ME & XTIANITY

          ME & XTIANITY
 
I told my old man, “You've got an awful
big Ego for a Presbyterian minister” and
he said, “Yes I do. And  mine's crucified.”
 
That made some sense of the whole other
wise morbid deal.  Of course: crucified.
Consummation devoutly desired. Dead &
buried & born  again to tell the tale.“Not
honestly though: a simple honesty is
 nothing  but a lie,”
                  
             Crede ut Intelligas
 
A black box is a device that systems &
information theorists use  to keep their flow
chart process going, mapping out relationships.
Here's  a spot which  makes no sense yet: : a
transform from X to Z  and Y remains mystery:
Egypt  is clear enough and also Promised Land;
but in between: Wilderness.  Put a black box
over it & keep on representing. It'll come clear
by & by.
 
Stochastic process: literally,  archer shooting
arrows toward targets yet unknown. Into the
noise in search of news. Navigational. Jody Foster
sends guided missives into space anticipating
contact and extra terrestrial  intelligence. Out of
the box. Out of sight. A  Closed  System calling
for outside help. Waiting for Goedel. Hosanna.
 
Minimal Pairing. Take any complex & reduce it
to a single difference:  bet/bit, say, better/bitter
where in this case only a mid-to-high frontal sound
distinguishes the otherwise identical information at
hand.  Linguists use this device to map phonemes
& their  location: vowels & consonants, sounds &
anti- sounds reduced to a  difference that makes a
difference. Sames & differences: our fundamental
base for significance and meaning. How we cherish
diversity;  how we cherish unity. Minimal pairs.. 
 
Principle of Least Effort. “My yoga is easy, says
Jesus. “Easy as falling of a logic,” said  my old man.
“You got to serve some body,” says Bob Dylan. No
system willingly works harder than necessary and no
man does wrong knowingly according to  Socrates.
Path of Least Resistance
 
Phatic Communion.  “Empty.” Meaningless words 
on a surface level but profoundly necessary in
relationship & social adhesiveness.  “Hey, how you
doon, what's up,  nice day, you ok, how's the family?”
.. ..Non-discursive:  to be taken lightly, not literally.
Strokes & Status recognition. All  communion is phatic
if I don’t get stuck in the devilish details. Have I told
you all about Hawthorne lately? Loaves and fishes? 
Stone soup?  Arab Spring?
 
Hermeneutics. How-to- read across the curriculum
walking through a field or mall, in a classroom, round
the dinning room table. Immaculate and macular
conceptions, figures & backgrounds,  texts and contexts:
interpreting, explaining, blaming, reasoning-whys, scape-
goating:  ripping-off parts of the whole to make some sense
of my own. The violent bear it away. . .
 
Turn the Other Cheek. Sounds pious but it's meta-
practical big time—in relationship, at least, if not before
a court of law or on the streets where  one does what
one can to cover one's ass.. “Neither logic nor sermons
convince,” says Whitman.  In  relationship: I'm always
accuse-able. If  I'm  not  doing this it's because I'm doing
 that or vice versa:  always more to accuse than commend.  
That's what a “satan” is always good for: adversarial,
worthy opponent pointing out all I'm not. No defense
 is sufficient.Turn the other cheek.  Both.
 
Noblesse Oblige. The frame of mind that enables one
to turn the other cheek. Knowing better. Go ahead, 
nail me--no sense arguing with you of little fate.
Excruciating, but what  kills me
makes me strong.