Time and Eternity

I'm reading the Time and Eternity chapter near the end of Augustine's Confessions in preparation for my class this summer. I am struck by the overlap with Eliot's Four Quartets. Unfortunately, I'm not the first person to have noticed this. Regardless, I shall give you, dear reader, lines:

A: "your eternal word in silence"

E: Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness,

A: "everything which begins to be and ceases to be begins and ends its existence at that moment when, in the eternal reason where nothing begins or ends, it is known that it is right to begin and end. The reason is your Word, which is also the Beginning"

E: "Or say that the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end."

and

"In my beginning is my end."

and

"I am here
Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning."

A: "who live in a multiplicity of distractions by many things" and "My hope, let not my attention be distracted."

E: "Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
Distracted from distraction by distraction"

A: "In the eternal, nothing is transient, but the whole is present. But no time is wholly present. ... all past and future are created and set on their course by that which is always present."

E: "Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable."

A: "Your 'years' neither go nor come. Ours come and go so that all may come in succession."

E: In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.

A: "I have heard a learned person say that the movements of sun, moon, and stars in themselves constitute time. But I could not agree. Why should not time consist rather of the movement of all physical objects?"

E: "The dance along the artery
The circulation of the lymph
Are figured in the drift of stars"

and

"Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman"

and

"The tolling bell
Measures time not our time, rung by the unhurried
Ground swell, a time
Older than the time of chronometers, older
Than time counted by anxious worried women
Lying awake, calculating the future,
Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel
And piece together the past and the future,"

A: "until that day when, purified and molten by the fire of your love, I flow together to merge into you"

E: "Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire."

and

"When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

The Silmarillion in China: An Email

My brother is precious. I think that I'll intersperse editorial comments throughout his email:

"Hey everyone...
I just wrote you a really long email but then i sent it when the internet wasnt on and lost it. [Actually, the first email that he thought he lost, I received as well. The 'really long email' to which he refers is shorter than this one.] So now ill try it again but maybe a little bit shorter. I have been having an amazing time here. Being here for the 4 extra days has really been nice. We have been able to get more touring and its nice not having school work hanging over your head. The three guys in our team are really sweet and we are having a really fun time. Some of the girls are cool but some are starting to step on my nerves. [Who says 'step on my nerves'?--I think that this is a delightful turn of phrase.] Sorry i havent contacted you yet but its hard to find time and focus on a comp screen for a long time. [Everyone else in his trip has evidently already written home, except the Silmarillion, who must have developed a problem focusing on computer screens sometime on his flight.] We dont have a whole lot to do on Sunday (tomorrow for me)or Monday so ill try to find some time then. Im taking scads of pics and writing a little bit of a journal every day. ['Scads of pictures'--another great line; also, it appears that the Silmarillion prefers contractions without apostrophes.] The food here is absolutely amazing. I have been eating things that i never thought i would. Today for lunch, I sucked the brain out of a fish. [This is the boy who used to sit at dinner and pick the blood vessels out of a chicken breast. I am so proud of him!] I hope you all have been doing well.

An Email from Mama Hale

"Hi Kids,

So last night was Ilana's National Honor Society-very nice and we were oh so proud.

Then today we received in the mail a letter stating that Silmarillion made Dean's List!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with a semester QPA between 3.4 and 3.59.

I don't often give you kids praise, and I am sorry for that, but I want you all to know that I am very, very proud of all your individual achievements, of which there are many.

Having said that, be sure that this doesn't go to your individual heads!

Most of all, I love you all muchly, and I miss you too.

Mom"

My grandmother started the "muchly" expression. I guess I'll start using it in approximately 20 years.

My Two Favorite Fashion Bloggers.2

Ahhh! HT: Margaret.

Stearns: On almost nothing being what it seems

Today I was on the bus, falling asleep as I am wont to do, and suddenly the bus driver pulls off and starts yelling at this man who was sleeping in the back of the bus.

Stearns (in her head, and half asleep, to be fair): Ah! We aren't allowed to sleep on the bus! Communists.

Then the bus driver got out of his seat and walked back to the man and shook him.

Stearns (in her head, still): I have to figure out ways to stay awake! This would be so embarassing if it happened to me. Perhaps I'll set the alarm on my phone for every few minutes. (Is this even possible?)

But the bus driver was just waking up the man because it was his stop.

These sort of things happen to me a lot here. I think it's because it is a different, and somewhat harsher language, so I never really know what's going on, and what's going on always sounds remotely unpleasant. So I assume the worst. But it's always, and almost without fail, actually the best. Like today, I was carrying a plate of brownies on the train (for a get-together; I do not regularly eat entire plates of brownies on trains), and an old lady pointed at them and said something that I thought was a reprimand. Like, 'no brownies on trains!' But a nice lady translated and she really had said that they look good and did I make them myself. And then the three of us talked all the way to Bratislava.

Dinner Party.7

Brother O.P.: "I'm confused about your blog."
Emily: "Why are you confused about my blog?!"
Brother O.P. "What I'm confused about is why I don't appear on it more often."

This is a post about a dinner party only by analogy: we weren't sitting at a dinner table, and so it wasn't exactly a dinner party. But it was lovely. And, it was (embarrassingly enough) the first time that Brother O.P. visited Little Gidding.

The gathering was in honor of the temporary return of Sister Margarita Aloysius, alternatively known as Sister Cordelia. When my professor arrived, he said, "I had forgotten what number you lived at, and so I figured I'd have to call, but then I saw a door that said 'Little Gidding,' and I knew it was your place." This reminds me, a recent visitor to Little Gidding (a friend of Robinson's with whom I spent the day last week), upon seeing the name of our apartment, proclaimed it fitting, and then proceeded to tease me about it (gently, as he described his teasing). He later described me to Robinson as "quite easy to tease."

Myrrh made barbecued pork; an old roommate of Sister Margarita's made a Derby pie; Fr. Schall ate two pieces of my grandmother's chocolate cake (Fr. Schall: "Could you get me another piece of that chocolate cake?"; Emily, beaming: "I made it!"; Fr. Schall: "Then I'll have two more pieces."); so, as you can see, everything was perfect.

And Sister Margarita had a vaguely surreal expression on her face as she repeatedly surveyed the room, mumbling under her breath, "I really can't believe this."

Drunken Chef

There was leftover rose (with that little accent mark) from Jazz in the Sculpture Garden on Friday, but it had begun to get a little vinegar-y (I stopped noticing this by the end). Well, I had a bunch of cooking to do for a dinner party tonight, and Ben-the-Baptist-pastor, last time I saw him, was talking about drinking wine and cooking. This seemed like a lovely idea to me. Except that (I always forget) I have really nearly zero tolerance for alcohol. And a low-ish tolerance for and ability to chop things. Anyway, alcohol makes cooking interesting (for instance, it makes it even funnier when you drop things in between the cupboards and the stove).

While I was chopping the tomatoes, I decided that should the political theory gig fall through, I think it would be great to start a cooking show in which I cook and drink. I think it would be a comedy.

I Have Clever Sisters

From an email from Stearns to Ilana:

"Just wait till July, and then maybe we can get corn cob pipes, and learn how to be legit. But we have to wear skirts whenever we do so as to counteract the excessive masculinity of pipe smoking. This is my rule."

There are ways to have your cake and eat it too.

An Email From a Colleague (I Know, I Know, It's Shameless Self-Promotion, But It Did Make Me Ridiculously Happy)

"I have a part-time job over the summer working with the School of Continuing Studies, selecting and training Georgetown undergrads to be TAs and discussion section leaders for summer programs for high school students. During interviews, I needed to get a feel for which undergrads would make good TAs, which is tricky, since theoretically, none of them have any experience. I focused instead on questions about what they learned from former TAs they had- and specifically, I asked each of them to tell me about something a former TA did especially well, why it worked, and what they learned from it. One of my interviewees told me about a Government TA with a background in literature who used to present a relevant poem at the beginning of each discussion section, and ask students to analyze it as a way to introduce discussion on the topic. I was so surprised by the novelty and creativity of the technique (never having heard of anything even remotely similar) that I assumed at the time the student was pulling it out of thin air, making it up on the spot. I'm pleased to see that not only was he being truthful, but that I have the privilege of working with the same TA! The student in question, incidentally, got the job."

Noted Lately Upon Browsing My Brother's FB Wall

"What would you do if you had a nephew named Vassili?" --Ilana

The Jefferson Lecture

This is always my favorite lecture of the year: everyone is dressed up (in pretty clothes, not just business clothes), it is held in a lovely lecture hall, the reception is in a fancy room, and the history of the lecture is remarkable (people like Lionel Trilling, Robert Penn Warren, Jaroslav Pelikan, Walker Percy, and Cleanth Brooks have given the Jefferson lecture).

Leon Kass was outstanding--he gave his intellectual biography, recounting the philosophy of his parents, the books that led him toward humanism, and the way in which he approached the questions of what it means to be human, what the good is for humans, and what the good is for culture. My only quibble with the lecture is the separation of these last two questions (I think that, for instance, Aristotle, on whom he was drawing quite a bit, wouldn't have separated these in quite this way--at one point Kass identified culture as the clothes that people wear). He spoke admirably about his own search in ways that had implications for everyone who thinks about these questions. He also emphasized the unity of pursuit of the good, the true and the beautiful.

The way that he described the soul, as stemming from, but not reducible to bodily process, was striking, giving his scientific training, as was his description of his move out of the sciences and into the humanities.

When he spoke about his wife it was touching--he described her as, among other things, his soul mate. He also spoke very highly of friendship as the context in which we explore these questions.

On Feminism

A couple of days ago, I, for the first time, identified feminism as a research interest, which isn't exactly true, but, anyway...

Painful sentences to read:

"Rather, they seek to bring Arendtian theory to bear upon a conceptual problem that bedevils much contemporary theoretical feminism, and upon which the meaning of a 'feminism politics' itself hinges: the identity of the female as woman." (I'm so confused--what is the female that is not woman??)

"From feminist perspectives that interrogate, politicize, and historicize--rather than simply redeploy--categories like 'woman,' 'identity,' or 'experience,' Arendt's hostility to feminism and her critical stance toward identitarian and essentialist definitions of "woman" begin to look more like an advantage than a liability."

This is so poor--the fact that the film was actually so close reality: the homes of two of the children in Slumdog Millionaire were torn down lately, and the little girl's father offered to sell her.

On Solidarity

I went to a very nice panel discussing Poland's solidarity movement today (goodness gracious, I love that their poster was borrowed from High Noon). George "Have You Given Any Menthols to Men on the Street Lately?" Weigel spoke, and even spoke about tradition (something Sister Margarita Aloysius told me he wouldn't countenance). And a woman from the New School spoke on performative democracy. I really liked this--she draws on J.L. Austin, Arendt and Bahktin to discuss ways in which the Polish worked to change their own situation (neither relying on assistance from outside forces, nor expecting problems to automatically correct themselves). She particularly mentioned the influence of literature and other forms of public speech. Additionally, she problematized the central place given to the symbolism of the fall of the Berlin Wall, arguing that it wasn't actually local.

Ah! My two favorite fashion bloggers in one picture...!

Tourist's Eye View

This is part of the drive home from town, past Diana's house (the way I always go). Right now the air is heavy with fresh, sweet spring smells.







My neighbor and best friend from 5th grade's father introduced police horses to Williamsport. This is him on the mural outside of the tea shop.










A boy from our church on the mural.

























This is a great stationary store--I imagine it's barely changed in decades (even some of the stationary that's for sale is quite old).



















This downtown bank is gorgeous from the front. From the side, you can see it's just bricks--really sloppy bricks!














Lace curtains are one of my favorite things. Lace behind a decorative iron pattern--amazing! I think I would like the iron in black even more.

It Is Written

I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I'd been wanting to see for a while. First of all, I absolutely loved the Indian rap at the end. I love that because the boy and girl get each other, finally, and are overjoyed, he kisses her scarred cheek and then they dance about it.

Secondly, it was far into the movie that I realized that the boy on the television show is the younger child and not the older brother (that it's Jamal and not Salim who is the protagonist). I think as an older sibling myself, I was ready to identify with and sympathize with the oldest sibling in the film. Salim is a pretty horrible person--it is ambiguous whether or not he dropped Latika's hand on purpose; he stole and sold his brother's autograph; he stole his brother's girl and split and then let her be taken by a horrible man (among other things). There's some good to him and some filial affection--he escapes with his brother rather than allowing him to be blinded; and, at the end, he sets Latika free and shoots his old employer who might've tried to get her back.

One of the interesting themes is the interplay between "destiny" (Jamal and Latika end up together) and choice (which is especially apparent in the difference between Jamal and Salim, who had identical upbringings, but who end up with very different morals [Salim is both the more religious of the two and the more evil]).

Sisters

"The voices are different, but the faces are the same."

--Dr. Sam Gregg, on meeting Stearns in Slovakia (he and I had met before)

Twitter

Home: walking, watermelon, tennis, babies, tea, grandparents, asparagus, cooking.

Honeydew and Paradise

There's no place like home. Except I forgot my toothbrush and am waiting for my little, little sister (Ilana) to get home. Oh, how times change.

So, So Proud

Snippets from a paper Lawrence wrote (about which he writes, "I wrote a paper [of course I'm attaching it--kind of like sending my grades to my parents!] where I basically tried to channel you."):

"Just as we need our mothers and fathers to know who we are, we need friends when those bonds weaken, which will happen as we move outside the family. In other words, we need friends to give us coherence between the time we leave our parent’s household and we start our own household. This need is becoming more apparent during a time when marriage is increasingly postponed and loneliness is ubiquitous. Friendship is a non-physical (and, in this respect, non-natural) relationship of dependence which carries on the logic of dependence found in the family. It is also the beginning of starting new physical relationships of dependence, that is, a new generation in a family, for marriages (physical relationships of dependence) in most western societies are born out of friendships. Friendship sustains us in our post-family lives and propels us into new families. The existing relationships with one’s parents and grandparents do not wholly break down, and neither should they, but the reality of post-industrial America says that those bonds will, indeed, weaken."
...
"Moreover, a friendship between men and women highlights this. Even as there is a radical difference in the identity of men and women, which is created in the negation of the other (i.e. man is not woman and woman is not man), there is a radical sameness in that they are both human. What must be maintained is that difference and sameness are parasitic concepts: to say there is difference you must have a conception of sameness; to say there is sameness you must have a conception of difference. In a lived way, friendship recognizes that we are autonomous agents who exist as dependent creatures—we have creaturely agency."

Twitter

A new low: Crying at Grey's Anatomy.

Soulja Boy Tell`em - Kiss Me Thru The Phone

The Alienated Modern Self

Whigwham (in an email with the subject, "Potent Blog Material"): "i'm sure this song could inspire a profound blog riff on the alienated modern self or something..."

He then links to Soulja Boy's "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" in which the singer entreats his girl to do just that, since he can't be with her in person. I've enjoyed this song for quite a while. What I really liked, however, was the music video, in which he actually shows up at his girl's house because he misses her so much. This seems to me to be the real point--okay, we need technology to fill in the gaps when we can't be physically close to people, but it shouldn't replace the people. (Look at me, being all pro-technology...)

On Clubbing

My ears have never buzzed. And now they won't stop. It feels like I've been underwater for a while.

Henry (early in the evening): "You love dancing, don't you?" [with a sudden recognition--this is the horrible thing--I do love it, and am not good at it].

And later: "It isn't that you're too young for this music [it was 80s music], it's that you've never listened to any music" (he found me out).

Me to Henry: "Why don't you dance with that girl?"
H: "Why would I?"
Me: "Because she clearly wants to dance with you."
H: "Nah, I'll leave her with that nerd."
Suddenly I realized that I, too, was dancing with a nerd.

I highly recommend bringing bodyguards while dancing, because the point in the evening comes when men get the urge to pair off with any woman who may be in their line of sight. This way, they didn't dare come close, and if they did, they went away just as quickly. Really, who meets people in bars? This seems like a really horrible idea to me.

Oh, and then the left-handed compliment: So my friends and I danced for hours and hours. At one point people who had a table near us got up to leave. These people are rich and well-dressed, drinking their $150 bottle of Grey Goose, or something. The men are suits and nice ties; the women know what to wear to a club (I, on the other hand, had/have no idea). I was one of the youngest people in the place by a good bit. On her way out, one of the women at the table (she couldn't have been so old herself) went out of her way to grab my arm and say, "You are sooo cute." Goodness gracious--I felt about12 years old, was sure I'd chosen to wear the wrong dress, and was scandalized to realize that other people could tell that I have no idea how to dance!

On Dessert Biscuits

Once I made an apple pie with biscuits on top accidentally. Here it is recommended.

Twitter

Evidently, I am a sort of bad driver who tailgates (says Percy) and has a lead foot (says Fr. Schall).

This Makes Me Very Happy

Female Genital Mutilation

I was intrigued to find this article, "Rights Versus Rites" on female genital mutilation linked to on this feminist website. Female genital mutilation raises the question of the relationship between individual rights and tradition. This article argues for working to guarantee individual rights without destroying or ignoring the tradition and culture of a people:

"Despite her stalwart rejection of harmful traditions, the last thing Pareyio wants is for the girls at Tasaru to end up alienated from Masai culture. Instead, she wants Masai culture to change to embrace strong, educated women. Female circumcision is the way girls have traditionally been initiated into Masai womanhood. Pareyio sees much of value in the initiation process, and she's trying to keep it alive without the cut. Each August groups of girls come to Tasaru for an alternative rite-of-passage ceremony. Slowly, Pareyio's community has started to see her as a leader rather than a threat.

Ahmadu's argument, that to decry circumcision is to decry her very culture, is a persuasive one. Liberals have many reasons to sympathize with people struggling to hold on to their ways of life in the face of the hegemonic steamroller of globalization. But they have even more reason to sympathize with people like Pareyio who are fighting for individual rights in societies that demand subsuming such rights to tradition and myths about sexual purity. After all, even if relativists like Shweder truss them up in fashionable thirdworldism, such demands are the very essence of reactionary conservatism.

No outsider could ever create the kind of change Pareyio has, but Pareyio couldn't have had such a profound impact without outside help. Ultimately, she offers a model for President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton as they try to expand women's rights around the world. Pareyio's work is possible because of the global system that pressured Kenya to change its laws, and because of the grass-roots funding that enables her to help the girls in her community. The United States needs to work on both levels -- at the macro-level of U.N. conferences and international law and at the hyper-local level where only people who are really part of the community can make a difference. To support people like Pareyio -- as well as those fighting to implement the Maputo Protocol or working against draconian abortion bans or the terrible iniquities of Sharia law -- is to reject relativism. It is to believe that other cultures, like our own, can change in necessary ways without being destroyed."

On Interpretation

Today I was reading Michael Walzer's Interpretation and Social Criticism, which I like a lot. Something that really stuck out to me this time through was his telling of a Talmudic story, which comes from Deuteronomy 30:11-14:

"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."

In this story, some rabbis are interpreting the law. One calls for divine help to prove his point. He prays that a carob tree will be lifted into the air, that a stream of water will flow backward, that a building will fall, and then that God Himself will speak from heaven. All of these things happen when rabbi asks for them. The other rabbi, however, responds, "It is not in heaven!"

Walzer explains: "Morality, in other words, is something we have to argue about. ... There is a tradition, a body of moral knowledge; and there is this group of sages, arguing. There isn't anything else. No discovery or invention can end the argument; no 'proof' precedence over the (temporary) majority of sages. That is the meaning of 'It is not in heaven.' We have to continue the argument: perhaps for that reason, the story doesn't tell us whether, on the substantive issue, Rabbi Eliezer or Rabbi Joshua was right."

I'm not sure if this is right or not, but there's something true about this--and it answers the question I've had since I was fairly young about why God just doesn't speak and say who's right or wrong, particularly about divisions in the Church. He has spoken. And "the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."

Okay, so this whole song is offensive, but these lines in particular drive me crazy:

"Shush girl, shut your lips,
Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips."

Goodness gracious! A) Don't tell women to shut up. As someone who really enjoys talking, this makes me very angry. B) You can't make light of Helen Keller! She is worth respecting and being in awe of--you can't turn her disability into something hot in a really odd way.

Fabulous Things I Heard on the Radio

"It's been raining so long that everyone's fingers are beginning to get shriveled up."

Peter Lawler as House. I'm not seeing it, although I do have a soft spot for both of them. I do love Peter's reaction against crunchiness. And I do love the discussion in the comments section about House. And Lawler's response to Shiffman: "The family sitting around the laptop does seem ridiculous, though. Get a TV!"

Shared Sonnet.2

ROMEO [To JULIET.]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

Spoilers

The House/Cuddy dynamic is a great one--there are just enough hints for you to wish they would get together and just enough problems that you see that they can't. And then tonight!

Which I actually have a problem with--granted, House detoxing shows a really admirable part of him: the fact that he will do anything to protect his reason, even give up his drug addiction; furthermore, this episode shows how highly he thinks of Cuddy and how willing he is to be vulnerable around her, how she is the one who knows him well enough and is strong enough to help him when other people can't. In fact, he won't overcome his addiction in rehab--he needs her to be watching; he needs to be impressing her.

BUT (and spoilers follow): they had to sleep together?! The genius of their relationship is that it is hinted at, rather than blatant and over the top. So: the kiss--good. More kisses--good. Sex--now it's just going to be a petty and immature sorting out of what that meant. Plus, House sleeps with prostitutes--sex clearly doesn't mean all that much. Now a relationship in the office, that would mean something.

On Titles

When I write a book, I want it to have a great name. Great names (great names of non-fiction; fiction is a whole other category):

The Mermaid and the Minotaur

"The Dynamo and the Virgin" (okay, so it's only a chapter title, which actually makes Henry Adams a genius, getting even a fabulous name for a chapter).

Actually, I think that titles are quite important. I think I read Everything That Rises Must Converge and The Sun Also Rises purely because they have great names. This is also the reason that I bought A Separate Peace, which I haven't read.

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly in the Plains

As nice as it is to wake up to a very light rain this morning, rain is not my favorite weather. And to see that it's going to do nothing but rain for the next two days (I didn't check beyond that) makes me claustrophobic. How will I run? How will I babysit the very lively children? What can I do to prevent my light light tan from leaving entirely? I'm fairly sure I actually would melt in the rain if I did let it touch me...

A Prayer

"You alone are the Bridegroom of the Church, born from your wounded side,
make us reveal to the world the love of Bridegroom and Bride."

This prayer is beautiful. It captures a parallel I had never thought about before--the Church comes from Christ's wounded side--it is formed by communion, by the body and blood of Christ, the blood which flowed out of His sword-pierced side. This is similar to God creating Eve out of Adam's rib, from his side. God took Adam's rib when he was asleep, which is also similar to Christ's passion--the soldier pierced His side with a spear after He had died. Here we see Christ as the new Adam and the Church as the new Eve. All of which, of course, reminds me of my favorite icon.

Speaking of Clothing...

I want this dress. Even the name: who doesn't want to wear a floating lotus dress? You could just walk around, thinking of Eliot: "And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly, / The surface glittered out of heart of light."

On Clothing

"Paradise implies the absence of garments, that is, the absence of attrition, wear (archetypal image of time)." --Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and The Profane

This resonates with me: my mother noted from when I was very young I hated any sort of stains on my clothes, and that I would immediately try to get them out (even now, there is a stain on my pink sweater that's bothering me--it is from wine and a dinner party--I rushed to my room when it happened and changed into a nearly identical pink sweater). Similarly, I hated distressing fabric, as well as the inevitable fact that clothes get old (yesterday I bought patches to cover the small beginnings of a hole in a very old pair of jeans). I think this corresponds quite neatly to my aversion to change.

Two Part Rant

A) Do I really have to check, "No, I don't want to make a donation to people with disabilities" every time I buy groceries? Does this really make for a good-hearted grocery store?

B) The only real mail I received today was a chain letter. A chain letter. Goodness gracious, I thought those were over in middles school. This one had a note: "thought of you when I got this, hope you enjoy! xoxo." Really? You thought of me? (Okay, so it's a book club, but still!)