MADONNA) // (CHILD

MADONNA) // (CHILD
So Strong; yet so calm: Mary's Choice.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

My Take on the Trinity Round 2: Son of a Beech or a Son of a Birch?




Birch and a Beech Tree Joke




Two tall trees, a birch and a beech, are growing in the woods. A small tree begins to grow between them, and the beech says to the birch, "Is that a son of a beech or a son of a birch?"

The birch says he cannot tell. Just then a woodpecker lands on the sapling. The birch says, "Woodpecker, you are a tree expert. Can you tell if that is a son of a beech or a son of a birch?"

The woodpecker takes a taste of the small tree. He replies, "It is neither a son of a beech nor a son of a birch. It is, however, the best piece of ash I have ever put my pecker in."
***
Recently had an epiphany realizing yet another clever way, as well as the continued telling of a favorite joke most have already heard, able demonstrating in a different way what I believe far more likely the underlying meaning behind Jesus use of the trinity. 

Again I tell you...
Jesus was not claiming to be God when referring to himself as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Instead,
sum of his parents in his father's absence;
bastard man-son 12 y.o. until his crucifixion. 

SON'S A SON UNTIL HE GETS HIM A WIFE.
  DAUGHTER'S A DAUGHTER ALL HER LIFE.

The Father most likely Joseph, the parental father, the one Jesus crediting being most responsible shaping his moral character as his role model;  whomever it was providing the Jesus egg with it "Y" chromosome not being important.

The Holy Ghost representing the essence of his mother Mary during a time when women had no voice in politics; not even much input when determining their fates from within their own families.

Well this little joke questioning the origin of a little Ash tree fits in perfectly with the trinity.

Should it matter that the little Ash tree is neither the Son of a Beech nor the Son of a Birch?

Growing in such close proximity with two other much larger tree, it might as well be both Son of a Beech and Son of a Birch as it will be these two much larger tree determining how much light reaches this little Ash tree as well as from what direction; how fast it will grow as well as in the direction of any space available from which the light is able reaching this little Ash tree.

Now lets say, twelve years from now one of these two large tree, the Beech tree, blows over in a terrible storm.  The little Ash tree is now able, not only receiving more light, but also more room in which to grow faster, fuller, and a bit more taller as opposed to having to grow at an angle.

The same as it was with Joseph,  the presence of this Beech tree the first twelve years is just as important to the life story of this little Ash tree the same as the absence of this Beech tree from this point on is now also important.

Many years down the road, in the same way Jesus claimed to be the sum of his parents in his father's absence, this Ash tree can now claim to be the sum of these two, once much larger trees, now missing a Beech tree. 

My First Dragoncon Atlanta 2013



 
 
 
 
 
 
Came real close to wearing bunny ears with knife through head along with a fur vest over a ghost buster T-shirt.  What I supposed would be my guerrilla art interpretation of an Anti-Christ. 
 
Almost wish I had except it being just a little too hot for that. 
 
 
 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

I Have a Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I Have a Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American clergyman and activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863, King observes that: "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free". At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become the most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. Jon Meacham writes that, "With a single phrase, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who've shaped modern America". The speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

The ideas in the speech reflect King's social experiences of the mistreatment of blacks. The speech draws upon appeals to America's myths as a nation founded to provide freedom and justice to all people, and then reinforces and transcends those secular mythologies by placing them within a spiritual context by arguing that racial justice is also in accord with God's will. Thus, the rhetoric of the speech provides redemption to America for its racial sins. King describes the promises made by America as a "promissory note" on which America has defaulted. He says that "America has given the Negro people a bad check", but that "we've come to cash this check" by marching in Washington, D.C.

An article in the Boston Globe by Mary McGrory reported that King's speech "caught the mood" and "moved the crowd" of the day "as no other" speaker in the event.  Marquis Childs of The Washington Post wrote that King's speech "rose above mere oratory". An article in the Los Angeles Times commented that the "matchless eloquence" displayed by King, "a supreme orator" of "a type so rare as almost to be forgotten in our age," put to shame the advocates of segregation by inspiring the "conscience of America" with the justice of the civil-rights cause.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also noticed the speech, which provoked them to expand their COINTELPRO operation against the SCLC, and to target King specifically as a major enemy of the United States. Two days after King delivered "I Have a Dream", Agent William C. Sullivan, the head of COINTELPRO, wrote a memo about King's growing influence:

In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders above all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.

The speech was a success for the Kennedy administration and for the liberal civil rights coalition that had planned it. It was considered a "triumph of managed protest", and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred. Kennedy had watched King's speech on TV and been very impressed. Afterwards, March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with President Kennedy. Kennedy felt the March bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill. Some of the more radical Black leaders who were present condemned the speech (along with the rest of the march) as too compromising. Malcolm X later wrote in his Autobiography: "Who ever heard of angry revolutionaries swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily pad pools, with gospels and guitars and 'I have a dream' speeches?"

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Doubt (2008 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"What have you seen?"
~(Sister Aloysius/Principal)~
 
"It is unsettling to look at people with suspicion. 
I feel less close to God."
~(Sister James/Teacher)~
 
"When you take a step to address wrongdoing,
you are taking a step away from God,
 but in his service.
What have you seen?"
~(Sister Aloysius/Principal)~
 
 
Father Flynn's Sermon
 
A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew.
 
I know none of you have ever done this.
(congregation chuckling)
 
That night she had a dream. 
A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her.  She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt.  The next day she went to confession.  She got the old parish priest, Father O'Rourke.  She told him the whole thing.
 
"Is gossiping a sin?" she asked the old man. 
"Was that the hand of God Almighty pointing a finger at me? 
Should I be asking your absolution Father? 
Tell me, have I done something wrong?"
 
"Yes," Father O'Rourke answered her. 
"Yes, you ignorant, badly brought up female. 
You have borne false witness against your neighbor. 
You have played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed!"
 
So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness.
 
"Not so fast," says O'Rourke. 
"I want you to go home. 
Take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me."
 
So the woman went  home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof and stabbed the pillow.  Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed.
 
"Did you gut the pillow with a knife?" he says.
 
"Yes, Father."
 
"And what was the results?"
 
"Feathers," she said.
 
"Feathers," he repeated.
 
"Feathers everywhere, Father."
 
"Now, I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind."
 
"Well," she said, "it can't be done.  
I don't know where they went.  The wind took them all over."
 
"And that,"  said Father O'Rourke, " is GOSSIP!"
 
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
 
 
 


Doubt (2008 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Doubt is a 2008 American drama film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning fictive stage play Doubt: A Parable. Written and directed by Shanley and produced by Scott Rudin, the film stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

The film's four main actors were heavily praised for their acting, and all of them were nominated for Oscars at the 81st Academy Awards. Viola Davis received her first nomination and Amy Adams received her second nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Philip Seymour Hoffman received his second nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and third overall, while Meryl Streep received her twelfth nomination for Best Actress and her fifteenth overall.

Set in 1964 at a Catholic church in the Bronx, New York, the film opens with the jovial Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) giving a sermon on the nature of doubt, noting that, like faith, it can be a unifying force. The next evening, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the strict principal of the attached school, discusses the sermon with her fellow nuns, the Sisters of Charity of New York. She asks if anyone has observed unusual behavior that would inspire Father Flynn to preach about doubt, and instructs them to keep their eyes open should any such behavior occur in the future.

 
***

per·i·pa·tet·ic

[per-uh-puh-tet-ik]

adjective
1.
walking or traveling about; itinerant.
2.
( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to Aristotle, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.
3.
( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to the Aristotelian school of philosophy.
noun
4.
a person who walks or travels about.
5.
( initial capital letter ) a member of the Aristotelian school.
 
 
***
 
Despite my sympathies being more in line with principal Sister Aloysius and the mother of the young negro student at the center of controversy rather than with  Father Flynn,
oh how
the
"peripatetic wind"
struck a cord with me during Father Flynn's final farewell sermon before the congregation of this church.
 
I will move...
no more.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Ice Bergs As Metaphors



 


 
 
Will fill in later.
 
 

Erwin Schrödinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Erwin Schrödinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (/ˈʃroʊdɪŋər/; German: [ˈɛʁviːn ˈʃʁøːdɪŋɐ]; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), was an Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics: he formulated the wave equation (stationary and time-dependent Schrödinger equation) and revealed the identity of his development of the formalism and matrix mechanics.  Schrödinger proposed an original interpretation of the physical meaning of the wave function and in subsequent years repeatedly criticized the conventional Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (using e.g. the paradox of Schrödinger's cat). In addition, he was the author of many works in various fields of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, color theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. In his book What Is Life? Schrödinger addressed the problems of genetics, looking at the phenomenon of life from the point of view of physics. He paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics and religion. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology.

His mother was half Austrian and half English; his father was Catholic and his mother was Lutheran. Despite being raised in a religious household, he called himself an atheist. However, he had strong interests in Eastern religions, pantheism and used religious symbolism in his works. He also believed his scientific work was an approach to the godhead, albeit in a metaphorical sense.

In 1911, Schrödinger became an assistant to Exner. At an early age, Schrödinger was strongly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. As a result of his extensive reading of Schopenhauer's works, he became deeply interested throughout his life in color theory and philosophy. In his lecture "Mind and Matter", he said that "The world extended in space and time is but our representation." This is a repetition of the first words of Schopenhauer's main work.
 
 
 
 
In quantum computing the phrase "cat state" often refers to the special entanglement of qubits wherein the qubits are in an equal superposition of all being 0 and all being 1; e.g.,
 | \psi \rangle = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \bigg( | 00\ldots0 \rangle + |11\ldots1 \rangle \bigg).


The philosophical issues raised by Schrödinger's cat are still debated today and remain his most enduring legacy in popular science, while Schrödinger's equation is his most enduring legacy at a more technical level. To this day, Schrödinger is known as the father of quantum physics.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Pearls Before Swine: David Who Wants To Play Baseball



 


  

 
Answered doorbell finding this young man, first telling me how he found my yard display so interesting he had taken pictures of it; then admitting the real reason for visit.
 
Claiming to the the grandson of a neighbor of mine who lived just around the corner from me on McConnel Drive, he was selling magazine subscriptions with the goal of supporting a baseball team he was wanting to play with.  He had just graduated from high school; getting ready to start college.
 
Same as with others, again not personally interested in purchasing a magazine subscription for myself but willing to donate a subscription purchased going to a charitable cause; his suggestion being The Children's Hospitals of Atlanta. 
 
How it morphed from this point to one with me writing a check for $210.00 I'm still not able understanding.
 
Then we talked about the signs in my yard briefly, how it was mostly a theological debate I was indirectly trying to have with Emory University; fully aware most of my signs would not be understood by most of those driving or walking by.  I also volunteered how, although labeling myself a radical atheist as an adult, only recently have I learned to realize the fact that the first eighteen years of my life raised by the First United Methodist Church of Prescott, Arkansas, the most impressionable years of my life, it is also possible for me always having been and as well always continuing to be a Methodist until the day I die...
no less than Jesus ever stopped being a Jew.
 
 
David then volunteered, despite being raised Pentecostal, he also had serious doubts about a lot of what he was raised to believed.  Then he said something that sounded an awful lot like the very same thing I was trying to imply with my "IDENTITY CRISIS" sign currently placed in yard that day.  Don't remember what his choice of words were but mine were about it being impossible for anyone, even God in all his Omnipotent, separating everyone in the end into two distinctively differently groups...
HEAVEN vs. HELL.
Just not possible pulling that off in any way fair.
 
 
 
And as I sat on the couch with David discussing religion, could not help but noticing how both his ears were pierced with studs placed in them looking an awful lot like tiny little pearls; how one of the other signs currently place in yard that day also had the words... One Pearl ... written on it.  How strings of pearls have become a metaphor I now associated with ovaries of women over the course of their lifetime only able producing a finite number of eggs.  During that lifetime, some of these eggs will most likely become children.  Of these children born to those women, the string eventually breaks with the children now fully grown now going their separate way.  I have always been and will always forever be "One Pearl" once belonging to one woman.
 
Before leaving, David then asked if there were any other neighbors able directing him to who might be willing purchasing a subscription from him to which I reply along with a laugh, "HARDLY!  They all pretty much do not like me because of my signs."
 
Then I suggested he try that "Useless Green Acre Faggot" who lived next door with his "Iranian Uranium Enrichment Concubine."
 
Then I confessed:
As there was definitely no denying how cute David was, nothing wrong with flaunting it. 
 
They will either:
 
1. eat him up alive
or
2. claim the same reason I had been told by two young men from Better Georgia as to why they were sent away empty handed;
funds were currently too tied up in projects around their home for them being able making any donation.
 
After David left, I immediately felt kinda guilty actually putting David up to that.  The very same reason I was directing David to the "Useless Green Acre Faggots'" home was probable the very same reason David was able getting away from my home with a check for $210.00 dollars to begin with.
 
Would I have done the same thing for a young girl who was wanting to play soccer?
 
Probably not!
 
Suppose I will have to...
NOW! 
 
Otherwise that would make me a hypocrite;
if now knowingly letting a young girl wanting to play soccer leave my home with less than a check for $210.00.

 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Maria Mitchell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"We have a hunger of the mind
which
asks for knowledge of all around us,
and
the more we gain, the more is our desire;
the more we see,
the more we are capable of seeing."
~(Maria Mitchell)~
 
 


Maria Mitchell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Maria Mitchell (August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) (pron: [mə'raɪə]) was an American astronomer who, in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VII of Denmark.  On the medal was inscribed "Non Frustra Signorum Obitus Speculamur et Ortus" in Latin (taken from Georgics by Virgil (Book I, line 257)  (English: “Not in vain do we watch the setting and rising of the stars”). Mitchell was the first American woman to work as a professional astronomer.

Maria Mitchell was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She was a first cousin four times removed of Benjamin Franklin. She had nine brothers and sisters. Her parents, William Mitchell and Lydia Coleman Mitchell, were Quakers. Maria Mitchell was born into a community unusual for its time in regard to equality for women. Her parents, like other Quakers, valued education and insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received. One of the tenets of the Quaker religion was intellectual equality between the sexes. Additionally, Nantucket's importance as a whaling port meant that wives of sailors were left for months and sometimes years to manage affairs while their husbands were at sea, thus fostering an atmosphere of relative independence and equality for the women who called the island home.

***

One of ten children, she was raised in the Quaker religion but later adopted Unitarianism.

"the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus"
 
Though there is no specific authority on convictions of Unitarian belief aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted:

  • One God and the oneness or unity of God.
  • The life and teachings of Jesus Christ constitute the exemplar model for living one's own life.
  • Reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy coexist with faith in God.
  • Humans have the ability to exercise free will in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion.
  • Human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved (see original Sin), but capable of both good and evil, as God intended.
  • No religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or theological truth.
  • Though the authors of the Bible were inspired by God, they were humans and therefore subject to human error.
  • Traditional doctrines that (they believe) malign God's character or veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ, such as the doctrines of predestination, eternal damnation, and the vicarious sacrifice or satisfaction theory of the Atonement are rejected.

Unitarians have liberal views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings. Unitarians generally value a secular society in which government is kept separate from religious affairs. Most contemporary Unitarian Christians believe that one's personal moral convictions guide one's political activities, and that a secular society is the most viable, just and fair.

Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with, a specific church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. They believe that righteous acts are necessary for redemption in addition to faith.

In 1938, The Christian leader attributed "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus" to Unitarians, though the phrase was used earlier by Congregationalist Rollin Lynde Hartt in 1924. and earlier still by US President Thomas Jefferson.

***
When reading, because of a Google Doodle celebrating her birthday, what Wikipedia had to say about Maria Mitchell...
it was the reading of a famous quote believed to be the main reason she is known...
striking a cord with me.
 
This hunger of the mind,
always in want of even more knowledge,
not the impression I sense with people living today's world.
 
Quite the opposite.
 
With all of the world's knowledge available at our fingertips, this digital age seems to have only enabled the "mob mentality" a voice amplified exponentially. 
 
The "mob mentality" never one easy to reason with,
now more difficult to control with them even more resistant to reason;
if even able getting them to hear it...
 just once to begin with.