This advent is fucking shit
I'm running out of fingers to count how many ways this halloween-to-Christmas period is fucking shit.
Two beautiful, saintly people are cut down by someone they were trying to help.
We are in the midst of a General Election where literally any old bullshit can be promised, any lie spoken any barrel scraped.
The new parliament is guaranteed to be shit, with the balance of power held by a handful of politicians who believe in fairies, or aliens or magic beans. The Tories will throw billions at them to get their support.
Brexit will be unavoidable on Jan 31st and it will be shit. It will be one layer of fucking shit, compact and compressed and ready for another layer of fucking shit to be spread upon it.
Climate change is spinning out of control and it is guaranteed that sweet fuck all will be agreed to do anything about it.
Fu.ck.ing.hell.
Two beautiful, saintly people are cut down by someone they were trying to help.
We are in the midst of a General Election where literally any old bullshit can be promised, any lie spoken any barrel scraped.
The new parliament is guaranteed to be shit, with the balance of power held by a handful of politicians who believe in fairies, or aliens or magic beans. The Tories will throw billions at them to get their support.
Brexit will be unavoidable on Jan 31st and it will be shit. It will be one layer of fucking shit, compact and compressed and ready for another layer of fucking shit to be spread upon it.
Climate change is spinning out of control and it is guaranteed that sweet fuck all will be agreed to do anything about it.
Fu.ck.ing.hell.
Comments
" For there will never cease to be <fill in the blank> in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to people who are suffering, in your land."
or if you prefer the more self-centred version:
"The <fill in the blank> you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."
Then go and be nice to someone.
I took grim pleasure in observing that in 2017 Trump would be in office, Article 50 would be passed, and undertakers would still be in business. Sadly I was right.
But if even just that feels a struggle listen to incomparably wonderful BBC Radio 3 where you will hear a good dose of sublime choral Advent music
Peace on earth and goodwill to all people, anybody?
But ISWYM, and sympathise.
I won't go into details, but Our Place is troubled at the moment with various personal issues, along with some of our most loyal members being hors de combat in different ways. Father NewPriest is up against it, but doing his best to keep us on an even keel.
I think we'll all be glad when Advent and Christmas are over!
I fear we are in our final times - not in an escatological way. Just in terms of the fact that we are so shit we are going to trash ourselves.
It is more like a sci-fi end - currently reading Stanislaw Lems Fiasco. In which the lifetime of a technological civilisation is very limited. Because "intelligent" beings are stupid.
Some sci-fi does. Kim Stanley Robinson writes optimistic, though reasonably realistic, sci-fi. The book I'm currently reading by Martin Shoemaker is reasonably optimistic too. Dystopian sci-fi is popular, given the times we're in, but it's not the only show in town. Becky Chambers is writing more in a space opera area but her Wayfarer's series is deeply optimistic and had something deeply (I've struggled to decide on the right word) wholesome about it. Goodness is treated as the norm, badness as an aberration to be worked around, grotesque injustices and crimes as something to be defeated and stopped rather than "the way of the world".
Oh yes, and Iain M Banks Culture novels were very optimistic (and I loved them). But there are quite a few who take the view that I have mentioned - that the natural flow of a civilisation is to develop technology and then destroy itself.
It is a view that I find more and more reasonable - logically speaking, it seems to be the way we are going.
And yes, "unspeakable" is the word for it. But it follows a theme: take a loved, but out of copyright song, stick an extra bit onto it, and kerching! It's back in copyright, and the 'song writer' is now getting royalties on something that's a century old.
First time I’ve been back to church for ages and expected it to be difficult. Actually felt remarkably good and at home (Though absolutely freezing!) Music was wonderful and the rhythms of evensong made reflective space...
It was good
Our churchwarden led the singing of The Advent Prose yesterday - if you don't know it, it really is suitably penitential, on a national and personal level!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorate_caeli
Scroll down to Text for the English translation, as found in The English Hymnal.
I am resolved to dip out of all the Christmas services at Our Place, as I don't think I can stand any of the 'joyful' hymns etc. As far as I can tell, there is no god, anyway. Or, if there is, s/he doesn't give a toss for this poor world.
Oh BF, I am very afraid you are right 😭. I haven’t gone out today as I’m so distraught, (living in JRM land I’d be bound to meet a ‘gloating’ person.
This is exactly what the Antichrist wants you to think. I learned this from Bill Hicks.
Honestly not being flippant here. I've been pondering this today. This is not about God, this is what happens when evil people exploit fear and instability to their own ends. If the Revelation means anything at all in this day and age, it's this inversion of religion as hatred and propaganda.
We live in a sick society. People are being manipulated into voting for evil clowns. But if we can see it happening, we can maybe understand it.
I, too, am remaining on board the Ark. I would normally lunch at a certain Community Centre, wherein is to be found, on Fridays, a Stupid Old Fart who thinks the Mad Mophead makes a 'bloody good Prime Minister'...I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to restrain myself, and would probably end up in jug...
I did say 'as far as I can tell'. You may be right - I just don't see much evidence for god's 'love' in today's darkling world. That maybe says more about me than about you, I concede.
That's because there's not much of it about. And I concede that God picked a deeply inappropriate moment to find me.
There is 'love' buzzing about in the world, as evidenced by the various agencies in this benighted town, trying to help the bottom layers of 'society' through these dark winter months.
I'm just not sure how anyone can assert that this 'love' comes initially from a god, or gods. The traditional Advent, and Christmas, story seems, somehow, irrelevant at the moment. At least IMHO.
YMMV.
I guess I'd take a similar position. The following is not an effort to win anyone over, just a bit of thinking while typing, and no apologies for excessive good cheer on this darkest of days.
To parrot Spinoza (which I will try to resist ad nauseam) he who loves God cannot strive that God love him back. In very simple terms, he conceives God as a loving, conscious force, present in and indistinguishable from all of creation, but far too big to be concerned with ourselves as individuals. Spinoza then goes on to say that to know God is to accept God's love as He loves Himself.
That being said, as I understand it, the Advent represents an important step in humanising our relationship with this primal force, which has parallels in the development of Buddhism in the East. It carries with it the significance of the Solstice, marking the change in the season as we bed down for the winter months. A bit like beer in that respect: proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy, with or without the hangovers.
(The capitalisation indicates the importance of the item to the person posting).
This I understand, and I thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you for your thoughts (and BF’s too), they’re really helping me today. Hopefully, I’ll be able to respond more fully within the next couple of days.
The WHISKEY bottle is already empty, but madness lies down that road (also liver failure). I shall try to be Brave.
(I bought my own Christmas presents. Not having any looked like it was going to cause some shit).
Well, God be praised the Highland Park has disappeared from my wish list, which promises some cheer come 25th. May your drinks cabinets be similarly blessed.
Disaster, perhaps. And maybe not just for England?
However. This is Advent. Today's reading was John the Baptist; he who spoke Truth to Power and got jailed as a result. And then because Herod was a vain, weak, authority figure, whose ego and selfish impulses were the Laydeez were concerned, got him into ridiculous situations; AND because he didn't want to lose face after making the stupidest of stupid promises, up to the half of his kingdom, ended up chopping off the head of an innocent and righteous man.
The more things change, they more they stay the same, it seems?
No wonder John wanted to know if Jesus had his back. No wonder we feel the same way.
'tis a fine wee dram.
The First Sunday everyone was invited to decamp to the cathedral for the Advent Procession.
Then we had the razzamatazz of a Christmas Tree Festival, which concluded with Carols of Praise. Yesterday the main 10.00am service was cancelled in order to try to get everyone, especially Young Families, to Christingle at 4pm.
Next Sunday the Archdeacon is preaching, and he may restore some semblance of order. I might even attend.
.
Cancelling the 10am service, though, in order to get peeps to go to a Christingle service sounds as if it may have been contra Canon law, but hey...
Happily, our Advent has gone fairly well so far - a goodly number (for us) at yesterday's Parish Mass, even though we had the Carol Service in the afternoon as well. I dipped out of that (I don't really warm to Carol Services!), so I don't know how it went.
The relevant Advent candle has been duly lit each week by various members of the flock - a teenager, our Devout Old Gentleman (96 in February!), and a 4-year old yesterday (assisted by his Big Sister aged 8).
Several of our folk (our parish is one of the poorest in the country) have expressed to me their dismay, and anger, at the political disaster which has just occurred. That event certainly seems to be darkening their Advent, and Christmas, too.