Two Quatrains By Rumi

1784UT


How cruel to play a tanboor for the deaf,
to lodge Joseph with the blind,
to put sugar in the mouth of nausea
or a nymph in the bed of impotence.




1082AK


For a while I dwelt among men,
never catching scent of grace or tint of kindness.
So I made myself hidden again,
water in iron, fire in stone.

Been looking at some of Joni Mitchell's paintings.  I think I remember hearing that she regards herself as more a painter than a singer or songwriter.  This one looks like an Edward Hopper--if Hopper were a portraitist.  She depicts herself with her heart on her sleeve.

Malioboro di Jogjakarta

                                          MALIOBORO DI SORE

                                          Orang-orang, banyak warna.
                                          Abu-abu, kehujanan.
                                          Mantel-mantel, kecil di bawa.

Culinary Calculus

CULINARY CALCULUS

licorice:candy::liver:meat
apricot:peach::brussels sprout:cabbage

A POEM FOR MY ANNUAL DAY OF PANTHEISM

God, being eyeless,
sees through me.
God, being wingless,
flies through thee,
great heron skimming the water.

Guns and Perceived Risk.

One might say that people sort themselves into different positions on guns based on differing assessments of what is necessary risk and what is foolish risk.  Would you feel more guilty if someone in your family were killed by an intruder and you had not provided any guns for defense or if someone in your family committed suicide with a gun you kept in the house?  And in which case would friends be more likely to think you were at fault?  Incidentally, the latter instance is in more likely in general, but not more likely for everyone in every circumstance. For example, if your house has been broken into multiple times and you were shot once when you surprised a burglar, you and yours may be safer with a gun than without.

Does the Bible Prescribe an Abortifacient for a Cheating Wife?

from Numbers in The New International Version of the Bible:

if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[c] offeringand burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

Some translations have something like "your thigh rots" instead of "your womb miscarries," or other words to the same effect as still other translations do.  I don't know Hebrew and so cannot have an authoritative opinion about the correct translation, except to note that miscarriage or spontaneous abortion fits the theme of the passage much better than does a rotting thigh.  One almost may as well say "I curse you: May your abdomen swell and a sausage grow on the end of your nose."

I don't really care what is correct here, in the sense that my own thoughts about what is right or wrong with abortion depend on it not at all.  People who maintain that the Bible is absolutely authoritative are bound to cherry-pick when making nearly any point because so much is or seems to be contradictory.  And because large sections of the Bible are vile and difficult to explain away and thus unsuitable for any discussion of personal ethics or social direction.

And, of course, if you believe dumbass stuff like this, it's easy to see how you can believe in other dumbass stuff like "Here, grab this red-hot iron bar and if you're innocent God will keep you from being burned."