On Truth, Beauty, And Death

I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth, the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

-Emily Dickinson, "I Died For Beauty -but was scarce," in , The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Bianchi and Hampson (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1937), 161.

On The Pill, Family, And Society

When thinking about "the Pill" consider the contradictions:

It was the first medicine ever designed to be taken regularly by people who were not sick. Its main inventor was a conservative Catholic who was looking for a treatment for infertility and instead found a guarantee of it. It was blamed for unleashing the sexual revolution among suddenly swinging singles, despite the fact that throughout the 1960's, women usually had to be married to get it. Its supporters hoped it would strengthen marriage by easing the strain of unwanted children; its critics still charge that the Pill gave rise to promiscuity, adultery and the breakdown of the family.

- Nancy Gibbs, "Love, Sex, Freedom and the Paradox of the Pill," in Time 175.17 (2010): 40.

On The Depravity Of Man, God's Mercy, And The Freedom of Man

Today I was reading through Psalm 81 and came across vvs. 11f. Needless to say, my mind immediately thought of Paul's words in Romans 1:24-27. Consider:

So I gave them over to their stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices

- Psalm 81:12

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

- Romans 1:24

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.

- Romans 1:26

Needless to say, if one desires a practical illustration of Psalm 81:12, one only has to read Romans 1:18-32. It also raises the question, "What is the natural state of the heart of man?" Scripture seems to be clear, the devices of man are sin, and the heart of man appears to be naturally stubborn and in a state of rebellion against the Lord.

Lord as I read your word, Father, help me to have a repentant and soft heart. That, when I hear your Word that Your Holy Spirit would grant my heart faith, hope and love that would spring forth obedience in order to walk according to Your ways living by faith in the Son of God, Jesus, who lives in me.

On The Ego And The World

'The world is my idea:' - this is a truth which holds good for everything that lives and knows, though man alone can bring it into reflective and abstract consciousness. If he really does this, he has attained philosophic wisdom.

- Arthur Schopenhauer, The World As Will And Idea, Vol. I, trans. R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1888).

On Religion, Government, And Utility

[A prince] who fears and hates religion is like the wild beasts who gnaw the chain that keeps them from throwing themselves on passer-by; he who has no religion at all is that terrible animal that feels its liberty only when it claws and devours

- Charles de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, ed. Anne H. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

On God's Foreign Policy

Ever wonder what trash talk in the OT was like? Well wonder no more. Thinking that "David cannot enter [Jerusalem]" The Jebusites said:

"You shall not come in here, but the blind and lame will turn you away"

-2Sam 5:6

David responded by capturing the stronghold and then naming the city "The City of David." And of course, David became greater "for the LORD God of hosts was with him" (2Sam. 10 c.f. 2Sam. 5:12).

On Reality, Relationships, And Technology

I was watching the movie Up In The Air and the movie has many profound messages about our society and the current trends concerning the substance of relationships in a technology age. People no longer are face-to-face and even when a video can project your face -it isn't the same as it loses a sense of dignity and reality that exists when one is present. Moreover, the film challenges serious questions as to what really constitutes a relationships of substance. Here are some profound quotes:

Alex: Pricks are spontaneous unpredictable and fun and then we are surprised when we find out they're pricks

Natalie: I just don't want to settle

Alex: You're young; right now you see settling as some as some sort of failure

Natalie: It is, by definition

Alex: But by the time you are old enough for it to be right for you it won't feel like settling and the only person to judge you is the 23 year old girl with the target on your back

Alex: I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape; you're a break from our normal lives; you are a parenthesis

- Up In The Air (2009)