Thursday, March 06, 2008

GLEAM OF THE GODS



Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom or philosophy.Beethoven

But prodigies sent by Heaven soon came to disturb the tyrant’s repose.
Thomas Keightley

He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.
Richard Wagner on Beethoven

The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.John Steinbeck

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.
Lao Tzu

Cease to think that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayers.
Virgil

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.
Socrates

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.
H. L. Mencken



When I hear the magnificent (booming or soft) sounds of Beethoven I think, "Some men must have been sent here by God or gods."
Although I am not a devout church-going person, I try to practice and apply spiritual ideas.
I try.

I’m not a religious person.
I’m not one who follows or practices a religion.
I have attempted to learn and know what is spiritual.
Not in any esoteric, dogmatic, or bombastic sense.

I also appreciate beauty whether it is music, writing or art.
I do not go out of my way to tell others about this appreciation.

I do not have any God or gods hanging on my sleeves.
Although I consider many parts of the Bible to be "God-inspired", I do not have any proof, nor can I really say what I mean by “God-inspired”.

Maybe I don’t need to.
Maybe “God-inspired” is a self-evident term that speaks well enough for itself (except for those dissecting scientists and philosophers).

Define your terms!
But these are only words.
But, then, what else is there?

Of course there is architecture, music, mathematics and painting (and the arts).

After almost five wasteful years of lies and war...war…war
And lies…lies…and more lies
And thousands and thousands and thousands of corpses, is it any wonder that Americans want to hear something inspiring for a change…something meaningful…some things that are…
Good
True
and
Beautiful.

Now for some more Beethoven.

P.S.
Here is a poem by D.H. Lawrence that spells out what I have tried to express above.
Worship

All men are worshippers
unless they have fallen, and become robots.

All men worship the wonder of life
until they collapse into egotism, the mechanical, self-centered system
of the robot.

But even in pristine men, there is the difference:
Some men can see life clean and flickering all around,
and some can only see what they are shown.

Some men look straight into the eyes of the gods
and some men can see no gods, they only know
the gods are there because of the gleam on the faces of the men
who see.

Most men, even unfallen, can only live
by the transmitted gleam from the faces of vivider men
who look into the eyes of the gods.
and worship is the joy of the gleam from the eyes of the gods,
and the robot is denial of the same,
even the denial that there is any gleam
 
 
***
 


I am adding this poem by Stephen Crane.  Today is November 21, 2012.


A spirit sped
by Stephen Crane

A spirit sped
Through spaces of night;
And as he sped, he called,
"God! God!"
He went through valleys
Of black death-slime,
Ever calling,
"God! God!"
Their echoes
From crevice and cavern
Mocked him:
"God! God! God!"
Fleetly into the plains of space
He went, ever calling,
"God! God!"
Eventually, then, he screamed,
Mad in denial,
"Ah, there is no God!"
A swift hand,
A sword from the sky,
Smote him,
And he was dead




 
IT'S THE OIL STUPID!











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