dagblog - Comments for "Advent in Herod’s Kingdom"

I've been hooked on Auden

Flavius — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 20:37:16 +0000

In reply to Auden’s For the Time Being is

I've been hooked on Auden since the "Musee des Beaux Arts" on the first page of the 1945 The collected poetry

About suffering they were never wrong

down to

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

To the extent that we keep a print of Icarus on the dining room wall.

Auden’s For the Time Being is

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 18:37:33 +0000

In reply to In quotes

Auden’s For the Time Being is always excellent Advent reading. Thanks, Flav.

Thanks Flav and happy

A Guy Called LULU — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:59:05 +0000

In reply to In quotes

Thanks Flav and happy holidays, a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year to you and all.

Thanks for this excellent

rmrd0000 — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:38:11 +0000

In reply to Advent in Herod’s Kingdom

Thanks for this excellent Christmas message.

In quotes

Flavius — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 14:20:50 +0000

In reply to Advent in Herod’s Kingdom

In quotes

Herod

There is no visible disorder.No crime-what could be more innocent than the birth of an artisan's child? Today has been one of those perfect winter days, cold brilliant, and utterly still , when the bark of a shepherd's dog carries for miles, and the great wild mountains come up quite close to the city walls, and the mind feels intensely awake and this evening as I stand at this window high up in the citadel there is nothing in the whole magnificent panorama of plain and mountains to indicate that the Empire is threatened by a danger more dreadful than any invasion of Tartars on racing camels or conspiracy of the Praetorian Guard.

Barges are unloading soil fertiliser at the river wharves. Soft drinks and sandwiches may be had in the inns at reasonable prices. Allotment gardening has become popular. The highway to the coast goes straight over the mountains and the truck-drivers no longer carry guns. Things are beginning to take shape. It is a long time since anyone stole the park benches or murdered the swans.There are children in this province who have never seen a louse, shopkeepers who have never handled a counterfeit coin, women of forty who have never hidden in a ditch except for fun, Yes in twenty years I have managed to do a little. Not enough of course. There are villages only a few miles from here where they still believe in witches.............

Today.....judging by the trio who came to see me .....with an ecstatic grin on their scholarlyb faces , the job has been done. "God has been born.....we have seen him ourselves. The World is saved. Nothing else matters....

One needn't be much of a psychologist to realize that if this rumor is not stamped out now, in a few years it is capable of diseasing the whole Empire,,,,,

Naturally this cannot be allowed to happen.Civilisation must be saved if this means sending for the military,as I suppose it does, How dreary.Why is it that in the end civilisation always has to call in these professional tidiers to whom it is all one whether it be Pythagoras or a homicidal lunatic that they are instructed to exterminate. O dear, Why couldn't this wretched infant be born somewhere else? Why can't people be sensible? I don't want to be horrid,...And for me personally ...it would mean that God had given me the power to destroy Himself......Why should He dislike me so?I've worked like slave. Ask anyone you like. ...I've taken elocution lessons. I've hardly ever taken bribes, I've tried to be good I brush my teeth every night. I haven't had sex for a month. I object. I'm a liberal. I want everyone to be happy, I wish I had never been born.

Auden

from

FOR THE TIME BEING

Merry Christmas

Thanks, Mike, and thanks,

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 01:19:20 +0000

In reply to Indeed, even to a cynical

Thanks, Mike, and thanks, moat. Happy New Year to you and yours.

Indeed, even to a cynical

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 20:26:00 +0000

In reply to Thank you, that is beautiful.

Indeed, even to a cynical Jewish atheist like me. Merry Christmas, Doc, peace and goodwill.

Thank you, that is beautiful.

moat — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 19:44:29 +0000

In reply to Advent in Herod’s Kingdom

Thank you, that is beautiful.