Why I cannot rejoice.
Why I do not rejoice.
Ok, so I did for about a minute. But then, I reflected on my intellectual and emotional journey of the day. I started my day by finishing off Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said.
He finishes the book with a quote from Hugo of St. Victor,
"The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land."
Said says, "The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong person has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.". Impressed by the way working through attachments helps validate each perspective, harmonizing under a transcendent perspective, I moved on to read a book I've heard a lot of good about Blue Like Jazz.
I read the entirety of Blue Like Jazz, which was great by the way, (and I hate myself for being that trendy or disaffected, but summarizes my whole post-seminary attitude and experience.).
The appeal of a spirituality which has extinguished its attachment to a narrow, parochial concern and finds the highest expression in exile because All of humanity and God are there, gives me peace.
As the day drew to a close I heard the news about the death (read assassination) of Osama bin Laden, and I rejoiced for about a minute. Until people gathered on the White House lawn chanting "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!", then it pained my soul, that we destroyed an image of God. Even if as an American it was something necessary, (if I were prosecuting a war on terror and had killed bin Laden, I'd cover it up and report him dead of kidney failure to diminish the potential for retribution, I'm jus' sayin') there is a higher principle within me that cannot rejoice.
Ok, so I did for about a minute. But then, I reflected on my intellectual and emotional journey of the day. I started my day by finishing off Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said.
He finishes the book with a quote from Hugo of St. Victor,
"The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land."
Said says, "The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong person has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.". Impressed by the way working through attachments helps validate each perspective, harmonizing under a transcendent perspective, I moved on to read a book I've heard a lot of good about Blue Like Jazz.
I read the entirety of Blue Like Jazz, which was great by the way, (and I hate myself for being that trendy or disaffected, but summarizes my whole post-seminary attitude and experience.).
The appeal of a spirituality which has extinguished its attachment to a narrow, parochial concern and finds the highest expression in exile because All of humanity and God are there, gives me peace.
As the day drew to a close I heard the news about the death (read assassination) of Osama bin Laden, and I rejoiced for about a minute. Until people gathered on the White House lawn chanting "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!", then it pained my soul, that we destroyed an image of God. Even if as an American it was something necessary, (if I were prosecuting a war on terror and had killed bin Laden, I'd cover it up and report him dead of kidney failure to diminish the potential for retribution, I'm jus' sayin') there is a higher principle within me that cannot rejoice.