Tarkovsky Tuesday

A "childhood" sequence from Tarkovsky's Mirror (1975) (which in a Tarkovsky film frequently also means a "mother" sequence in some ultimate sense):

B and 6B

B and maybe some others

B

Milkshake III

B

Cavedigger

Gallery of Ra Paulette's carved caves

The Law of Non-Contradiction

The law of non-contradiction declaims thus: if you say that a certain label is vague and impenetrable and then you apply that label to yourself and say you are proud of it - or conversely, if you take a certain label and apply it to yourself, saying you are proud of it, and then turn around and say that the label is vague and impenetrable - well, the law of non-contradiction says that you have just broken the law of non-contradiction, for your applying the label to yourself and saying you are proud of it clearly indicates that you comprehend what that label means. Thus, saying the label is vague and impenetrable is to break the above-mentioned law, and in a manner of speaking, your left hand is trying to obscure what your right is in fact doing with full knowledge, which is to say, you are by your own craftiness putting yourself in an inextricable bind.

Some of us need to realize the lacy webs we have spun and get back to basics - get away from the internet, get some fresh air, get back to real life.


Update: I quite like this post (and agree with it too) about "Save the Liturgy, Save the World" by Catholic in Brooklyn.

The Good Shepherd

You have met with seriously ill children on more than one occasion. What do you have to say about this innocent suffering?

“One man who has been a life mentor for me is Dostoevskij and his explicit and implicit question “Why do children suffer?” has always gone round in my heart. There is no explanation. This image comes to mind: at a particular point of his or her life, a child “wakes up”, doesn’t understand much and feels threatened, he or she starts asking their mum or dad questions. This is the “why” age. But when the child asks a question, he or she doesn’t wait to hear the full answer, they immediately start bombarding you with more “whys”. What they are really looking for, more than an explanation, is a reassuring look on their parent’s face. When I come across a suffering child, the only prayer that comes to mind is the “why” prayer. Why Lord? He doesn’t explain anything to me. But I can feel Him looking at me. So I can say: You know why, I don’t and You won’t tell me, but You’re looking at me and I trust You, Lord, I trust your gaze.” --Pope Francis in La Stampa interview

B

B

B

B

B and a bit of charcoal white

HB and B

Icon - The Sacred Heart of Jesus

HB

HB

HB

HB and there might be 2B

A tough streak

In relating a piece of information about how Pope Francis was at one point a bouncer, Fr. Z ends the post with this:

And Australian former-priest Greg Reynolds is still excommunicated.

You have to hand it to Fr. Z. He has a great sense of humour. I like it.

HB

HB

Quote

"It is no good my saying: “I wish I were like Joan of Arc or St. John of the Cross.” I can only be St. Evelyn Waugh—after God knows what experiences in purgatory." --Evelyn Waugh

Hmmm, let's see here...

It is no good my saying: "I wish I were like Evelyn Waugh Flannery O'Connor Walker Percy Thomas Merton G.K. Chesterton Hilaire Belloc J.R.R. Tolkien cantankerously responding in Latin during a vernacular Mass like I was born in 1892 or imagining myself in the glory days of Cluny Joan of Arc or St. John of the Cross." I can only be Sign Name Here - after God knows what experiences and my decision to accept His graces here in this life, which is built up of present moments.

Limbaugh and Sirico take issue with Benedict XVI

"It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism....

".... Peacemakers must also bear in mind that, in growing sectors of public opinion, the ideologies of radical liberalism and technocracy are spreading the conviction that economic growth should be pursued even to the detriment of the state’s social responsibilities and civil society’s networks of solidarity, together with social rights and duties. It should be remembered that these rights and duties are fundamental for the full realization of other rights and duties, starting with those which are civil and political.

"One of the social rights and duties most under threat today is the right to work. The reason for this is that labour and the rightful recognition of workers’ juridical status are increasingly undervalued, since economic development is thought to depend principally on completely free markets. Labour is thus regarded as a variable dependent on economic and financial mechanisms. In this regard, I would reaffirm that human dignity and economic, social and political factors, demand that we continue “to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone.” If this ambitious goal is to be realized, one prior condition is a fresh outlook on work, based on ethical principles and spiritual values that reinforce the notion of work as a fundamental good for the individual, for the family and for society. Corresponding to this good are a duty and a right that demand courageous new policies of universal employment."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2013 


Just reading Francis through Benedict - that's all.

3B, HB and another one

HB and the nub of another one

3B

HB

3B

Bill on Bitcoin again - Feds Love Bitcoins

"Guess who the newest supporters of Bitocin are? The Obama gang! The FBI, Justice Department, and today, even the Fed!"


"It's eminently traceable."


LOL!

3B and others

3B

3B

3B

Tarkovsky Tuesday

A painting and a drawing that Andrei Tarkovsky did in his younger days:

Sister, by Andrei Tarkovsky (age 15)

War, by Andrei Tarkovsky (age 11)

Found here

3B

Quote

"Because of this, it is important to go to Communion, it is important that children be baptized soon, that they be confirmed, because the sacraments are the presence of Jesus Christ in us, a presence that helps us. It is important, when we feel ourselves sinners, to approach the sacrament of reconciliation. Someone might say: “But I’m afraid, because the priest will thrash me.” No, the priest won’t thrash you. Do you know who you will encounter in the sacrament of reconciliation? You will encounter Jesus who forgives you! It is Jesus who awaits you there; and this is a sacrament that makes the whole Church grow." --Pope Francis' address, On Sacraments, Charisms and Charity

3B

3B

Financialization

So, financialization is nothing other than the translation of production, labour, GDP, capital, into terms of debt, into the terms used by the octopi monster that is the debt-money system, with parties being owed and parties owing - the parties owed being owed more and more, and the parties owing, owing more and more. And the insistent force of this translation goes to show how debt is the number one problem, and not financialization, which is basically just the symptom of the underlying cause.

I'm pretty sure that is a correct summation.

I mean, Michael Hudson explains it right here (from Wikipedia):

• Michael Hudson described financialization as "a lapse back into the pre-industrial usury and rent economy of European feudalism" in a 2003 interview:

"only debts grew exponentially, year after year, and they do so inexorably, even when–indeed, especially when–the economy slows down and its companies and people fall below break-even levels. As their debts grow, they siphon off the economic surplus for debt service (...) The problem is that the financial sector’s receipts are not turned into fixed capital formation to increase output. They build up increasingly on the opposite side of the balance sheet, as new loans, that is, debts and new claims on society’s output and income.

[Companies] are not able to invest in new physical capital equipment or buildings because they are obliged to use their operating revenue to pay their bankers and bondholders, as well as junk-bond holders. This is what I mean when I say that the economy is becoming financialized. Its aim is not to provide tangible capital formation or rising living standards, but to generate interest, financial fees for underwriting mergers and acquisitions, and capital gains that accrue mainly to insiders, headed by upper management and large financial institutions. The upshot is that the traditional business cycle has been overshadowed by a secular increase in debt. Instead of labor earning more, hourly earnings have declined in real terms. There has been a drop in net disposable income after paying taxes and withholding "forced saving" for social Security and medical insurance, pension-fund contributions and–most serious of all–debt service on credit cards, bank loans, mortgage loans, student loans, auto loans, home insurance premiums, life insurance, private medical insurance and other FIRE-sector charges. ... This diverts spending away from goods and services."

"A lapse back into the pre-industrial usury and rent economy of European feudalism."

Financialization is  just a membranous "middle-man" between the inception and final chapter of the epic story of money-as-debt. It is merely debt enabling itself into the myriad and natural complexities of our economic activities to be our final overlord.

The problem is not "finance", but money-as-debt.

3B

3B

3B

Quote

“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.” --Jaroslav Jan Pelikan

Quick sketches from times waiting in car

 

Ballpoint pen

3B

Time stamped

LOL! The crown, oh no, the crown! See the shoe that stepped on the crown? That was the most frightening part of this movie. Man, what an ugly shoe! And all that 70's stuff they're wearing! Gah! Well, fortunately there's a snowbeast to put an end to all this horror! LOL!

3B

6B, 3B some etc...

6B

6B

For beer too!

Who do we think we are?

"The question is, who do we think we are? Bloggers, arm-chair theologians, canon-lawyers, historians and politicians. What possesses us to offer an opinion on the acts of the pope?...

...When you don't assume the best it is because you assume you know better, which means you do not think very highly of the person in question, or, even worse, you think quite highly of yourself."

--Colin Kerr in his post Piety towards the Pope


Just a friendly reminder: Rorate Caeli is the "Traditional" blog that on the very heels of the election of Pope Francis posted "The Horror" as their reaction. They thought it was funny or witty or something. To my knowledge they never made any public apology stating their filial obedience and charity towards our Holy Father. Therefore, anything they write, post, disseminate, can be immediately dismissed out of hand by faithful Catholics as unworthy of trust whatsoever without second thought or any self-recrimination.

Colin Kerr's post articulates stuff that I have been thinking about. I remember reading sarcastic caustic comments from priests about Pope Francis in the comment boxes of certain blogs. I think to myself, what's going through your mind during Mass when during consecration you say the words "together with ______ our Bishop and Francis our Pope..."?

Gives me the creeps.

If as a Catholic, layperson or religious, your primary stance towards the Pope is one of questioning suspicion which you then use as the basis for articulating what constitutes real orthodoxy and traditionalism...yeah, you might want to take that to confession.

That is, take it to confession - not take it to Fr. Z after hyperventilating into a paper bag.

People writing to Fr. Z after every single thing Pope Francis says or does...it's like Fr. Z is their little pope.

2B

8B, 6B

Why are people so obsessed with pointing out that what Pope Francis said is non-magisterial?

Are they immanentizing the eschaton by disincarnating the pontificacy?

This is not raw organic cane sugar

I know a place where the birds are used to humans, trusting them as bringers of food and not arrows or cages. As with the most trusting, they are the littlest - the smallest birds. If you hold out your hand in a cusp, even if your hand has naught in it, the birds will alight on your fingertips. Their clawed feet of leather are so delicate; they perch so delicately that it goes straight to your heart. One time when a bird was on the tips of my fingers, I imagined that Jesus had put His sacred heart into my hand. Is this the way He wants us to be - soul to soul? this gazing empty-handed, this meeting that is to say, I give you nothing and everything.

Some real things to consider

2H and 8B

Max Monday

"...I would meander through all the sewers of the world, through degradations and humiliations, in order to paint. I have to do this. Until the last drop every vision that exists in my being must be purged; then it will be a pleasure for me to be rid of this damned torture." --Max Beckmann

Photo: Max teaching in Brooklyn. My favourite photo of him.

Mother watching through the night,
prepare us for the morning light;
seclude us with your vigil flame
until the sounding of our names
upon the lips of Son you bore,
whose wounds and face we'll then adore,
and with glad oil running down
our brows, we'll run upon the roads to sound
new mornings in the furthest bounds:
Christ growing with us, as a flame
elongates at the draught of air:
Mother watching through the night
be our air, breach our bounds with air
and feed the flame of Christ our light.

Open for business

I'm proof against there being a Universalist heaven - that is to say, one in which everyone, everyone, will eventually get there, and that therefore there is no eternal hell, and that it's nuts to think that anyone would choose to refuse to go to [Universalist] heaven.

How am I proof? Because I refuse to go to the Universalist heaven.

There. I just proved it doesn't exist.

By my refusal to go there, I prove there is no such thing as a heaven in which everyone will be saved.

But why do I not want to go to the Universalist heaven? What am I, nuts or something?

Well, I don't want to go there because in the Universalist heaven there is a group of men who gang-raped a nine year old girl to death and then threw her body to ravenous dogs to be torn into pieces and eaten. And they did not have to personally repent of their horrible sins. Their gang-raping of the nine year old girl was merely a stage in their getting to heaven.

It's too bad the nine year old girl happened to be in their way while the men were making their journey to heaven, but it's all good. She didn't need to forgive them. And if she did forgive them, it was quite meaningless, for there was no need.

They went through automatic purgation in spite of their not repenting (which is of course an impossibility, but let's just go along with this fantasy for the time being.)

And in this Universalist heaven these men who gang-raped the nine year old girl and did not repent encounter the nine year old girl, and they say to her, "Oh, hey there. It was too bad you were in our way when we lived out hell on earth. But it appears we went through the automatic purgation. It was kind of like a drive-through car wash. We heard you did a neat little thing called "forgiving us". Looks like all that "forgiveness" you did was really just a bunch of huff and puff; it was for all of us! and well, they always did say God has a sense of humour - since we all got here anyways! Ha ha! Now old Bob who was in our group, he went and "repented" as they say, confessed and fasted and wore a nail belt and the whole nine yards, and that, it was all for naught; oh, what a look on his face when he saw us here. Boy we had a good laugh! Anyways, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other around here. See you later!"

charcoal

Time stamped

B pencil