Good morning Gentle Reader. As I was paging through a few of my journals waiting for my writing muse to appear I began to have a feeling that my muse might be taking the holiday off. I set my journals aside. I picked up a book and began to read. As I read I became aware of this ‘niggle’ – ‘Why not just offer your Gentle Readers ‘A Few Random Thoughts & Considerations’? So, Gentle Reader, that is what I am about to do. I chose three journals, chose one and opened it. I made a note of an entry and then randomly chose another page; I made another note. I spent about thirty minutes doing this. What follows are ‘A Few Random Thoughts & Considerations.’
#1: The great Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, was always a bit put off by the fact that Mozart was a Catholic. Mozart also openly rejected Protestantism. Barth related a dream he had. In his dream he was chosen to examine Mozart’s ‘faith.’ Throughout the ‘examination’ Mozart remained silent. Mozart just sat, his face covered with his child-like smile. Now there is a paradox here (or is it irony). Each morning Karl Barth would play a recording of Mozart’s music. Then Barth would take up pen and put pen to paper. Perhaps Karl Barth was unconsciously seeking to awaken the hidden sophianic Mozart in himself – the core wisdom that comes when one is in tune with the divine music; the divine music that is love. Karl Barth also noted that ‘it is a child, a divine child, who speaks in Mozart’s music to us.’
#2: A QUESTION: Is your love for ‘Men’ or is your love for a ‘Cause’?
#3: THINK ABOUT THIS: One has either to be a Jew or stop reading the Bible. Consider that the Bible cannot make sense to anyone who is not ‘spiritually a Semite.’ For us Christians the New Testament is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, the promise that Abraham believed in. The New Testament, then, is not a denial of Judaism, it is an affirmation.
#4: A QUESTION: Do we instinctively pay attention not to what a politician actually says but to what he/she seems to want to say – or to what we want to hear?
#5: Logical Positivism is an excellent way to organize futility. This is my understanding of LP’s teaching: Since we cannot really say anything about anything, let us be content to talk about the way in which we say nothing. Although ‘nothingness’ has its dignity for the LP not even the dignity of ‘nothingness’ is respected.
#6: The atheist existentialist has my respect: he accepts his honest despair with stoic dignity. His despair provides his thought a genuine content, because it expresses an experience – his confrontation with and his embracing of emptiness. Others don’t have the imagination or the good sense to stand in awe of real emptiness.
#7: CONSIDER: We believe not because we want to know, but because we want to be.
#8: SOLITUDE: Solitude has its own special work: a deepening of awareness that the world needs. Solitude is deeply aware of the world’s needs and Solitude seeks to embrace them.
#9: Anti-Semitism is a direct attack on Christ.
#10: If we want to bring together what is divided, we can not do so by imposing one division upon the other or absorbing one division into the other. We must embrace the paradox of ‘BOTH-AND.’
Searcher-Seeker 