Now Reading

[Tails82]

Was recommended Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. It the autobiography of a Trappist monk, said to be a 20th century equivalent of Augustine's conversion. Merton was born in France after his parents met in Paris. WWI happened so they went to the US, where his mom was from. His dad came from New Zealand had gone to Europe to be an artist. Mom died early in his life from stomach cancer. He grew up in a fairly nonreligious household. His dad traveled to paint watercolor landscapes, and was fairly successful. They went to Bermuda, then his dad went off to Europe for a bit while others looked after him. Merton later went to France, then England. At one point he had a tooth removed which was pretty infected, and it turned out he had a serious infection from an earlier foot injury that nearly led to his death. But he managed to survive. I read into his teenage years, where he describes himself as very restless. He was motivated by some Christian ideas, but was ultimately nonreligious. He believes he was in an indecisive stage where he was looking for something of meaning, at one point thinking he was a Communist. But he remarks that at this stage, he was like an easily-swayed indecisive young man, who could be sucked into supporting any extreme - fascism or communism, as long as they promised him some sort of purpose. He was fairly depressed and didn't really care if he died.

[Tails82]

Merton takes a second visit to Rome, where he has another dentist work on his tooth. The problems stop after then. At one point during his stay, he has a very intense feeling that his father is present in the room, followed by a deep sense of remorse as he feels his soul is in trouble. For a time, he becomes interested in the churches in Rome, visiting them but feeling too embarrassed to pray much (he has a feeling he's an outsider, and others would be watching his moves). This experience is short-lived, though, and he falls back into his depression. He attends Cambridge for a year but leaves for the US after becoming disillusioned with Europe. This is the 1930s so financial problems and possibility of war were weighing heavily on people. He finds out later that one of the students he was acquainted with hung himself. Merton becomes attracted to the works of Freud, Jung and the like, which he says was a mistake. He became too introverted, looking at all the problems, wondering if he had sexual repression issues, finding faults with himself and hating to even see his own face in the mirror. However, he thought Columbia was a better place for him to be. He felt as if the atmosphere was more academic, as students were working to pay for their attendance. The education was more widespread over several topics, rather than looking at a few subjects in-depth like at Cambridge. But he was still down in the dumps and skipped classes. He became intrigued by Communism and joined some student rallies. At the time, he saw Communism as the way to solve everything wrong with society (capitalism, naturally). That year, Italy was invading Ethiopia and the Communist line was a pacifist one, opposed to fascist aggression. This would soon change when the Spanish Civil War broke out, then they said communists were justly fighting for a classless society. Communism fell out of favor with him after this. Looking back on it he writes a good criticism of Communism's fundamental flaws, which I may quote later since it applies to moral relativism as well. One of the group's members went missing and his remains were found months later in a canal. Merton started to turn toward prayer after his grandparents died. He bought a book on medieval philosophy, which he later found out was a Catholic book, but read it anyway and got into it. Next he got into the work of William Blake, which affected him greatly. He also looked at some stuff by Aldous Huxley and became interested in Oriental mysticism. There happened to be an Indian monk who recommended he look at Augustine's Confessions. In a roundabout way, his path returned to Christianity. He tried a few Quaker meetings, a few Episcopalian services which he had been familiar with from the time his father had taken a job as their organist. But eventually, he found himself attending a Catholic mass. He found that Catholics had a deep sense of religious devotion, which was absent from the other Protestant services he attended. He saw Quaker services as more like social events among their members, where they were more interested in monitoring their neighbors than for a spiritual purpose. As Merton read more philosophy, he found Catholic explanations the most sound. The Trinity, for example, was strongly advocated while an Episcopal pastor expressed doubt in such doctrines. Merton found that it was selfishness and self-centeredness which had been keeping him back. He considered himself an atheist, rationalistic and such. But he found that the most important aspect of humanity was not knowledge, but love. For it was out of love that an unselfish God created humanity, and from there expressed further love by showing mercy and dying for our sins. Merton once considered it weakness to think that humans could not reach success on their own. But he grew to accept that grace from God was necessary for forgiveness and continued spiritual growth. Humans were not simply meant for physical existence under the natural law, as their bodies would decay. Rather, they are meant to go beyond this and serve as beacons of a sort. They could not progress in a dark room. They require light from another source to illuminate them. Merton saw this light as God's grace, bringing humans up to a level which would be impossible for them to achieve alone.

[little j ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ✔]

Last night I finally became familiar with the story of Puss in Boots. All I have to say is that cat is a conniving, deceptive, manipulative little punk that does no good as a potential role model. Worst part was that he went and killed an ogre for no good reason except to steal his castle.

[Tails82]

Merton was baptized and thought about joining the priesthood but still had some issues. He was considering the Franciscans for the wrong reasons: he thought they had some of the least strict vows, and he'd be able to do what he was pretty much already doing, teaching english courses. He was looking for what would require the least sacrifice. He steered clear of mortal sins but was more lax toward venial ones. Sometime around this period he went to Cuba and checked out the churches there, though it was more of a vacation than a pilgrimage. As he was going to enter the Franciscans, he started to have doubts and spoke with some priests. He told them about his background and how he had not been Catholic until recently, and they recommended he not pursue seminary life. So he followed this advice and felt he was not cut out for priesthood. He broke down when he brought up this subject during a confession, and he got the impression that the priest thought he rightly dropped out, or was kicked out for some reason and was now absorbed in self-pity.


Also read about this guy

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Van_Thuan

[Tails82]

With a priestly vocation out of the question, Merton goes to St. Bonaventure to teach there. He decides if he doesn't belong in a religious order, he will still live a life of contemplation and prayer. He goes down to a Trappist monastery in Kentucky for a few weeks. WWII is going on and the US is not in it yet. Merton's brother thinks about joining the navy, but ends up in the air force. Merton hears a talk from a Russian woman who had to flee the country when the revolution broke out. The Communist line has now changed from pacifism to belligerence - the Soviets had made a pact with Hitler. Poland and Finland were subject to Nazi and Soviet aggression, respectively. Her talk urged Christians to help the poor, because domestically the Communists were gaining support in places like Harlem and used their resources to spread an anti-religious message. It would only be right to help out, and if Christians did so it would counteract the Communist message that the church was an establishment made by the rich to keep the poor in line. She had set up a house to help Harlem's poor, and Merton decided to help out there for a bit. As time went on, he began to wonder about religious life again. He pondered monastic life again, but for a time was worried he wasn't good enough for it, or he'd be rejected based on his past life. As long as he didn't ask, he could still think it was a possibility, but if he asked and was rejected that would be gone. So for a time he was afraid to take further steps. But during his work, more people started asking him if he was going into religious life. He reconsidered it: Bonaventure was a nice place, but he could not progress further there. He decided to give away his possessions and enter the Trappist monastery in Kentucky, this time permanently.

[Tails82]

Yesterday: finished reading Merton's book. Entering the monastery, he had renounced his old sins of gluttony, pride etc. The new challenge, he states, was avoiding spiritual excess. Things like spiritual gluttony or spiritual pride. Trappist monks work to support themselves and tend to keep a vow of silence. There's much emphasis on doing things as a community and contemplating while at work. Merton's brother visited him and decided he wanted to be baptized a Catholic. Merton's brother also got married but his plane was shot down a few months later in the war. One of Merton's friends also visited, and Merton found out he had converted to Catholicism.

Today: read a play by Plautus, early Roman comedian. It's considered the first play to have a stingy miser as the main character.

[Tails82]

TIME: The Decline and Fall of Europe (and maybe the west)

As much as I like to kick at the socialists over there, I found the paranoid title a bit much. Still, if Europe 3094313s things up beyond repair, the US might not be able to save them again.
The writers there also have a liberal slant I don't care for much. They make statements like, it's amazing the London riots didn't happen sooner because income inequality blah blah blah

[Tails82]

Another play by Plautus where twins were separated at birth, one goes looking for the other and they end up in all sorts of mishaps when twin 1 is mistaken for twin 2 and vice-versa.

Sunday paper. Could the London riots happen here? Yeah maybe...already had those race riots at a state fair. Only thing different is the 2nd amendment and a tougher stance on crime in some places.

[Tails82]

Another Plautus play. Kind of irked by the translations which use thee and thou, among other things.

[Tails82]

Finished reading the Plautus book.

Some Catholic stuff. Mitt Romney: not my favorite among the GOP contenders, for his state's health care law, Mormonism and pro-choice past. Though he might've really changed his views on that last one, I dunno. Also more to do with the contraception and sterilization mandate: conscience protections would only apply to Catholic religious institutions if all their employees are Catholic, or if everyone they serve is. Since this isn't the case for many services, this would put hospitals and schools at risk of lawsuits or closings. There is a bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would fix this if passed.

[Tails82]

Just a local paper today.

[Deleted]

Eww, print news.

[Tails82]

Does the job >_>

[Laharls_Wrath]

print news has superior comics to the fancy ol' internet and it's "web comics"

[Chromeo]

lolshittyprintcomics

It shouldn't be called a comic if it's not funny like print news comics.