Fallen Into Knowledge

It is!

One of the joys of being a student:  That feeling of release that one feels upon turning in the last paper of the term.  The relief is proportional to the amount of stress experienced and/or the amount of sleep lost.  Well, I have done little since I turned in that last paper - There is a time for everything under the sun, including a time to relax.
Today, I took the MAX up to the zoo, and rode my bike from there over to the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden, where I took a bunch of photos.  It was beautiful, and it will be even more so in a month.

This one from Richard Rolle’s Commentary on the Ten Commandments:

“The Fifth commandment is that you kill no one, neither by plotting, nor by committing the deed, nor by ordering it or condoning it.  And under this commandment, illegal striking of any person is also forbidden.  There are spiritual murderers, those who refuse to feed the destitute in their need, those who slander others, and those who mislead the innocent.”

Okay, when did we forget this? Or have we merely limited “murder” to “First Degree Murder?”

Sometimes while she was sitting with them, she would speak of Christ and suddenly and unexpectedly she would be ravished in the spirit and would roll and whirl around like a hoop

(The Life of Christina of St. Trond, Called Christina Mirabilis: 12C)

And sometimes I am also struck by their insight:

But today, instead of loving God’s will, everyone loves himself: it is everyone’s will to have peace and rest, to live with god in riches and might, and to be one with Him in His joy and glory. We all want to be God along with God; but God knows that there are few of us who want to be man with Him and in His humanity, to carry His cross with Him, to hang upon it with Him, to pay with Him the debt of human kind.

(Hadewijch of Braband: Letters to a Young Beguine, Letter 6: 13C)

Yet again I am writing a paper on Paradise Lost.  The first time (or two) I read Milton’s book I didn’t like it all that much.  I do now.  Milton is a poet, for sure; but I find myself more intrigued by Milton the theologian.  Paradise Lost is serious theology.  A couple of things about this that interest me:

• 1.  compare the form of Paradise Lost to, say, Calvin’s Institutes; Theology is a creative endeavor, Milton seems to have serious reservations about the capabilities of human knowledge after the fall, and it seems appropriate for him to connect the activity of theology with poetry rather than a seemingly objective philosophical style.

• 2.  the stuff of theology consists in a interpretive retelling of the biblical narrative; telling the story again for a new generation, in a rather pointed manner.  I find this to echo what the prophets were doing by interpreting Israel’s present through the Exodus story.  “God, who faithfully brought you out of the land of slavery will certainly be faithful and bring you back from exile.”

• 3.  Paradise Lost (and Paradise Regained, for that matter) is meaty stuff, and Milton asks his readers to wrestle long and hard with both the form and the content of the work:  Spencer set out to write the Fairy Queen so that by reading it one could become a gentleman; Milton, too, wants to shape his readers - his theology demands an (ethical) response.

More and more I want to do theology like Milton, and not like those theologians whom I had to read in bible school.  Theology as Poesy, more than as Philosophy.

Frankly, X-mas is more Honest,

don’t believe me? read this.

Frankly after many years of working at Starbucks (including four “xmas” seasons at Pioneer Place mall), I have had more than a lifetime’s worth of christmas spirit.  In fact, for the time being, the season has been soured for me.
I am proud to be part of a family that leaves for christmas - we get outa town.  Away from the tinsel and the music and the malls and the sales, away from any schedules and plans.  We leave and hang out for a week.  I recommend it heartily.

Crap.  That is is lame Title.  I am not dead, as one might think from the regular nature of my posts.  I am amazed that people show up here at all - no new content in ages: and yet y’all are faithful.  Thank you.
I am not dead, though I should be after watching “Fight Club” four times this weekend.  I am doing this for a paper I am writing, not out of any particular masochistic tendencies.  This school thing is closing in on a break: and I am really looking forward to it.  This term has been rough; not because my classes have been particularly difficult, but because I have no real motivation to speak of.  So much so that I just ended that last sentence with a preposition and didn’t move to correct it.  yeah.  That much.
In other news, I fell off my bicycle the other day.  Which is to say that I dove into a cement piling.  The kind made to stop busses.  Busses and errant cyclists.  I am pleased to announce that the cement is sufficiently hard enough to stop a flying cyclist in his/er path.  I am also pleased that I didn’t break anything.  Pay attention out there - this has been a public service announcement.

This is my play’s last scene; here heavens appoint
My pilgrimage’s last mile; and my race,
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My span’s last inch, my minute’s latest point;
And gluttonous death will instantly unjoint
My body and my soul, and I shall sleep a space;
But my’ever-waking part shall see that face
Whose fear already shakes my every joint.
Then, as my soul to’heaven, her first seat, takes flight,
And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,
So fall my sins, that all may have their right,
To where they’are bred, and would press me, to hell.
Impute me righteous, thus purg’d of evil,
For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil.

It is always nice when I can write a paper on something as edifying as Donne’s “Holy Sonnets.” While the paper isn’t really any good, the sonnets are. Do yourself favor and go read them

Well, actually you don’t even have to go, you can have Stanford University come to you. Do you have iTunes? Alright, then Click Here.  That’s it.  I recommend downloading and listening to the lectures by Cornell West, Lawrence Lessig, and Richard Fox.  Have fun.

Well, School is over and I made it.
I have been blessed with a great summer gig:  I am working with/for my friend,  Brendon, woodworking.  I am learning great stuff, getting lots of hours (100 in the last pay period!), and getting paid well.  I am also working at the campus bookstore, Windows, on Saturdays.  On top of all the work, I am teaching the Ecology class at the Pearl Church.  Lots to do.  Three weeks ago the summer was, worryingly, a tabula rasa.  Now it is full of great things.  I am humbled by God’s goodness, and ashamed at my lack of faith in Him.  One would think that I would learn.  God tends not to give me advance notice of His pans for me.