I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
August 12, 2003 - 3:41 p.m.
I�m trying something different today. I�m writing this when I�m offline so I won�t get distracted. Lets see if that improves my writing.
Yesterday I played bridge with Roy. We followed our usual plan, I went up to his office a bit after 5 o�clock. On the way in I got to see Marie, one of his secretaries. We always got along but we both got cancer that bonded us. She has not been as fortunate as I but now she is in remission. It was good seeing her well.
Roy and I spent some time in his office discussing things ranging from the chemical industry, to Ruth Gerson to his kids. Speaking of Ruth she has a new album coming out next week. Go to her site and order it now J
After Roy changed we went to dinner at Charlie Brown�s. It hasn�t been that busy recently but last night it was packed, we had a 15 minute wait for a table. I wonder if it because it was a Monday. They give double points on Mondays which can be redeemed for discounts if you belong to their handshake club. Last night�s dinner put me over 200 points so I�ll be getting a coupon good for $20 off soon.
Monday night is also when they have the money game at the Franklin Bridge Club. We�ve never won it but we have come close. We had a pretty good night last night. We didn�t make too many huge blunders and got some gifts. We came in first in strat B and third overall. What really made me happy is that I got to make my favorite alert. People play all kinds of different systems and when you make a bid that has a different meaning than the standard you have to alert your opponents to it. They then have the right to ask what it means. The explanation I got to give was, �Partner is unbalanced, ..., and so is his hand.� Yes it is a silly joke but I love it.
I was going to let that be my entire entry but I told Carey about an entry idea I�ve been thinking about and she bugged me to do it. I think she just wants to watch me embarrass myself.
I made a reference the other day to Galileo�s Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World. That inspired me to want to write a Platonic dialogue of my own. I haven�t actually read Plato or Galileo since college so this will be a bit of a stretch for me. I do think it is a good format for discussing ideas so I�m going to give it a shot. The toughest part is coming up with names for the characters. It is tempting to give them Greek or Italian names but that really is contrary to the spirit of a dialogue. They characters are supposed to represent the current culture. So no Kritias or Simplicio for me. So now without further ado my first foray into Platonic dialogue.
Skippy: Did you hear the Episcopalians appointed a gay bishop?
Buford: I did, what is the world coming to?
Skippy: That bother�s you?
Buford: Yes I�m not a homophobe but there clear prohibitions in the bible. How can someone be a religious leader while openly going against its teachings.
Skippy: First off the prohibitions are against homosexual acts, they say nothing about sexual orientation. More importantly times change and living religion has to keep up.
Buford: How far does it have to bend to keep up? If it keeps changing with the times doesn�t it at some point stop being the same religion?
Nancy: Buford has a point there.
Skippy: You are the last person I thought would agree with Buford. And did you ever hear of saying, �Hi� when you join a conversation.
Nancy: I didn�t say I agreed with Buford I said he had a point. I�d like to hear you answer his question, �doesn�t it as some point become a new religion?�
Skippy: I don�t really know. Religions do change. Modern rabbinical Judaism is very different from the priestly religion that centered on animal sacrifices at the temple.
Nancy: Ok answer me this question. Do you think that the bible is right and that gay sex is a sin?
Skippy: No, I don�t. I think that reflects the prejudices of the times it was written.
Nancy: Do you think that the bible was divinely inspired?
Skippy: Yes
Nancy: Then how can it contain prejudices?
Skippy: Parts are divinely inspired and people inserted their own ideas.
Nancy: How do you know which parts are which? Aren�t you just using your own judgment of what�s right and wrong?
Buford: I can�t believe I�m agreeing with Nancy but that is exactly what you are doing. Either you accept it as God�s word or you don�t.
Skippy: You are leaving me with choices I can�t accept. I don�t want to renounce my religion and I don�t want to accept beliefs I find abhorrent.
Nancy: I don�t really mean to be so hard on you. For myself I do renounce religion and I decide moral issues without reference to what somebody said that god said. I understand that it something most people aren�t willing to do. I just wanted to point out that Buford�s rigid views are actually more logically consistent.
Buford: So you are saying that I�m logically consistent but wrong and that Skippy is inconsistent but morally right. That�s not going to make you very popular.
Nancy: I know. Perhaps I shouldn�t have said this so directly. You guys are my friends so I know that you�ll still like me but others might not be so forgiving. Maybe it would be safer if I wrote this up as a dialogue with other characters speaking the different viewpoints. That way I could deny that I�m favoring one view over another. That�s what Galileo did.
Skippy: A dialogue? Like Plato? Isn�t that incredibly pretentious?
Nancy: I�ll give the characters silly names, like ummm, Horvendile.
Buford: Yeah, that will fool everybody.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile August 12, 2003
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