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"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Sir Winston Churchill

11.08.2006

A Blog? In The Middle Of The Week?!

I know, I know... I told you you might be seeing more of me.

Honestly, this is an excuse to relax -- it's the first time I've gotten to sit down all day. I didn't know how much work being at home was. SHEESH! I need to go back to work just to take a vacation.

The month of November sees me at home 3 days a week. December, 4 days. I'm tapering off my attendance at work so as to take the training wheels off little by little. That way, when I'm totally gone after Christmas they won't freak out and nosedive. It seems to be going well. And it leaves me more time to get things done around here (ie., having dinner on the table every night for Tef; he's so happy, sometimes I think he's gonna' pop).

Good thing is, all the laundry's done; the floors are vacuumed; furniture's dusted; goldfish pond has been de-leaved; Christmas wrapping paper and gift tags have been bought; dishes are done and put away; beds made; menu planned for the week; bathrooms scrubbed; errands run... I can't go on with the list -- I'm too tired to think about it. But the house is neatly settled and I am constantly finding ways to save or stretch a buck. I'm in Happy Holly Homemaker Mode and I couldn't be more ecstatic; but I'll tell ya' -- I'm pooped. With a capital P. Again, SHEESH!

So today? Yeah, yeah... the Republicans lost the House. Yeah, yeah, we'll probably lose the Senate too. Yeah, yeah, Rumsfeld has stepped down (presumably to avoid impeachment from the now Democratically-controlled Congress), but I remain optimistic. Christians have survived worse regimes. We actually seem to thrive in the midst of chaos and debauchery. So say the Scriptures anyway. You know, the wheat amongst the tares and all that?

Today's work of art of point to? GK Chesterton, "Orthodoxy."

Many a sensible modern man must have abandoned Christianity under the pressure of three such converging convictions as these: first, that men, with their shape, structure, and sexuality, are, after all, very much like beasts, a mere variety of the animal kingdom; second, that primeval religion arose in ignorance and in fear; third, that priests have blighted societies with bitterness and gloom. Those three anti-Christian arguments are very different; but they are all quite logical and legitimate; and they all converge. The only objection to them (I discover) is that they are all untrue. If you leave off looking at beasts and men then (if you have any humour or imagination, any sense of the frantic or the farcical) you will observe that the startling thing is not how like man is to the brutes, but how unlike he is. It is the monstrous scale of his divergence that requires an explanation. That man and brute are like is, in a sense, a truism; but that being so like they should then be so insanely unlike, that is the shock and the enigma. That an ape has hands is far less interesting to the philosopher than the fact that having hands he does next to nothing with them; does not play knuckle-bones or the violin; does not carve marble or carve mutton. People talk of barbaric architecture and debased art. But elephants do not build colossal temples of ivory even in a rococo style; camels do not paint even bad pictures, though equipped with the material of many camel's-hair brushes. Certain modern dreamers say that ants and bees have a society superior to ours. They have, indeed, a civilization; but that very truth only reminds us that it is an inferior civilization. Who ever found an ant-hill decorated with the statues of celebrated ants? Who has seen a bee-hive carved with the images of gorgeous queens of old? No; the chasm between man and other creatures may have a natural explanation, but it is a chasm. We talk of wild animals; but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type. All other animals are domestic animals; man alone is ever undomestic, either as a profligate or a monk. So that this first superficial reason for materialism is, if anything, a reason for its opposite; it is exactly where biology leaves off that all religion begins.


Sounds like he's writing for today's reader? "Orthodoxy" was published in 1908.

Again, I reiterate -- we'll be fine.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, we will be fine. Actually, if you want to find a bright side of the elections, it shows me that the conservative movement is alive and well. It was a very clear message to the Republicans that they had strayed from the path and many of their loyal supporters were upset and frustrated. And without a clear Republican national message in the campaign (other than not to let the Democrats run things), many moderates and independents also felt there was no compelling reason to vote GOP. The Democrats didn't have a message either ... but people were just upset at the President and both houses.

5:19 PM  
Blogger Missy said...

Interesting quote! Yes it could have been written today--by an Evangelical Christian.

But evolution is not at odds with the Catechism of the Catholic church. And it's essential for our current understanding of disease and drugs.

Don't you find it fascinating that the first creation story, the one written by J, lists the creation in pretty much the same order evolution occured? (The daughter of a Catholic high school biology teacher. What can I say?)

The theodicy I embrace is that Adam and Eve weren't the first people. They were the first people with souls. Where Genesis says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" I take that to mean not so much our body, but our soul that is in the image and likeness of God. This passage, 1:27, is also the scriptural basis for the sanctity of human life.

Anyway, um, can you come over and organize my life? Maybe set up my storage room with pretty boxes in plaids and stripes and printed labels? (grin) You're making me jealous with your check list.

7:59 PM  
Blogger WordGirl said...

Martin:
Exactly. I, for one, didn't want to go to the polls on Tuesday, but I knew I'd never be able to live under the same roof with Tef if I didn't. I find it particularly telling (and smarmy) the number of true Conservative Republicans who've been thrown under the bus by GOP RHINO's lately (Rhode Island being the prime example, with minor South Carolina races trailing in infamy). I don't like voting for Republicans who act like Conservatives on election night and then vote like liberals the rest of their term. It smacks of power-hungry, ankle-grabbing, *politics*. But I voted anyway, mostly because of locally contested commissioners' races and judgships.
I think this election is going to create a backlash and a wake-up call in the GOP. If nothing else, it will highlight just how inane the liberal agenga is and how poorly they run things when left in charge. If that doesn't get the Conservative base riled up in '08 to vote against Hillary, I don't know what will.

Missy: WELCOME TO MOLTENTHOUGHT! I love it when people take on differing opinions from ours with such voracity! A big USMC *HOO-RAH* to you!
I personally don't buy the evolutionary hype. There are so many flaws in the explanations of it (not to mention the twists and knots that evolutionary proponents get themselves into trying to make it sound pausible; the out-and-out fakery that's been thrust upon the scientific community in its defense; and the little teensy fact that Darwin recanted the whole she-bang) that it's just laughable anyone could totally buy into it 100% (Tef is the Big-Brain on this subject, I defer to his encyclopedic knowledge. I can't even get into the whole thing here.).
That said, there are HUGE gray areas (in the book of Genesis, for example) that don't readily explain how we did, indeed get to where we've gotten. I shrug my shoulders and leave that to greater minds than mine. But I agree with Chesterton: it is something that animals don't accept Nobel prizes for their work on nuclear physics. ;-)
I'd be very interested to know if you watch "Heroes" on NBC and what you think of that whole thing. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes certain claims that are fascinating, even if I don't totally agree, it's fun to watch.

As far as the checklist thing goes, let me remind you of something: I DON'T HAVE KIDS! *LOL* I'm sure this whole Tidy Town thing will change as soon as one appears! I don't see how you do it, Major Mama. WHEW!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR CHIMING IN!

9:38 AM  
Blogger Missy said...

I have to say, I find intelligence attractive.
In fact, I think it smacks of sexual selection.
Hahahaha!
Thanks for the HOO-RAH!
xo

9:49 AM  
Blogger WordGirl said...

Girl, you don't even know. Geeks rock.

10:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmm- i wonder what's going on in your head, WG? I know you said you were going to ~try~ for a family beyond your family of two- is something up?

Evolution- there are so many threads on Ambivablog about that- really cool. I figure i can just watch and enjoy; or be amazed.

As for voting- i just can't seem to want to teach those RINO's a lesson- knowing the consequences of most Liberals in power. Besides, this is VT!!! Leahy, Jeffords, Sanders. If folks stayed home so we could get sanders in the Senate, and Peter Welch in the Congress- thanks a whole flippin' lot!!!

Sanders always runs the same- and he gets elected off the farmers' backs. I wanted to put a big sign on my front lawn:"This farmer is tired of being milked by Bernie!!"

You know, the system for dairy really sucks- no pairty at all- prices for our commodity the same as 25-30 yrs ago(:0(). How can one survive?

That is the mj reason we are now organic; and (of course) the green feeling of knowing what is now NOT in our milk(we never used bST, either).

Missy, for me it's the cooking thang. I cannot imagine the taste of the things WG&Tef whip up on a whim. That is so awesome.

A fat lot 'o good it did for us to vote, anyway. ~They~ are still in there.

8:22 PM  

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