David Suchet as Hercule Poirot

The one I’m reading now features the elderly lady Jane Marple. She has been asked posthumously by a Mr. Rafiel, an immensely wealthy businessman, to investigate an injustice that occurred some years before. Mr. Rafiel had been suffering for 4 or 5 years with a painful, crippling illness. Yet he has continued to work–effectively–the whole time. His solicitor says that he earned 200,000 pounds in the last month of his life.

Dylan Thomas

Reminds me of the well known Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” written for his father:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The one I’m reading now features the elderly lady Jane Marple. She has been asked posthumously by a Mr. Rafiel, an immensely wealthy businessman, to investigate an injustice that occurred some years before. Mr. Rafiel had been suffering for 4 or 5 years with a painful, crippling illness. Yet he has continued to work–effectively–the whole time. His solicitor says that he earned 200,000 pounds in the last month of his life.



Reminds me of the well known Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” written for his father:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Of course this assumes I’m awake if trouble comes. But what if I’m asleep? From one point of view dying in my sleep is just what I want to do. But not if my wife isn’t here. So…

The last couple of nights I’ve found myself reluctant to go to sleep. I can’t help thinking of my father, who died at a much younger age than mine after suffering several heart attacks over a period of 8 or 9 years. Like me, he suffered from angina pain. I remember my mother’s telling me that he was reluctant to go to sleep, and that when he did he suffered terrible nightmares. The acorn didn’t fall from the oak.

* * * * *

A poem by Robert Frost:

The Span of Life

The old dog barks backward without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.

Again, I bit my tongue (figuratively), for two reasons: (a) As the old saying goes, “There’s some folks that, if they don’t know, you just can’t tell ’em.” This is about fear, anxiety, scapegoating. It really has little to do with well informed rational reflection. To respond is just pointless.

(b) The mail circulation list includes relatives and (at least casual) friends of mine. I don’t want the flames fired toward me to singe innocent bystanders.

Anyhow, here’s what I wrote before reminding myself write one, edit twice, and think thrice before hitting <send>.

Re Ronald Reagan, Sr.

The Reagan quote is, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” Obama’s being a seriously devout Christian, I doubt he would disagree.

I? Personally, I agree with Thomas Jefferson: He embraced the moral and ethical doctrine of Jesus, but rejected absolutely everything supernatural in the New Testament. And so, like Jefferson, I believe we should……

Heal the sick.
Feed the hungry.
Educate the unlearned.
Have an open enough heart to help the Samaritan as well as the Jew.
Not cast a stone unless we ourselves are without sin.
Etc.

The earliest Christians believed that Christ was going to return very, very soon. Consequently, they took literally the admonition in Matthew 19:21:

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Those members of the early church who honestly acted on their anticipation of an early return, selling or sharing everything they had, were wrong in their expectation, of course; and I don’t believe we should follow their example in that. Christian communism, same as atheist communism, has in every utopian experiment through the centuries proved not to be viable.  

But I do accept the principle: One is wealthy in proportion to what one gives. Giving individually (as I do) is a band-aid solution. Giving through a social or religious organization (as I do) is better, but obviously still limited. “Feel-goods” and circumscribed results notwithstanding, only when we all work together can we make a serious, structural difference in social reality. And only one organization can join all of us together in such an effort, independent of race, religion, national origin, or whatever. That’s the people as a whole, acting through institutions and initiatives of our elected officials. That is, the people acting through their government. Government R Us.

I’ve always had an insatiable intellectual curiosity, and I’m confident that as long as I remain compos mentis I’ll continue to have it. I remember being very young, staying up late reading. My mother would make me turn out the light, saying I would ruin my eyesight. So I would hide under the covers with a flashlight, continuing to read, trying to fool her. I’m sure many of you have done the same sort of thing.

Then, looking at images from Double Exposure’s annual contest, I saw this wonderful photo by Karen Ackles. I haven’t been able to contact her to ask permission, so I may have to take this down. In the meantime, though…

Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well- worn Bible: “I am a Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator and, I hope, to the pure doctrine of Jesus also.”

And it ended with this one:

James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: “We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”

I admit that, though I know better, I get pissed about stuff like this. (1) The quotes are cherry-picked and can easily be overwhelmed with other quotes that show a quite different reality. (2) The document presents itself as a rational argument but is in fact merely a potpourris of same-ol’, same-’ol. (3) The quotations are often misinterpreted, intentionally or not. (4) What’s the point!?!

OK. I’ll start with the last and work backward. I do know what the point is. The people who circulate such messages feel that their entire world is under attack, both from without and from within. They’re scared (though they might not admit it) and they’re angry. Their world is small. For many, indeed, it was created just @6000 years ago. It’s Christian, American, and white. It’s patriarchal. It’s suspicious of genuine higher education and, especially, science. It’s most definitely not a world from which one should expect rigorous scholarship and logic.

I get it, OK! I just needed to vent.

Misinterpretation. Take the two quotes above. The first talks about “the doctrines of Jesus.” Pointing this out is fair. But what does it mean? Jefferson created his own version of the New Testament. Basically he extracted the moral doctrine and rejected everything supernatural, including virgin birth and resurrection. Jefferson and Muhammad would have agreed amicably on this point: Jesus was a great moral teacher. But he wasn’t God or any other kind of supernatural being.

The second quote focuses on the Ten Commandments. It’s true that Christians embrace these teachings. So do Jews. So do Muslims. Point being? Does this prove that ours is a Christian plus Jewish plus Islamic nation? Yeah. Right.

Want some more quotes? Try these:

Jefferson’s interpretation of the first amendment in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (January 1, 1802): “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”

Jefferson’s “The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom”: “Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry. . . .”

Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (Query 17, “Religion”): “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. . . .”

Jefferson’s letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823: “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

From Jefferson’s biography: “…an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, ‘Jesus Christ…the holy author of our religion,’ which was rejected ‘By a great majority in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of every denomination.’”

John Adams from a letter to Charles Cushing (October 19, 1756): “Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, ‘this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.’”

Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli (June 7, 1797). Article 11 states: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

James Madison’s 1785 “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments”: “The Religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man.”

Everyone … well, lots of people, recognize the association of Dolly Madison (President James Madison’s First Lady, who served the treat at the White House) with ice cream. At least one commercial brand has used her name.

I’ve known that since elementary school. What I’ve never before known is that Dolly Madison’s favorite ice cream was flavored by oysters. Yes, oysters!!

Yeah, I know that at Gilroy, CA, they serve garlic flavored ice cream. Given the choice, though? I find the prospect of either oyster or garlic flavored ice cream … off-putting. But much better garlic than oysters.

Yuk!

* * * * *
Echoes from a less sophisticated time. Just before I took her daughter out on a date, the lady who became my mother-in-law admonished us, “I don’t mind your petting, but promise you won’t make out.” We readily agreed. In those days “making out” meant mostly just snuggling and kissing. “Petting” meant groping, definitely above the waist but more often than not drifting south.

* * * * *

Turns out that the phrase “having sex” has different meanings for different folks. These days a majority of young people in college do not consider fellatio or cunnilingus as “having sex.” I suspect the same is true for those of similar age who are not in college.

The status of anal sex is more ambiguous. But from as long ago as when I myself was in college, young women who had enjoyed anal sex but not vaginal sex still considered themselves “virgins.” The vaginal gates seem to enjoy special, mystical status–at least in some cultures.

Which brings us to Gov. Sanford. At one point in his televised psychodrama, the governor asserted that in his multiple previous liaisons he hadn’t crossed the sex line. Hmmm… “I did not have sex” vs. “I didn’t cross the sex line.”

Two thoughts. Most obviously, the multitude of deliberate duplicities and subconscious self-deception. Not to mention the absolutely brain-dead belief in “abstinence only” sex education. WTF? Something’s broken in American culture.

Second, we really need to distinguish between public and private behavior. They’re not discrete, obviously. Same person, same…? That’s the question, isn’t it. I’d say assess a person’s performance on her or his track record, not on unproven assumptions.

Consider the number of U.S. Presidents who have enjoyed either unmarried or extramarital sex. (Jefferson? FDR? Eisenhower? JFK? And on and on?) Then consider their performance in office. And finally consider the evidence for a relationship between the two.

* * * * *

Thus endeth the seriousness. Now beginneth the R-ratedness. One such take serious matters seriously. But one should never allow tight-sphinctered self-righteous priggishness to cloud practical judgment.