Yeah, Life's Like That

From an interview with Christopher Moore:

4) Your books have a unique, “that’s frightening, but I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all” atmosphere. Do you often think like that, about life in general?

"That’s exactly how I view life, all the time. I’m always horrified by the randomness of life, as well as continually amused by the same."

Yep.

Pride

"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." -GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Did the demons fall because they took themselves too seriously? Is that not the real essence of pride, not merely an awareness of your accomplishments, but taking them too seriously? Not self-awareness (false modesty is a lie, thus the "fals" bit), but self-importance. Is it, perhaps, not pride to be proud of your accomplishments, but only pride when you elevate your view of yourself based on your accomplishments? After all, your ability to accomplish anything is based, in part (arguably, a large part) on circumstances beyond your control: the time and place of your birth, your family and friends, your early education, your particular genetic code. True, there is much within your control, choices and efforts you make, but isn't it the case that all such choices and efforts are in arena not of your own making? Enjoy success, let it encourage you to continue to grow and succeed, but don't let it make you think that you are, therefore, better than those around you. From dust you were formed, to dust you will return, and all is vanity.

Snarky Comment

From a web site:

“Many useful academic materials are increasingly available via electronic online access.”

electronic online access? As opposed to, let’s say, “mechanical online access” or “steam-powered online access” or, in deference to the cyberpunks, “direct neural online access”?

All This For One Little Rhyme?

Lemon Demon has a delightful little tune about the infamous Spring Heeled Jack (lyrics). I make this post only to document my quoting of this line:

And people in the area reek of mass hysteria

For some reason, this line has been making a lazy circuit in my head (completing a lap once every two and a half hours, which, perhaps, sheds light on the size of my head...)

What is Life?

From Wendell Berry's Life is a Miracle:

To experience [life] is not to "figure it out" or even to understand it, but to suffer it and rejoice in it as it is. In suffering it and rejoicing in it as it is, we know that we do not and cannot understand it completely. We know, moreover, that we do not wish to have it appropriated by somebody's claim to have understood it. Though we have life, it is beyond us. We do not know how we have it, or why. We do not know what is going to happen to it, or to us. It is not predictable; though we can destroy it, we cannot make it. It cannot, except by reduction and the grave risk of damage, be controlled. It is, as Blake said, holy.

From This Morning's Cataloging

An extended quote:

What shall you teach about Genesis? Teach the truth of God, the truth which the writer of Genesis put there. Do not waste a moment of your really precious time worrying about adapting the Bible "to this intellectual age." If you hear or read about the sensitive intellectuality of this cultured age, you put the writer or speaker down as an intellectual snob, blind to his own generation outside his own little circle. You teach God Almighty's truth for living men. You will have a big enough job to do without attempting to reconstruct the history which produced the Bible, and then reconstruct the Bible from the history you have produced. Such work is for men who have more time to play in their libraries than they have passion to help Christ save children from sinning and men from sin. For any immature mind---even in a theological seminary---to approach the study of the Bible from the standpoint of some historical criticism is practically equivalent to spiritual paralysis. There is truth in Genesis and the Pentateuch, truth that "is able to make wise unto salvation" them that find it, teach it, and are taught it. "Take heed unto your self and unto your teaching."

--Robert Perry Shepherd, The Christian Lesson Commentary : A Religious Study of Genesis and the Beginnings of Jewish History. For the Use of Teachers and Advanced Students. Notes on the International Uniform Lessons for 1913. 28th volume (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1912), iv.

The Night Before...

Tomorrow, at long last, is the open house for the remodeled library. One more day and all of this madness will be over. It's been... hmm, well, not exactly fun. But the place looks great! (Note to self: post pictures for the terminally curious).

On a completely different note, a conversation today brought forth the phrase "theoretical drunkenness" which I thought was a Grand Idea. I googled the phrase, and it came up with no hits! Ok, it's too cool to go to waste, so I'm going to make an otherwise empty blog just to capture the phrase. If you're truly terminal in your curiosity, check out Theoretical Drunkenness (actually, please don't).