AspieWritesWhat

Saturday, January 28th 2017     " And we are put on earth a little space / T hat we may learn to bear the beams of love ..."         ~from  "The Black Boy" by William Blake            = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =           To bear them, and to wield them! The beams of love comprise the living gaze of God. They are the love, joy, peace, and quickening endlessly poured out for all mankind from His generous cup. The tongues of fire above their heads at Pentecost were these beams hardening into fixed points. When we were little ones in the faith, w e had to guard our little lights from the terror of the night  and the arrows which flew by day.  We had hearts of stone becoming hearts of flesh, suffering the new innervations as blood bloomed and blush rose. A round us the holy seal of chrism wa...

Wednesday January 11, 2017       If you tilt your head just so and squint your eyes just right, the whole world looks like a Second Empire sitting room. Specifically, the sitting room from Jean-Paul Sartré's play "Hui Clos / No Exit" , published in 1944. To be sure, this is not Dante Alighieri's malebolge , and there is no Prince of Demons here.  This place represents the refined man's idea of pleasantness and comfort, circa 1944.  Three sofas, one door, a mantel fireplace with an atrocious bronze statuary, and a paper-knife (what we in 2017 would think of as an Exacto knife). I t's an optical illusion, but the kind that reveals what is hidden behind the curtain of our everyday life ... maybe.   Life as we know it to be belies the absurdity of life as it really must be ... according to Jean-Paul  Sartré . Despair/Absurdity is that awful thing behind the curtain, too awful even to think about, lest the void devour our souls. ...