We can't stop it.

[andrewlittle]

It’s coming. We don’t know when. We don’t know from where. But come it will.

It won’t be denied. It won’t be stopped. It will instill fear to our very core – fear that cripples us as we see the fabric of our illusory faith rent apart.

It will come with change, and we’ll react with sameness. In the face of the onslaught, we will shrink and cower and grab hold of every last little bit of our limited worldview, desperately trying to prevent the advent of a new, uncharted, horrific unknown.

And that which brings us comfort, that which we accumulated by the sweat of our brow and the desire of our hearts, will be the very thing that threatens to drag us down into the abyss. It will challenge our security, which is why we will resist it until we have nothing but shreds of our old egocentric values to grasp onto. And it will continue to come.

It will come with the pain of having to examine our own hearts in light of what we profess to believe. It will come with the shattering of our sense of justice, the dismantling of our concepts of morality, and the splintering of the very foundation of our form of civil leadership. It will precipitate fear of unknown proportions rising up out of our twisted imaginations. We will perceive monsters that terrify us to our core. And we will react – oh, will we react. But come it will – relentlessly chasing us with our own demons.

We will grasp the last vestiges of our traditions as if the very existence of creation depended on them. We will look backwards, striving to return to that better time when things were recognizable and predictable and orderly. The chaos that we will envision will terrify us, gnaw at our very understanding of our own identity. The more it stares us in the face, the more desperately we will reach behind us in panicked attempts to revive what is lost, rotting and gone forever. Even the horror of our past corruptions of righteousness and humanity will pale next to the sheer magnitude of the destruction of our temples and storehouses and edifices of power. And it will come even further.

We will offer up sacrifices of lesser beings – scapegoats sent out into the wastelands of our previous existence to appease the threat. We will accumulate every scrap of wealth in the hope of buying our salvation from the pending horror. We will fight over scraps of meaningless artifacts of our existence as though ownership and control will save us from that which has been unleashed. We will even barter with other peoples’ food and water, and descend into the debauchery of unimaginable gluttony. But it will sweep aside all that we have, and come anyway.

And by the time it approaches, we’ll be standing there utterly powerless – hungry, naked, unwell, rejected and oppressed by that which we fear. And it will envelop us, surrounding us as we mourn the loss of everything that we have had and been and done. And it will overcome us in that last time and place in which we have nothing left with which to fight. And we will succumb to our own domination by that which has endlessly pursued us.

We will no longer fight, but accept what is beyond our control. Our past glory will be but a memory that fades slowly out of sight as we sink into the depths of that which holds us. We will be confused and lonely and helpless to do anything but be swallowed up into a different reality and sense of order – one that does not fit with all we have held to be true.

And when we finally open our eyes and see that all we have is each other, each and every one of us will be held in the palm of God – our creator – our redeemer – our sustainer. And we’ll see that all that terrified us was our own imaginings – what we projected onto God. And we will be ashamed.

And as the Kingdom of God finally dawns, we will wonder why we fought it so long – why we held so tightly to our own creations, our own selfish desires, our own hateful idols.

And we will be loved, like we always have been loved. But we will love – oh, will we love – like we were always supposed to.

[andrewlittle]

Be honest - not brutal, but brutally honest.

[u-dog]

So the only question I have is: to what publications do you plan to submit it? That is a TOTALLY AMAZING piece of work !!! It gave me goose pimples. Shivers up and down my spine.

You are REALLY are NOT the pedantic, know-it-all, curmudgeon that you seem to be Uncle Andy !!

you are a POET !! :eek: :eek: :eek: :love: :love: :love: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Daniel]

Andy- In terms of style, this is the first time I have read something by you which is prose-like. It's a fascinating departure: your writing has a very different tone when your subject is a bible verse. In that case, it is much more direct.

Some quibbles. Specifcally the use of 'time' and 'tense'.

Here, you use the word 'better'.

We will look backwards, striving to return to that better time when things were recognizable and predictable and orderly.

Suggestion: how about saying "striving to retum to a time when things..." The internal logic of the piece, if I understand you correctly, is that 'better' is in the future, rather than in the past.

Watch your tenses, which can muddle your meaning. Like here.

And that which brings us comfort, that which we accumulated by the sweat of our brow and the desire of our hearts, will be the very thing that threatens to drag us down into the abyss. It will challenge our security, which is why we will resist it until we have nothing but shreds of our old egocentric values to grasp onto. And it will continue to come.

The first two tenses, 'brings' and 'accumulated' confuse the reader with the suggestion of different time periods in the same sentence. It might be better to say "And that which brings us comfort, that which we accumulate by the sweat..."

A similar thing is happens here.

We will look backwards, striving to return to that better time when things were recognizable and predictable and orderly. The chaos that we will envision will terrify us, gnaw at our very understanding of our own identity.

You have two competing perspectives: envision (future) and looking backwards (past).

You could have more clarity here as well.

And by the time it approaches, we’ll be standing there utterly powerless – hungry, naked, unwell, rejected and oppressed by that which we fear.

'By the time' is nebulous in meaning, whereas 'we'll be standing' is a strong statement.

Suggestion.

'When the time approaches, we'll be standing there...."

In short, I think you could bring a little more of your 'direct' style to bear throughout. This will only add to your strong style.

~

You should keep writing this kind of stuff. It brings out something wonderful- a voice which is apocalyptic and visionary without sacrificing warmth or compassion.

Go for it buddy.

[u-dog]

I find I totally disagree with your comments. Andrew's use of various tenses is both clear and logical. It is a complex construction in terms of where the writer/reader stands in time in relationship to what has gone before and what will come after, but it totally works. I find that complexity EVOKES the confusion and anxiety about which he is writing. the medium, in a sense, BECOMES THE MESSAGE (where have we heard that before?) It was the very thing that gave me goose piimples.

Andy's piece isn't written for an eighth grader or even for the adult who reads at the eighth grade level. (sadly the majority of Americans) It is written for persons who are both educated and discerning. I think his original work is more powerful and more effective than the pared down version you recommended.

Usually simpler is better. Not in this case. I would expect to read something like this in "Christian Century" or "Sojourners".

[BrentRichards]

Wow, just wow.

I also do not find the tenses unclear or problematic ... I find they pull me into the "already not yet" feel of the piece. (I'm so Presby)

[Daniel]

Maybe it's the week full of conservatives tirades, or I really am an arrogant SOB, but I did offer Andy something more than a pat on the back, after all, he did use the words 'critical review', did he not?

I've been humbled after taking 4 back to back writing classes for two years. And I worked my ass off. It's fucking hard. Writing has never come easy for me, but working on a book project and feeling out to sea made me face my terror. Still facing it actually.

Like my teacher said with humor one day, and we all laughed in recongnition: First drafts are shitty drafts. And then there is the second and the third, then the forth and fifth, sixth and seventh rewrite until you get it the way you want it, the way it has to be or not at all.

Perhaps this isn't the place to engage someone's work with this kind of intensity. I get that. And I apologize for being testy. But dang it all. We can do more than offer puff to one another.

And I did that. And I said good stuff too.

Guess what? I'm just like those damn conservatives. I don't like to be disagreed with. :lol:

[BrentRichards]

Maybe it's the week full of conservatives tirades, or I really am an arrogant SOB, but I did offer Andy something more than a pat on the back, after all, he did use the words 'critical review', did he not?

I've been humbled after taking 4 back to back writing classes for two years. And I worked my ass off. It's fucking hard. Writing has never come easy for me, but working on a book project and feeling out to sea made me face my terror. Still facing it actually.

Like my teacher said with humor one day, and we all laughed in recongnition: First drafts are shitty drafts. And then there is the second and the third, then the forth and fifth, sixth and seventh rewrite until you get it the way you want it, the way it has to be or not at all.

Perhaps this isn't the place to engage someone's work with this kind of intensity. I get that. And I apologize for being testy. But dang it all. We can do more than offer puff to one another.

And I did that. And I said good stuff too.

Guess what? I'm just like those damn conservatives. I don't like to be disagreed with. :lol:

No intent to "diss" your comments, Daniel! You certainly gave more constructive direction than I! I did NOT find your comments inappropriate or negative ... sorry if I sounded like I did.

Here is a particular favorite of mine, from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years-
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres-
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholy new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

[tpdncr4christ]

It's a story... so many stories in this thing... holy cow. So many stories...

Teach me?

[andrewlittle]

This piece was written in the wee hours of the morning, as I was contmplating my sleepless navel. I started it, and really had not much clue where it was going. I tend to rewrite as I write, which is why it sometimes takes me so damn long.

I have found, more often than not, that the more I edit, the less emotion I display and the more likely I am to move towards grammatical correctness - although grammar is not really my forte. So I intentionally left this one more "raw".

I agree with what Daniel said, and also Dave and Brent. If this was my usual "textbook" kind of entry, I would quickly have adopted Daniel's suggestion - which I thought were very good editorial comments. The grammatical departures from the norm, however, do represent my state of mind as I wrote, and my desire for it to be "messy" and elicit at least some confusion. So Dave and Brent are also right as to the effect the words have.

I hadn't considered publishing it. If that becomes a choice, I will be paying a lot more heed to Daniel's words - not necessarily using all the suggestions, but seeing how they may or may not change the meaning of the piece.

Anyway, thanks for the criticism (as in learned and careful analyis) from you all.

Now, stop your bullshit and play nice - you hear me!

[u-dog]

Guess what? I'm just like those damn conservatives. I don't like to be disagreed with. :lol:

But you do know that its JUST that right? I JUST disagree with you about THIS particular piece of writing. Yours was good advice, thoughtfully and tactfully given in response to his actual request for it (a rare enough thing) I just disagreed with it ... thats all. :love:

[davidb]

I would expect to read something like this in "Christian Century" or "Sojourners".

I second [or third? or fourth?] that suggestion. It's brilliant. Please try to have it published. What a timely and important message.

[Zerbie]

What am I missing?
:confused: :confused: :confused:

Do you have to be Christian to know what Andy's talking about? When no definition of "it" came after a while, I started scanning faster and faster to find a noun and when I did't find one it became almost impossible to keep any attention on what I was reading. Finally, I thought, maybe he means global warming? But I don't really believe that's what it was about.

And I KNOW I read above the 8th grade level!! :eek:

The emotion conveys absolutely clearly. Was THAT the point?

[andrewlittle]

What am I missing?
:confused: :confused: :confused:

Do you have to be Christian to know what Andy's talking about? When no definition of "it" came after a while, I started scanning faster and faster to find a noun and when I did't find one it became almost impossible to keep any attention on what I was reading. Finally, I thought, maybe he means global warming? But I don't really believe that's what it was about.

And I KNOW I read above the 8th grade level!! :eek:

The emotion conveys absolutely clearly. Was THAT the point?


Sorry, Zerbie - the "it" is the Kingdom of God.

[Zerbie]

Ah.

Maybe if you reference that in the title? Then we would have that in our minds when we read to fill in what the "it" refers to.

[andrewlittle]

Actually that's kind of the point - not to realize that's what its about until the near the end.

It's a commentary on the church being afraid - afraid of living into the unknown - but the Kingdom of God is the unknown

I guess it is an insider kind of thing.

[scott snedeker]

But I saw "It" as Humanity's ironic Fear of its own destiny of a more evolved sensiblity struggling with Love, as if love were something to be feared and not trusted.

Truely a work of Art, Andy! Beautiful to read! I couldn't begin to criticize. After reading It can articulate more clearly one of my most profound internal struggles. With your pemission I would like to print the original before any editing is done.

[u-dog]

It's a commentary on the church being afraid - afraid of living into the unknown - but the Kingdom of God is the unknown

But I saw "It" as Humanity's ironic Fear of its own destiny of a more evolved sensiblity struggling with Love, as if love were something to be feared and not trusted.

These two things are not that different, really. The Kingdom of God IS (among other things) an evolved sensibility focused around Love and the fear that Christians have of it is SUPREMELY ironic.

Do you have to be Christian to know what Andy's talking about? When no definition of "it" came after a while, I started scanning faster and faster to find a noun and when I did't find one it became almost impossible to keep any attention on what I was reading. Finally, I thought, maybe he means global warming? But I don't really believe that's what it was about.

I think maybe you DO have to be Christian, Zerb. What I found happening as I read the piece was that my awareness of "it" sort of coalesced (sp) around my mounting agitation. I was maybe three quarters of the way through when ... BOING! ... "THE KINGDOM OF GOD!" popped into my head. That was what was so cool about reading it. Then I felt so SMART when I reached the end. :cool:


And I KNOW I read above the 8th grade level!!

Of COURSE you do, dearheart ! In this case maybe its eighth-grade SUNDAY SCHOOL.

[andrewlittle]

But I saw "It" as Humanity's ironic Fear of its own destiny of a more evolved sensiblity struggling with Love, as if love were something to be feared and not trusted.

Truely a work of Art, Andy! Beautiful to read! I couldn't begin to criticize. After reading It can articulate more clearly one of my most profound internal struggles. With your pemission I would like to print the original before any editing is done.

By all means, you are welcome to print it.

What I said above, BTW, is what I intended. If if elicits other images, feelings or ah-hahs, then those are the work of your own interpretive process as you read. To me, that's the beauty of the written word - our ability to reinvent and reimagine its meaning in our lives.

Thank you

[rustaman]

After a long absence, I popped in today and noticed that there had been some sort of hot debate going on. When I selected this thread, and first began reading Andrew’s piece I thought that it was being written by some conservative person trying to teach something akin to Matthew’s vision of angels throwing us into the fires of Hell, where we will weep and gnash our teeth. Then I started to become confused. And then I was delighted to read that love will triumph over fear – it always has, and it always will. What a fine piece of work. Thank you Andrew for sharing it, and yes, I agree that publishing it would be a gift.

Zerbie asks, “Do you have to be Christian to know what Andy’s talking about?” My response is no. From whatever spiritual faith you hold, one only needs an awareness that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around. We have come from Spirit and we will return to Spirit. When we forget who we are, we easily fall victim to fear, and ultimately create the Hell that we seek to avoid. But even this does not matter. For at whatever point we finally reawaken from these dreams, we find that we have never left the presence of God. And I think that is very, very cool.

Thank you Andrew for stirring up this awareness. As davidb says, “What a timely and important message.”

[antonyh]

It’s coming. We don’t know when. We don’t know from where. But come it will....


This is really, really good. I also think you should get it published.

In some ways it reminds me of the story Friedrich Nietzsche told, but your piece is about the death of false God's instead.



"The Parable of the Madman"

The madman. Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place and cried incessantly: 'I am looking for God! I am looking for God!' -- As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Or emigrated? -- thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances. 'Where has God gone?' he cried. 'I shall tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. We are all his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is more and more night not coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? -- gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, console ourselves?

That which was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives -- who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to seem worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed -- and whoever shall be born after us, for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.'

--- Friedrich Nietzsche La gaya scienza (The Gay Science), Bk. 3, Aphorism 125, 1882 R.J. Hollingdale (trans.)

[andrewlittle]

I love Nietzsche, but I never read that work. Thank you for pointing me in that direction.

[rustaman]

More than a hundred years ago, Nietzche perceived moral decay all around him -even within the church. Here is the end of the “Parable of the Madman”:

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -- and yet they have done it themselves.
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

It occurs to me that maybe the time of enlightenment has come. People I know accuse me of being too Pollyannaistic in my World view. Those who watch hours and days of CNN covering the latest disaster think 'my glass is half full’ philosophy irritating, and would agree with Nietzche more than me. But think of it, a 100 years ago we would not have had a public forum that puts the words Christian and gay together. So is it the coming of the Apocalypse, or the Enlightenment? You choose.

[antonyh]

"I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet."


I think he was predicting the death of God. The madman was too early.

God is still not dead and it is really pissing off Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

[BrentRichards]

I think he was predicting the death of God. The madman was too early.

God is still not dead and it is really pissing off Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

"Pissing Off Richard Dawkins" is the atheist equivalent of "Pissing Off Fred Phelps" ... not exactly tough to do ... and some view it as an exciting bloodsport.

[andrewlittle]

I took a chance and submitted it to Christian Century. Who knows? maybe it'll be a slow submission week.

[Vortex]

When I read the first few paragraphs I thought maybe it had something to do with aliens taking over our puny existence :lol: .

Anyway I agree with the theme though, that fear will ultimately be our inevitable downfall.

On Nietzsche:

My interpretation of Nietzsche's now famous claim that 'God is dead' is that we (humans) created God as this symbol of moral perfection, one in which we could not live up to. In our own pursuit of righteousness we have destroyed the very principles of which we aspire to, thereby effectively destroying God. See if you can wrap your mind around that one :) .

At least I can follow Dawkin's logic from a scientific perspective, Nietzsche's atheism on the other hand was pure faith ;) .


Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?


The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

Friedrich Nietzsche

[rustaman]

On Nietzsche:

My interpretation of Nietzsche's now famous claim that 'God is dead' is that we (humans) created God as this symbol of moral perfection, one in which we could not live up to. In our own pursuit of righteousness we have destroyed the very principles of which we aspire to, thereby effectively destroying God. See if you can wrap your mind around that one :) .

At least I can follow Dawkin's logic from a scientific perspective, Nietzsche's atheism on the other hand was pure faith ;) .


Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?


The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

Friedrich Nietzsche

I went through a God is dead period in my earlier days on the planet. I think this possibilty exists when one one asks how God could allow things to happen like the Virginia Tech shootings, the mall shootings in Kansas this weekend, Columbine, 9/11, the killing of Matthew Sheperd and on and on. Where is God? For some people, God is dead.

But "where is God" is exactly the right question. As long as we conceptualize God as the the old man with the white beard, and place Him up there in some other-worldly place we call Heaven, we are forced at some point to succumb to our illusions about Sin, and Judgement, and Damnation. We believe that God is in control of the two Send buttons - Send to Heaven - Send to Hell. Or maybe because on a very basic level this does not make sense, we find it easier to just hang it up and say there is no God. There are no Send buttons. We are on our own.

For me, once I was able to experience God within myself (in here- not up there), and once I was able to see God in others, it allowed me to stop judging (or not - there is choice here). God is in the perfection and the imperfection. What is "dead" for me is the idea of the vengeful, judging God I once had. Perhaps the mistake is the idea tha God gives a hoot whether I believe in Him or not. God is. Period. Whether I believe in Him or not changes nothing.

[tdogg]

Excellent Andy! Glad I finally took the time to really read it. Hope you get this thing in the magazine!!!

[Emproph]

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w204/yeakey420/acidtrip3.gif

You almost made it sound like it's already here.