And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch
My friend Bennett s Phylactery has written a great piece over at the Exit blog. You should read it. It is more wide-ranging than this one. It s about how humans relate to each other, and how we think we relate to each other. A currently popular paradigm is to assume that relationships for material benefit are Continue reading "The Lion King: Honor Games vs Death Games"
You should know about them! There is philosophy being done, Love of Truth, it is a minor Golden Age for those who can recognize it. Cast not your pearls before swine. But swine do not read this blog, and it is Christmas. Ruthless Divine Ambition, For Mortals The first is by an old and new Continue reading "Two Great Essays, And A Fairy-Tale"
My wife introduced me to The Last Airbender. There are (kinda) four Kingdoms, one for each of the classical elements. The Earth Kingdom, however, has had a silent coup, and now controlled by secret police, rather than the king. The chief of the secret police, Long Feng, has allied with Azula, the young, tyrannical princess Continue reading "The Aristocratic Virtues"
Well, things look very different from here, and very much the same. I got married! And would you believe it, it was because of this blog. A young woman messaged me about one of the posts, and, well, now I am typing this quietly as she sleeps next to me. Come August, we will have Continue reading "Happy Update And Apology"
Green leaves all fallen, withered and dry;Brief sunset fading, dim winter sky.Lengthening shadows, Dark closing in…Then, through the stillness, carols begin! Oh fallen world, to you is the song—Death holds you fast and night tarries long.Jesus is born, your curse to destroy!Sweet to your ears, a carol of Joy! Pale moon ascending, solemn and slow;Cold Continue reading "Green Shoots"
I have been greatly enjoying Angel Studios The Chosen, a show depicting (a heavily dramatized/fictionalized version of) the life of Christ. It has had quite an effect on me. I have tried, on this blog and in my life, to raise myself and others from the prosaic to the mythic. I think on a mythic Continue reading "The Friend of God"
What, exactly, is glory? Excellence? Appreciation? Must we all become martyrs, Olympic gymnasts, or spectators of such? The thing is: excellence is relative. Appreciation is subjective. So could you just start giving, and asking for them? This came on the playlist recently: Suggested: the reason high school and college are remembered so fondly by so many Continue reading "Glory, Refracted"
Here is an analogy I don t think I ve ever seen made (though it must have been): the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil = the Matrix s Red Pill. Both involve learning. Both involve exiting one world and entering another. Both have effects that are morally ambiguous. The effects are not uniformly good, Continue reading "On Pills, Blue and Red"
A girl I d had a crush on died a few days ago. I don t know how she died, exactly. Found out on Facebook. I d made some half-hearted attempts to ask her out, but the stars never really aligned. It s a boring, mundane story I won t talk about. Instead I want to talk about her, and Continue reading "Notes On Femininity"
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have a lot of experience with hierarchy. We have a lay clergy, but even to expand on that every worthy male member is ordained a priest, of various stations. The priests of an area are organized into quorums; a quorum has a president, who presides. Above him Continue reading "Men and Hierarchy"