Serrated Prose

What kind of mess do we make with monotheism? I ask that question because I don't think many people give it much thought. One god is easy, I suppose; you only have one name to remember, anyway. But he's lonely and there's that sticky subject of where one lone god came from. But aside from that, when we create a single god to hang our fears on, he ends up being a lunatic. He has to. We can't blame the lonely god for needing to be angry, loving, jealous, petty, expansive, omniscient, lacking foresight, piteous, and pitiable. He has no choice. We made him that way. Consider Yahweh. Job is regarded by scholars as the oldest book in the Bible... and what do we get in the book of Job? Some very interesting stuff, with hints of polytheism. God is the book, having a conversation with Satan; it's an amiable conversation between beings that are far beyond human understanding. Satan makes a friendly wager with God and they proceed to torture some wealthy, pious man to see if...

Pretty poetic title, huh? Well, it's all I could think of in this off-the-cuff free-writing exercise of mine. But it ties in with the thoughts going through my mind. Sorry if it's not so hot, but we all have our limitations. I just finished watching the 50's version of  On The Beach . If you don't know what it's about, I'll summarize: The world sank into a sudden nuclear conflict and now a massive radiation cloud is swirling around the globe, eventually killing all those who weren't killed in the initial blasts. There's no explanation for the nuclear exchange. The only survivors are people living in Australia, but only surviving for so long. The cloud is coming. It's relentless, unstoppable. I find something charming and wonderful about a film like this -- mostly, because it would a bitch to make now. It was a movie with a grim ending. At the risk of spoiling the ending of a sixty-year-old movie -- no one survives. In fact, most folks choose gove...

We're currently in the throes of yet another battle for the word "marriage." Here's the legal definition from www.lectlaw.com: A contract made in due form of law, by which a free man and a free woman reciprocally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, in the union which ought io exist between husband and wife. By the terms freeman and freewoman in this definition are meant, not only that they are free and not slaves, but also that they are clear of all bars to a lawful marriage. This is by no means inclusive of all states in the union, but it's enough for the folks on the right to latch onto and say "Look, it says 'man' and 'woman'!" Well, yes it does. But let's also consider that for congressional representation, slaves only counted for three-fifths of their total population -- not to mention that slavery was legal. Women also weren't allowed to vote. That went on for an embarrassingly long time. The afore...