power of h Weblog

Many years ago. A tall awkward looking girl staggered through the campus with her two friends. They were drunk. She saw me and gave me a kiss. Asked me to call her the next day. And not to forget her. I did not call her. But I never forgot her.

Why do we want to be scared? Out of our minds? Why do people laugh when someone sneaks up behind someone and screams ‘BOO!’ It feels prehistoric. Like we tap into some awful terror that stalks us from our ancestral past. Would it work on an alien? I think I’d like to try on Prime Minister Harper. I’ll bet he doesn’t flinch.

Gratuitous violence. An oxymoron? What does this mean? There is a famous painting in Brugge (Belgium) which shows a man (I believe he is a religious figure) being taken to a room and skinned. Its a horrible image. A few pieces from this collage are taken from that painting. If mankind were to be judged by some higher power, would he be judged on the painting or the act itself? When people pass a car wreck, why can’t they look away? What I personally find revolting in film is watching (and it appears in a lot of films) someone brush their teeth. Swish the mixture of toothpaste, water, saliva, and the flotsam from their teeth, around in their mouth. And then spit it out. It turns my stomach. And I can’t for the life of me justify or explain its appearance in the movie.

There was a dispatch written by the first men to fly over Antartica (I think it was an American named Byrd) in which the flier states that after hours of ice and snow he came across a lush jungle. And in that jungle he spotted dinosaurs (or some large land animals).

Next to the crucifixion the most popular Christian icon is Madonna and Child. You see it in galleries, churches, people’s homes. I’ve added my version although I think it will not find a home in any of these buildings.

If you’ve ever stood next to a horse, you are struck by both how large an animal they are and how noble. My grandfather had three horses, King, Queen and I’ll say Prince (I’m not sure of his name). They were mere working horses. No thoroughbreds here. But they moved with such nobility and grace. And I can still here the clap of their hoffs on the cement as they stepped out of their barn. (The horses were kept in a separate barn from the cattle and pigs.) My grandfather was a smith and I had watched him shoe many a horse. And always he spoke to them with firmness and kindness which relaxed them as he fitted their shoes. And then he took out those nails. The horses never flinched.

Is butchery necessary to maintain order? Can a civilization exist only through the fear of its more rebellious elements? Fear, terror, impermanence are the characteristics normally associated with barbarism. If a civilized society is measured by permanence, security, and confidence than it might be said that the western world (since the time after the French Revolution) has existed in a state of barbarism. In the future, will the 19th and 20th centuries be remembered as a dark age. But when has peace ruled in the world at all? What separates barbarism from civilization?