Do you remember the First World War? I wish we hadn’t fought that. Why? Because I love war, and that was “The War to End All Wars”. Had we only sat that one out, we could’ve enjoyed a long string of war after war, with no end in sight! But, as it is, we inherited this ongoing global harmony. That’s why I hope that the current provocations (I write in 2022), which are funneling all the nuclear-armed nations toward hot conflict, end very soon in some sort of Universal Peace Treaty. For then we can get back to warring.
§
I’m enjoying
Volume 2 of Mark Twain’s posthumously published Autobiography. Yesterday I read
thru a number of entries where he lambasts the U.S. Christian concept of God
and heavily berates the Christian Bible. I like this type of talk: anti-God
talk. I also like the opposite: Praise of God. (Freudian slip: in the latter instance
there, I first wrote “live the opposite”.) I feel most comfortable
remaining as indifferent to God as God is to me. Which is why I think so much
about God, and everything I write is divinely inspired.
After Twain’s
criticism of the Christian view, he adds an entry that articulates his own (apparently
sincere) ideas about God. My understanding is that he reveres his true God
who is inscrutable, infinite, and as interested in humans as humans are
interested in bugs.
Let us now consider the real God, the genuine God, the great God, the sublime and supreme God, the authentic Creator of the real universe, whose remotenesses are visited by comets only—comets unto which incredibly distant Neptune is merely an outpost, a Sandy Hook to homeward bound spectres of the deeps of space that have not glimpsed it before for generations—a universe not made with hands and suited to an astronomical nursery, but spread abroad through the illimitable reaches of space by the fiat of the real God just mentioned; that God of unthinkable grandeur and majesty, by comparison with whom all the other gods whose myriads infest the feeble imaginations of men are as a swarm of gnats scattered and lost in the infinitudes of the empty sky.
When we think of such a God as this, we cannot associate with Him anything trivial, anything lacking dignity, anything lacking grandeur. We cannot conceive of His passing by Sirius to choose our potato for a footstool. We cannot conceive of His interesting Himself in the affairs of the microscopic human race and enjoying its Sunday flatteries, and experiencing pangs of jealousy when the flatteries grow lax or fail, any more than we can conceive of the Emperor of China being interested in a bottle of microbes and pathetically anxious to stand well with them and harvest their impertinent compliments.
[—from the entry dated Sat. 1906 June 23: “Concerning the character of the real God”, in Vol. 2 of Mark Twain’s Autobiography]
I sorta don’t
like Twain’s “real God”. He reminds me of a macrophysicist. Why is it improper
for God to be concerned about humankind? I like a God who desperately wants my approval
— at the very least, this gives me leverage in arguments. And I find it charming,
for instance, in the stories from the biblical book of Samuel, how God chooses a
young fellow named Saul to be king just because this man is big and tall; then
later God’s affections shift, when he falls in love with David and accordingly transfers
the kingdom over to him, cuz David is handsome and charismatic.
And, for the
record, speaking not on behalf of China but as the Emperor of Ice Cream,
whenever I observe so-called lesser creatures (tho admittedly I focus not so
much on germs & viruses but on slightly larger forms like squirrels, crows, & deer), I am
intensely interested in their lifestyles; and I would gladly transform myself
into one of them, so that I could share existence with their kind for a spell.
I would even allow them to sacrifice me, via their culture’s own form of crucifixion,
if that is what they desire: I’d consider it an honor to die at their hands—or rather their
paws, talons, hooves…
On second
thought, I praise and worship Mark Twain’s God. I accept this supreme being as
my Lord and Savior.
§
Last night I re-watched
the movie PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). I’ve seen this film very many times. The
first time I ever screened it, I judged it to be an intriguing failure; but NOW
I think it’s one of the best movies ever. It’s simply about two people who fall
in love. My other favorite romance-film is WILD AT HEART (1990), from which I
also recoiled upon first viewing: I couldn’t take its terror. Why are both of
these pictures so violent!? Anyway, currently, these are my Top Two Love Films.
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