“If God does not exist, only He knows it. And if He does exist, only He does not know it.”
By the way, as I mentioned at the Other Cosmos, no one who gets this new Marshall Crenshaw compilation will regret the purchase. What a crime that he’s not a household name. They just don’t make music like this anymore, or if they do, I don’t know about it. Seems like the musical genealogy that descends through the early-to-mid Beatles ends in him.
November 19, 2006 at 4:52 pm
This sparked a memory from when I was a kid. Sometimes I’d sit up late watching TV until the station went off the air at midnight. (Remember test patterns anyone?) Often the station concluded its daily broadcast with a film of a fighter jet doing aerobatics with a voice over reciting John Gillespie Magee’s (sp?) sonnet, High Flight. I used to think that was the most beautiful poem ever written. It’s still one of my favorites.
JWM
November 19, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Interesting. With TV on 24/7/365, it’s as if the waking ego has colonized all of that good old night time hypnopompic space of higher half-dreaming possibility.
November 19, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Pedantic follow up
(note to self- Google first , then post)
I got the spelling of the name right, but the poem is not properly a sonnet. Here it is:
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds –
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of –
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
“Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.”
November 20, 2006 at 1:49 am
Bob: your comment gave rise to further thoughts on the night. Sparked the rest of the memory I guess. I’d end up staying awake to see that film because what preceded it was Nightmare Theater on Channel 9 out of Windsor Ontario. That was the Friday night treat- a bowl of popcorn, Mom and Dad in bed, and me alone watching some crappy guy-in-a-rubber-suit monster movie. Those films used to scare the hell out me, and it was good to watch that airplane tumbling through the sky for a little reassurance. But after the plane came the Star Spangled Banner, and then static and that utterly impersonal test pattern. You could turn the dial around to all the channels and it would be the same:nothing. That’s when the night really began. The basement was a repository of all things evil. I wouldn’t even get near the door. And even bed wasn’t completely safe. There was still the threat of a real nightmare hiding under the covers. Once I acheived double digit years the terror of it all grew manageable. Sometimes I’d sneak out into the back yard, and more than once I sneaked all the way to the small family graveyard in the field behind the house. But by that time the fear was no longer palpable in the way it once had been. Once you realize that you’re trying to scare yourself it no longer works. Still, there was something spookier about the night when all the stations went off the air.
Oh- as you might guess there’s a web site about the USAF film, and John Gillespie Magee Jr.
http://www.highflightproductions.com
JWM
November 20, 2006 at 3:10 am
JWM, I too remember that test pattern, when that came on you knew that you were up REALLY late, and it was cool – the world was asleep except for you and maybe your best friend on a sleep over. The test pattern meant whispers, shivers, giggles and secrets… and for the really daring 11-12 year old, slipping out of the house in the dead of night and darting from shadow to shadow around the block and back inside before anyone (hopefully) knew better.
On those shadow darting treks, I also remember the thrill of maybe getting caught, and the moon perched among the stars, very quiet and distant, and aware of what you were doing.
I still feel that when I take the trash out late at night – always takes me at least 5 min to make it from the curb back to the front door. Occasionally making a careful dart from one shadow to another – only now its not a fear of being in trouble, but laughed at.
Ah maturity.
November 20, 2006 at 6:09 am
JWM, Van:
I know what you guys mean.
I was very afraid of the dark until I turned 12.
Incidently, when I was nolonger afraid of the dark, I ceased being afraid of the bullys.
We moved around alot, my mother, youger brother and I, and there was always a bullys wherever we went.
I turned 12 in may, and during the summer, something happened…I matured.
It seemed instantaneous…I snapped into an alien but somehow familiar attitude.
No longer would I run from bullys,or take the beatings.
I was going to fight back. Size and physical strength no longer mattered. Like a wolverine, I was going after the grizzly.
It worked perfectly. The fear of pain was gone, the coward transformed, and in its place was a young warrior
Even though the bullys could beat me physically, they now knew that I was no longer an easy target.
They would get hurt if they bothered me or my friends.
The look on their faces was priceless! Surprise! They were beyond bewildered. What happened to the coward?
Don’t get me wrong. I never looked for a fight, but when the bullys came for me, I took a stand, and fought.
Same with the dark.
I used the dark to my advantage. Like you guys described, it became a game, of sorts.
In the dark I could eat until I was full.
Sometimes that led to trouble, but by that time, I realized there was always going to be trouble. :^)
That was a key moment for me, spiritually, though I couldn’t describe it in words very well.
But Bob has shown me it is worth trying.
Bob- I really appreciate how you stand up to conventional “wisdom”.
You have inspired me to go past the artificial, man-made boundaries, as have many of my fellow bobbleheads.
You can’t, turns into you can.
The key is to never give up, and never stop for long.
This ain’t no Icarus thing you got going here.
This is Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, Knowledge, Joy, Peace, etc..
In a Word: Reality. Your foundation is the Chief Cornerstone, and can withstand the worst of storms.
The Holy Spirit dwells here, and that is why I kept returning.
Thank you for providing and doing what very few have done. You have helped me, more than I can say, at the moment.
Truly, One Cosmos is a Lighthouse, and much, much more.
God bless you, and your family.
April 3, 2007 at 6:22 pm
What about the possibility of pulling out of Iraq, letting Iran invade and lose resources fighting their own kind,
and then come in and mop up the dregs?
June 20, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I Love you girls
Buy
August 17, 2007 at 8:53 am
Thanks for sharing this information. Really is pack with new knowledge. Keep them coming.