Slovak Quotes

"We went to his house for Turkey session--is it Independence Day?"

"Behind those doors is a factory where they get rid of sins."

On meeting the wife of my friend: "She looks like Stearns!"

The husband: "No, Stearns looks like her!" (Clearly, the latter is the right version!)

Would that Stearns, Hopkins and I had seen this before we went to NYC.


(HT: Hopkins)

On the Fallacy of the Fortunate Fall

"O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
Which gained for us so great a Redeemer!"

--from the Easter Proclamation


Paul Tillich, in Love, Power and Justice, implies that until he fell, man wasn't fully man (what distinguishes man from animals is the fact that he could and did sin). This is a version of the fallacy of the fortunate fall.

In the excerpt from the Easter liturgy cited above, it seems that the fortunate fall fallacy is not without foundation. "O happy fault, / O necessary sin." Felix culpa. I think that that is a misreading of the passage, however. In this Easter hymn, proclaimed at the height of the Christian calendar, we see the redemption and unity that Christ brings most clearly:

"This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea."

Past and present and future are united in Christ's work on the cross--it is the night of the Exodus from Egypt, it is the night of the resurrection, it is the night when Christ returns to earth. We can only say in the context of our redemption, "O happy fault." Without Adam's sin, Christ would not have come. This is not to say that Adam's sin is good, or that God was dependent on that sin. Rather, given that sin, let us praise the Redeemer who can redeem even that.

The fall is a fact. We need to recognize the existence of sin and its implications for all of life, including politics (we constantly deal with the suffering that is a result of sin in the world). However, sin is an absence, a lack. As Julian of Norwich writes, "But I did not see sin; for I believe it has no sort of substance, nor portion of being, nor could it be recognized if it were not for the suffering it causes. And this suffering seems to me to be something transient, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and pray for mercy."

Czesochowa

Another thing I wanted to mention from my several-years-ago travels was the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. The Black Madonna is woven into Poland's history her identity as a nation--I remember seeing paintings in Poland of battle scenes in which the icon was present. It is supposed to be black because it was singed in a fire. In Jasna Gora, the church where the Black Madonna is kept, like in many other Polish churches that I visited, there are countless "thanksgivings" (plaques or trinkets or crutches lining the walls to memorialize a healing).

Begijnhof

Since I'm off on a new European adventure, I thought I'd write about a couple of things that I've been meaning to mention here since my last European adventure (two years ago!). In Amsterdam, I visited a lovely courtyard with some of the oldest houses in the city. It was founded, as I understand, by lay women who came together for community and good works (called Beguines). They weren't nuns and could leave at any time and have their own possessions (my sort of community!). There was a secret church hidden in the dwelling places for when the practice of their faith was forbidden (the Begijnhof could not be forcibly closed as many monasteries and convents were, since it was these women's private property).

Serendipity and the Internet

(My attempt to answer a few of the questions that brought some poor, unsuspecting [confused] readers to this blog)

heidegger-hawthorne-This cross gives us: The Marburg Romance, "The Professor's Black Veil," and "The Birth-Mark: The Question Concerning Technology" (okay, okay--actually Nathanial Hawthorne has a short story called, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment").

can christians wear mascot costume-Ideally not to church, but I don't see why not the rest of the time.

difference between tocqueville and walzer?-Hmm...I'm actually less sure about the similarities between them. Both appreciate civil society?

distinguish between political theory and political thought--some of these questions really make me think! Well, political theory sounds like you have some well formed theory and political thought sounds like you just have a scattering of thoughts. I certainly fall in the latter category.

cord of three strands tattoo--I wouldn't recommend it. While I think that tattoos are wonderful, the only dilemma is what to tattoo--it has to be something really pretty important. I also prefer particular tattoos over abstract ones: the cord of three strands seems a little abstract. It's like tattooing the symbol for infinity on you. Or the symbol for addition or subtraction, for that matter.

a map that shows were leoperds lif--As we all know, a leoperd is a type of gecko (as you can see on this website). We know that leoperds were in fact lifed, but there are no maps showing it.

Traveling

I am off to see one of the largest fountains in the world (it purportedly shoots up 459 feet at 124 mph).

Quotes

Ilana (after seeing an advertisement for The Talented Mr. Ripley): "Hmm...Jude Law and Matt Damon?"

Later: Stearns: "Do you know where this [the plot line] is going?
Ilana (hopefully): "To Jude Law?"

Earlier: Emily (while frightenedly kayaking back to shore with my father): "There's a giant wave! There's a giant octopus!" (It was a jellyfish--in my panic, I got a little confused.)

Pretty

Obama's Oil Spill Speech

I didn't watch Obama's speech because the little cousins were putting on their Olympics in the pool (complete with the audience of aunts and uncles singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America," where my dad confused "From the mountains, to the prairies / To the oceans, white with foam" with "To the oceans, white with snow."

Upon reading the transcript of his speech, I'm surprised by the way in which he sets up the response to the oil spill as a war on oil. After giving Bush so much grief for declaring a "War on Terror," which is, admittedly, a little vague, this just boarders on absurd--we're going to fight the oil?! The oil is after us? I get that it's rhetoric, but is this the only rhetoric that we know?

Obama says, "Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens." He lays out a "battle plan" to fight the "siege" of oil. "We see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude." Goodness gracious, before we know it, oil is going to be evil incarnate.

I'm all for developing alternative sources of energy, but (Berry is on my mind at the moment) it doesn't seem to me that the problem is just that we're using up oil--it is in general the urge to get everything we can out of the earth. That is to say, the way in which we use oil is tied to materialism and our desire for unlimited consumption.

The other thing that strikes me about the oil spill is our own capacity to create catastrophes for ourselves that are greater than most natural catastrophes.

Hannah Arendt: For the Love of the World

I am reading Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's masterful biography of Hannah Arendt at the moment--it is filled with descriptions of Arendt's friends and intellectual influences, her context, her works with relation to her life, and is interspersed with her poetry. The friends she had are astounding--Heidegger, Hans Jonas, Karl Jaspers, Paul Tillich, Auden (the picture to the left is one that Arendt took of him). In addition, she attended Alexandre Kojeve's seminars on Hegel with Jean-Paul Sartre. I like this anecdote from her time as an editor in New York:

"Several exciting acquaintances developed as a result of Salman Schocken's (the man who hired her) peculiar manner of dealing with authors. Arendt met T. S. Eliot when he came for a business meeting with Schocken and his son; he was invited to attend the meeting in the role of secretary. She sat in appalled, helpless silence while Eliot was received like a traveling salesman. Rather than seizing the chance to have Eliot among their authors, the Schockens hemmed and hawed and then ended the conference abruptly with a 'we'll think it over' and their apologies for having to rush off to another appointment. With great dignity Eliot rose, ushered the Schockens to their own door, and bowed formally as they made a confused exit. Then Eliot turned to a very embarrassed Hannah Arendt and said: 'Well, now you and I can have a nice chat.' They did, and Arendt afterwards devoted herself to reading Eliot's poems, plays, and essays in their entirety--the compliment she always paid to a new literary acquaintance."

Wendell Berry on Politics.2

"My [barber]shop was a democracy if ever anyplace was. Whoever came I served and let stay as long as they wanted to. Whatever they said or did while they were there I had either to deal with or put up with. ... The problem of governing the place was right there in front of me when I started in. I knew that if it got rough I couldn't call the police; we didn't have any police in Port William. And so from the beginning I held to pretty correct behavior in my shop." --Jayber Crow, in Jayber Crow

Jayber Crow then proceeds to recount an incident in which one of his customers, who was drunk, made a racist comment. A friend of Jayber's, a man who had "seniority and authority. Prompt, regardless courage too. He was a man of standing" objected to and shamed the speaker.

Berry tells us several things about his politics here: First, politics is an activity of the community; it is not something that is separate from and set up against the community (he objects, similarly, to the institution of the church, but not to the church as an expression of the community). Second, even a democracy requires leaders who have authority and who form and restrict the sensibilities of its members. Third, the activity of governing itself affects Jayber--Jayber is not the most virtuous man in the world, but his position in his store required that he hold to correct behavior in his shop (this connects back to the first point--if politics were something separate from the community, then Jayber might rely on the institution of the police rather than on his own good behavior and ability to govern).

Spotted Eagle Stingray

When I was taking a walk a couple of days ago, I came across a stingray being washed up on the sand. It was huge--about a 6 feet wingspan and 80 lbs.-ish. Upon much googling, I think that it was this kind--the Spotted Eagle Stingray--because of the cartoon-ish nose. (My father stated assertively when he saw it that it was a hog-nosed stingray, but upon further googling, it doesn't seem that that is a kind of stingray).

Wendell Berry on War and Politics

(From Jayber Crow)

"I knew too that this new war was not even new but was only the old one come again. And what caused it? It was caused, I thought, by people failing to love one another, failing to love their enemies."

"It takes power, leadership, great talent, perhaps genius, and much money to make a war. In war, as maybe even in politics, Port William has to suffer what it didn't make. I have pondered for years and I still can't connect Port William and war except by death and suffering. No more can I think of Port William and the United States in the same thought. A nation is an idea, and Port William is not. Maybe there is no live connection between a little place and a big idea. I think there is not.

Did I think that the great organizations of the world could love their enemies? I did not. I didn't think great organizations could love anything."

Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling (Always There are Spoilers)

I had seen High Noon once as a child (my mother was a communications major in college so, in addition to lots of documentaries, we occasionally watched a classic film [as an aside, I found out recently that the leopard brother is also known at college as Amish--not an unusual thing for my friends to call me; they also call him dinosaur, which is not something I've ever been called]). When I watched it as a child, I thought it was slow and tedious. On this viewing, however, I was completely entranced.

High Noon happens in real time, and the viewer is reminded this dozens of times with shots of clocks. The repetitiveness of the theme music also makes the film move very slowly. The slowness, however, isn't bad--it actually does a remarkable job of raising tension with very little action (until the end).

What I was most struck by this time around was how wonderful Mrs. Ramirez is and how Grace Kelly is tolerable at best. I like moody women--and Grace Kelly's initial moody response to her new husband--buying a train ticket, getting on the train, I like. However, Mrs. Ramirez is the real woman here--she recognizes both Gary Cooper and his role in the town for what they are (something that no one else is able to do, not even his friends). She's the only one with any insight at all (besides Cooper himself). Interestingly, neither she nor Cooper are able to articulate this very well ("If you don't know this about your husband already," Ramirez says to Kelly, "I can't explain it to you"). While admittedly Kelly does come around at the end of the film, Ramirez is the one who teaches her what to do, and, most remarkably, even though Ramirez obviously still has feelings for Cooper, she doesn't interfere in his marriage.

Ramirez is (again, besides Cooper) the most faithful, honorable character in the film. Too bad she couldn't handle a gun.

The irony is strong here--this woman who has had a variety of lovers and runs a saloon is a faithful woman. Throughout the film, the the way in which good and bad are mixed together in one person is evident (it's an Augustinian film in this respect).

Kelly, thankfully, stands by her man in the end. The way in which all of Kelly's life changes are tied to particular loves is striking--she converts and becomes a Quaker because she sees her father and brother killed; she uses a gun when her husband's life is threatened. Kelly is an admirable mix of theory and practice and love. But she only becomes a woman in the course of this film--I can't understand why Cooper marries a girl after he'd already known a real woman.

Congrats to Ilana

...the littlest and best white leopard, on graduating from high school today!

I Just Can't Bear to Blog

My laptop is broken, I'm waiting for a new one to come in the mail, and using Stearn's laptop, which had a space bar that doesn'twork anda cursor that is always floatingacross the screen, and is very infrequently responsive.

That is to say,I'm spending as little timeon a laptop as I can at the moment.

Although I have plenty of things to blog about--the bird that dive bombed my head repeatedly the other morning (scary!), the difficulties of searching for a laptop when you don'tknow what any of thechoices mean, etc.

These were some of the decisions I had to make when buyinga laptop:

ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III ThinkPad wireless cards are compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks and provide maximum data rates of 54 Mbps.

Intel WiFi Link Series (supporting Centrino 2) The Intel® WiFi Link Series is a family (5100, 5300, etc.) of IEEE 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N wireless network adapters that operate in both the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz spectra. These adapters deliver up to 300 Mbps of receive bandwidth; in addition to providing a host of features that enhance today's mobile lifestyle.

Howin the worlddo I figure outwhich wireless somethingto get?

After a very lovely visit with Percy, I'm going to be headingback to the Outer Banks, andthen I'll be off to Geneva, Slovakia and Budapest. After that, Stearns and I are planning a short adventure through thesouth of Germany. Of course, I willtell you, dear reader,all about it upon my return.

WhileI'm gone,Stearns has promised to post the funny thingsthat her students saidthis year. I'm not promisingthat she'll fulfill her promise, just pointing out that it's her fault of nothing new is on this blog until late July.

x

Best. Tattoo. Ever.

Also: Best. Text. Ever. (from Percy): "Richard Wilbur signed my arm and I got a tattoo of it directly after."

Montreal

I spent several days this week walking around Montreal. What a lovely city--I had no idea. Aside from the fact that I sometimes felt like the whole city was making fun of my inability to learn French ("Sorry, we're out of tour booklets and maps in English, but we have them in French"), I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

The old city is very European (everyone says that and I didn't believe it until I arrived--there are gently curving streets that you might see in Oxford; the grey stone buildings are big, but not too big--only a couple of stories so that the street isn't overwhelmed; different styles of architecture nestle seamlessly into each other--each building is similar to, and yet different from the one beside it).

The Notre Dame Cathedral of Montreal was lovely and different--it was covered with blues, greens and purples.



I also did a lot of wandering through Chinatown, enjoying mango bubble tea (it's like a smoothie with gummy bears in it) and all sorts of pastries (one was fried dough with beef curry in the middle).

I climbed Mont Royal--the mountain in the middle of the city after which the city is named. There is a wonderful view of the city from the top. Of course, I got lost for several miles (I am no good with a map). But the view was worth it.





I had heard that there was a cross at the very top, so I walked all the way there. Well, Wystan said that the cross on the top of the mountain was tacky, and, boy, was he right--it was covered with lights and evidently lights up at night. I was imagining something more like the 15th century Celtic cross that I hiked up to see on a hill outside of Dublin. Alas.




















While I was there I noticed that almost every restaurant I looked at/ate at (excluding the Thai/Chinese fusion one) sold something called poutine. And so, of course, I had to try it. It is french fries with cheese curd covered in gravy. It was good, although I will say that I generally prefer my french fries crisp, rather than in sauce. And when they offered me ketchup to go with the poutine, I got rather confused and just skipped that part (where do you put the ketchup? on top of the gravy?).

I visited both the Musee des beaux arts de Montreal, and the contemporary art gallery. The museum of fine arts had an intriguing collection of glass and of furniture. The stained glass peacock with wisteria was my favorite (the sky in the background is streaked with white to look like clouds, and both the wisteria and the peacock feathers are several colors swirled together).






Finally, from the contemporary art gallery, I really liked the bathtub in the aquarium, surrounded by electrical cords. It is called, "Silence and Slow Time," and has little bubbles hitting the bottom of the tub before rising to the surface. I liked it because it is incredibly random and a little funny, and is sort of light. The way the bathtub is lit up sort of reminds me of a fetus in utero.

One of the other exhibits was a bunch of lamps hanging from the ceiling. The artist made these lamps, imitating some identical mass produced ones. The difference was that the artist made these entirely out of materials that he found. This really annoyed me--what sort of excellence or genius is involved here? Excellence in copying ugly things?

Traveling: Montreal