Click to tweet: http://clicktotweet.com/CXaEm .
So now we know why Alex Day sticks that graphic at the end of all his videos along with six other things about him.
Blue roses are symbolic of impossibility and attempting to achieve the impossible. There's a poem by Rudyard Kipling called "Blue Roses", now in the public domain:
ROSES red and roses white
Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies—
Bade me gather her blue roses.
Half the world I wandered through,
Seeking where such flowers grew
Half the world unto my quest
Answered me with laugh and jest.
Home I came at wintertide,
But my silly love had died
Seeking with her latest breath
Roses from the arms of Death.
It may be beyond the grave
She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest—
Roses white and red are best!
Many years ago, my girlfriend sent me a bunch of flowers and i thought it was a nice gesture but didn't give it much thought beyond that. It was a fairly casual relationship and we split up shortly after. I got married. Many years later, i found a photo in which that bouquet happened to be present and i got curious, so i looked up the meaning in a book. I found that the flowers were used in that way to declare undying love. I could in theory have chosen to pursue this, but since i had a life, was happily married and so forth, i obviously didn't. If i had, it would've been the pursuit of a mirage, an illusion, because as it happens, i'm completely convinced that the flowers meant nothing. So, in a sense, she sent me a bunch of blue roses and it would be an over-interpretation and an example of over-thinking.
There are two ways of making a blue rose. One, which doesn't really make a blue rose at all, involves genetic modification and ends with a lilac-coloured rose which is however simply called and advertised in the media as a blue rose, so that's an illusion of its own. The other is to put a white rose in something blue, such as ink, and allow the capillaries to draw up the colour, making it blue. Neither of these are real of course.
So basically, blue roses are illusions, which is appropriate because they are herbs of Venus, which are about superficial appearance.
So now we know why Alex Day sticks that graphic at the end of all his videos along with six other things about him.
Blue roses are symbolic of impossibility and attempting to achieve the impossible. There's a poem by Rudyard Kipling called "Blue Roses", now in the public domain:
ROSES red and roses white
Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies—
Bade me gather her blue roses.
Half the world I wandered through,
Seeking where such flowers grew
Half the world unto my quest
Answered me with laugh and jest.
Home I came at wintertide,
But my silly love had died
Seeking with her latest breath
Roses from the arms of Death.
It may be beyond the grave
She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest—
Roses white and red are best!
Many years ago, my girlfriend sent me a bunch of flowers and i thought it was a nice gesture but didn't give it much thought beyond that. It was a fairly casual relationship and we split up shortly after. I got married. Many years later, i found a photo in which that bouquet happened to be present and i got curious, so i looked up the meaning in a book. I found that the flowers were used in that way to declare undying love. I could in theory have chosen to pursue this, but since i had a life, was happily married and so forth, i obviously didn't. If i had, it would've been the pursuit of a mirage, an illusion, because as it happens, i'm completely convinced that the flowers meant nothing. So, in a sense, she sent me a bunch of blue roses and it would be an over-interpretation and an example of over-thinking.
There are two ways of making a blue rose. One, which doesn't really make a blue rose at all, involves genetic modification and ends with a lilac-coloured rose which is however simply called and advertised in the media as a blue rose, so that's an illusion of its own. The other is to put a white rose in something blue, such as ink, and allow the capillaries to draw up the colour, making it blue. Neither of these are real of course.
So basically, blue roses are illusions, which is appropriate because they are herbs of Venus, which are about superficial appearance.
And:
Click to tweet: http://clicktotweet.com/hrV6g . What if this Pope is the last? What would the consequences for the world be?
The prophecies attributed to St Malachy claim that the new Pope, Francis I, will be the last, referring to him as Petrus Romanus. Whereas i'm not sure what i think about the list, it's certainly conceivable that scandals and secularisation could bring the Roman Catholic church to an end. However, would this be a good thing?
I'm Protestant, and am therefore quite cynical about the Papacy. I am also aware of the Roman Catholic opposition to homosexual activity, women priests, contraception, abortion and believe their stance on contraception has contributed to the spread of AIDS. However, this first non-European Pope since Gregory III died in 741 may also be more in touch with the poor and more aware of the apparent hypocrisy the wealth and opulence of St Peter's basilica in the Vatican seems to represent.
One of the positive things about Roman Catholicism is its acknowledgement that it is asserting its own authority explicitly. Though it believes itself to have a privileged position with respect to Scriptural (Biblical) interpretation, it at least acknowledges that fact. Some Protestant churches, though they claim to follow Sola Scriptura, in fact follow an unacknowledged, prejudiced form of church authority. You can go into these churches with the understanding that your own prayerful, listening understanding of the Bible will be accepted and then find that in fact there is an implicit "church line" on the matters concerned, and that they will neither listen to you (and therefore possibly also God's will) or admit that that's what they're doing, even to themselves. Because the Catholic church has "DOGMA", it fully acknowledges what it's official position is, and this is healthier than the insidious presentation of dogma and church authority as Holy Writ found in certain Reformed churches. This is of course a gross generalisation.
In spite of the historical conflict between science and the Church, for instance Giordano Bruno and Galileo, the modern Catholic Church is also much more in favour of science than some fundamentalist Protestant churches. Monsignor Georges Lemaitre composed the Big Bang Theory and it also accepts evolution. Protestant churches can be rigidly and irrationally creationist.
Therefore, i present you with the following scenario. Suppose the Catholic Church were to end soon, but instead of secularisation you end up with fundamentalist Protestant Churches making an unopposed claim to being the only authentic form of Christianity. Protestant churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church with its homophobia and sexism, or other Protestant Churches with their advocacy of monopoly capitalism. That's not the kind of world i want to live in. I would prefer a world where Protestants and Catholics coexist and balance each other.
The prophecies attributed to St Malachy claim that the new Pope, Francis I, will be the last, referring to him as Petrus Romanus. Whereas i'm not sure what i think about the list, it's certainly conceivable that scandals and secularisation could bring the Roman Catholic church to an end. However, would this be a good thing?
I'm Protestant, and am therefore quite cynical about the Papacy. I am also aware of the Roman Catholic opposition to homosexual activity, women priests, contraception, abortion and believe their stance on contraception has contributed to the spread of AIDS. However, this first non-European Pope since Gregory III died in 741 may also be more in touch with the poor and more aware of the apparent hypocrisy the wealth and opulence of St Peter's basilica in the Vatican seems to represent.
One of the positive things about Roman Catholicism is its acknowledgement that it is asserting its own authority explicitly. Though it believes itself to have a privileged position with respect to Scriptural (Biblical) interpretation, it at least acknowledges that fact. Some Protestant churches, though they claim to follow Sola Scriptura, in fact follow an unacknowledged, prejudiced form of church authority. You can go into these churches with the understanding that your own prayerful, listening understanding of the Bible will be accepted and then find that in fact there is an implicit "church line" on the matters concerned, and that they will neither listen to you (and therefore possibly also God's will) or admit that that's what they're doing, even to themselves. Because the Catholic church has "DOGMA", it fully acknowledges what it's official position is, and this is healthier than the insidious presentation of dogma and church authority as Holy Writ found in certain Reformed churches. This is of course a gross generalisation.
In spite of the historical conflict between science and the Church, for instance Giordano Bruno and Galileo, the modern Catholic Church is also much more in favour of science than some fundamentalist Protestant churches. Monsignor Georges Lemaitre composed the Big Bang Theory and it also accepts evolution. Protestant churches can be rigidly and irrationally creationist.
Therefore, i present you with the following scenario. Suppose the Catholic Church were to end soon, but instead of secularisation you end up with fundamentalist Protestant Churches making an unopposed claim to being the only authentic form of Christianity. Protestant churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church with its homophobia and sexism, or other Protestant Churches with their advocacy of monopoly capitalism. That's not the kind of world i want to live in. I would prefer a world where Protestants and Catholics coexist and balance each other.
This last one is an example of my common difficult middle position. I often feel that i have opinions which won't fall easily into any widely-recognised category. This applies in religion, politics and health. It's very common for me to disagree with everyone, and at some point i will have to address this on YT as well. Don't know why it happens.
That first vid is a response to this one:
Ooh, that's a weird one! Why the little box?
It's a shameless response, but as usual a tangential one. Speaking of which, at some point i presume Holly Holdsworth will make another video and when she does, i may well respond to it, which brings up an issue which is really bothering me right now. Or several.
Three things which have happened in the past few days have been:
- After the mini-tablet keyboard broke, i felt a strong urge to go into Connection Exchange yesterday morning, and found a generic 7" tablet case with keyboard identical to the one that's now defunct. In combination with the urge combined with the facts that CEx don't usually sell them and that it was a self-conscious urge which i felt at the time was divine in origin, i have chosen to interpret this as a Sign. Before you write me off as insane, please bear with me, because i'm going to talk about that.
- I am now acutely aware that there is another prolific and more competent YouTuber in the neighbourhood - Holly Holdsworth. She is in fact two degrees of separation from me via, for example, my daughter, and is tantalisingly close to being an acquaintance. At the same time, it feels like having anything to do with her would be going into a weird area. She's also Christian.
- The ordination "near-miss".
The first thing to address is the madness. All three of these thoughts strike me as apparently irrational and represent the kind of thing that happens when one has sufficient input into a project from others - other people off whom one can bounce one's ideas and do a sanity check. Liz hasn't got the same kind of scepticism as i have in this respect - she often just plunges in and accepts these as what my mother calls a "Godincidence". I usually lack the conviction to do that and see them as potential signs of mental disturbance, and as such i am currently finding them quite frightening. This is the kind of situation which makes me want to "shut down" to protect myself, and also to think i should do more grounding stuff, but since yesterday consisted almost entirely of such grounding activities as housework, shopping, helping my mother and the like, and today will consist of the same kind of thing, it doesn't seem to be working. I don't know what to do about this and it's really stressing me out. Jod once said that you know you're insane because "everything suddenly makes sense". Well, that's what's happening to me now.
This whole thing is also horribly reminiscent of the whole Nyarlathotep situation, which felt like incipient insanity, and looked like that to observers, but the difference is that - ooh, i have a thought, but more of that in a minute -that this is not about relationships in the same way. Ms Holdsworth is like a child to me, though clearly a child who is exceptionally capable and mature. She's also in the increasingly common and paradoxical position of someone i look up to at the same time as regarding her as my junior, which on reflection i think is going to become more frequent as i age. I do have to say also that i find the behaviour of people in their early twenties quite trying, and feel it's OK to say that as i'm sure i was just as annoying, and probably still am as irritating in a different way to people in that age bracket.
Now back to the thought that occurred to me earlier: insanity as a coping mechanism. Just as a mouse being chased by a cat might stop and wash its face or a pupil in trouble with her headmaster might blow her nose, both as coping mechanisms, my current situation of being confronted with the introduction of Universal Credit and HMRC bearing down on me like a ton of bricks might be leading to fantasies about significant events which in reality mean nothing. I no longer subscribe to the idea of religion as collective insanity, but i do sometimes think people see things which aren't there and i'm trying to protect myself against it.
I dunno, maybe it's too much caffeine. It'd be nice to be balanced though.
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