Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The Tears of Narcissus Might "Ironically" Be the Tears of Jesus
"Now the point of this myth is the fact that men at once become fascinated with any extension of themselves in any material other than themselves. There have been cynics who insisted that men fall deepest in love with women who give them back their own image. Be that as it may, the wisdom of the Narcissus myth does not convey any ideas that Narcissus fell in love with anything he regarded as himself. Obviously, he would have had very different feelings about the image had he known it was an extension or repetition of himself. It is, perhaps, indicative of the bias of our intensely technological and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself, that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus!" - Marchall McLuhan, p. 41-41, Understanding Media; The Extensions of Man
My Journal Entry - Wed. July 21, 2006. - If Narcissus died not because he was consumed with himself, but because in his numbness he couldn't recognize it, then did he drown in his own tears of grief, spilled in a long-forgotten time of seeking himself?
"Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"
"Im not sure we accept that Africans are equal. 6500 Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, two 9/11s a day. No tears, no letters of condolence, no fifty-one-gun salutes. Why? Because we dont put the same value on African life as we put on a European or an American life. God will not let us get away with this. We say we cant get these drugs to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can get them our cold, fizzy drinks. The tiniest village you can buy a Coke."
"...vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever....The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. " "That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago: and God seeks again that which is passed away...All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again"
Wisdom from "one of the least of these" on Western civilization's man reacing higher with his extensions of himself while 50,000 people die around the globe of preventable diseases (6,500 is only the number who die of AIDS):
"When Sputnik had first gone into orbit a schoolteacher asked her second-graders to write some verse of the subject. One child wrote: The stars are so big, /The earth is so small, / Stay as you are...The second grader who wrote the words above lives in a world much vaster than any which a scientist today has instruments to measure, or concepts to describe." - p. 34, 35
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see [it]. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after [them], nor follow [them]. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one [part] under heaven, shineth unto the other [part] under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day."
With the cross, Christ drew all of creation unto himself. Maybe even the burdened, pale and formerly-tearful Narcissus (the quentessential hopeless romantic) bears the image of Jesus, who wept pools of blood in Gethsemane.
My Journal Entry - Wed. July 21, 2006. - If Narcissus died not because he was consumed with himself, but because in his numbness he couldn't recognize it, then did he drown in his own tears of grief, spilled in a long-forgotten time of seeking himself?
"Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"
"Im not sure we accept that Africans are equal. 6500 Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, two 9/11s a day. No tears, no letters of condolence, no fifty-one-gun salutes. Why? Because we dont put the same value on African life as we put on a European or an American life. God will not let us get away with this. We say we cant get these drugs to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can get them our cold, fizzy drinks. The tiniest village you can buy a Coke."
"...vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever....The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. " "That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago: and God seeks again that which is passed away...All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again"
Wisdom from "one of the least of these" on Western civilization's man reacing higher with his extensions of himself while 50,000 people die around the globe of preventable diseases (6,500 is only the number who die of AIDS):
"When Sputnik had first gone into orbit a schoolteacher asked her second-graders to write some verse of the subject. One child wrote: The stars are so big, /The earth is so small, / Stay as you are...The second grader who wrote the words above lives in a world much vaster than any which a scientist today has instruments to measure, or concepts to describe." - p. 34, 35
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see [it]. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after [them], nor follow [them]. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one [part] under heaven, shineth unto the other [part] under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day."
With the cross, Christ drew all of creation unto himself. Maybe even the burdened, pale and formerly-tearful Narcissus (the quentessential hopeless romantic) bears the image of Jesus, who wept pools of blood in Gethsemane.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
