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I completely missed out on the discussion in the thread titled, “Lexx actors in other roles”. I wasn’t particularly interested in that subject so I never bothered to read it. (Or maybe I think I read it at first, had nothing to add, and then ignored it.) But then I noticed that thread was locked down and was prompted to read it.
It was a good read! I didn’t know Xenia Seeburg appeared on the Total Recall tv series. I’m still looking for copies of her music and videos….
However, Lee, your omission of Rutger Hauer’s role in Blade Runner and Tim Curry’s role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is tantamount to sci-fi sacrilege and you shall be, therefore, burned at the stake as a heretic.
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering upBorn in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow manBorn in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said “Son, don’t you understand”I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all goneHe had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms nowDown in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to goBorn in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.hey flame, i shut it down for length…saddy says if we keep threads to 40 posts or so the board won’t fall to its knees so often
…i’ll go ahead and move this thread into a new part 2 section, but i don’t know how many new posts we will get on it…and yes, several eyebrows were raised at certain omissions apparently Originally posted by Smart_Aleck:
okay bonnee, posting under ‘pseudo’pseudonyms has caused some real flame wars here and on other boards in the past…if you want to say something, you should say it under your own identity, and certainly not under an alias that people might mistake for another member of this board
…have a nice day, fx[ 25-02-2002: Message edited by: FX ]
Fx – i think it is pretty obvious who this , what I’m doing and why. I would actually encourage you to ban my ISP, but not before I lodge a public complaint about the moderators with Tony bearing the heading ‘crying fowl’. Here’s a preview – how dare you encourage further demeaning of Lee by allowing this thread to exist in the first place. Instead of calling a halt to the hostilities and hurt, Flamegrape opened up another thread levelled against him in Sci Fi Angst and you moved it over here. If that is not an inducement to another flamewar, I don’t know what is. By your own admission, trying to humiliate Lee is something many of you seem to enjoy around here. Lee’s hurt and confusion is just as apparent as Aleck’s nastiness and self amusement. Equally bizzare is the behaviour of the moderators on Lexx.com, where I tried to show up their territorial ****ings (****ing on posts) for what it was. And for the record Aleck – I recognised you INSTANTLY as Jason there, and I assumed it was obvious who I was (given the almost word for word reprise in parts). So exhibiting the strategic and pathological need for one upmanship in another context is pretty typical of your moral character, and sadgeezer’s moral standing for not disallowing it against Lee as a matter of course. Smart Aleck’s defence of subjectivism is merely an instance of the narcissism he so readilly displays when given half a chance – and I have never encountered such a hermetically sealed and self congragulatory environment as here. so if you don’t want another flame war, then stop allowing them.
I was trying to invoke paltry.
quote:
Originally posted by Smart_Aleck:
And for the record Aleck – I recognised you INSTANTLY as Jason there, and I assumed it was obvious who I was (given the almost word for word reprise in parts). So exhibiting the strategic and pathological need for one upmanship in another context is pretty typical of your moral character, and sadgeezer’s moral standing for not disallowing it against Lee as a matter of course.
Y’know, for someone so well educated, you really don’t know much, do you? I’ve never, *ever*, posted on the lexx.com board under anything other than Aleck. I don’t have any other aliases, I go by this name on every board I on which I post (except for one board where I go by my full name, Aleck Bennett, and that’s only because they require full-name disclosure). I do this because, unlike some people, I don’t try to hide behind some fake name when I post (well, except for the fact that “Aleck” is a nickname used by everyone for the past, say, 12 years…I’m called that by friends and co-workers, and no one outside of my family calls me by my “real” name). I don’t know who Jason is (though I have seen his posts…sorry, if you want to blast me for assuming Jason is male based upon a name under which he posts, go ahead), my name isn’t Jason, and in fact, I’m not even friends with anyone named Jason.
So take the time to pull your head out of whatever orifice you’ve hidden it in, before you *really* make an ass out of yourself.
Well, I mean, more than usual.
–Aleck
Sinister Exaggerator
The ResidentsYour life is leaning downhill
Sloping off the outer edge.
Your undetermined oyster beds
Were found to be a hedge.
You case the kids of Elmer Fudd
To feed the farmer whose
Cadaver’s filled with onion rings
And feet are filled with glue.Now Sinister Exaggerator,
What’s your claim to fame?
Is still your favorite Ferlinghetti
Found in Auntie Maim?
Your alter life is superceded
Only from above.
Your heart is like a silken sponge
That calls saliva love.GREATEST LOVE OF ALL
I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Everybody searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfill my needs
A lonely place to be
So I learned to depend on meChorus:
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of allI believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to beChorus
And if by chance, that special place
That you’ve been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in loveHappy Hour
Oh Happy Hour
Everyones Happy
At Happy Hour Hello, boys and girls. This is your old pal, Stinky Wizzleteats. This is a song about a whale. No! This is a song about being happy! That’s right! It’s the Happy Happy Joy Joy song! Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy!I don’t think you’re happy enough! That’s right! I’ll teach you to be happy! I’ll teach your grandmother to suck eggs! Now, boys and girls, let’s try it again!
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy!If’n you aint the grandaddy of all liars! The little critters of nature… They don’t know that they’re ugly! That’s very funny, a fly marrying a bumblebee! I told you I’d shoot! But you didn’t believe me! Why didn’t you believe me?!
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Happy Happy
Happy Happy Happy Happy
Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy! Am I the only one who does’nt know what the hell is going on????
quote:
Originally posted by NB1:
Am I the only one who does’nt know what the hell is going on????
Nope
quote:
Originally posted by Headgehog:
Nope
I’m not sure either, seems to be someone desperately trying to start flaming by describing the members of the board as a bunch of back slapping self congratulating people, I sincerely hope that Saddy and the crew kicks this person, as obviously they want this board to be like Lexx.com or Sci-Fi with all it’s ensuing flaming.
Let’s hope they realise that will never be the case here and if they don’t like it, then they should get their fix of flaming elsewhere.
As for DT and Aleck, I’ve seen them trade some heavy punches in the past, but neither of them let it descend into outright flaming, that’s what’s called having a strong discussion.
DT is quite capable of handling himself in these situations as is Aleck, and they have the common sense not to take it all so personally.
So Bonnee and anyone else for that matter, if you don’t like the way things are conducted around here, then you have two choices…either go away or start your own board where you can merrily flame away.
People come here for the lack of flaming, and I am one of them, it has no place here and there is no reason for it.
Squishy Turnaround
CurveI can hear her in the background
But she’s a witch
Because she knew it was me
And she always did
I’m just glad you listen
Even though
It’s not true
I’m glad your doing
What you need to do
We’ve all tried
And all failed
To turn you, turn you
Turn you around
You leave me hanging
On the outside of an open line
You never speak
Your confident most of the time
Take as much as you need
Dont be shy
We’ve all tried
And all failed
To turn you, turn you
Turn you around
I have waited an hour
To get you on the phone
Tell you the good news
Before you left home
I hope you get what you’ve been working for
It will be right for you
It will be right for you
Though it won’t fit.Actually squish, we’ve been trying to put out a fire – with gasoline. three songs for your enjoyment (even though you’ve presupposed the thing at issue)
Putting Out Fire With Gasoline
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It’s been so long
And I’ve been putting out fire
With gasolineSee these eyes so red
Red like jungle burning bright
Those who feel me near
Pull the blinds and change their minds
It’s been so longStill this pulsing night
A plague I call a heartbeat
Just be still with me
Ya wouldn’t believe what I’ve been thru
You’ve been so long
Well it’s been so long
And I’ve been putting out the fire with gasoline
Putting out the fire with gasolineSee these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
A judgement made can never bend
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been thruYou’ve been so long
Well it’s been so long
And I’ve been putting out fire with gasoline
Putting out fire with gasolineBright Side of Life
Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistling]
Always look on the light side of life.
[whistling]If life seems jolly rotten,
There’s something you’ve forgotten,
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you’re feeling in the dumps,
Don’t be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle. That’s the thing.
And…Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistling]
Always look on the right side of life,
[whistling]For life is quite absurd
And death’s the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It’s your last chance, anyhow.
So,…Always look on the bright side of death,
[whistling]
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
[whistling]Life’s a piece of ****,
When you look at it.
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke. It’s true.
You’ll see it’s all a show.
Keep ’em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And…Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistling]
Always look on the right side of life.
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]
Always look on the bright side of life!
[whistling]KING OF PAIN
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
That’s my soul up there
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
That’s my soul up there
There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top
That’s my soul up there
There’s a flag pole rag and the wind won’t stop
That’s my soul up thereI have stood here before in the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of painThere’s a fossil that’s trapped in a high cliff wall
There’s a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall
There’s a blue whale beached by a springtide’s ebb
There’s a butterfly trapped in a spider’s webThere’s a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There’s a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of breadThere’s a red fox torn by a huntsman’s pack
There’s a black winged gull with a broken back
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterdayI have stood here before in the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I always thought you could end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain……I’ll always be king of pain.
[ 25-02-2002: Message edited by: stinky ]
Through Being Cool
Performed by Devo
Written by Casale/Mothersbaugh/MothersbaughWe’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool
Eliminate the ninnies and the twits
Going to bang some heads
Going to beat some butts
Time to show those evil spuds what’s whatIf you live in a small town
You might meet a dozen or two
Young alien types who step out
And dare to declare:We’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool
Spank the pink who try to drive you nuts.Time to clean some house
Be a man or a mouse
Face fools who make it tough to get aroundIf you live in a big place
Many factions underground
Chase down Mr. Hinky Dink
So no trace can be foundWe’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool
Eliminate the ninnies and the twitsPut the tape on erase
Rearrange your face
We always liked Picasso anywayIf you live in a small town
You might meet a dozen or two
Young alien types who step out
And dare to declare:We’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool
Eliminate the ninnies and the twitsWe’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool
Spank the pink who try to drive you nuts.Mash ’em
We’re through bein’ cool
We’re through bein’ cool…[ 25-02-2002: Message edited by: Aleck ]
Whip It
crack that whip
give the past the slip
step on a crack
break your momma’s back
when a problem comes along
you must whip it
before the cream sits out too long
you must whip it
when something’s going wrong
you must whip it
now whip it
into shape
shape it up
get straight
go forward
move ahead
try to detect it
it’s not too late
to whip it
whip it good
when a good time turns around
you must whip it
you will never live it down
unless you whip it
no one gets their way
until they whip it
i say whip it
whip it goodHellhound On My Trail
Robert Johnson
(Recorded 20 June 1937.)I got to keep movin’
I’ve got to keep movin’
Blues fallin’ down like hail
Blues fallin’ down like hail
Umm mmm mmm mmm
Blues fallin’ down like hail
Blues fallin’ down like hail
And the days keeps on worryin’ me
There’s a hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail
If today was Christmas Eve
If today was Christmas Eve
And tomorrow was Christmas Day
If today was Christmas Eve
And tomorrow was Christmas Day
(spoken: Aow, wouldn’t we have a time baby?)
All i would need my little sweet rider just
To pass the time away huh huh
To pass the time away
You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm
Mmm, around my door
AlI around my door
You sprinkled hot foot powder
All around your daddy’s door, hmm hmm hmm
It keep me with ramblin’ mind, rider
Every old place i go
Every old place i go
I can tell the wind is risin’
The leaves tremblin’ on the tree
tremblin’ on the tree
I can tell the win is risin’
The leaves tremblin’ on the tree
Hmmm hmmm hmm
All i need’s my little sweet woman
And to keep my company, hey, hey, hey
My company.Electrasy – Cosmic Castaway
Lose my head to the chemical freeway
Comin’ up on overload
In a mystic new dimension
Purify and sanctify me
What, so I’m in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
Losing sure is easy so I am no moreBut I’m not broken, in my dream I win
In here I’m nothing, a Cosmic CastawayIn my head I’m a chemical dreamer
Speed up to burn out mode
Comin’ up in the 5th dimension
Beautify don’t crucify me, yeah
So I need no mind game poisoning my lonely soul
Losing sure is easy so I am no moreBut I’m not broken, in my dream I win
And I take over, coz I’m no loser
And I’m in and you’re not, bad dreams don’t stop
But I’m all screwed up, a Cosmic Castaway
a Cosmic Castaway, a Cosmic CastawayAnd I want but have not
Bad dreams, lust thoughts
In here with no pain, you hurt me again
And I want but have none
I should beat the alien
But here I’m no one, a Cosmic Castaway
a Cosmic Castaway, a Cosmic Castaway
a Cosmic CastawayThis is beginning to look like Karaoke night at the Sad Pub.
nb and headgehog, squishy et al; musical interlude aside, we basically have bonnee posting under four different non-bonnee nicks;
smart aleck
mr hinky dink
stinky
rip lexxthese are just the ones in this thread
…my understanding is that he has been engaging in similar hijinks at lexxbored, except with much more attempts at starting and keeping flames going…including a couple of threads with jumping jedi…again, this sort of behavior has led to serious flamewars at other boards and here…
i am not sure why people feel like they have to cause problems under several aliases, except that they thrive on other people’s misery, and obviously do not have anything better to do…so give it a rest bonnee, and do not attempt to justify your petty games under the guise of defending dt, no one is buying itquote:
Originally posted by Smart_Aleck:
Fx – i think it is pretty obvious who this , what I’m doing and why.
bonnee, i don’t really care what you do on the other boards as long as you don’t bring it over here…as for allowing or encouraging aleck and dt, they work their own issues out here with or without help from anywhere else; it’s just something they do…both of them also manage to defend their positions without profanity or dragging others into their sparring…and by the way, the two of them provide some of the most well written and thought provoking posts here , even when they are arguing
and yes, this little community is clannish enough to miss both of them when they are not posting
flamegrape’s post was meant in fun, and lexx related, so i moved it here…believe me, when flame has real issues, he says it clearly…and fg,like most of the people here, has always been mature enough to selfpolice ; the exceptions do get banned.
i am sorry you do not agree with my ideas, but that is really not the issue…if you don’t want to post here, don’t…but you will play by my rules…and by the way, ‘crying fowl’ should be spelled ‘crying foul’…unless you are trying to invoke poultry
I shouldnt have kept biting on the Lexx.com board. I hate it when people try to wind me up.
Was is “bonee” that was insinuating that me and Flamegrape were close personal friends and run a Lexx board together?
I dont even know if Flamegrape is He/She/Ladyboy!!!
Ah…the joys of Internet based converstation!
quote:
Originally posted by JumpingJedi:
I shouldnt have kept biting on the Lexx.com board. I hate it when people try to wind me up.
Some people live for dominating bboards. The best thing to do is to ignore antagonizing posts. Even if they write outrageous and insulting things that aren’t true. They want you to reply with an indignant defence. They enjoy seeing people squirm and suffer. It’s something akin to bullying, rape, or drowning kittens and gives the creep a false sense of empowerment.
My only criticism for you JJ, is something that Rachael pointed out. You posted many, many more posts at Lexx.Com than most all of the other people. I may be wrong, but that could have exposed you to dire criticism. You haven’t posted there much in the last few days and it’s been pretty quiet.
The best thing to do is to let things blow over and don’t bug anyone.
quote:
Originally posted by JumpingJedi:
Was is “bonee” that was insinuating that me and Flamegrape were close personal friends and run a Lexx board together?
Such speculation is ultimately meaningless. All it does is give trolls satisfaction that people are confused or that anyone cares. Which I don’t.
quote:
Originally posted by JumpingJedi:
I dont even know if Flamegrape is He/She/Ladyboy!!!
Yes.
[ 26-02-2002: Message edited by: Flamegrape ]
Flame – Your advice is sound, and worth following, but I don’t see Bonnee as a bully and will therefore attempt a (likely unsuccessful) non-squirming reply to a point or two he brought up involving me. Sorry if it makes no sense to anyone who didn’t follow the original thread.
Bonnee – I’m flattered that you accused Aleck of using my name as an alternate screen name, based on a post I made at the other board. One the one hand, it is amusing and even complimentary for me to be confused with Aleck, since I agree with your glowing characterization of him in the previous thread (I would apply this characterization to you as well). However, it is probably insulting for Aleck to be compared with me, and in any case it is incorrect. On the infrequent occasions that I’ve posted here, or the other Lexx boards, I’ve always used my own first name.
As for the post I made at the other board, it was in response to what appeared to be a subjective claim by RipLexx (who I now know to be you), presented as objective fact. In response, you posted a lengthy essay by Kelly Ross on foundationalism and hermeneutics (I was also flattered that you thought my puny brain could benefit from it, but now I see you simply mistook me for Aleck). I found it highly interesting and generally agreed with the central conclusion quoted below:
“As understanding and knowledge thus can vary somewhat independently, it is then essential in life and in philosophy to retain an awareness that different issues, hermeneutic and foundational, may be involved in many, or all, questions.”
Reading it caused me to revisit my initial statement, where it appeared that I left no room for objectivity in the assessment of creative works – this is of course wrong, as there are many elements that may be analyzed objectively (plot complexity and originality, depth of characterization, technical quality of production, influence on similar works, etc…). My argument is that despite these elements, the impact of creative works on different audiences will also involve interpetation and subjectivity. This does not mean all intepetations are equally valid, nor is it a defense of subjectivity in general which I believe should be eliminated, to the extent possible, from as many decisions and questions as possible. This was alluded to in my original post.
quote:
Originally posted by FX:
nb and headgehog, squishy et al; musical interlude aside, we basically have bonnee posting under four different non-bonnee nicks;smart aleck
mr hinky dink
stinky
rip lexxthese are just the ones in this thread
…my understanding is that he has been engaging in similar hijinks at lexxbored, except with much more attempts at starting and keeping flames going…including a couple of threads with jumping jedi…again, this sort of behavior has led to serious flamewars at other boards and here…
i am not sure why people feel like they have to cause problems under several aliases, except that they thrive on other people’s misery, and obviously do not have anything better to do…so give it a rest bonnee, and do not attempt to justify your petty games under the guise of defending dt, no one is buying it
FX, I have a suggestion to rid ourselves of such pests, if you can update us on exactly what nicks the said perpertrator is using, then we can all avoid any discussion with him.
Unfortunately, I have been guilty as anyone of flaming before coming here, and you just reach a point where you wonder what the hell you are doing it for, so I was pleased to find a place where this didn’t happen, and found a bunch of nice like minded people who felt the same way.
From what I can tell people like Bonnee attempt to massage their own ego’s by invoking a flamewar, just so they can feel clever in offering a biting retort, essentially showing off their intellect in a vain attempt to get admiration.
In fact it only results in these people being resented, and then it makes them angrier because no know is recognising their belief that they are supremely intelligent, so then they just get their kicks by trying to find an opponent who can rival them in intellect.
In reality, they usually tend to write a long winded reply that they feel was composed excellently and they feel that no one could/should offer a good enough response to it.
These are extremely shallow people who in reality have absolutely no confidence in themselves.
All they want is someone to bite back, feeling that their post has invoked a response and that someone is taking notice of them, mostly because in the past they get ignored and so desperately want attention.
I know this sounds like psych 101, but if you come across enough people like this, then you realise they are just extremely lonely people with a grudge to bear.
So I would say to other board members, ‘don’t bite’, if it’s possible for the moderators to let us know just who is writing the post, then we should all be able to turn a blind eye to it, and eventually they will either get bored and move on, or begin to realise they are acting like prats and stop looking to cause unneccessary trouble.
Freedom of speech is one thing, outright attempts at trying to annoy or upset someone is something else.
Squishy quote:
Originally posted by Jason:
Bonnee – I’m flattered that you accused Aleck of using my name as an alternate screen name, based on a post I made at the other board. One the one hand, it is amusing and even complimentary for me to be confused with Aleck, since I agree with your glowing characterization of him in the previous thread (I would apply this characterization to you as well). However, it is probably insulting for Aleck to be compared with me, and in any case it is incorrect.
No insult taken on my part, Jason. I was just thrown by the unbelievable one-two punch of accusations that I was, on one hand, single-handedly organizing a conspiracy, and on the other hand, posing (and posting) under an alias on another board.
–Aleck
quote:
Originally posted by Squishy:
FX, I have a suggestion to rid ourselves of such pests, if you can update us on exactly what nicks the said perpertrator is using, then we can all avoid any discussion with him.
Squishy
squish; that was exactly my intention…unfortunately, i do not always have the time or the reason to track down all aliases, but i promise you that when someone gets my dander up, i will make the special effort
regards the most recent war here, which was fallout from scifi.com and other boards, i wish i had ‘unmasked’ certain people early on…in fact, a lot of what went on at scifi was mistaken identity stuff that could have been easily rectified with a moderator tracking down offenders…but what is done is done, and some things will just stay broken…but at least we here we have the opportunity to know who exactly is saying what
, and therefore confine our fights and vitriol to the right person …and like flame pointed out, ignoring the offender goes a long way too…quote:
quote:
Originally posted by NB1:
Am I the only one who does’nt know what the hell
is going on????Originally posted by Headgehog:
Nope
I get the feeling of deja-vu all over again….
But at least I hear music this time!OK, completely off topic(?), which of the images in “King of Pain” do you find the most disturbing/ upsetting? For me it’s always been:
#1 -There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread
tied for #2
There’s a red fox torn by a huntsman’s pack
and
There’s a black-winged gull with a broken backThese lines just send chills up my spine!!
Doin’ Donuts
The DonnasGet in the Dynaride Vinyl on Naugahyde
I’m wired and I’m ready to go
He’s tired shove him out the door
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long
It starts Friday at the break of dawn
Doin’ donuts on my neighbor’s lawn
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long
Tonight I’m drinkin’ for two
That’s all I learned in school
Davie’s Hotdogs is across the street
Drop in for some foot-long meat
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long
It starts Friday at the break of dawn
Doin’ donuts on my neighbor’s lawn
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long
Play in the fridge in the junk yard
Shoot BB guns in my backyard
It’s pain but I can’t complain
It’s the sugar in my veins
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long
It starts Friday at the break of dawn
Doin’ donuts on my neighbor’s lawn
Rock ‘n’ roll all weekend long|: Havah nagilah,
Havah, nagilah,
Havah, nagilah venism’chah. 😐
|: Havah, naranana,
Havah, naranana,
Havah, naranana, venism’chah. 😐Uru, uru achim,
Uru na achim b’lev shameach,
|: Uru na achim b’lev shameach,
Uru na achim b’lev shameach! 😐
|: Auf zum Fröhlichsein, 😐
Wir wollen uns freuen.
|: Auf zum Jubeln, 😐
Wir wollen uns freuen.
|: Strahlt, strahlt, Brüder,
freudigen Herzens 😐(really Bonnee, in case there is any confusion)
General Confessional
(From The Kol Nidre)
The Electric PrunesWe have guilt
We have fault
We are ungovernableAlligator
The Grateful DeadSleepy alligator in the noonday sun
Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
Call for his whisky
He can call for his tea
Call all he wanta but he
can’t call me
Oh no
I been there before
and I’m not comin back around
there no more
Creepy alligator comin all around the bend
Talkin bout the times when we was mutual friends
I check my mem’ry
I check it quick yes I will
I check it runnin
some old kind of trick
Oh no well I
been there before
and I ain’t a comin back around
there no more
no I’m not
hung up waitin’ for a windy day
Hung up waitin for a windy day
Tear down the Fillmore,
Gas the Avalon
Ridin down the river in an old canoe
a bunch of bugs and an old tennis shoe
out of the river all ugly and green
the biggest old alligator that I’ve ever seen
teeth big and pointed and his eyes were buggin out
contact the union, put the beggars to route
screamin and yellin and lickin his chops
he never runs he just stumbles and hops
just out of prison on six dollars bail
mumblin at bitches and waggin his tail
Alligator runnin round my door
Alligator creepin round the corner of my cabin door
He’s comin round to bother me some moreRooty Toot Toot
Got my hands on a little bit of dough
So I went to the grocery store
And got some steaks to go
went by and picked up my gal, Teddi Jo
We had ourselves a picnic
Beside a dirt roadRooty toot toot
Rooty toot toot
We had it made in the shade
Like a ball through the hoop
Spinnin’ and tumblin’ inside this hoola hoop
Livin’ and learnin’
Rooty toot tootWe laid out a blanket
And started a fire
Had the radio playin’
From inside the car
I took off my shirt and kicked off my shoes
She read the paper
And told me the news
She said, there’s a lot of people out there
Who are at the end of their rope
Sometimes baby
You’ve got to lay lowRooty toot toot
Rooty toot toot
We had it made in the shade
Like a ball through the hoop
Spinnin’ and tumblin’ inside this hoola hoop
Livin’ and learnin’
Rooty toot tootWe stayed there all day
We both got us some real good suntans
I thought that was ok
Sometimes life can be so grandWe were gettin’ ready
To shake out of that place
When the Illinois state trooper
Got in my face
He said, You’re on private property
But once he cooled down he was ok
Sometimes you’re golden, man
That’s all I got to sayRooty toot toot
Rooty toot toot
We had it made in the shade
Like a ball through the hoop
Spinnin’ and tumblin’ inside this hoola hoop
Livin’ and learnin’
Rooty toot toot(To the state troopers – bonnee again)
Crosseyed and Painless
Talking HeadsLost my shape-Trying to act casual!
Can’t stop-I might end up in the hospital
I’m changing my shape-I feel like an accident
They’re back!-To explain their experienceIsn’t it weird/Looks too obscure to me
Wasting away/And that was their policyI’m ready to leave-I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost-Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there!-No information left of any kind
Lifting my head-Looking for danger signsThere was a line/There was a formula
Sharp as a knife/Facts cut a hole in us
There was a line/There was a forula
Sharp as a knife/Facts cut a hole in usI’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
The feeling returns/Whenever we close out eyes
Lifting my head/looking around insideThe island of doubt-It’s like the taste of medicine
Working by hindsight-Got the message from the oxygen
Making a list-Find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right-Facts are useless in emergenciesThe feeling returns/Whenever we close out eyes
Lifting my head/Looking around inside.Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don’t stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shapeI’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…Waiting (xentrix)
Just one short life
No second chance
To make of ourselves what we can
The moving hands again advance
& mould me into what I am
Waiting, waiting
Well understood but not controlled
Forever here anonymous
Whats present now
Already past
In retrospect so obvious
Waiting, waiting
Such a short space of time
But time passes quickly
Learn so little so slowly
As each moment is mine
The hope never fading
You will always be left waiting, waiting
Such a short space of time
Learn so little so slowly
As each moment is mine
You will always be left waitingDog Bite
The Dead KennedysDog bite
On my leg
Not right
Supposed to beg
Daily to the filling station
Underwater navigationDeadMeat isnt another alias is it? DeadMeat seems to be the current one on Lexx.com giving Lexx a good beating.
Ive toned down my posting on there now and its turned into a very boring place ;(
Only 8 more weeks of Lexx left! Imagine how boring it will be then!!!!!
——————————————–
I was also flattered that you thought my puny brain could benefit from it, but now I see you simply mistook me for Aleck). I found it highly interesting and generally agreed with the central conclusion quoted below:“As understanding and knowledge thus can vary somewhat independently, it is then essential in life and in philosophy to retain an awareness that different issues, hermeneutic and foundational, may be involved in many, or all, questions.”
Reading it caused me to revisit my initial statement, where it appeared that I left no room for objectivity in the assessment of creative works – this is of course wrong, as there are many elements that may be analyzed objectively (plot complexity and originality, depth of characterization, technical quality of production, influence on similar works, etc…). My argument is that despite these elements, the impact of creative works on different audiences will also involve interpetation and subjectivity. This does not mean all intepetations are equally valid, nor is it a defense of subjectivity in general which I believe should be eliminated, to the extent possible, from as many decisions and questions as possible. This was alluded to in my original post.[/QB][/QUOTE]
——————————————–Jason, I’m sorry for taking so long to respond. My next door neighbour’s cat just had kittens, and I was too busy trying to drown them in everyone’s sorrows
Seriously, I’m sorry for the confusion my post engendered regarding you and A. It was a very presumptious and obnoxious error of judgement, but I’m pleased that it at least amused someone.
My biggest confusion, however, is why you would impugn your own intelligence. Your original two responses to me indicated someone with a very acute mind indeed. Although I felt that some of the remarks were misguided, it was certainly apparent that you would be willing and able to develop and clarify your own position. So I’m grateful that you tracked me down in one of my many guises in order to do this.
I think you’ve identified and pursued the problem to your credit. Now, I want to stress that I view any knowledge claim as problematic – none more so than the claims creative works can make upon us. Without pursuing the status of art in great detail, I would like to at least note that these have tended to be privledged in many accounts of meaning and truth. It is almost as if their mode of address really drives certain points (back) home by hitting us all where we live.
Consequently, the only reservation I have with your characterisation of the problem is the attempt to steer a relatively safe passage between being subjective and/or objective. I have to confess to being very uncomfortable with the attempt to minimise the one at the expense of the other. I don’t think it is either possible or desirable. The question is the nature of the relation between knowledge and experience (working on the assumption that these are distinct but related in so far as experience is ‘subjective’ and knowledge can be ‘objective’). The ‘foundational’ question is the source of knowledge and experience, and how the objects of the one (experience) can either conform to or deviate from the objects of the other (knowledge). The concern that motivates such a problem is the nature of the relation between those objects that subjects can all dis/agree on. That is, WHAT is an object (of knowledge and/or experience), and HOW do such objects come to be (in such conformity or deviation)?
Given these questions, the problem is the nature and extent of the dis/agreement. Many of us want to demarcate between (experiences of) objects, but this just returns us to the problem of knowledge.
I want to thank you for recognising that I wasn’t attempting to render your position unassailable, and appreciate the attempt to discuss some admittedly dense material. For the record – these questions continue to defeat minds greater than ours put together, so I’m not trying to get you to dis/agree with me. I’m just trying to make clear how opaque these issues really are, and that by trying to clear them up can really murk the waters.
…You’ll have to excuse me now – I’ve just seen an unattended baby with candy in her hand (twirls moustache).
[ 27-02-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]
The Goin’ Gets Tough from the Getgo
Weensmack dab in the middle of a situation
overlooked by fools
tables turned, lessons learned
u get burned for playin’ by the rules
time is lost, that’s the cost
oh brother you got sh!t on in the end
scrape 4 a dollar, you’ll die smilin’
learnin’ the same lessons once again
the goin’ gets tough from the get go go man go
oh brother not another motherf**ker
gotta go nowConsider the Lillies:
A Farewell Sermon-Lecture in Response to the Request, “Shirley Tell Us About Your Work.”
by Shirley Hershey ShowalterTo the Colloquium of the Lilly Fellows Program
Valparaiso University
May 2, 1994“Consider the lilies” is the only biblical command I have ever obeyed. –Emily Dickinson
Have you ever paid attention to the lowly spider? The kind of attention that Simone Weil has taught us to use? I invite you today to consider the spider.
The spider crept into my mind a few months ago when I gave an Indiana Humanities Council lecture at the Middlebury Public Library on “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in which I argued that an important key to understanding Jonathan Edwards’ most famous sermon is another one of his texts–a scientific treatise on spiders written, scholars estimate, in 1714, when he was just 11 years old. The point I wanted to make about Edwards’ sermon in that lecture was that, despite its fiery brimstone reputation, the sermon focuses much more on God’s love than on fear. You will remember that at the heart of the sermon lies a very famous image–we are held by a slender thread over the angry, yawning pit of hell. I argued that our attention should not fixate on the pit. It should focus on the thread.
Edwards’ 1714 treatise on spiders showed me how much spiritual wisdom results from taking painstaking care to study another living thing. A precocious child, shaped by a Puritan community in which nature’s purpose was to provide visible signs of the invisible, could combine observation and imagination in such a way as to meet God in the process.
Edwards was intrigued by the spider’s ability to spin webs. His diagrams illustrate the difference between the two types of silk the spider uses and the two kinds of spinnerets which produce these silks. He recognizes the difference between then radial and lateral part of the web. Listen to the joy in his voice as he describes what he has seen by standing in the shadow of an opaque object:
[T]hese webs may be seen well enough in the day time by an observing eye, by their reflection in the sunbeams. Especially late in the afternoon, may these webs, that are between the eye and that part of the horison that is under the sun, be seen very plainly, being advantageously positioned to reflect the rays. . . . But I have often seen that which is much more astonishing. . . . I have seen a vast multitude of little shining webs, and glistening strings, brightly reflecting the sunbeams, and some of them of great length, and of such a height, that one would think they were tacked to the vault of the heavens, and would be burnt like tow in the sun, and make a very beautiful, pleasing, as well as surprising appearance. (Edwards, Basic Writings, 32-33)
After reading this description, our perception of the slender thread above the pit of Edwards’ hell in his famous sermon, written years later, changes. We can imagine that thread in its wondrous attachment to the “vault of heaven.”Because spiders and webs have been coming into my reading in many ways in recent years, I was not surprised to find myself utterly fascinated by a recent article in The New York Times science section. The April 19 issue carried a long article on the arachnid family.
Dr. Catherine R. Craig, an evolutionary ecologist at Yale who was featured in the Times article, devotes her life to figuring out why and how spiders spin webs. Her theory goes like this: the web, or orb, is “among the spider’s most dynamic and responsive traits, a cunning weapon designed to lure prey by exploiting an insect’s fundamental need for food, flowers, and open spaces.” The spider is a trickster.
The spider has adapted very well to evolution. Over eons of time, the strength, elasticity, and versatility of web silks have increased. Evolving a refined type of silk has led to at least 10,000 different species, including ones that left the dim forest and began to spin webs under the open sun.
Craig’s work has changed the study of insect-spider web interactions from being considered a primarily passive process to being a highly active one, wherein the web is a sign with power to attract its prey through imitation and suggestion. Webs are not invisible; they only appear to be in order to allure. Web silks have the ability to reflect light in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. Insects following something called the open space response. They need open space “to help them navigate, and because ultraviolet light can come only from the sun or the sky, a bit of it glittering is like a billboard proclaiming free range ahead.” (NYT, April 1994, B8 B8)
A second type of seduction is even more sophisticated and is used by more highly evolved species, big web weavers, Argiope and Nephila. The Argiope decorate their webs with thick strands of silk in the middle to create zigzags or a cross-hatch pattern. These also reflect UV light. They resemble blossoming grasses or nectar guides on flower petals. As a result, they attract pollinators–big, meaty bumble bees. The bee sees the decoration but not the rest of the web because the other sections do not reflect light.
At an even greater level of sophistication, the Argiopes vary the decorations from web to web so that their prey cannot learn from their mistakes to identify a predictable pattern of decorated webs.
What does the spider have to do with the central purpose of the question of this talk, “Shirley, tell us about your work.”
A great deal. And a great deal more than I have time or words to say. You are probably ahead of me already, making connections. A spider web looks a lot like Dorothea of Gaza’s wheel, an image we early on decided would be an important one for us. It has a hub–God, and its radials bring us all closer to each other as we near the center. In that way it is an image of community.
It is also an image for the teaching process. Some of you know that, though I agree with Parker Palmer’s assertion that the classroom needs a “third thing,” I have never been content with his use of the word “subject” as the triangulator. To me that word can too easily be read as the “discipline.” It’s like the old saying that the ideal classroom would be Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other. The third thing in that picture is the log, which would fit Parker’s model, I suppose, if the subject is forestry. But I would like it better if the log became a seesaw. I would suggest that a picture of teaching that does not allow movement is an inadequate picture. Teaching is an active, not a static, process, and our images need to account for this activity. Just as scientists gave up the notion of the passive web, so we too need to rethink our picture of the classroom. The idea of a dynamic, active web spun by the teacher out of her or his own body, attracting the student by reflecting light, appeals to me a great deal at the moment
But can movement be the subject? No, but perhaps motion toward God can be, assuming that whatever discipline we teach has a connection both to the divine and to the life stories of all the participants in the class. I accept by faith an old-fashioned axiom–Cardinal Newman’s in The Idea of the University (1852): “All branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and work of the creator.”
To embrace Newman on this point is, from the modern university’s point of view, to take a step backward philosophically. I am prepared to be a contrarian, if necessary, but I hope not to be a defensive and bitter one. I think it may actually be possible that we in church-related colleges and universities may have the opportunity to step ahead rather than step backward. The time is coming, and now is, that belief in the unity of all things may again be possible. That unity, however, will not be the unity of the Great Chain of Being or even Benedict’s ladder of humility. I hope it won’t be a mushy New Age relativism either. Diana Eck is trying hard to find it. The work I feel called to is not constructing a philosophy of unity ( a la Casaubon in Middlemarch) but rather creating a unified educational community, joined together at many levels–intellectual, spiritual, and social–in many complex ways, like a web. For me, community building, even at the local level, has all the joys and challenge of the epic life Dorothea Brooke craved.
The hunch I am following is that the unity within the creation, so much under attack in our pluralistic and fragmented world, may still be there, but not in the places where we have looked in the past. That’s why I find myself looking to the spider and thinking about another kind of creation than the Logos version.
And that is also why I believe autobiography is such a powerful force in the creative learning process. Parker Palmer wrote in 1990 that “the major ideas at the heart of every discipline arose from the real life of a real person–not from the mind alone, but from the thinker’s psyche, body, relationships, passions, political and social context . . . often . . . in response to some great suffering or hope that is still with us today” (Change Jan/Feb 1990). The teacher’s job is to tell the narrative of the subject in such a way so as to ignite within the students the same process which created the subject’s narrative.
The student connection to the subject, like the bee’s connection to the spider, is through desire. Students always yearn, metaphorically at least, for open space, for food, for flowers. By reaching for beauty and for food students get ensnarled in the web of their greatest teachers, who show their students larger forms of their own desires. Sometimes the student feels consumed in this process as an old desire dies and a new one arises. Even if the student escapes entrapment, he or she learns that education is a series of small deaths on the way to the big one.
But I cannot stop with this image of the teacher as spider, because we need a picture that is not only active, but also a reversible one. At this stage of my career, I am most interested in discovering and growing new spinners. I tried to be that kind of leader in Colloquium and will hope to encourage my Goshen students next year to seek learning in order to become weavers of their own tales. The spinner weaves a web of connection from her own life and to the life of the discipline in order that the student may catch a glimpse of the vault of heaven at the furthest reaches of the silk.
The web of reciprocal connection that binds us to our students and to our subject can lead us individually and collectively to God. In the imagery we have used so far, God can be seen as the ultraviolet light, which is the thing that animates the process of active web making. Hence, “In luce tua.” But God is also in the spider, in the web, and in the prey. Diana Eck showed us how complex our monotheistic image of One God really is. We have one God with many faces. In this case, we can see, depending upon our vantage point, God the lover, God the weaver, God the atonement, and God the trinity. By standing in a relation of awe to our subjects, our students, and our own lives, we begin to send darts of love into the cloud of unknowing that surrounds the great mystery whose center is God.
Now let us see what happens when we think specifically of Jesus in the role of spider-teacher. Imagine, for example, Jesus, the peasant Jew, in the classroom of Galilee, speaking on a plain against a bank of wildflowers growing in profusion. It must have been springtime then, too. Watch what happens in Luke 12: 22-34 as Jesus the trickster, storyteller, weaver, and wisdom figure spins a web.
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (the Bible, Luke 12:22-34, NIV)
If we take a saying like this seriously, hoping to apply it to our lives in the radical way it was intended rather than the spiritualized way it has often been presented to us, we will find it a hard saying. According to Rick DeMaris, scholars think that Luke probably contains more utterings of the historical Jesus than the other Gospels, which means that, since it is the one in which his politics are most radical, he is most challenging to us today to the extent we see ourselves as members–or aspiring members–of either the religious or educational establishment of our day.
My friends, Jesus did not have a church-related higher education. In fact, he caused a lot of trouble for folks who did.
Marcus Borg understands the radical nature of Jesus in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. In fact, his thesis can be applied to these verses even though he did not use them in his book.
Verse 24, for example, refers to ravens, which would have been considered unclean birds, since they eat dead flesh. They probably, along with the dogs under Crossan’s cross, ate the flesh of crucified peasants. But Borg has demonstrated convincingly how Jesus refused to participate in the purity cults of his day. He wants us to consider the “unclean” ravens God chooses to feed with carrion. Perhaps it is not too much to imagine that Christ was considering his own giving up of the flesh when he chose the raven by which to make his example. He knew how much more God cared about the disciples, and about us, because he was preparing himself for the ultimate sacrifice.
Verse 24 is also a gendered verse, for it tells us the ravens neither sow nor reap. In the ancient world, sowing and reaping were the activities of men. In contrast, the lilies neither spin nor weave (in some translations) or labor. Spinning and weaving were women’s work. Jesus is, therefore, telling both men and women something about work in this passage. He was telling us to work in a way that is free from fear and worry.
Interestingly, Luke 12: 22-34 does not figure prominently in many of the books devoted to this Gospel. John Howard Yoder, in The Politics of Jesus, says nothing about it. Richard Cassidy and Robert Tannehill barely mention it in their own book-length studies. A person who does mention this passage, however, is our own Simone Weil, in Waiting for God:
Christ proposed the docility of matter to us as a model when he told us to consider the lilies of the field that neither toil nor spin. This means that they have not set out to clothe themselves in this or that color; they have not exercised their will or made arrangement to being about their object; they have received all the natural necessity brought them. If they appear to be infinitely more beautiful than the richest stuffs, it is not because they are richer but a result of their docility. Materials are docile too, but docile to man, not to God. . . . For us, this obedience of things in relation to God is what the transparency of a window pane is in relation to light. As soon as we feel this obedience with our whole being, we see God. (Weil, Waiting for God, p.__)
The wisdom of the lilies, then, lies in obeying our creator, which seems to mean become transparent, invisible, so that the self God created us to be can shine through. I heard the same message when I talked to retired Goshen College professor of biology Merle Jacobs, a passionately learned man Simone Weil would have loved. He has been paying acute attention to spiders and fruitflies all his life. He knows what Abraham Heschel means by the term “radical amazement.” When I asked him if he thinks spiders have something to teach us about wisdom, he did not laugh. In fact, I could tell he had been thinking about this a long time himself. (He loaned me a video of the spider so that all of us could see the fascinating process of web spinning.) His answer to my question was that “spiders have in-born wisdom.” In other words, they are docile: “They have received all the natural necessity brought to them.” Who they are and what they do is not only the basis of their beauty; it is their connection to God.We have seen Jesus spinning a web for us in this passage. In the exact center of that web is verse 27–“Consider the lilies, how they grow.” I would propose that that verse is in the living, center of this room also and of the Lilly Fellows Program. The purpose of the lilies–the Lillies–is to grow–to become larger in love and larger in wisdom.
There’s an irony in this passage that has to be bridged if the spider imagery is to be helpful to us as Christian teachers and scholars. The lilies grow without spinning. Jesus himself, of course, was spinning a metaphorical web in the passage about not spinning. But he was doing it in complete freedom, which is at the heart of this passage about work. What was his secret? His total obedience to his mission? His ability to see the lily as God sees it? His profound love for his disciples and his desire to release them from their fears? Yes.
In doing so, he is like Sophia the wisdom woman of both canonical and noncanonical Old Testament literature, who like Athena and Hestia of ancient Greece and Spider Woman of numerous Native American peoples, is associated with spinning and weaving and with creation. Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza was first to name the connection between Jesus and Sophia, and Borg picks it up in his book in chapter five.
The question now is how does all this material about spiders and lilies help answer the question about my work. I have been implying all along that my work is to seek God and that this process is a communal, interactive, and nonauthoritarian one. Notice that not only have I not said I am a “Scholar” or “Culture Critic,” I have not said I am a “College Teacher,” either. This year has freed me to think bigger than any disciplinary boundary or professional role. I have begun to exorcise some of my own fears as an academic. If fear is the heart of the problem of the academy, as Parker Palmer said, and Jim Champion seconded, then we have to name it in its various forms in order to become strong enough to be obedient to the best that is in us and, therefore, be free to grow. Part of my work, therefore, is to crease the role of fear in my own life and in the communities of which I am a part.
It has taken me a whole year to become free enough to do so, but today, I am ready to confess some of my own fears, in the hopes that fear may weaken whatever hold it has in your life. Here they are, my four F-words.
1. I fear failure–in the forms of being inept, out of control, different, patronized. I need to say here how moved I was when one of our members, Tom Holien, broke the bonds of that fear by using his initial failure in the classroom as the center of his updated spiritual autobiography. I would like to follow his example by confession that a lot of what I have to say today is shadowed by fear. If the midwest AAR meeting was an intellectual highlight for Paul, it was for me an intellectual lowlight. After I heard Stephanie read her paper on Marguerite d’Oignt, based on eight years of paying attention to texts I did not know in languages I am too old to start learning, I wondered if I had anything to say at all on what were basically the same subjects. I had to learn humility–again. Roberta Bondi knows about this problem, “Cultivating humility also means that we will begin to stop measuring ourselves continually against others–a problem ancient Christians had, too, judging by the many times it is mentioned in the literature.” Like Tom Holien, I found freedom from my fear by examining it, changing the things I can control, and accepting myself for that which I cannot change, nor perhaps should.
2. I fear being forgotten. Knowing that I am about to leave all of you soon and knowing that someday I must leave all my loved ones, I fear my own mortality. When an academic feels the shadow of this fear, it’s time to get down to work in the form of print, something we have more faith in than in our bodies, which we know are in the process of deserting us forever. We have named this fear appropriately–we call it “publish or perish.”
3. I fear feeling, the seat of wisdom. The academy trained me to use my mind, for which I am grateful, but I am sorry that I have wasted so much energy trying to keep feeling at bay, especially in my early career. I felt I had to break the stereotypes held about women. I was the first married woman with a doctorate to receive tenure at Goshen College outside of the field of nursing. The year was 1989. As a pioneer, I tried to be a synthesizer of mind and heart, in that order. As an emerging elder, I hope to be a fearless advocate of the heart without closing the mind, as Robert Bondi has been in her autobiographical essay in The Cresset (June 1993).
4. I fear the fragility of webs. This may seem like an odd fear, but it is not. My theology has changed from my early years, when my mother was creating that scrapbook featuring Sallman’s head of Christ. As my understanding changes, it sometimes feels uncomfortable, unsafe. Sometimes I can identify with Henry Adams: “He saw before him a world so changed as to be beyond connection with the past. His identity, if one could call a bundle of disconnected memories an identity, seemed to remain; but his life was once more broken into separate pieces; he was a spider and had to spin a new web in some new place with a new attachment.”
These are a few of my fears. And here is what I learned from the spider about how to deal with them. You may wonder how spiders can avoid getting caught in their own webs. They know where the sticky zones are and have learned to avoid them, walking only on the dry areas. With “in-born wisdom,” they focus on what is important. They are content to be lowly. They work without anxiety. They spin and then wait. I aspire to that kind of simplicity, or docility, as Simone Weil put it, in my own work.
In the meantime, as I search for the kind of simplicity that lies on the yonder side of complexity, I work in a community and in the classroom. I return from this year freer from fear than when I arrived and full of the 1-word, love–love for all of you, for all of the writers and artists who have pierced my soul here in this house, and for the God who has made all things possible. Here, then, is my list of verbs that I expect will shape the way in which I work and will bring the content of my work to me.
1. to listen. This is another word for paying attention. But today I focus on the sense that often gets neglected, as Beth has pointed out, in favor of the sense-metaphor of sight. I want to listen with my whole being, to listen my students, colleagues, friends and even sometimes strangers into voice. I want to take Beth’s challenge seriously: “Listen for those whose hearts are burdened by things we don’t ever pray about.” When I am listening, I can often hear the fear of the other and learn in the process to name more of my own fear.
I also want to listen to whatever text I am reading in the same what that Barbara McClintock described her work as a scientist–with a “feeling for the organism.” If I learn to do this deeply, I may have the privilege of participating in the wise admonition of Julian of Norwich–“let your life be a text.” This radically personal and yet communal text, influenced by years of study and reflection–my life–has begun to become a new source of authority for me. It gives me a base when speculation is necessary in scholarship, it offers empathy to others, and it’s one text I always have with me in the waiting room.
2. to play, celebrate. I was notably better at this part of my work this year than I usually am. Being around so many younger people was part of it. But so was the contemplative practice. Perhaps Benedict had to warn the monks against laughter because when we are in touch with our spirits, we are inclined toward joy and laughter. Remember how much Kathleen Norris learned about play from the monks and from becoming monkish herself? I think contemplation inevitably leads us to focus on grace, as Luther did. And grace fully realized leads always to joy. I have been very impressed by the festive celebrations here–at Christmas, in the freshman production, at parties, and at Easter. For all that lugubrious Bach, Lutherans truly know how to celebrate. At least from a Mennonite perspective they do. And it helps to throw in some Methodists, and Disciples, and seekers, and Catholics. I have enjoyed learning to play from and with you, making up for the sobriety of my youth. As Susan Russel says, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”
3. to heal, to give. This part of my work I understand as directly related to the role models I have been privileged to have as a Mennonite. Because Mennonites have focused on orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy–living the word rather than believing only–and because they have tried to take the hard words of Jesus seriously, they have been blessed by numerous saints. If I had time I would tell some of their stories. They are always stories of swimming against the tide, of being able to do a lot of good in the world because they were not anxious–they did not care who got the credit. They were willing to be transparent. They found their inborn wisdom. They turned the values of this world upside down. They showed an ambitious little girl and young woman another way to be.
I discovered this year, in hours of silence and sometimes darkness, just how much I owe to the cloud of witnesses who have guided me in the past and in the present. You met one of my mentors, Mary Oyer. Buzz Berg mentioned what happened to him when she came and led the hymns. I am glad it was Mary who got to him. She got to me too. After her visit, I wrote these words in my journal. “I love the way Mary closes her eyes and goes inside herself as she speaks. Then, for a moment after she has been to the center, her eyes glow, and we get to see a reflection of her spirit shine on her face for a few seconds. Her voice often lilts if she is peaking or singing while the light is on her face. I saw that inside-out light first on the face of Dom Helder Camara in a film I showed in a class. I saw it again in the Cocody Evangelical Church on the face of an old African woman three benches behind me as she prayed in a strange tongue. Today I realized that I have probably been seeing the glow on Mary’s face for years but was too close to recognize it.”
In order to illustrate the verb “to heal” I am going to need some help. I am going to ask ten readers from this group to help me read a passage from Sharon Parks, The Critical Years. It is a narrative of a young woman, who might have been a Lilly. She sounds like one.
Many of us might admit that we . . . were drawn to this place [Harvard Divinity] by the modest desire to learn to see everything clearly. Though it sounds presumptuous, we who have spent two or more years here, dissecting holy Scriptures, comparing world religions, constructing and deconstructing the concept of God, cannot pretend any lack of ambition. We did not come here to satisfy cool academic curiosities, but rather to learn how to see everything–the whole picture of life–clearly. We came to explore the very mysteries of God, toe expand our view of the world, and to discern what it is that the universe demands of us.
After being here for a while, we have discovered that the process of learning to see religiously is a difficult, if not overwhelming, endeavor. For in delving into questions of ultimate meaning, we have learned how blurred is our vision, how tentative and partial our . . . insight. In this, we are like the blind man from Bethsaida, who even with a miracle, could only slowly and gradually learn how to see. . . .
Our studies and our common life have bombarded us with more . . . than we know how to manage. For our study . . . has caused us to examine our own faith and values: To decide what it is that we treasure . . . and what is essential to human be-ing.
Thus we have been involved in the process of naming our Gods. This process has demanded not only that we clarify issues of personal faith and belief, but also that we regard anew some of the global issues of human struggle. It is not that horrors such as world hunger have just recently come into being. But somehow before we hadn’t quite seen (or faced) the magnitude of suffering involved, or the ethical challenges that such suffering presents.
So in the process of naming the Gods, we have been naming some demons too. We have seen and named the terrifying demons of militarism, racism, and sexism in our world. These appear to us as horrifying patches of darkness, frightening shadows that make us want to shut our eyes tightly and return to the comforts or our former blindness. . . .
Last summer I was in Israel, working on an archaeological dig. At the site of the ancient city of Dor, each day as I swung my pick into the age-old soil, I was inwardly chipping away at just these sorts of issues. I expended a good deal of energy cursing the facts of human suffering in the world, and trying to imagine some kind of hope of restoration.
Excavating at the level of the Iron Age can be rather tedious; only rarely did we turn up any precious small finds. Most of the time was spent staring at dirt walls and broken pottery shards. In my square, not even one whole vessel was uncovered all season–just so many broken pieces, scraps of ancient civilization. All of the brokenness appeared to me as an accurate metaphor for understanding the world. Broken and crushed, every piece of it; broken with small personal pains, as well as with overwhelmingly large human struggles. Yet as the summer went on, and I kept staring at the pottery, I slowly started to notice something more than just the brokenness. Some of the pieces of clay, however broken, were really quite beautiful.
Later in the summer, I found out about the business of pottery mending. This tedious work goes on year-round in a cathedral-like building not far from the tel. Here ancient vessels have been slowly and carefully reconstructed. I remember being completely amazed at seeing those huge restored jugs for the first time. How could anyone have possibly managed to piece together so many small nondescript chips of clay?
Seeing those restored vessels encouraged me to imagine perhaps that at least some of the world’s brokenness could be overcome. I began to picture myself in a kind of vocation of mending, of repairing some of the world’s brokenness.
To mend the world. To proclaim a radical vision of social transformation that would prevent future brokenness from occurring. These are the tasks that I perceived the world to be demanding of me. (pp. 130-131)
4. Finally, my work is to connect as a spider connects. You heard Dr. Craig describe how strong and flexible is the silk the spider spins. The spider throws herself upon the wind. Think of Diana Eck and her chapter on breath. Then think of yourself being tossed up on that wind, trailing your silk as a reverse parachute. Then think of yourself doing that all through your life. Being at the matrix of a complex set of relationships, walking on the nonsticky part of the web so that you don’t get caught in your own trap, dining on honey bees, thinking only about what you were created to do. Perhaps that image will inspire you as much as it has inspired me.
Mark Schwhn ended his book, Exiles from Eden, with a brilliant reading of the two creation stories in Genesis. Only when I revisited the last chapter yesterday, on the suspicion that I would find my own conclusion in the response to his, did I realize that, once again, as we did with the wheel image of Dorothea of Gaza earlier this year, Mark and I had settled on the same image. For Mark the spider image, as it was used by the early modernists Henry Adams and Max Weber and later by Clifford Geertz, to denote human ability to make without the aid of a creator, is unsatisfying and discomforting. He says on page 135, “If we must think of ourselves as spiders spinning webs of meaning, we should be sure to reflect upon the less comforting features of this image: the thin connections to the world.”
The problem Mark notes in the modernist view of creation is that it functions autonomously–at its worst, it leads us to an image of the pit but without the slender thread of connection to God. Instead of denying the fragility of the thread as I attempted to do with Jonathan Edwards, I would rather direct us all to a third creation story as it is found in the book of Proverbs.
Throughout both canonical and noncanonical wisdom literature stands a woman of tremendous importance to me. She is an image projected by male writers and, therefore, subject to some scepticism from feminists, especially since she is contrasted so strongly with the female personification of evil–the temptress. However, she offers both women and men a sign of hope, for she is a spinner who knows God; in fact, she is God’s partner in creation. Some scholars believe that the famous appendix to the book of Proverbs–which no doubt has been the text of thousands of sermons on Mother’s Day–Proverbs 31, the poem to the virtuous woman–is really a hymn of praise to Wisdom herself. By the way, that poem mentions spinning, weaving, and sewing in five separate sections. Weaving and sewing is what Wisdom does when she isn’t buying fields, planting vineyards, etc. My favorite line is “She is clothed in dignity and power and can afford to laugh at tomorrow.” In chapter 32 she is extolled in the third person. In chapter 8–which is in almost the exact center of the canon (p. 588 out of 1145 pages in the NIV) in the same position to the whole Bible that “consider the lilies” is in Jesus’ sermon on anxiety–she speaks her own poem:
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up,
At the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills I was brought forth;
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the race of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like his master workman;
and I was his daily delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of humans (8:22-31)Here is a spinner who spins not ex nihilo but as a partner to the creator-God. Here also is a spinner who is not anxious, who laughs at tomorrow. Here is a spinner who caught me in her web this year, who convinces me that through my work I can partake of her work. If I am not mistaken, your feet are in the sticky zone too.
Here we are then, the caught ones, the taught ones about to say good-bye. George Eliot said that every parting reminds us of death. But we know that in death there is also birth. That is why we are ending with a feast, the same farewell Jesus gave to his disciples. We are “each other’s bread and wind” and having been to Paris–or to Eden–once in our lives, we have it with us always.
As I bid you farewell, I hope that you will fare well, and spin well, and when all your spinning is done, I wish you an ending like this one, once again from Jonathan Edwards. Edwards had the idea, a mistaken but elegant one, that all flying insects, headed out over the ocean to die. The season is the end of summer, as fall begins to add a nip to the evening air–the season of transformation and of hope for those of us whose lives have been lived in school. If I could choose my own time for the final farewell, it would be on an early September morning just as the sun breaks through the blackness on the horizon:
When the sun shines pretty warm [the insects] leave [the trees] and mount up in the air, and expand their wings to the sun, and flying for nothing but their own ease and comfort, they suffer themselves to go that way, that they find they can go with the greatest ease, and so where the wind pleases; and it being warmth they fly for, they find it cold and laborious flying against the wind. They therefore seem to use their wings, but just so much as to bear them up, and suffer them to go with the wind. So that without a doubt almost all aerial insects, and also spiders which live upon trees and are made up of them, are at the end of the year swept away into the sea and buried in the ocean, and leave nothing behind them [. . .] but their eggs, for a new stock next year.
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HTML editing by Lon Sherer, [email protected]
Updated: 1/97Wake Up (Rage Against the Machine)
Come on!
Uggh!
Come on, although ya try to discredit
Ya still never edit
The needle, I’ll thread it
Radically poetic
Standin’ with the fury that they had in ’66
And like E-Double I’m mad
Still knee-deep in the system’s ****
Hoover, he was a body remover
I’ll give ya a dose
But it’ll never come close
To the rage built up inside of me
Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisyMovements come and movements go
Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown
‘Cause all these punks
Got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judges, the feds
Networks at work, keepin’ people calm
You know they went after King
When he spoke out on Vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shotYeah!
Yeah, back in this…
Wit’ poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like Wilson, vocals never lackin’ dat finesse
Whadda I got to, whadda I got to do to wake ya up
To shake ya up, to break the structure up
‘Cause blood still flows in the gutter
I’m like takin’ photos
Mad boy kicks open the shutter
Set the groove
Then stick and move like I was Cassius
Rep the stutter step
Then bomb a left upon the fascists
Yea, the several federal men
Who pulled schemes on the dream
And put it to an endYa better beware
Of retribution with mind war
20/20 visions and murals with metaphorsNetworks at work, keepin’ people calm
Ya know they murdered X
And tried to blame it on Islam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shotUggh!
What was the price on his head?
What was the price on his head!I think I heard a shot (5 times)
I think I heard, I think I heard a shotBackground: ‘Black nationalism’
‘He may be a real contender for this position should he
abandon his supposed obediance to white liberal doctrine
of non-violence…and embrace black nationalism’
‘Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
pinpoint potential trouble-makers…’
‘And neutralise them’Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!Spoken: ‘How long? Not long, ’cause
what you reap is what you sow.’We Didn’t Start the Fire
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, “The King and I” and “The Catcher in the Rye”
Eisenhower, vaccine, England’s got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
CHORUS
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, “Rock Around the Clock”
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the Suez
CHORUS
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”
Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide
Buddy Holly, “Ben Hur”, space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U-2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the Congo
CHORUS
Hemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
“Lawrence of Arabia”, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK blown away, what else do I have to say
CHORUS
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
“Wheel of Fortune”, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
CHORUS
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on…
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