Keeper

The new app does good. Motivates me to get out and trek. Not far. Close to home.

Settle Down

Hadn't been over to the east side for a while. Years ago, every day. Hit a couple of coffee places in the morning, now gone. At first I thought I'd head down towards Roosevelt - several places between 7th Street and Central. Lola's I can live without. I looked up some others. Decided to go to Songbird cause they had 50 sorts of tea.

Around 4:30 pm, the rush hour going pretty good the other way, I got downtown in 15 minutes. (Avoid the tunnel at all costs!) Hunt for a space. Yeah, they want the meter feed too. But after 5 pm? It wasn't clear from the information on the meter and those dopes don't put any signage up in this regard. Found a spot right in front of the place and asked the barista. He didn't know. The place was dead and he seemed flakey. He got all exited describing how I could park in the back in their lot off the street. I got in the vehicle and kept on looking.

But now I'm heading with the traffic. Yowza... how do people put up with it. And every place I drove by was sparsely attended. Kept on going uptown. It was murder. I'm detouring every which way, intending to get to 36th Street and Indian School. Another decent coffee place usually busy with citizens a tad older than ASU snowflakes. I got fed up. Took me half an hour to get to 51 and McDowell. Got on that - should have my head examined. Got off on Thomas and figured I'd go to the library at Highland to wait the insanity out.

Burned a bunch of discs and left at 7. As you can see, traffic lighter. Headed for Sip. Precious, huh? Like Central Perk. Still have a ton of photos to process. Spent a couple of hours writing up the previous on Facebook. No intention to post it here but, what the hell. Don't you know there've been no responses. Must be taboo or something.

Finishing up the photos. Getting the burned music loaded onto my phone. I'm done.
This place is alright. Old garage. Music on the weekends. Nice kids. Tiki bar below.
I stay out of Tiki bars. Polynesian women drive me nuts. Until they eat too much Spam.
No, no booze for me. Working up an appetite. Have some Italian sausage. Angel hair.

Don't Mind If I Do

Ecclesiastical news item:

The pope goes pro forma... this is news?

Frankly, they need to address the fundamentals and dissect the problem which, not to be too simplistic, is misogyny and plain old incontinence - not celibacy per se. These pathologies combined with a contrived and convoluted repressive self-hatred manifesting often enough in criminal behavior, the foibles otherwise problematic.

Tangentially, some of my Evangelical freinds find the worship of Mary odd and unscriptural. Mariology, as the bit of a stretch theologians put it. (Theology... the study of God. Impertinent?) A matter of shunting libidinal energy? The good Sisters of old were inviegled of being the brides of Christ. Now there's an anthropolgical study, eh?

The unscriptual notion of celibacy as practiced by the Vatican cohort derives of many factors, three of which I'll assert. As I am not an academic, I don't feel constrained by having to pony up to references and such. Just the gleanings of keeping an eye on things.

*Philosophical template. The Greco-Roman classical tradition of Platonism through to Stoicism. The 'official' church after the apostolic period came to be dominated by a learned cadre steeped in Greek intellectual culture and Roman law. They 'interpreted' Scripture as it applied to themselves and their civil masters; not the other way around where Scripture informed an inferior Jewish culture.

They more or less coopted Yahweh as they segued from a mystically sophisticated idea of a Supreme Being, the old gods foolishness for peasants - translates pagans, and the caesars decidedly not divine. The powers that were, such as Constantine, who thought 'Sol Invictus' was supreme and analogous to this Hebrew God's Christ, incorporated with the intellectuals in the interest of conformity, uniformity and civil peace. All well and good seeing Jesus as that mystical philosopher king, the quasi-divine emperor his co-regent, but not Kosher.

The Greek way was misogynist, women incapable of reason and not worth consulting. The duality of Platonism held the highest good in pure thought, not actual nitty-gritty. Sex was carnal; it could be idealized with a protoge, however - that was their sense of beauty. The Stoics couldn't be bothered and virtue was seen in avoiding irrational involvement with women.

The Romans, more practical and virile, held women in higher esteem but all were dominated by the genius of the 'pater familius' by custom and law.

*Legal tangles. OK, leaving aside the Pauline instructions about form, polity and church leadership, churchmen did marry without qualm until the monastic movement of the Ninth Century through to a council in 1149 where celibacy was officially instituted. The rationale? Eunuchs for God? Virginity the apotheosis of purity modeled on Jesus Himself?

Consider the legal problems prior. The priest dies. Ought the Church take responsibility for his wife and children? (Modern Evangelical churches I've been with usually pay the pastor's life insurance policy.) The priest fathers bastards... same question. 

The priest's tenure is constituent with a feudal holding, a living, some livings more lucrative than others. The better the living, the more his family will thrive. Then the bishop changes his tenure to somewhere the living not so good. He contests and his congregants don't want him to leave. He doesn't vacate, the congregants deluded into thinking they own the property. Trouble.

Get the picture? Married life for clerics complicated the business of the hierarchial 'universal' Church. "Be done with it." said the hierarchs (who've got their mistresses and whatever, homosexuality being more convenient and without progeny) who, by law, owned all and had the last word.

As an aside, the Church was a huge land lord. They'd convince proto-aristocratic legators to leave their property to it, the legacy buying masses purchasing admission into heaven. After expenses of said living and paying for costuming and decor deducted, they'd pass on a pittance to 'the poor'. Quite the racket, no?

*Efficiency. Orthodox priests generally marry. But some vow celibacy and only they can be candidates for episcopacy. Simple time-management issue. The man who's not tied up with family obligations has more time to devote to his more extensive duties.

It's a fair reason not to be married if you want to focus on the pastoral job without distraction. (How many times has a married pastor been humiliated by family relations' behaviors?) A very practical one. 

Revisiting the monastic paradigm, that's how the medieval church got so highly organized, centralizing operations with military discipline. No doubt a great phenomenon with regard to building, land use, farming and animal husbandry... making beer, wine and brandy, all of which progressed along with what we'd call vertical integration. It was, in our vernacular, a Blue Chip organization. Temporal power ensued. Prosperity built the cathedrals.

My intuition (having made no study of it) tells me that, however many bright boys were taken in to be educated for a church career, many of the monastic residents were older men, peasants and artisans, who had raised a family. If not a widower, they'd put the wife in a nunnery and take up the rule as they prayed for men's souls. It was their skill sets advantaged. Celibacy just made things easier and, really, is there a problem here?

I once had a conversation with an RC priest who said these medieval (a loaded, relative word) times were the greatest years in that church and he looked forward to their return. (Huh... run that by Hans Küng?) Yeah, they just might be stuck there, Christendom and all that.

A wee writing exercise. 

I mean, like, who's got the time?

Get Off the Deck

Had a great day but that's neither here nor there. Got some good deals in trade. Feeling limber. Exploring new artsy app.

Am finishing up a book written by a Marine who did a tour in Korea 1952-53. Very detailed with regard to tactics. He was a corporal squad leader. Went on to write several histories.

Much debated... like Vietnam, a terrible waste or they held the line. The awful thing is that it became, after the communists turned back and then the red Chinese entry, a war of attrition. A throwback to the trench warfare that everyone agreed they never wanted to participate in again. Also, truce negotiations were going on all throughout '52 and '53... who wants to be the last one to die when they call a ceasefire?

That's Colonel L.B. "Chesty" Puller above. Upon the Chinese crossing the Yalu and bottling up the Marine withdrawal at the Chosin Reservoir, he said, "We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem." Marines, when called to do 10 push-ups will hear, "And one more for Chesty!"

Of course the most notorious issue was MacArthur's firing in April, 1951 over the use (or Truman's restraint from) of nuclear weapons. But the story does not deal with command crises; it's all on the company level. 

Naturally, MASH has made its imprint. I did not like the TV show and have only ever seen the occasional rerun. Alan Alda a mealy-mouthed actor and the scripts dull. Loved Robert Altman's film circa 1970. Spearchucker!

As I bare my soul on this blog, is this what it's like. Nekid afore ye world? I guess so.

Diptych

Sunny

Shady

An experiment in formating. Much so!

Don't know how to align pictures sidewise.
Figuring it out as I go; seat of my pants. LOL
Just purchased processing app. First attempt.
Shady side, sunny side. A diptych. Not bad.

I'd like to take a class in this.
Haven't gotten it exactly as I'd like...
this has to do. Too busy to work it out.
There are ways to do what I envision -
need to meet people who do webpages.

Working page didn't preview as composed.
Fixed best I could. Looks better than planned!
Haven't a clue how it presents on phone screen.
Done on large screen laptop; what I work with.
Sometimes process on Kindle or phone... tiny that.

Carboholism

There was something I quite couldn't deal with yesterday. I didn't get up until noon. I'd gone to bed around 10 pm intending to be at church at 9:30 the next morning. I read past midnight, nodding off. When I woke with a start, my shoulder stiff, I rearranged my configuration but couldn't get back to sleep. 

A long while thus, I decided to eat something. Made some toast. Then I began to crave the pound cake I had. Finished that off. Very full now, I knew I'd feel stuffed in the morning and decided to blow church off, commencing to read until dawn. 

So what's the difference between obsessive-compulsive eating and sin. Gluttony. The deadlies! None. So sin prevented me from going to church, or rather my sinning derailed me. Upon arousing, I chose not to feel it. Finished digesting and went out.

It's also deadly for 'Christians' to be judgemental about anyone else. Yeah; like the cop busting your chops but, come on. 

Matthew 7:3-5. Clear?

Plate (c) Matt Groening

Municipal Racket

Do you think I might be able to get $100 for this picture? Like from the City of Phoenix, whose Convention Center this is. That would be good... I'd come out 25 bucks ahead! They hit me with a parking ticket for $75 and I'm totally innocent! Bad enough they charge for parking on a Sunday. Then the shock of seeing the ticket on the windshield returning from a walk. Does misery love company?!!

Been to the parking structure across the street from Chase Field. Always a thought to go back just to take pictures from the seventh story roof; great vantage point. Thus I decided this afternoon. $12 to park in it, I searched for the nearest place to park on the street, which isn't easy in that area. Parked three blocks away next to the above.

Fed the meter. Payed by debit card. I thought I had done so correctly. I'm pretty sure I used the right meter ahead of the vehicle. One hour... $1.50. Hit 'OK' on meter after swiping the card. 1525. Back by 1625. Got it. Walked along vacant urbanity and made my way to the parking structure. Took a bunch of shots, along with several on the way there and back.

I returned to truck at 1615. There was a ticket under the wiper. Son of a bitch! I'm steaming but flummoxed. Did the sale register. Did I pay the right meter. I was cited at 1541; not 15 minutes after feeding the beast. 75 bucks. 50 if you don't contest and pay right away. What a racket! If you contest and lose, the full amount.

Oh, yes, I'm thinking - the bank card will record on the debit posting and I will contest. Have to go to court. I don't keep financial records on phone. I'll have to wait until I get online with the laptop. Sure enough, I was dinged for the fee. Open and shut? If'n I, quasi-demented however I may be,  dealt with the correct meter, i.e., not the one behind the space. I'm quite sure, as far as that goes. I suppose I could somehow confirm that with the city account as the delinquent meter is noted. What a bear!

Not going to church this evening. It's a business meeting. Have to deal with this. So I'm calming down after seeing the bank record, having a smoke outside coffee place. I note a dwarf woman struggling with some bags walking home from the WalMart. I give her a holler and ask if she's like a ride. It wasn't far. Isn't such interaction with little people good luck? I could use it. 

Got my shot... among others.

Great town, huh? Sheesh.