Take a Stand

On Wall Street, non-violent protest and the American police state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx19waGfSiM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M186KXT3jE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA

Euripides

Some scholars say that Euripides was born on this day in 480 BC.  I have always loved Euripides’ work, preferring him over Aeschylus and even the great Sophocles.  There is so much psychological power and insight in his later work, especially Βάκχαι--a terrible story of religious belief that has been perverted, shifting from love into vengeance.  Pentheus is not only destroyed, but also disgraced and dishonored by Dionysus, reminding one of Sue at the end of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, who believes she can only appease God’s anger by degrading and defiling herself.  Hardy’s cynicism and utilitarianism prevented him from seeing the deeper social and psychological issues raised by Sue’s tragedy, but in Euripides’ work there is both tragedy and deep insight.  There are actually few modern writers who have been able to match Euripides’ ability to explore in a meaningful way the sliding of religious experience into madness: Dostoyevsky and Graham Greene are two that I can think of--both men of deep and authentic (although extremely idiosyncratic) faith.  Actually, one can find this theme in Flannery O’Connor’s work as well, especially in the disturbing Wise Blood.
     Well, I have traveled a long way in a very short time from dear Euripides!  So, to get back to the birthday boy, I think of him and honor his work today, whether it is his actual birthday or not, and am grateful for his insights on the nature of humility, suffering, religion, and tragedy.

Στους καλούς υπάρχει κάθε είδος σοφίας.  (In every good there exists wisdom.)
                                                                        --Euripides
                                                                                             

     

Go Down, You Murderers

Go down, you murderers, go down

             --Ewan McColl, “The Ballad of Tim Evans”

The execution of Troy Davis is just one more sick example of the complete moral bankruptcy of the United States, a lesson not lost on the rest of the world.  The culture of death that would allow a man whose guilt is genuinely in doubt, who has been a victim of a dysfunctional “system” from the start, to be executed, is a scandal impossible to hide.  Hopefully, the fact that the death penalty is treated in this country like it’s all just a big game will bring about its final demise.  Perhaps the murder of Troy Davis, tragic beyond words, will at least help to end this monstrous affront to the sanctity of life.  Just as the execution of Timothy Evans, another innocent man, helped turn the tide of public opinion against the death penalty in the UK, perhaps the execution of Troy Davis will awaken people here to the unjust and incompetent way this legalized murder is meted out.  If that is the case, at least we can say he did not die totally in vain.

Springs

For a while now, I have wanted to write something about desert springs (actually, I already have—in my story, “The Turned Into’s,” there is a description of a spring.)  I am thinking specifically of places like Rattlesnake Springs near Carlsbad Caverns, or Manzanita Springs in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  These are true oases in the desert, places that attract great numbers of trees and birds and fish and reeds that you would never expect to find in an arid region.  Their beauty seems almost magical.  Of course, before the advent of modern “civilization,” they were also sources of survival for human beings (not to mention their animals).  It is not surprising that they took on a sacred character, earning the maxim “numen inest.”  For one who seeks water in the desert, the spring is a paradise. 

     Many peoples and religions honor the spring, especially those born in the deserts of the world.  For Native Peoples of the Americas, many springs are considered sacred, from karst springs like the so-called Montezuma well in Arizona and the sacred well at Chichen Itza, to the sacred hot springs near Jemez Pueblo or those in Tonopah, Arizona, to the Serra Springs and those on Mt. Shasta in California that were also used as drinking water sources.  Of course, there are thousands of other sacred springs throughout the Americas, but one needs only to look at how disrespectfully those that I have mentioned have been treated to understand why the locations of most are kept hidden.

     In the scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition, one also finds a reverence for springs.  Throughout the Bible there are references to springs: as places of refuge and renewal (Is 49:10), as signs of God’s presence and providence (Zec 14:8), (Jer 31:9), (Jn 4:13-14), (Rev 21:6), and of course those famous lines from the Psalms: He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade (Ps 1), and, Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit. (Ps 23) (tr. The Jerusalem Bible)

     In the Qur’ān there are a number of references to springs, none more beautiful than verse 54:12, وَفَجَّرْنَا الْأَرْضَ عُيُونًا فَالْتَقَى الْمَاءُ عَلَىٰ أَمْرٍ قَدْ قُدِرَ, with the spring given as a symbol of Allah’s providence to His servant, or verse 55:66, where the two springs are promised to His faithful.

    Many pre-Christian European religions saw springs as sacred, abodes of gods or spirits.  Nearly all religions have ritual bathing practices, that, in the desert, would undoubtedly be practiced using spring water under most circumstances.  Water flowing wholesome and clean from the bosom of the earth is the embodiment of purification.

     For me, the sight of a desert spring is always refreshing and renewing.  I feel joy and fullness well up inside of me, and a deep love and reverence for the water and all living creatures that depend on it.  It is important to respect these places, and remember that they are part of a living ecosystem.  They need to be valued and protected as well as enjoyed.      

Feast of the Holy Cross

The tree of life flourished in the midst of the holy city of Jerusalem,

and its leaves had the power to save all the nations, alleluia.

                                  --antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours, Sept. 14

A Nation of Thieves and Beggars

In days past, people would praise a great ruler by saying, “In his (or her) time, people prospered, everyone was taken care of, so much so that there were no thieves or beggars.”  Today, in America, we see the exact opposite of that ideal: almost everyone has become either a thief or a beggar.  How can we go on like this?

     The ruling class of this country are like the people of Bulika in George MacDonald’s Lilith, “Yet they boast and believe themselves a prosperous, and certainly are a self-satisfied people—good at bargaining and buying, good at selling and cheating; holding well together for a common interest, and utterly treacherous where interests clash…despising everyone they get the better of; never doubting themselves the most honorable of nations, and each man counting himself better than any other.  The depth of their worthlessness and the height of their vainglory no one can understand who has not been there to see, who has not learned to know the miserable misgoverned and self-deceived creatures.”