Message to Cell Phone Users

Posted on December 28, 2021 by paulyr2

A medical clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, for $125.00, will install your mobile phone in your body, in your back, adjacent to spinal cord and connected to sacral cord, allowing instant access to smart features, hand-free, of most advanced phone/computer technology. The clinic/company is called ‘biophone’ and was founded by neurosurgeon, Yannis Baptiste, M.D., Ph.D., and communications engineer, David Matthew, Ph.D. Your phone will be reduced to three interconnected nanochips sealed in collagen. You will be able to share information with any internet device and even print same to a patented wireless printer developed by Hewlett-Packard. Your nanophone is operated by mental command; is opened or closed by mental password. Website information to follow.

{Ahem.}

See the source image

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The Bond between Frida Kahlo and Lucinda Williams

Posted on December 23, 2021 by paulyr2

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who contracted polio as a five or six year old and suffered grievous injury in a bus accident at age of eighteen.

Photo of The Two Fridas

‘The Two Fridas’

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940, By Frida Kahlo

‘Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace’

Lucinda Williams is a musician born with spina bifida, defect of the spine, which causes her fatigue.

Kahlo died in 1954. Williams was born in 1953.

Spiritual connection between these two is pain, suffering, sadness and artistic expression of same. One can perceive sadness, suffering in their artwork.

The End

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Martyrdom

Posted on November 20, 2021 by paulyr2

Martyrdom is murder of people who refuse to compromise their faith and its principles. This murder is carried through by officials of a government or by group members trying to establish government over a land and its population. Of course, the perpetrators of such killing do not consider it to be murder, but legitimate execution serving a legal/moral end. An example from Judaism of the second century B.C.:

Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man advanced in age and of noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture (2 Mc 6:18f).

Eleazar was killed by people under authority of Greek King Antiochus IV and his appointed Governor of Jerusalem, Philip (see 2 Mc chaps. 5-6). King Antiochus ordered the Jews under his rule to be converted to Greek religion and customs.

A martyr (derived from Greek word for witness) may be one facing death for political or some philosophic belief or ideal, not necessarily religious belief. If a person were willing to make the proposed change to their belief, faith, loyalty, they would escape punishment and death. Martyrdom is the sacrifice of self for the sake of a dearly held belief or truth. (For the martyr, the belief is true.) To be clear, understand that a martyr is not committing suicide; she or he is killed by the forceful action of another.

There are cases of people killing themselves for a cause. Such people may be called martyrs. There are also cases of terrorists killing themselves and others, intentionally, for deeply held reasons or beliefs. Since these acts occur in civil, non-war, settings, they may be considered evil, bad, and the actors not worthy of the term ‘martyr.’ Note that fellow terrorists or those sympathizing with terrorist viewpoint might consider such suicides, martyrdoms. (Terrorists and their supporters are at war.) Also are instances wherein suicide bombers attack military installations in context of war. On one side of the battle, the suicide bomber is martyr, on the other side, suicide bomber is just the enemy.

The term ‘martyr’ denotes a witness to something important suffering death. For the most part, martyrdom is death inflicted upon a person, not death by the person’s own hand or device. To be a martyr has connotation of goodness, purity; suicide is something bad. Philosopher Socrates killed himself with poison hemlock, but he was carrying out sentence of death imposed on him by duly constituted court of Athens at that time. Neither Socrates nor his disciples wanted death. In his death, Socrates became a martyr.

Jesus of Nazareth warned his followers that they would be witnesses, persecuted (see Jn 16:2; Mt 24:9; Lk 6:22). Prophet Muhammad taught his followers honor of martyrdom. Civilization has known many martyrs, but most martyrs are unknown. Names from the past have faded, those of the future are coming.

The End

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Ascents

Posted on November 17, 2021 by paulyr2

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

(Isa 2:3; cf. Mic 4:2) 

Jerusalem is built like a city
    that is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up—
    the tribes of the Lord—
to praise the name of the Lord
    according to the statute given to Israel.

(Ps 122:3-4)

Psalms 120 through 134 each bear the inscription, “a song of ascents,” songs sung while heading up to Jerusalem, city built upon a hill, for a festal occasion such as Passover.  Once in Jerusalem, atop Mount Zion is the Temple of the Lord (YHWH), reached by ascending courses of steps.  Pilgrims and priests (and Levites) might chant psalms upon going up the steps. 

Let people of today recall these ascents.  Let us ascend to God in prayer, in mystical discipline, in mind and heart and spirit.  The Most High rewards the journey.

The End              

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Bob Dylan and Religion

Posted on November 9, 2021 by paulyr2

Preface

Bob Dylan is a music artist, plays guitar and harmonica, sings vocals, writes songs. He’s released many albums from 1960s forward to 2021, when he turned eighty. Dylan’s songs have lyrics expressing feelings and thoughts, ideas, drawn from many sources, including many original to himself. Dylan has a way with words, utilizing rhyme and meter as a poet. His lyrics contain metaphor, symbol, simile, many picture-words, alliteration. Combined with melody, Dylan’s lyrics are capable of producing deep impressions in hearers and even without the music, when read on pages like poems, may impress people with thoughts, feelings, that inspire in varied ways. Of course, Dylan’s voice adds a unique quality to the music and its words. Bob Dylan’s music has been popular through the years and will last a long time due to the recording media where it’s found and it’s in people’s memories as well.

Judaism

Judaism is Bob Dylan’s first religion, into which he was born and raised. Judaism is a religion of one God who created the world and mankind. The first man, Adam and his wife Eve, disobeyed God and were exiled from paradise. God chose Abraham to be father of many nations. Grandson of Abraham was Jacob and his twelve sons were progenitors of nation, Israel. Later descendant of Jacob’s son, Levi, was Moses, whom God called to free Israel from bondage in Egypt and to whom God gave Ten Commandments and a law (Torah) to govern the people of Israel. Subsequent history of Israel, as recorded in Hebrew Bible, shows much vacillation between obedience and disobedience to Torah. God sent prophets to assist people in path of righteousness.

Records

[Selection, random, of Dylan’s record releases with religious and spiritual references drawn from song lyrics.]

Bob Dylan (1962) [Columbia Records; John Hammond, producer]

‘In My Time of Dyin” (traditional gospel song, Blind Willie Johnson, writer, arranged by Dylan)

This song contains ten mentions of Jesus; shows Dylan’s eclecticism.

Sample:

Jesus gonna make up, Jesus gonna make up
Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

Expresses hope or wish or prayer that Jesus, “Lord,” will help in time of death.

‘Song To Woody’ (writer, Bob Dylan)

Contains no explicit religious reference, but exhibits a tough, understanding, spiritual overview.

Second Stanza:

Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song
About a funny old world that’s coming along
Seems sick and it’s hungry, it’s tired and it’s torn
It looks like it’s dying and it’s hardly been born

Admired by Dylan, Woody Guthrie (d. 1967) played guitar, composed and sang folk songs, including songs of protest.

Highway 61 Revisited (1965) [Columbia Records; Tom Wilson, Bob Johnston, producers]

‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Stanza 1:

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where you want this killin’ done?”
God says. “Out on Highway 61”

Background: Gen 22:1-14 – God calls upon Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

New Morning (1970) [Columbia Records; Bob Johnston, producer, Al Kooper, co-producer]

‘Father of Night’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Complete Lyric:

Father of night, Father of day
Father who takes the darkness away
Father who teacheth the birds to fly
Builder of rainbows up in the sky
Father of loneliness and pain
Father of love and Father of rain.

 

Father of day, Father of night
Father of black, Father of white
Father who built the mountains so high
Who shapeth the cloud there up in the sky
Father of time and Father of dreams
Father who turneth the river and stream.

Father of grain, Father of wheat
Father of cold and Father of heat
Father of air and Father of trees
Who dwells in our hearts and our memories
Father of minutes, Father of days
Father of whom we most solemnly praise.

 

Poem and prayer to God, Father, this lyric resembles Jewish ‘Amidah‘ (prayer said while standing), in that it has eighteen lines as Amidah, at first, had eighteen benedictions.    

Blood on the Tracks (1975) [Columbia Records]

‘Simple Twist of Fate’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Sample (from final stanza):

People tell me it’s a sin
To know and feel too much within

Sin is religious concept.  Sin is offense against God and his law.  (In mind is knowing the sin, in heart is guilt.)  

Christianity

Christianity is Bob Dylan’s second religion; actually, Dylan has one religion made up of elements from Jewish and Christian faith.  Bob Dylan underwent a conversion experience to Jesus Christ and his teachings in late months of 1978.

Christianity is offshoot of Judaism started by Jesus of Nazareth at the corner of B.C. and A.D. some two-thousand years ago.  Jesus preached ‘kingdom of God,’ ‘turn the other cheek,’ and ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’ and met resistance and ended up executed on a cross.  Jesus had gathered some followers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Mary Magdalene & other men and women, and these said that Jesus wasn’t in his grave on Sunday morning following his Friday crucifixion.  Jesus had ‘risen.’ 

Slow Train Coming (1979) [Columbia Records; Jerry Wexler, Barry Beckett, producers]

‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna put my good foot forward
And stop being influenced by fools.

◊

Seventh Stanza:

Jesus said, “Be ready
For you know not the hour in which I come”
Jesus said, “Be ready
For you know not the hour in which I come”
He said, “He who is not for Me is against Me”
Just so you know where He’s coming from.

Transformation, change, result from repentance.  Two passages in quotes refer to Matthew 24:44, 12:30, respectively. 

Oh Mercy (1989) [Columbia Records; Daniel Lanois, producer]

‘What Good Am I’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

What good am I if like all the rest
If I just turn away when I see how you’re dressed
If I shut myself off so I can’t hear you cry
What good am I ?

Second Stanza:

What good am I if I know and don’t do
If I see and don’t say if I look right through you
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky
What good am I ?

 

Cf. Lk 10:25-37 (Good Samaritan parable); James 2:14-17.

Good as I Been to You (1992) [Columbia Records; Debbie Gold, producer]

‘Frankie and Albert’ (traditional folk song, arranged Bob Dylan)

 Stanza 8:

“Gimme a thousand policemen
Throw me into a cell
I shot my Albert dead
And now I’m goin’ to hell”
He was my man but he done me wrong.

◊

Stanza 10:

Frankie went to the scaffold.
Calm as a girl could be.
Turned her eyes up towards the heavens.
Said, “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”
He was her man but he done her wrong.

Religious parts in these two stanzas are obvious.  Frankie has killed her lover, Albert, and her religious beliefs lead her to expect punishment of hell.  Yet, as she heads to her execution, she looks up and feels she’s approaching God.  These words of Dylan’s arrangement are different from previous versions of Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt.

Modern Times (2006) [Columbia Records]

‘When the Deal Goes Down’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

In the still of the night, in the world’s ancient light
Where wisdom grows up in strife
My bewildering brain, toils in vain
Through the darkness on the pathways of life
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
Tomorrow keeps turning around
We live and we die, we know not why
But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down

Phrase, ‘when the deal goes down’ sounds like mafia lingo for a rubout or assassination, but from an everyday, non-criminal point of view, death comes to everyone (except Enoch and Elijah) in many ways.  Line, “I’ll be with you when the deal goes down” finishes four stanzas of this song.  It’s a simple affirmation of faith and loyalty to the One above who crafts clouds, pockets prayer. 

Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deut 31:6)

Tempest (2012) [Columbia Records]

‘Roll on John’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Tribute to John Lennon, musician, assassinated in 1980.

Sample, last stanza before final chorus:

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
In the forest of the night
Cover him over, and let him sleep     

First and third line comes from poet William Blake (d. 1827).  His poem, ‘The Tyger,’ limns the wild animal, tiger, as hunter of “fearful symmetry,” and wonders about tiger’s creation, who, how, where.  The tiger may be interpreted as symbol of divine power.  Second line is extracted from children’s prayer dating to 1700s.  Fourth line continues the prayer, asking the Lord to let “John” sleep, rest in eternity.

Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020) [Columbia Records]

‘I Contain Multitudes’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Title of song serves as refrain in its lyric, ending last line in six out of eight stanzas, including the last.

Final Line:

I play Beethoven sonatas Chopin’s preludes . . . I contain multitudes  

Statement “I contain multitudes” comes from poet Walt Whitman (d. 1892) in section 51 of his poem ‘Song of Myself.’  Long before Whitman’s usage, Gospel of Mark records episode of a demoniac exorcised by Jesus, who tells Jesus, “my name is Legion, for we are many” (Mk 5:9). 

The End  

 

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Mystery and Wonder of Books

Posted on November 8, 2021 by paulyr2

Reading a book is far different from everyday internet reading. Much material on internet isn’t worth reading, but is read because it’s there on devices. Social media proffers information from friends and family which is mostly unnecessary.

One reads a book because one wants, chooses, to read a book. A book will give one a sustained point of view on something. One gets a book from a library or bookstore or from a website like Amazon or Apple or the University of Chicago Press. Reading e-books is fine, offering the same content as physical books, but with an actual book one will have more control over the reading experience, though it’s true that reading e-books gives a person simultaneous access to lots of contextual information, even if only definitions of words. Instant access to additional data however may also take away from a reading experience, becoming distracting. One has to make some effort or spend money to read a book and this shows personal interest which will, most likely, make the reading more valued.

Books come in two basic classes, fiction and non-fiction. With a novel or short story, one will receive someone else’s unreal, imaginary creation (though it might be fact-based, which makes it realistic). In a textbook or biography, one gets facts about subjects. Both classes offer knowledge, different kinds, which may shape a reader’s heart and mind. A person’s reading is well-rounded when both classes of books are utilized.

Mystery

A book is a mystery until it is read and even then, it may remain a mystery to some extent, like the Bible, which has been interpreted and written about for centuries upon centuries. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has provoked much thought, written and unwritten, in religion, philosophy and science. This is part of the charm of books, in distinction from internet news, that makes books better in forming readers’ individual intelligence. Books bring forth individual impact, internet items deliver group impact. Don’t forget, published books, including most e-books, have an editor, in addition to the author, who aids in matters of grammar, spelling and presentation, making a book readable and comprehensible. Much internet information is raw, unedited.

Wonder

The wonder of books is transmitting knowledge which a reader wants for some reason. A reader’s personal reasons for reading a book make that book definitive in achieving a goal, even if it’s entertainment. Novels entertain in a way different from movies. More time is needed to read a book than to see a movie. Most internet reading is ephemeral, leading to head-shaking rather than a wonder that lasts and sinks into one’s psyche. An individual choosing a book to read for some purpose transcends internet surfing for no purpose or amorphous purpose. Book-reading implies purpose in a person. Looking at a screen, what does that mean?

Personal, individual character of authors and books and separate readers, on their own, unconnected to the virtual world, leads to personal advancement (a better self). The internet and reading this or that on the internet are fine, but there are increased chances of becoming distracted, disorganized and even accidie with time spent online. Reading the internet should be mixed with reading books.

Sixteenth century reformer, Martin Luther:

The heart . . . makes the gift dear (valuable) and precious.

(‘Second Sermon for Pentecost Monday’ John 3:16-21 § 13) 

Heart of an author in his/her book passed to a reader is wondrous.  A book is a gift.

The End

 

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A Myth of Man: Albert Camus on Human Struggle

Posted on October 26, 2021 by paulyr2

Albert Camus, French thinker and writer of Algeria (Nobel Literature Prize, 1957; d. 1960), was a man in search of self-understanding. ‘What is man?’ was motive and theme for much of his writing. His novels, The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947) and The Fall (1956) explore human meaning or lack thereof in interrelationships of characters faced with ‘absurdity‘ of life. Camus’ essay, The Myth of Sisyphus (1955), explores ‘the absurd’ from a literary and philosophical perspective.

Albert Camus was atheist, yet he had good grasp of belief in God and sympathized with its standpoint. A favorite character of Camus was Don Juan, legendary womanizer for whom “nothing is vanity … except the hope of another life” (The Myth of Sisyphus, p 52). Don Juan is concerned with pleasures of this life and displays “legendary bravado, in that mad laughter of the healthy man provoking a non-existent God” (The Myth of Sisyphus, p 56). According to Camus, Don Juan believes “in three things,” “courage, intelligence, and women.” When a Franciscan priest offers to pray for Don Juan, Don Juan says,

Thank you, Father. I like to look on prayer as a form of courage.

[Albert Camus, Notebooks: 1935-1942 (NY: Paragon House, 1991), pp 180f]

Camus didn’t believe in God because “I cannot get lost in the glorification or the mere definition of a notion which eludes me and loses its meaning as soon as it goes beyond the frame of reference of my individual experience.” Camus was well aware of the paradox of God and evil, “either we are not free and God the all-powerful is responsible for evil or we are free and responsible but God is not all-powerful.” Camus “cannot understand what kind of freedom would be given me by a higher being.” Said Camus, “death is there as the only reality” (The Myth of Sisyphus, p 42).

“Camus was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 17, and was heart-broken at having to give up his position as goalkeeper on the University of Algiers football team. He suffered relapses of TB throughout his life” (Lara Marlowe, ‘The Irish Times,’ 2013). Camus’ father, Lucien, was killed in battle in WWI, at age of 29, when Albert Camus was only 1. It is no wonder that death was integral to his thought.

Camus celebrates the happiness and wonder of children, the beauties of natural landscapes, in his prose, but had no wish to escape death and the absurd. Something which he did wish to escape was hope.

There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart. The most destitute men often end up by accepting illusion.

[The Myth of Sisyphus, p 74]

For Camus, hope is illusion.

An example of Camus’ writing for children:

It is time to speak of the fairies. In order to escape from the intrepid melancholy of expectation, it is time to create new worlds. Do not believe though, that fairy tales lie.

(‘Melusina’s Book’ – ‘Tales for Some Too Sad Children,’ 1934)

Example of Camus appreciating nature:

The high seas. The sun sinks and is swallowed by the fog long before it reaches the horizon. For a brief moment, the sea is pink on one side and blue on the other. Then the waters grow darker. The schooner slides, minute, over the surface of a perfect circle of thick, tarnished metal. And, at the most peaceful hour, as evening comes, hundreds of porpoises emerge from the water, frolic around us for a moment, then flee to the horizon where there are no men. With them gone, silence and the anguish of primitive waters are what remain.

[‘The Sea Close By’ in ‘Summer,’ 1954]

Myth and Symbol

Sisyphus story comes to us from Greek mythology. As penalty for his bad behavior, King Sisyphus, founder of Corinth, was punished by Zeus to push a rock, a boulder, up a hill, over and over. After mighty struggle to get the rock to the top, it would descend again to the plain below. So Sisyphus had to repeat his struggle with the rock’s weight again and again, in the underworld, forever.

Camus:

[The gods] had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing.

Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them.

At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down . . .

I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment . . .

That hour like a breathingspace . . . is the hour of consciousness.

. . . he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.

[The Myth of Sisyphus, pp 88f]

The End

Bibliography

‘Melusina’s Book’ in Albert Camus, Youthful Writings, tr. Ellen Kennedy (NY: Vintage, 1977), p 227

‘The Sea Close By’ in Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays, tr. Ellen Kennedy (NY: Vintage, 1970), p 175

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Lust, a Deadly Sin

Posted on October 11, 2021 by paulyr2

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/new-superman-comes-bisexual-upcoming-dc-comic-rcna2864

This article published in category of “pop culture” by NBC. New comic portrays new Superman as bisexual. The LGBTQ movement has destroyed moral standards and moral thought.

Sexual desire is a wild thing.

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Statement on Abortion

Posted on December 5, 2020 by paulyr2

If a mother agrees to abort the foetus within her, the child that would have been born is better off.

Is this statement true or false? Is it pro-life or pro women’s right? I know that I’m grateful to have been born to a loving mother and father. I think that a child born to parents that don’t want that child is in for problems. Of course problems can be solved.

There could be many reasons for abortion. The mother’s life might be at risk. The baby born might be fated, genetically, to have dreadful disability. Philosophically, the law of the land (U.S.) allowing abortion, would support the idea that some humans are better off not being born, no? Maybe this last sentence should be rephrased? Yet I don’t care to rephrase it. Abortions, which have been occurring for millennia, perhaps for as long as homo Sapiens has been around, seem to cast a deep and dark shadow on the human understanding of existence. Is existence worthwhile? Yes for most, but not for some is the legal answer. Is it a good answer?

A famous figure said, “woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man.  It would be better for him if he had never been born” (Mk 14:21).  To never be born, what does this mean?  Conceivably, souls that are refused entrance into this world by abortion, are living free in the realm of heaven.  This is a matter of faith.  Also there is the idea of reincarnation.  Then there is the secular idea that the unborn just is zero, without moral or spiritual consequence.             

To be or not to be

is a question facing us, and it involves guilt. 

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Novel CoronaVirus and Medicine

Posted on August 8, 2020 by paulyr2

I must say that this new coronavirus has made a mockery of modern medicine. Many lives have been saved by doctors and healthcare workers. Nonetheless modern medicine is clearly beaten by the virus, is in no way equal to its challenge. Too many have become infected, too many have died. Too late a vaccine.

Medical science ought to rethink its approach to germs. Currently the leaders and spokespersons for infectious disease science are reduced to calls for changing social practice as the best means to limit covid19. How is that working out, I ask?

Research is frantic in this area of science. The solution and cure, of course, is understanding and knowledge. Isolate the virus, analyze it, destroy it.

The biology of human cells is the answer. Looking at the makeup of our cells, we see the remnants of past invaders. Life on Earth is open, not closed. We are not visiting Earth, Earth is our home. … and yet?

Smallpox, AIDS, Influenza, polio, measles, Ebola etc.; such have been interacting with us forever. Why and what for? Evolutionary change, mutation, is there an end, a goal?

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