One of my readers noted, more elegantly than I can remember, that le café has a remarkably eclectic menu, with wrestler Ric Flair and monetary discussion juxtaposed with John Henry Newman and Mad Magazine style satirical cartoons.
After thinking about it I said, I had not thought about it like that, but you are right.
Old familiar things seem to pop into my head from past things read, and thanks to the internet, it is relatively easy for my poor overburdened memory to refresh itself about them. So it was with the subtitle of this little discourse's subtitle today, 'The pomp of courts, the pride of Kings.'
I remembered it, but had to look up its context and detail, and I include that bit of historical diversion below the charts today. It is an interesting little poetical puzzle and reminds us of a time when freedom of thought and press was much more constrained that it is now.
I find the world to be full of endlessly fascinating people and things, and books, travel, lectures, essays, and personal conversations are the pathways to them. And the internet is a marvel of convenience for this.
This fascination with the world and the people in it is very much in the nature of Christian Humanism, which sees the things of the world in all their variety, but views little of His creation as inherently profane or evil, including human beings who can be a wonder and a source of grace. It is we who make it so.
Evil is not a created thing, but the absence of good, a choice of free will. The world is not inherently evil. It inherently is, having no free will of its own Plants and animals are not inherently evil, although the little girl has often put forward an exception to this for spinach and spiders.
Creation is like a richly provisioned canvas on which we draw our lives, and it naturally shimmers in His light. It is the darkness of our hardened hearts that casts images and shadows in the light.
So the Christian humanist would agree with Socrates in saying, 'I am a citizen of the world,' but adding and most importantly, 'and nothing is alien to me except sin.' Because it is in sin that we cut the connection between the Incarnate world and its Creator, for it is was in the almost shocking implications of the Incarnation that the world was refreshed and made new, as all things will be made new some day again.
Moving on to less complex but probably darker topics, Stocks were on a tear today, shaking off the rather depressing economic reports of the morning. One could speculate that this was a 'technical trade' ahead of a long weekend, with the wiseguys wishing to hand off more positions as we creep again back to new all time highs, buoyed with the central banks' hot money. The futures are just about there.
But we could also attribute this to the announcement that Russia and the Ukraine have agreed to a cease fire (again). That is one of the many geopolitical issues that have been weighing on the markets. The other being Greece and the likely further deterioration of the Eurozone.
As we saw, another central bank instituted QE and negative interest rates. The world is slipping into a global depression. The pig of the US economy has been lipsticked up and the Dollar is being presented as a safe haven.
Let's see how we go into the three day weekend, as on Monday the US will remember some of their Presidents. I suppose a more popular day might be held in honor of all the ones which we might wish to forget, and they are many especially of late.
Have a pleasant evening.
"The pomp of courts, and pride of kings,I prize above all earthly things;I love my country, but my king,Above all men his praise I'll sing.The royal banners are displayed,And may success the standard aid:I fain would banish far from henceThe Rights of Man and Common Sense.Destruction to that odious name,The plague of princes, Thomas Paine,Defeat and ruin seize the causeOf France, her liberty, and laws."Arthur O'Connor, The Society of United Irishmen, 1798
This poem above contains a hidden message, which was a hanging offense, for its day. Take the first line and follow with the first line of the second stanza, second line followed by the second line of second stanza and so forth.
Thus it becomes:
"The pomp of courts, and pride of kings,I fain would banish far from henceI prize above all earthly things;The Rights of Man and Common Sense.I love my country, but my king,Destruction to that odious name,Above all men his praise I'll sing.The plague of princes, Thomas Paine,The royal banners are displayed,Defeat and ruin seize the causeAnd may success the standard aid:Of France, her liberty, and laws."
