I’m not sure what happened in Boston yesterday. We know more about the methods but at present there is not much information about who has been alleged to set the bomb. We don’t know if the people arrested are indictable. And the kind of speculation we get at present is so often wrong.
In the meanwhile, there has been a massive earthquake on the Iranian border with Pakistan, and many have died there. These people need our prayers and help as much or more so than those in Boston: Boston has one of the world’s best medical schools and many hospitals, while the hill country of Persian and Pakistan is bereft of these things.
And in the slow motion disaster which is North Africa, people not starving in Egypt, which historically has been the breadbasket for the region.
And on turning to the lectionary today we find this.
1King Belshazzar made a great festival for a thousand of his lords, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
2Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the vessels of gold and silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3So they brought in the vessels of gold and silver that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote. 6Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners; and the king said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be clothed in purple, have a chain of gold around his neck, and rank third in the kingdom.” 8Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king the interpretation. 9Then King Belshazzar became greatly terrified and his face turned pale, and his lords were perplexed.
10The queen, when she heard the discussion of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall. The queen said, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts terrify you or your face grow pale. 11There is a man in your kingdom who is endowed with a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father he was found to have enlightenment, understanding, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners, 12because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.”
Now the rulers were drunk, and decided to pull the dedicated utensils from the Jeruaalem temple from storage to use. And while doing so, they praised their idols.
And writing appeared on the wall, leading to fear. IN Assyrians, who were not exactly known to be cowards.
Today, we can see that this society is praising its ideologies. Anyone who offends the current meme that you can just be who you are and society must fit around it is criticized. As St Velvet said… speaking to women
Men have their preferences, and it makes sense a man would gravitate, at least initially, toward women with certain physical characteristics. Taste in appearance varies widely, and the list would be long, but there seems to be uniformity among men on three matters: don’t be a lard-ass, don’t be a bitch, and manage to chastely yet clearly project that the man who chooses you (permanently) will be enthusiastically laid on a regular basis*. Wash, rinse, repeat.That is a pretty generous set of standards, and makes it all the more clear that the burden on women is themselves, and the “he should love me for myself, fat rolls, bad attitude, partner count and all” cultural meme. The lack of simple effort on the part of most women these days is what is astonishing. Men don’t really demand so much. It just isn’t that hard to get a man’s attention, and not much harder to hold it unless you’re simply determined to be a fat old meanie. Have half a brain and you’re golden. It would seem, though, that now we have Entitlement Entanglement, whereby gigantic slovenly harpies demand sex and companionship from the unwilling, under the threat of abuse and destruction?
In the last 24 hours we have seen heroism, courage, resilence and protection. We have also seen destruction, some of which was by the hand of man. The warnings about us being on a wrong track are obvious. Like writing on a wall. The most frightening thing is that we are blind to them.
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