Chaptah Five of The Great Code

This may be the first chapter I actually enjoyed from The Great Code. I was able to pay attention for more than a few seconds and wasn't forced into looking up numerous words per page. On the first page I found a thought provoking exert,

"If attained, enlightenment brings about the same kind of obedience to the moral code (dharma) that "salvation" does in the West, but without the legalism that Christianity is regarded as having abolished in theory."

This makes me think how we as an American community have made it impossibly "legally" to achieve enlightenment. If you were to achieve enlightenment people would question if it was even possible to reach such a thing. Just as we question if a person is able to connect with the dead. Is it the fact we fear the thought we are actually able to get in-touch with something in a different world or is it it true it is not possible to reach enlightenment (the third quote goes into this a bit more)? It is almost embarrassing to people to admit to their friends if they religious and it is the cool thing to be anti-religious. We as teachers in a public school can not even admit to believe in God without being punished.

As you hear kids driving around yelling out windows "faaaaag" or "Hail Satan!"things you would never hear in Palestine or current day Israel (The Holy Land as it is referred to in The Slave). A place where a person takes pride in their heritage and what their religion means to them while we (Americans) have made Sundays more religious for football than church in recent years. It makes our whole prior life questionable. Our ancestors for the most part have all lived their life by the Bible even if they lived by it for moral reasoning instead of having a true faith in God. People have questioned Gods existence for a while but now since we have scientific evidence it is highly unlikely their is someone above or so this is what we are constantly told in todays world.

p.110

"The world God made was so "good" that he spent his seventh day contemplating it--which means that his Creation including man, was already objective to God,"

Frye actually makes a joke? Nope, he turns it into a compelling argument. Although I do enjoy the thought of seeing God sitting back in his lazy boy with a cold as the Rockies Coors Light watching the Patriots in London this past Sunday. But I find it highly unlikely he was able to stay awake during the game because who wouldn't pass out after six days of creating the entire universe? I mean come on most Dungeons and Dragons players would be pooped after a day of JUST creating animals which walk on the land and swim in the sea. Frye continues on to say God created the rotation of sun/moon so he was able to "impose light and order on a chaotic darkness." It is then through the rotation of night and day we are able to see both sides of God's creations. Since God created all which evil and virtuous so we are ensured we remember both sides of God. That he can instill pain just as quickly as Jesus healed the blind.

p.116

"The explanation is generally that it was only an angel of God that was seen. The miraculously burning bush, as a visible object, is there only to catch Moses' attention: it is what is said from within it that is important."

Are we not always told how important it is to look into someone's soul to see how good of a person they are? We can not judge a book by its cover? Well, the same goes for Moses' he must look into the burning bush which he saw at Mount Horeb. I mean, maybe the burning bush is meant to represent God burning up with anger because of how self-conscious Moses is and how annoyed he is with all of Moses dumb questions; this all because God remains remarkably calm. Well, I guess they aren't dumb questions because God does seems to answer them with respectable answers.

Where The Wild P and J's Are and Chaptah 13 of Daniel

I saw Where the Wild Things Are over the weekend and by golly I thought it was wicked good. Spike Jonze does an interesting portrayal of the "Wild Things" since each one represents Max in a way (I cannot remember if this is how the book is done or not) it made me think of the Bible. Sorta sucked since I was really enjoying the movie and my mind got to wandering. But I was thinking of the P, J, and all the other writers and how they are used to explain the Bible in different ways to get different points across. I also thought of how Dr. Sexson spoke of the Bible being in our everyday life even if we do not "live" it. Whether it is through movies like Pulp Fiction and Where the Wild Things Are or by moral obligations of helping someone in trouble.

Wallace Stevens does a great job of putting his feelings for Susanna on "paper" for us. The way he describes everything through music is the perfect way for me personally to gain an understanding for his feelings. I love music going to a live concert no matter what type of music from classical to hip-hop hearing the instruments is completely different from through headphones. “Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, Is music. It is like the strain” allows us to see the sway of her dress in the wind. It reminds me of the scene in Boondock Saints, where the FBI agent played by Willem Defoe investigates the first murder and puts the headphones on to listen a classical song while pretending to conduct an orchestra.

Then in the book of Susanna (in the Bible) we are shown a man who falls for a woman. This is a story of how a woman's desirability can become troublesome for a man's thought process. We are able to see Susanna's connection to Eve even although she may does mean to seduce the two elders as it is all Eve's fault for the fall of mankind. It is womans original sin to have men fall in love with them. In Wallace Stevens poem we see a direct connection to Susanna in the lines, "Of a green evening, clear and warm, She bathed in her still garden," which is exactly how the two elders capture their peeping Tom images of Susan.

Finally we are able to see the devious elders get put into their place by Daniel who is the present day 'Super Trooper' and uses his police academy training and separates the two culprits. By doing this he discovers the true story behind seeing Susanna in the nude. But it is only when Susanna cries out to God that (s)he is able to send Daniel as if to say, "I am almighty and only save, once you bow down." Almost another sign of his loneliness an assuring himself through this "miracle" he has another loyal servant because he has proved he is almighty through this act of God.

So, I have been behind a bit in this class trying to catch up in the Bible as well as in Frye/Plotz. Then I look at the syllabus and find out I completely forgot about The Slave by Singer, so I started that this past weekend. I have found it rather enjoyable although I feel horrible in enjoying this man's troubles until Jacob finally drops the good guy act and does the dirty thang with Wanda. But for real, I really enjoy the man's commitment to the Bible even though his father-in-law wanted him to become a Preacher he didn't all he did was study. He eventually winds up memorizing most of the Bible, we as a class could not even remember the ten major commandments, Jacob on the other hand comes up with 47, and knows there are more to come to him since there are something like 347?!?! This man is dedicated and I don't even know if I could name or remember that many of anything. He also is able to recite numerous prayers on call but this is something that will happen when you find your one true love in life. He is able to engulf his life with Judaism even though it is not around him. Something few people could do today in a world that revolves around the internet (no journals just blogs), video games, and other useless junk would leave a number of us scrambling for the rope hanging in the barn.

Wo-Man in the Bible

So, Mrs. (Dr?) Sexson started the discussion off with a metaphor between Eve and the purification of women after menstruation. Which is an interesting position to hear from, especially after reading Plotz all semester, and how women in the Bible are only whores and do not serve a real purpose. But as we see in Hosea 2 (as Sexson showed us), Hosea continues to take back his wife repeatedly even though she strays away from him just as Yahweh takes Israel and the Israelites back a number of times. This allows us to see the women's larger part in the Bible; they are an extremely important lesson for us to see. We all make mistakes and need to be taken back by the ones we love because if we are thrown aside we will not truly learn from our mistakes. Which is important for us to learn in a religious class because it is all about learning from our mistakes. We fucked up, Jesus was crucified, and if we don't learn anything from it then he died for no reason. So what were we supposed to learn from the Bible? There are so many words and Frye makes it sound much more complicated than it truly is. Frye makes every word sound so needy and important but why? The Bible was written thousands of years ago, over thousands of years, and lots of work went into it. But I feel this much work went into it so it is somewhat understandable and Frye attempts to ruin my thoughts of this but he won't, I will hold out.

As I sit down to read Frye's The Great Code I get a few pages into the second chapter and start having my lacuna's. I am forced to retrace my steps numerous times before I give up on the book for the evening and move onto greener pastures...or the Bible. Let us see how this goes.

After speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah in class today I decided to refresh myself about the story. As Lot offers up his daughter's, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man (virgins, so tempting); let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof" (Genesis 19: 7-9).

It is as though Lot feels in the land of Zoar hospitality is valued higher than his own daughter's well being as well as being held higher than homosexuality. This is an interesting perspective because in ancient Greek history we see numerous acts of homosexuality (hence the island of Lesbos comes the common word Lesbian). I guess I just have a hard time believing a mythical (up for debate) God who is supposed to be all loving would rather have a man offer up his two virgin daughters who are supposed to be something special in their own right and are supposed to save themselves for the ones they love or whom their father chooses they love. Instead of having Lot's visitors engage in homosexual acts with the men he is sheltering.

Abraham then attempts to save the people of Sodom and Gomorrah by challenging God in person. How strong Abraham must have been to stand up to God for wanting to kill an entire city. But there aren't any truthful people worthy of saving so they are killed for the betterment of humanity I suppose.

I suppose I am as astonished as David Plotz and everyone in class who was surprised that God is not all loving. He enjoys inflicting pain on his or her people and if people are killed, no biggie they are replaceable as 1, 2, 3. But this does prove one of God's most notable points which is, don't lie. As long as you are truthful you have a chance of success and God proves this throughout the Bible especially to the Egyptians (more the Pharaoh) who are given numerous chances to let the Israelites leave Egypt but the Pharaoh continues to go back on his word 10 times (I believe). It isn't until God smites the Egyptians with boils that the Pharaoh allows the Israelites to leave and this is only because his own David Blaine impersonators could not show themselves.

As I sit here in the library I looked up Hermes and his history as well as hermeneutics to learn more about the two. As the son of Zeus I expected great things of Hermes but come on all he is is fast? Fuck it, I doubt he was even that much faster than Usain Bolt. I am also confused by one of his symbols, the tortoise, how is someone who is supposed to be recognized as a speed demon comparable to the tortoise? Unless it is an attempt to connect to the tale of the Tortoise and Hare in which it is better to be slow and steady than sprint out everything you have. This reminds me of a show I saw on the National Geographic Channel in which a tribe in Africa would successfully run after antelope and other animals until the animal was too tired to continue and they would kill it. But anyways hermeneutics also gives us an interesting definition and as we discussed hermeneutics is the science of interpreting. Instead of boring you with my thoughts click the link I made it is a great history of hermeneutics.

A reawakening? Or maybe just advancing

So as I entered the surgery room I notice the room is bare except for a diagram of a human's head, a chair, and surgical instruments used to inflict pain. I have had a temperature of 103 degrees Fahrenheit for a little over twenty-four hours, I have not had anything to eat or drink within this time frame as well, and am ready for this all to end. The novacaine does nothing as I squirm in the chair, too much for him to puncture an area around the abscess in my throat. He say's, "I will be back in a few minutes." Hmm...Oh shit this could be bad. He comes back into the room with a a plier like instrument but...it has a knife on one side this really shall be fun! He pries my mouth open as if I am a dog and shoves the instrument into my throat. "Hmm there it is but I can't get the puss to come out hmmmmm, oh, here it is" and I instantly vomit the most disgusting, smelling, PUSS mixed with blood out of my mouth.

This is worse than any Saturday or Sunday morning I can remember and it is only 1 O'Clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I haven't even been drinking. As I walk out of the room one of the nurses says to me, "This is as close to death as you may ever feel" Well that is a nice way to end the operation. It gets me thinking though about life and death. As we have recently been reading Genesis (supposed to be well into Exodus now I believe) I have learned numerous things about the Christian Birth and how I should be living by certain standards which I most definitely d0 not because I have been a selfish bastard choosing to do what I like to do and do it when I like to.

As I started and finished Exodus all I could think of was the Catholic high-school I attended and all the rules. Is this all the Bible is? A list of rules for us to live by? Can our "selfish" Godthink of nothing better for us to do than bow down at his every request just to acknowledge his presence in our life and he is our only god? At least he does prove his love for us by delivering the Israelites safely away from the land of the abusive Egyptians. Though their doubt in God almost gets them into trouble as they continue to ask Moses whether waiting in the desert for the Egyptians to slaughter them on the edge of the Red Sea is better than being a slave? But my question is...is it better to be a slave than die? I personally feel I would rather die but that is because I have lived. During high-school I took a class on ethics and one of the great questions we talked about for weeks on end was whether we would enslave a girl/boy in dark basement where they would never see the day of light...if we as a community could live in perfect health, wealth, and harmony (etc...). I was one of the few who chose to enslave the girl/boy and I will now defend my position. If a person has never truly lived can they really miss life? From day one the girl would be in darkness and would not know about the NFL or the beauty music can bring to a person's life so how can (s)he be really missing out on life? (S)he has not experienced any of the beautiful things in life so I truly feel if we could all in peace and each one of us actually enjoys our life and does not waste it...then it is the worth wasting one person's life.

As I think of how much an asshole this makes me...I am not sure if it does or not because I feel I am actually a decent person for all the horribly messed up things I have done in my life but for all the horrible events I have done I would have to say I have done at least three positive. I also make sure if I am going to do something bad that the only person it can affect is me (for the most part). I say for the most part because there are always those around you whom you love (friends/family) and they may be affected by an action. But I would never purposely go out and intentionally hurt someone. I have never been in a fight, I have never gone after someone intending to hurt them physically (or emotionally).

So what I am trying to get after is we as humans have set our own list of rules and God's personal list he accumulated with Moses is a good starting point but as Dr.Sexson said in class today it is a good thing we (humans intellectually) were not around in the time of creation because he has made us smart enough to challenge and perhaps correct God for some of his actions but did start us in the right direction and we are going to continue to advance whether God is real or not. If he is then he would be proud as well as disappointed with where we have gone in our lives but we as humans continue to try and improve ourselves daily and we will soon succeed and make ourselves somewhat respectable.

Then there was earth and then light and then Adam and then Eve and then Cain killed Abel and then...

"Good luck, for your sake I hope heaven and hell are really there, but I wouldn't hold my breath." Are some lyrics sung by Modest Mouse, a band I saw in Missoula on Friday which got me thinking about our Bible as Literature class. Funny this would come to mind as I am on my way to a long night. Although I did not seriously think about this until the drive back to Bozeman on Saturday it got me thinking...if a large number of people doubt there are a heaven and hell then how does God and his/her followers have a chance of convincing us (s)he created all of earth in seven days. THEN (s)he was angry because we were selfish (even though we were created in his likeness, what does that make God?) and floods the earth. While convincing Noah to build an ark (Steve Carrel does a pretty good job playing Noah in Evan Almighty), gather numerous animals from around the world (one of each sex), and put them on his boat. Not only is this an amazing feat that he is able to build an ark this big, gather the animals, BUT he is actually able to connect to the hawks, bears, and tigers either through mind or jibber jabber something not even Steve Irwin was able to do. I also found it interesting in the Bible study section explanation of 5.28-"A brief inset from the J source, Lamech derives the name Noah from the world relief and fortells that Noah will relieve the harshness of human toil." I do not remember if God told Noah's parents to name him this or if in fact his parents had a super-natural feeling named him Noah.

Anyway here is some more in depth thought process from Genesis. In 2.9 "...and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." As humans we are known as being nosey or maybe this is just my perspective since I grew up in the USA where we are always sticking our nose in other people/countries business but it seems inevitable from this point on that Adam or Even won't eat from the tree.

I also find it spectacular how people in the Bible are able to live for 100+ years but as David Plotz explains it is easily explained by the telephone game theory. As a story is passed on it eventually grows in tale and stories become even greater.