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There is a school of thought that posits that Adam - of Genesis fame - was not actually the first man, but rather the first prophet in the line of prophets that spawned the Abrahamic faiths. The crux of this is that there was nothing good nor evil prior to the teachings of the creator having reached us - hence like the ravening wolf or the ferocious lion, there was nothing intrinsically wrong in anything we did since it was only natural. Once the concept was introduced that there was a purpose-driven, life-loving God, however, good and evil could be finally identified as those behaviors which departed from that purpose and interfered with that life. Hence the tale of Cain and Abel and most everything else in the Torah.
Now I am not here to argue this idea today. I am more interested in the location. Adam is said to have appeared in the garden of Eden, and of all the locales that have been proposed as the "real" Eden, I have been most convinced by the suggestion of David Rohl that it might have been Tabriz. I think it was the documentary, In Search of Eden - which can be found on You Tube that mostly convinced me. I may well be mistaken, however, so do your own research.
What intrigues me about this location is that some six thousand years later, around 1844, another man appeared in Iran claiming to be next in the Adamic line of prophets. Ignoring every gory detail about this, I will merely note that the Islamic clergy of Iran had this man executed on July 9, 1850 in what was then downtown Tabriz.
In a sense, then, what began with Adam in Eden came full circle and was brought to a close in the same location. Curious.
So, if Iran was in fact the host to the original garden of Eden, then it would follow that some of the oldest cultural elements of civilization may have sprung from that region, and one might expect that some of the most mature concepts regarding life the universe and everything have been and continue to be evolving there.
Sadly, Iran is mostly being demonized these days - not without good reason, mind you - to the citizens of the USA, so it is a knee-jerk reaction of many in the West to eschew everything associated with Iran. In fact, most of the evils that issue out of that country seem to be caused by a minority of fanatics who have a stranglehold on governance and their oppressions are evident and well documented. To some extent, the people of that country are rising up against that oppression, so there may well be an end one day to that circumstance.
All of this is a long way around to recommending that every "educated" American should be familiar with the story of Layla and Majnun - perhaps the original "Romeo and Juliette". It is a tale familiar to most every Iranian, one that inspired Eric Clapton in composing perhaps his most famous tune. Maybe one day, Hollywood will grace us with a worthy film depiction of it.
Likewise, those who would account themselves as culturally informed might wish to peruse some of the poetry of Rumi:
BeyondOut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.Ideas,
language,
even the phrase "each other"
doesn't make any sense.
and Hafez:
Will Beat You UpJealousy
And most all of your sufferings
Are from believing
You know better than God.
Of course,
Such a special brand of arrogance as that
Always proves disastrous,
And will rip the seams
In your caravan tent,
Then cordially invite in many species
Of mean biting flies and
Strange thoughts-
That will
Beat you
Up.
So just some ideas on how to fill your new year, or whatever.
Oh yeah, and if any of your neighbors are Iranian refugees, consider going out of your way to talk with them. For the record, I am not Iranian, but one of my neighbors is.
--
"So make the best of the situation before I finally go insane", -Derek and the Dominos, Layla
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 30, @05:47PM (10 children)
- "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul," by Douglas Adams
- Walt Disney, Disneyland Opening, 1955
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Monday January 30, @07:30PM (9 children)
More to the point, what entity purporting to be God could _fail_ to be ever-present at Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport?
This is pretty much answered in chapter 112:
--
FTFY
Indeed many are those who need not subscribe to Disney having discovered that joy and inspiration are states of mind that one can adopt independently of external stimuli.
--
"...and butterflies are free to fly - Fly away" -Elton John, Someone Saved My Life Tonight
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 30, @08:40PM (8 children)
Disney, though born in 1901, was living in a material world.
Two events come to [my] mind. Union organizers destroying his "altruistic family" in the late '30s... money became a necessity. In the '50s he spoke to the House Un-American Activities thing, showing that angry, cynical, down-beaten side. It was around then that he started up the TV show to finance his fantasy park. His cartoons featured extremely cruel bad guys who for me ruined some classics, even if they got theirs in the end. As we see today, the bad seem to have good, long lives.
He certainly wasn't of the common clay; an American Pickers episode last week showed that he belonged to an elite club of middle-age Cub Scouts, fantasizing for a thousand bucks a day. His dreams never died, even though he said that the thing he was most proud of was building a big, successful business. Disney died of smoking (and maybe debauchery?) at about 67 years old. All off the top of my head, except for...
You got a nice white dress and a party on your confirmation
You got a brand new soul
And a cross of gold
But, Virginia, they didn't give you quite enough information
You didn't count on me
When you were counting on your rosary
They say there's a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
The sinners are much more fun...
You know that only the good die young
- Billy Joel
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 30, @09:49PM (1 child)
Any Christian will happily explain to you that every soul (once created) is eternal, ergo this dying that troubles folks is mostly imaginary, and the FOMO that afflicts all men and drives them to seize every opportunity for instant gratification is but the whispering of a skulking one.
Funny how that works.
-nostyle
--
-Burton Lane (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics), On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 30, @10:28PM
Don't believe the title of "The Best Years of Our Lives." It makes "Come Back Little Sheba" look like a comedy romp. The war did nobody any favors (except Daddy Warbucks & other Cub Scouts). Clark Gable never recovered. Greer Garson started late and spent a career bucking-up. Thomas Mitchell was the saddest comedy relief imaginable.
Talked with somebody who went to a business expo for the first time since '19. Oh, how shabby, saggy and whipped his long-lost friends looked (Not him, just his friends). Don't ask me, I've been shabby for years. Human spirit is fragile. Foxholes aren't full of true believers, but of the panic-stricken. Panic makes people grab hold and hang on, whether sensible or not. Enough comparison of foxholes and lock-downs.
We return to Adventure (1945) [imdb.com] The players all lost their pilot lights, but Thomas Mitchell also lost his soul. A soul is comedy relief! It's a fragile thing. He spent the movie trying to get his soul back; the rest were trying to feel whole, to be part of something again. Less shabby.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31, @06:06PM (5 children)
I meant no mean-ness to Mickey's maker. Walt was a singularly visionary sort. When asked once what it was like to be a millionaire he replied, "Well, mosquito bites still itch."
Sadly, the business he founded seems to have devolved into a monster hoarder of all things entertaining with the aim of bleeding the public dry for the telling of every myth, legend, fairy tale and imaginary fantasy forever and ever without end - amen. They would have us become addicted users of popular culture, enforcing their ownership of said artistic expression with endless litigation and irrational legislative initiatives.
They would steal our dreams and rent them back to us until there is no fun in dreaming any more.
Disney, the man, gave a bunch to the world. Disney, the jinn, takes away from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31, @07:22PM (4 children)
We've all
probablyworshiped false gods, along the way. They were burned by the green flame. How were we to know? Old movie idols, you know what you're getting... you know that they turned dark, later on. Only the good die young? There's probably more to that than it seems.Could tell you a story... a few, added today to this page.
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Tuesday January 31, @08:47PM (3 children)
I was thinking this conversation was sounding familiar. See the lyrics in the sig. Nothing is new.
Maybe this is as good a place as any to sneak chapter 113 in:
--
-David Bowie
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31, @10:10PM (1 child)
Okay, I get it, the girl and sailor are Olive Oyl and Popeye, the Caveman is Bluto, the Clown is of course Koko. Then it falls down a bit, unless the Mouse is a simile for Eugene the Jeep (wasn't he from Mars?). And I liked Tom Hatten much more than Lennon; better than Engineer Bill (drink your milk!), Skipper Frank... regionalisms, lost to the ravages of time. Back In The Inkwell, for all of them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31, @10:17PM
Oh, right the Caveman was Toar. Bluto's been left on the cutting room floor. Right next to Brutus. Bluto looked like Tyrone Power's father (also called Tyrone Power), but Brutus... I think he looked like Roy Disney.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31, @11:40PM
BTW, perhaps the best cover performance of that tune evar is done by Postmodern Jukebox and can be found on you tube. Search "pmj life on mars".
I dream of being as good as the guitarist on the countertop.