August 24, 2021

2021.08.24
So this reddit page (on a channel about tracking anti-vaxxers who get sick) says there should be a website designed around sending "thoughts and prayers"

But GoPrayForMe.com is already a real site! I think of the closing sentence of their introduction: "Let's storm heaven with and for each other."

That's... such an odd mood theologically speaking, you know? I mean the entire idea of asking God to intervene is already... well, when you combine some assumptions of pre-ordination and omnipotence (and benevolence) you're already in some strange territory to request modifications of the divine plan, but the belligerent stance of "to storm"? That's so aggressive!

(And yeah, on one level maybe it should seem blasphemous to, say, ask God to grant victory in a sporting event (some believers will just ask for a fair game without injuries) but I'm also mature enough to understand that this kind of down-to-earthness and personal aspect is important in American Folk Christianity, and part of how a lot of people live their connection to their God. It's social and psychological as much as it is theological and supernatural.)
A Capuchin monk, one very rainy day, accompanied a Swabian prisoner to the gallows. Many times, the condemned man lamented to heaven that he, in such terrible and unfriendly weather, had to walk so bitter a path. The Capuchin wished to give him Christian comfort and replied: "You scoundrel! How can you complain? You only have to go there, but I, in all this rain, must come back the same way!"
Heinrish von Kleist, from his newpaper "Berliner Abendblätter"
The Capuchin could have added... "plus, I have to have listened to you complain the whole way!"
Before he entered that police station in Limoges, he thought the world was a scene where two forces were struggling for power: God and the Devil. From then on, he knew that there was a third force seeking hegemony over this world: stupidity.

"The Suicide Squad" (so, the older one was just "Suicide Squad") is really good! It works on different levels - as a popcorn flick, as a parody of the whole Avengers/MCU thing, as a study in what happens if people - from superpowered to townspeople - actually get killed. And is just plain laugh out loud funny in parts.