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Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Currently
Paprika
Parade (Instrumental)
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I just saw something that said that any Christian argument against something ought to start from the Bible and not from pragmatic concerns.

THIS IS BULLSHIT.

Firstly let me say that I have NO PROBLEM with starting at the Bible.

Now then:

To say that a Christian argument against something cannot start from pragmatic concerns is stupid and dangerous. The fact of the matter is that if Yahweh created a rational universe, we can assume that HE is rational. Naturally I think that all supposed wisdom should be put up against scripture to check its clarity, but what does this assertion against pragmatism do to our image? Should we not be striving to appear more rational to the world? The fact of the matter is that the ground on which we stand has changed from the solid asphalt of Modernism to the muddy plains of Post Modernism. This is what the world is, and we cannot come at the problems of the world any longer from a Modernist, purely biblically based (though biblical soundness is a must) ground. The world simply WILL NOT HEAR IT. PERIOD.

Yahweh is rational as well as mysterious. The fact of the matter is that the mystical will not be revealed or make sense to those who are not ready to receive it. If we come to non-believers with the assertion that they must believe this mystical text without the application of thought, they WILL NOT LISTEN.

However, if we come to them with a firm ground of logic to stand upon, a boardwalk over this sandpit upon which we stand, then we will certainly gain more ground with them. It is later that the mystical nature of the Bible will be acceptable to them, once the insatiable lust for logic is satisfied (or, God willing, replaced with the acceptance of wonder) has been satiated.

Lewis used logic. Aquinas used logic. Luther used logic. We have all used logic, and no Truth that can be taught to others spiritually younger than ourselves has existed without some logical backing to aid in their transition into the mystical.

Then Sean wrote a paper about this, because this is a great fucking topic...

Friday, 09 January 2009

Currently
Silver (Extended Edition)
By Starflyer 59
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For Advanced Writing Class

We had to pick a unifying topic for all our writing this semester. I chose pain. This is what I wrote about the choosing of the topic itself.

    I hate picking topics. It's asking me to write for someone else, pleasing them and leaning to their tastes and not ruffling any feathers. It took me a while to come to a topic that didn't seem like a death sentence. I wanted to find something that left me free to explore, while still giving me clear guidelines. I wanted something that I could grasp onto like a steel railing while walking up the dilapidated stairs of my all but atrophied writing skills.
    I went for a long drive through the gray and white streets of Marion, trying to conjure up the things that had influenced me, things that were staples to my artistic influences. I looked to my favorite authors and artists, taking in every word and brush stroke and sucking desperately from it like a starving infant at a strange woman's breast; starving, but not at home. Then I paused. I looked at my own life. I looked at the things that had happened to me, I remembered the line that I first heard in the movie, Duplex. "Write what you know."
    Pain. I truly think there is no greater bond that humanity shares than the indescribable pain of living. To quote The Princess Bride, "Life is pain...". The Epic of Gilgamesh talks of the bond that is shared between two men who share hardship. Soldiers who endured the Vietnam War together have a stronger bond with each other than many of them do with their own families. There is no greater adhesive, no more omnipresent uniting force than utter, indescribable pain. This language is universal but difficult to communicate in words. Yet I, as a writer, am able to transmute it from abstract substance of thought into a tangible ink and paper portrait of the most universal aspect of the human experience.

Thursday, 04 December 2008

I'm single, and I feel free. But with this comes the wrenching pain of seeing Tesia be ok without me. I know she isn't thrilled, and I would rather her be ok while we both grow up separately. I am not ok, and I don't think I will be for some time. But I will be stronger than ever soon. I am picking up speed, and now I've got nothing in my way but my own stupidity and unwillingness to change. Soon I will have three weeks to heal and let God change me, whether it's my art, my spirit or my mind or soul. I will become great, I will become closer to Him in identity and relationship, and I will begin to bridge the gap between humanity and each other and YHVH. I will become something worthy of her... and maybe one day I will be good enough to have her back, and maybe I will even be able to foster growth in that spirit that I came to adore. Or maybe I won't! Maybe I will never be good enough to be with her again. And every time I see her I will be raped with pain when I think that I was not strong enough, not old enough to hold her to me. But Elohim is faithful and in control. He is all that I need, for he will give me what it is best to give me, and even if that is nothing for the rest of my life, I know, I KNOW that it will be the best for me. I know it in my spirit. Perhaps if I am merely a mystic and a student, if I am not a husband, lover and guardian I can become more, and when my capacity is greater, then I can finally be that for her... and maybe then she will still have me... I am terrified that she will be taken. I am afraid that she will be spirited away by someone who grew faster than me, who is greater than me. But I know she is scared of the same thing... But I think very strongly that even if I should lay upon another, even if my travels take me to new cities and new experiences, new faces and new familiarities, my spirit will always remember her. Afterall, it still remembers the tree...

Also, I got hit by a van going about 25-30 mph, flew 15 feet and fractured my leg

Monday, 10 November 2008

Currently Listening
Takk...
By Sigur Rós
Seaglopur
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The pointest teeth of dogs and men often go awry.

It tasted blood, the blood of the hand that reached out to caress its head softly, lovingly.

The white sank into the pink, through to the red, til the salty clear was drawn out. And then it knew its crime. It knew the cost of its release. the teeth that were once used softly to show love, and playfully to show desire sank now upon the softest flesh, the gentlest hands as it might the neck of a rabbit.

It tasted blood, it tasted shame, it tasted the sleeplessness of guilt, and the bitter ache of wrong.

Though it bit in fear, it bit true. It bit deep. And the taste shall bite it forever.