Strange dreams last night. Me going to confession but telling the priest the things I was sorry for and the things I wasn't sorry for. Not really possible to half-confess and be half-forgiven. Talk about imperfect contrition.
Like an immigrant who still thinks of the old country, my interest in the doings of the Dominican friars remains, and of late has become even stronger. The internet makes it easy to keep up with things, at least on the public surface. But like many immigrants, you think of the old country, you tend to shave off the tough edges, and you probably couldn't live there again. Part of me remembers that life clearly, but part of me looks at him now and can't quite recognize him as me. Nothing wrong with fond memories, though, be they accurate or not.
Caption suggestions?
Despite the fact that the current half-African President and his tribe of czars are still in power, feckless but capable of continuing their reign of damage, I am looking forward to the rest of the day.
My life in general, however, feels like treading water.
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Watched a Dutch film from 1992, For A Lost Soldier. Based on the autobiography of a man who was on the verge of adolescence in 1945 and who has a romantic fling with a charming Canadian soldier in a recently-liberated rural village. Though the soldier is a handsome, happy, regular guy, his infatuation with this boy is beyond my capacity to appreciate. Made me think that part of him was missing and that, even more than with the usual illusions of adult eros, he was imagining someone who was not there. I wonder if that is how gays look to ungays?
I fear I may be losing my capacity for nuance. Yes, it's true. While at the gym, I saw "Rev"* Al Sharpton as one of the regular commentators on CNN. Any agency which hires this race-baiting scumbag loses all legitimacy for me. And I saw a link to an article entitled "Michelle Bachmann's Christian Law Petri Dish". Its authoress is Jewish and writing for the NY Times. I assume immediately that it will be a snide hit piece. In both cases I make generalizations based on particulars. I do not care. Happy to make my contribution to the polarization of America.
*As I have noted before, when White preachers get involved in public affairs, their clergy status is front and center, and we have the usual hand-wringing about "separation of church and state". People apparently assume that they take their various theologies seriously and that it will impact their policy positions. But when the preachers are Black, the issue never comes up. Why? I think it's because mostly everyone knows that these guys just get reverended as a step toward social and group and political power. The Black preachers who have serious religion stay in their churches. For the likes of Sharpton or Jackson, religion is just a thin cover for Democrat politics. (In that respect, they're akin to liberal American nuns.) And being Black, they get "license and deference." They're like dark little micro-versions of Cardinal Richelieu. His status as a priest seemed to have no more effect on him than the clothing he had to wear.
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