"I Love You God"

I was just thinking how "I love you God" is a perfect rendition of the (capitalistic) culture promoted by Hollywood (i.e. "love" = mimetic desire/imitated desire = ongoing consumerism) mapped onto the more traditional, transcendental idea of "God", of a spirit or power that is necessarily more powerful and knowledgeable than we can ever hope to be.

The phrase is perfect, no? If one is caught in the tension between secular culture and traditional belief systems, "I love you God" pretty much negates the problem.

Why Not? (since form's never my forte)

I saw Him,
Fearless, bloody, eyes glowing from the pain,
I saw Him.

I had heard Him speak before,
Yet now Time has to split Itself apart -
As I heard Him cry a timeless, wrenching cry -

In pain, or to The Lord?
The Lord.
Oh, but if He is Your Son.

Hear Him. He cries. He cries to You!
'Father' (his gold, gold eyes garish with passion)
'Why have you forsaken me?'

Saving Grace

The one thing we need saving from, really, is ourselves.

A Headache of What Constitutes Religion

Perhaps the truth is that we can believe anything, and that as humans we are susceptible only to what is the most easy and sinister of actions, and the most convoluted of thoughts (which would lead to the most easy and sinister of actions).

And perhaps religion is what saves us from hurting each other and promotes instead the most positive and productive of feelings - anything that falls short, or falls off step, should not qualify as faith/religion at all.

Dear World

Now I have but one choice to make - to leave the subject of Pain for the freedom to foray into the creative Unknown, or not to leave.

I know my choice. 'Freedom' is a conscientiously chosen word. Released from the gravity of Pain is a kind of liberation, a disillusionment at once overt and subtle, onto a latitude altogether exciting and beautiful. Rather than purposeless suspension, subjects of the heart - subjects of real love, faith, kindness, courage, strength - can provide common ground for exploring universal philosophies. And I say 'universal' with great humility, because I am neither superior nor inferior to the human race, and not very specially apart from it.

Philip Larkin

XXVIII

Is it for now or for always,
The world hangs on a stalk?
Is it a trick or a trysting-place,
The woods we have found to walk?

Is it a mirage or miracle,
Your lips that lift at mine:
And the suns like a juggler's juggling-balls,
Are they a sham or a sign?

Shine out, my sudden angel,
Break fear with breast and brow,
I take you now and for always,
For always is always now.

Beauty

Beauty, I've come to realise, fades. The only beauty that doesn't is the kind where a pure soul is involved, where there is genuine, honest, kind-hearted, selfless, humble, yet ferocious living - and it is the kind of Good that grows to the imitation of Paradise here on earth.