled blood. It is a terrible irony that the man who organized such an event should die at the hands of a sectarian killer.”
Vote all you want: the secret government won’t change, by Jordan Michael Smith
IDEAS: Where does the term “double government” come from?
GLENNON:It comes from Walter Bagehot’s famous theory, unveiled in the 1860s. Bagehot was the scholar who presided over the birth of the Economist magazine—they still have a column named after him. Bagehot tried to explain in his book “The English Constitution” how the British government worked. He suggested that there are two sets of institutions. There are the “dignified institutions,” the monarchy and the House of Lords, which people erroneously believed ran the government. But he suggested that there was in reality a second set of institutions, which he referred to as the “efficient institutions,” that actually set governmental policy. And those were the House of Commons, the prime minister, and the British cabinet.
Nobody is surprised, right? I don’t even find this particularly disturbing: another way to describe a state is the area over which a power can exercise a monopoly of force. At least the principle of civilian oversight is honored even if the practical effects of congressional power are limited by the sheer scale of the imperium.
‘Cleaning the Dust from the Window’, by Robert Chandler
As for such poets as Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova, and others who were disaffected with the new reality, they were soon living in what Akhmatova called a ‘pre-Gutenberg’ age. They could no longer publish their own poems and it was dangerous to write them down. Akhmatova’s confidante, Lydia Chukovskaya, has described how writers would memorize one another’s works. Akhmatova would write out a poem on a scrap of paper. A visitor would read it—and Akhmatova would burn the paper. ‘It was,’ according to Chukovskaya, ‘like a ritual. Hands, matches, an ashtray. A ritual beautiful and bitter.’ Mandelstam died in a prison camp in 1938. Had his handling of rhyme, metre and other formal devices been less perfect, his widow might have been unable to preserve his work in her memory and much might have been lost.
The Mission: a last defense against genocide, by Jon Lee Anderson
Even so, Father Bernard’s persistent efforts have created a small area of safety. “At the hospital, we don’t get bothered by the antibalaka anymore, because they realize we also treat them,” Bernard said. A few Muslims remain in his care: the traumatized teen-age boy, the Peul girls with polio. The imam, too, is still there. When I met him, he was certain that he would one day resume his old life, and that the Muslims and Christians would learn to live together again. When I asked him how so much violence could be forgotten, he looked at me quizzically; it was a matter of faith, pure and simple. In the meantime, he was contributing what he could to Father Bernard’s work. An experienced tailor, he was earning his keep at the mission by sewing school uniforms. With God’s will, he said, he was living day by day.
I didn’t include the quote about the Christian cannibalizing the Muslim, but there, now you know about that bit too. Who is this imam? I want to hear his story. I hope he can go home eventually.
Distorted Love: the toll of our Christian theology on the LGBT Community, by John Pavlovitz
Jesus’ love, even if it came with hard words, somehow always seemed and felt like love. People were seen. They were heard. They were touched. They were left with more dignity than when they started. I’m not sure LGBT people can say the same about their encounters with most Christians.
Of what does the ministry of presence properly consist? Where do I go to flee from thy presence? Who is God willing to be present with whom I would shun?
The Ebola Conspiracy Theories, by Alan Feuer
Nonetheless, some scholars find value in conspiracy theories because they allow us to vent and give voice to hidden fears.
“I view these things as a way of framing the world, of offering us narratives,” Professor Fenster said. “And they’re not necessarily a bad thing. Conspiracy theories are something that’s available in American discourse as a way of telling stories, as a way of explaining who we are.”
In other words: we’re telling the truth even when all the facts are wrong, but perhaps the truth is so powerful naked that we need to clothe it in elaborate fantasy to even get close to it. Admitting victimhood is not a very glamorous confession.
Lectios and Writios for a Round Round World 