The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    I wonder if God has an iPod....or does he prefer Pandora?

    By LisB on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:11pm |

    The world I know leaves me questioning, questioning.  What if God was one of us?  How far is heaven?  Tell me all your thoughts on God 'cause I'd really like to meet her.  Right here, right now.

    Some people sing God's praises.
    Some people just like to sing.
    Some people are seeking God.
    Some people just don't care.
    Some people just have faith and feel that gives them all the answers.
    Some people have faith and yet are humbled enough by it that they continue to seek, not caring to believe they have all the answers yet .. but simply loving the fact that they can sing and care and seek.

    (Cross-posted from Once Upon a Paradigm)

    Comments

    I once saw a short piece where God was actually this guy working on his graduate degree and the earth was his project. He was trying to Master of the Universe but his initial presentation and orals were not going so well. It was on PBS a few years ago.


    But I think my favorite was Steambath with Bill Bixby and José Pérez as the Puerto Rican steambath attendant AKA God. Who also has a very twisted sense of humor. This was also on PBS but the video is now available on DVD.


    by cmaukonen on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:26pm

    Interesting that you should say that, C, because I once had the brilliant idea that our universe was created by a scientist by accident, and that he (God, to us) has been observing us ever since just to see how it all plays out.  I got this idea after seeing that famous Hubbel telescope image that looks like a human eyeball peering out of space. 

     


    by LisB on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:32pm

    I've had a similar revelation too. But it goes further. About 2000 of our years ago, that scientist retired so his project was handed off to another young scientist to keep the experiment running.


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 8:48am

    Yes I know I'm repeating myself, but I only hope, if there is a god, he's something like tha angels from Wenders' Wings of Desire. 


    by anna am on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:46pm

    Nah...I'm pretty certain that he is a Puerto Rican steam bath attendant with a twisted sense of humor.


    by cmaukonen on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:48pm

    Back in the days when I was a crystal meth user, I would obsess for hours over god and religion.  I kept trying to find the ultimate answer as to who and what "God" is.  I'd scribble all these notes and pore through the dictionary and come up with one theory after another.  And then, once I sobered up, I'd look back on my notes and cringe.

    Maybe back then I was a good example, a small microcosm if you will, of the human race in general.  Under the influence...seeking to explain the inexplicable...intent on being the one with all the answers.

     


    by LisB on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:58pm



    by anna am on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:50pm

    Good answer, Anna.  Laughing


    by LisB on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:59pm

    god was last seen in Berlin in 1987

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYEHl_fV3x0&feature=related

     


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:02am

    Yes!!

    Now you know what to get me for Christmas, LOL...

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:16am

    this kind of christmas?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbdyg51MVbg

     


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:43am

    Yes


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 2:37am

    XTC is the place to start

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk41Gbjljfo

    (this sums up my view of god as 12 year old after my father died)


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:40am

    Wow.  The power of the melody, the imagery of the video, and most of all the lyrics, leave me almost speechless.  If I had seen this video before I wrote my post, I would have written a different post.

    I'll be honest, here...I'm agnostic and don't follow any given faith or religion if you will.  As I've said before, to you personally and in posts elsewhere, my belief lies more in a hope that we are all tied together via some invisible web that both started us and will end us (as individuals) and yet keep maintaining itself long after we humans are gone.  Better yet, I think it's best not to question it or try to define it but rather just be grateful to it, whatever it is.

    The anger in XTC's song is more justifiable than any praise written in a hymn, and I don't know how to reconcile the two feelings that the religious and the non-religious have:  that of being bereft, and that of being surrounded by a "just and loving God".

    I do know how to tell you that I care deeply for you, though. 


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:03am

    well, maybe Live is on god's ipod

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP5XavjhhQc&feature=channel

     


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:13am

    OMG I can't keep up with you! 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1SP-QuQpXg

    But I shall try.

    (edited....wrong song.....I meant to play Top)

    http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/l/live2346/top111958.html

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:25am

    And then it become like Jesus in Hal Hartley's Book of Life

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzYRXzVZB_M&feature=related

     

     


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:55am

    How very cool.  I was just reading the two comments below that youtube clip, where a discussion on Hartley's style ensued.  Scenes like this fascinate me because the camera is always moving, never taking a break, but just taking in all of the people and discussions at once -- much like we do.  We don't get the chance to frame a perfect shot or dialogue and then yell "Cut!".  We forever move from one moment to the next. 

    Someone once told me that God does that....he sees everything without stop.  I can't wrap my head around that unless I envision God as a camera.  Forever watching and recording.  Never perceiving.  Never taking a time-out to soak things in.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:14am

    god as the infinite camera recording - aka karma

    all consequences recorded

    feedback

    holy justice

    but why do the bankers still get there bonuses?

    so i have to bring up this essay i carried around with me for many years but have since lost.  A main part of it is about how this english professor grew up listening to his jewish relatives tell jokes as a way to deal with their suffering. Then he tells of a joke he hears in Ireland from his girlfriend's family.  It is almost identical to the one he heard growing up.

    Shamus goes into the church and knells at the alter.  With clasped hands he says: "God, I have been  a faithful servant all my life, I have followed all the commandents, and kept your day holy. Yet all I know is suffering. I barely have two pence to rub together.  And yet my brother, who drinks and gambles and whores around, has become successful and lives a life of luxury.  Why lord? Why?"  Suddenly there was a great rumbling in the sky and a mighty fist broke through the roof and pinned Shamus against the pew.  "Because I fuckin' hate you, that's why" He said.


    by Elusive Trope on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:31am

    Wouldn't it be nice to have that answer?  Hee.  Even if it means being slammed up against a pew.

    To have that clear, definitive ANSWER.  Growing up, I'd ask my mom or dad for reassurance about some upcoming thing or another...."Mommy, we're really going to go to xyz, right?", or "Daddy, it really is true that abc is coming, right?" and it seemed that almost every time, I'd get that answer that we all dread hearing.  "We'll see."

    "We'll see, Pumpkin".  "Time will tell, honey."  Always those non-answers that are given with a smile as if to reassure, but leave that heavy feeling in your tummy.

    That is how I view most religions.  I have yet to find one that puts its arms around me and reassures me without any gnawing doubt.

     

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:49am

    Liz..I , too, identify myself as an agnostic.  So many disparate dogmas, rituals and causes to die for.  I, with the hope of getting some understanding of religion, enrolled in, and completed,  the  course, "Introduction to Religion." which left me more baffled than before I completed  it.  Through the years...experiencing  happiness and sorrow as I coped with the finds of life, I chose a favoite hymn:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtvNLRSJyL4


    by chucktrotter on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:55am

    Oh, kindred spirit....yes.  Exactly.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 2:04am

    Speaking of God ....

    I always get a kick out of listening to someone rant and rave about the country is a christian nation where marriage is between a man and a woman and how God ahbors homosexuals. And right in the middle of their grandstanding I subtle ask ...You do know God is a hermaphrodite, don't you?... then walk way.


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 8:44am

    I like that one a lot. I always tell the door-knockers that the bible is a history of war and that I am a pacifist--not as good as yours.


    by Oxy Mora on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 8:57am

    The best part is when they beg to differ, I ask...How could it be otherwise?


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 5:00pm

    Lisa, I agree with Jorge Luis Borges that Heaven is a kind of library; I intend to take as many books with me as I can carry.

    As for God, I once heard Tillich speak, and then pray to "God above God"--now, that is a mind twister. As for myself I have frequently mistaken love of the feminine for love of the devine, a habit which has resulted in a serial decline of my earthly assets.


    by Oxy Mora on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 9:25am

    Oxy...are you a Borges fan????

    My first ever short story in college was written by him. I think the title was something similar to "I Once Met an Angel". It's a narrative about the writer's childhood in a small South American village where there lived an angel. Turns out the angel was a hobo with wings that lived in the back alleys and dumps.What intrigued my was the way in which the villagers treated the angel hobo.

    If you know the title of the story please pass it on!


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 5:09pm

    Lis, I think we know, this is the version of Joan Osburns song God Loves Most and is on his IPod. Yep.


    by tmccarthy0 on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:48am

    Ha HA!  I love this, T!!!

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:05pm

    Cool

    Does he like Pearl Jam or the Stones?

     


    by tmccarthy0 on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:15pm

    Oh, Pearl Jam, definitely. 


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:30pm

    Musings about God ... About 30 years ago, when I was a struggling actor, I used to know a playwright named E. Katherine Kerr. I remember doing a reading of one of her plays, titled, The God Play.  In it, God was depressed because he didn't have anything to do. The thing He's best at it, creation, was done a long time ago, and everything now was in maintainance mode. Mankind didn't seem to need Him other than as someone to complain to or ask favors of.  I seem to recall there was also a running gag about Christ continually trying (and failing) to commit suicide.  Oh, and God finally admitted the dinosaurs were a mistake; that they were too big and totally out of proportion. It was a funny, irreverent piece of writing, but I don't know that it ever got produced.

    Personally, I always wondered if God got tired of the same old human foibles.  I mean, let's face it, mankind's learning curve has been pretty dismal.


    by MrSmith1 on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:55pm

    How cool.  It sounds like a great play.  I guess I can imagine omnipotence getting rather boring, yeah.  And I can definitely see him giving up on us all.  We are a pretty hopeless lot.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:07pm