Finally! A philosophical blog

First, PERFECT JOY! (Yay for Saint Francis! Okay, okay, dude - you're slowly wooing me. I get it. I'm yours. I even have the sandals to prove it. ;P)

Mea culpe, mea culpe, mea maxima culpe all both of you who check this blog out - for the randominity, the vloggery, and the I-trust-I-make-myself-obscurity. So, herewithal, in the spirit of Big Thunks One Has Been Having Lately, a bit more philosophically blog.

Waaay back in Sophomore year of High School (round about 1993), I took Mr. Sam Ciervo's Seniors Mythology course (because I'm a learning geek like that, and Mr. Ciervo is cool like that). Somewhere in the course of that semester, I remember he posed to us the question:

"Is it better to be loved or respected?"

I don't recall what I answered at that time (I'd love to go back in time and find out, but alas that'll have to wait for judgement, too), but off-and-on over the years I've thought about that question. But lately, and increasingly, I've been realizing there is only, can be only one answer to that question.

"It is better to be loved."

Pourquoi, my dear knight? Elementary, my dear Andrew Aguecheek. To be loved includes respect. To be loved is to exceed respect. And to love another is to include and to exceed respect. Respect is finite: it completes an obligation, nothing more. Love is infinite because her source is the Infinite.

The elders of the temple, together with the whole Sanhedrin and the Chief Priests came before Jesus, just after He entered Jerusalem and was hailed with "Hosannas" (reserved for God), and they asked Him, "By what authority do you do these things?"

And Jesus answered them, "I will tell you, if you answer me one thing: Where did John (the Baptist's) authority come from? Was it of Heavenly or human origin?"

They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say of Heavenly origin, then He will ask us, why we do not believe Him. But if we say of human origin, we fear the crowd, for they all regarded John as a prophet." So they said to Him, "We do not know."

Jesus answered them, "Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

He did not need to tell them - He could not make them understand - that His authority was God, because He is God, and God is Love. He could not make them understand, because they could not comprehend Love.

And Love is patient, Love is kind,
Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud.
Love is not rude, does not seek its own interests, is not quick-tempered -
Love does not brood over injury.
Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Mood: Getting there.
Music: "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol - ooooooooh SO GOOD!
Thought: Wow...it was good to see Hamlet again, last night. It's so very true. It's always amazing to go back and understand what God put in, through a piece, waiting patiently until an older me can understand what He was saying all along.
Quote: You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Truth: God alone is good. Be satisfied in this.