HEAD(hed), (n.) 1. the top part of the human body or the front part of an animal where the eyes, nose, east and mouth are. "Your brain is in your head." DIBS(dibz), (n.) 2. a thick, sweet syrup made in countries of the East, especially the Middle East, from grape juice or dates. [Arabic "debs"]--World Book Dictionary, 1976.
"G. K. Chesterton, the "Prince of Paradox," is at his witty best in this collection of twenty essays and articles from the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on "heretics" - those who pride themselves on their superiority to Christian views - Chesterton appraises prominent figures who fall into that category from the literary and art worlds... those who hold incomplete and inadequate views about "life, the universe, and everything." He is, in short, criticizing all that host of non-Christian views of reality, as he demonstrated in his follow-up book Orthodoxy. The book is both an easy read and a difficult read. But he manages to demonstrate, among other things, that our new 21st century heresies are really not new because he himself deals with most of them." (Goodreads)
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Death Comes Unexpectedly?
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“In the middle
of life it happens that death comes and measures a man. The visit is forgotten
and life continues. But the suit is made, quietly.” (Thomas Transtromer,
Swedish Poet)
Many of us remember
that scene of Karl Malden acting as Reverend Ford in the 1960 movie "Polyanna,"
preaching an abridgement of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God.”
This powerful message reminds us of the suddenness with which death comes, and Transtromer reminds us that death has already sized us up.
"The Universe does not know we are here," Harlan Ellison says. It just grinds on and on and on and we are in the midst of the machinery--just don’t get caught in the mechanism. The Universe is not a personality; but, as Ellison echoes Twain in another assumption: something is wrong with the Universe! What is wrong is death. Did God make a screwed up machine? Is God a monster? If so, then why is the Universe still idolized? Death was not part of God’s design but a consequence of a decision made in response to The Creator (Ellison and others admit there is a Creator, they just doesn’t like it when He speaks). Now, death is here sizing us up and quietly making what is coming to each and every one of us.
Strange how we say death is sudden or unexpected when each person knows their day is coming. We say it is unexpected because we would rather not face death. One-time events like this are difficult to comprehend; yet, our life began with a one-time event and we have no difficulty (in a manner of speaking). Since birth, life has become fixed around culture and tradition and idea and relationships and practice and doctrine and survival, which ultimately leads to THAT end, at the end. How can we not see it coming?
There are proper and improper ways of viewing death. Every proper way, no matter what culture dictates, acknowledges its presence. John Donne reminds us when we lay down to rest or sleep we foreshadow what is coming, the day approaching when we will lay down and not rise up again. Donne also reminds us death is not to be feared, so death has no reason to be proud for a day is coming when death itself will die. That in itself is a marvelous truth and should be a release.
Death was not included in the design of the Universe, so within the Universe death too, will come and go. Death will become history, a memory not mourned but celebrated as a defeated foe.
Legend has it that the astronomer Ptolemy (1st century A.D.) suggested that falling stars were caused by the gods moving in the heavens, thus knocking stars out of their places. Somehow people reasoned that that if the gods were moving, they must be getting close to earth so they would lift their "prayers" or "wishes" (literally, "desires") whenever they saw the stars falling in hopes the gods would notice and grant a favorable answer. But how does one wish on falling star? Once you see it, it's gone before the wish or prayer can be made! The answer is simple: meteor shower. That's how to get your wish. Mrs. Ann Hodges had a wish fall right into her lap. Sort of. In 1954 Mrs. Hodges was sleeping on the couch when a 8 1/2 pound meteorite fell through her house and into her living room where it bounced off the radio and struck her left hip leaving her with a bruise. Not sure what she was wishing, but that's not how to do it. Epictetus hel...
“Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?” EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.6 b –8
