11/07/2006

Scruton on sentimentality

"Sentimentality plays a central role in modern culture - it is the mask with which fantasy conceals its cynical self-regard.

Sentimental feeling is easy to confuse with the real thing, for, on the surface at least, they have the same object. The sentimental love of Judy and the real love of Judy are both directed towards Judy, and involve tender thoughts of which she is the subject. But this superficial similarity marks a deep difference. The real focus of my sentimental love is not Judy but me. For the sentimentalist it is not the object but the subject of the emotion that is important. Real love focuses on the other: it is gladdened by his pleasure and grieved by his pain. The unreal love of the sentimentalist focuses on the self, and treats the pleasures and pains of its object only as an excuse for playing the role that most appeals to it. It may seem to grieve at the other's sorrow, but it does not really grieve. For secretly sentimentalists welcome the sorrow that prompts their tears. It is another excuse for the noble gesture, another occasion to contemplate the image of a great-hearted self."

"Sentimentality and fantasy go hand in hand. For the object of sentimental emotion is, like a fantasy object, deprived of objective reality, made pliant to a subjective need, and roughly discarded when the going gets tough. He is, from the beginning, only an excuse for an emotion whose focus lies elsewhere, in the great drama of which the sentimentalist is the sole enduring hero. Hence the object of sentimental love is given no security, and will find himself quickly replaced in his lover's affections when the script requires it. The sentimental lover of Judy pretends to acknowledge her value; but in fact he has assigned her a price."

Roger Scruton, (IPGMC 64, 65)

9/05/2006

darn right.

"But when we use God-talk to paper over the truth, we risk taking the name of God in vain. Scripture is clear that God does not appreciate it when we misuse his holy name for our purposes. Hiding behind a veneer of God-talk that everyone knows is just a way of obscuring painful realities invites cynicism about all our words about God."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/009/21.114.html

You might think I should comment or something. Good article.

6/21/2006

Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice.
Therefore the sage says:
He who takes upon himself the humiliation of the people is fit to rule them.
He who takes upon himself the country's disasters deserves to be king of the universe.
The truth often sounds paradoxical.


Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching, "Seventy-Eight"
Jane English, trans.

5/11/2006

Ps. 120

I call on the LORD in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, O LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful toungues.
What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.

Woe to me that I dwell in Meschech,
that I live among the tends of Kedar!
Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.

1/01/2006

Job's Christian friends

And when all these things had happened to him, Job's Christian friends came by to comfort him.

The first said, "I'll be praying for you. Seeya." *smile and a wave*

The second said, "You need to stop thinking negative thoughts and start thinking positive thoughts and God will bless you more."

Job responded, "I was thinking..."

But he was cut off when the third said, "You're not very much fun to be with anymore. How come you don't talk more? Would it hurt you to smile more? Being friends with you is hard, so I'm going to leave you here to lay in your own filth so I can go dance in fields of pretty flowers..."

"But I..."

The fourth interrupted, "This wouldn't have happened if you had loved God enough and worshiped Him just like I do. Quite frankly, I'm concerned about your salvation."

After all these had spoken and spoken and spoken, Job responded, "Screw you, you don't know me, get out! If I didn't love God more than anything, and if I wasn't too depressed to have the strength, I'd kill you all where you stand!

And Job cried to God in his sorrow, "Is it not enough that you have taken my wife, my family, my wealth, and my health? Yet I have honored you in all of this. Why have you sent this cruel plague to mock me? It is more than a man can take!"

10/17/2005

Why should I eat?
if not from your hand?
All I pick for myself is poison.
What can I will?
if you have not willed it first?
I can will but death on my own,
and even that half-heartedly.

9/28/2005

a mystery

cradle a dream so fragile that to describe it would prevent it from existing

9/24/2005

Philippians 1:9-11 (Amplified Bible)

9And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment],

10So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble].

11May you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (of right standing with God and right doing) which come through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One), to the honor and praise of God [that His glory may be both manifested and recognized].


Text provided by http://bible.gospelcom.net/, emphasis added.

8/21/2005

burn.

some days I wish I could scream myself into nothing
unholy fire smoulders in my core
I want this world to writhe in the embers
my wrists smile for the knife

joy of life I crave to share
sweet release of death
fire in my bones
my wrists demand the medicating nails to release


to know and be known
is really all I seek
to share tears and blood
understanding the price, the promise
that comes with each drop while I am here
and when I am emptied of both
to hear "well done"


how long?

disconnect (pt 2): pull the plug

and I've seen through you for a long time
you can't remember, but I knew you in a past life
you were a woman then, today a man
you were a lot older, and we were better friends than ever in this life
so sweet, so full of love... so broken, so tragic, so neurotic...

always looking for love, always running away from yourself, always running away from love,

always running away from your God

You never heard me, but I called you the "amazing falling-appart woman"
how, after all these years, all these examples, have you not seen your way doesn't work?
how is your heart yet strong enough to be broken again?
will it one day break for good?
will you ever break the cycle?
i don't think you can take much more...
i had hoped so many times before... I think I am done now.
i can't watch you go through this again...