IsItJustMe

Well, my rule in any fight is to cheat as much as possible. And so I have brought a ringer named Omar Khayyam for my contribution to the poetic controversy:

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.

Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
Of This and That endeavour and dispute;
Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit.

You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.

For "Is" and "Is-not" though with Rule and Line
And "Up" and "Down" by Logic I define,
Of all that one should care to fathom,
Was never deep in anything but--Wine.

Ah, but my Computations, People say,
Reduced the Year to better reckoning?--Nay
'Twas only striking from the Calendar
Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday.

And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas--the Grape!

The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute:

The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord
That all the misbelieving and black Horde
Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul
Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword.

Jobar

While we're explaining poetry, I've long wondered just WTF this means.

premjan

Green eggs and ham?

Peter Kirby

Jobar: The best I can explain that (to my embarrassment) is that words when manic come to someone as a sort of Markov chain, with any correspondence or coherence theory of truth being secondary to their utterance.

And no, I haven't been manic like that since October of 2003. I do expect, however, some biting comment on my character anyway. (Or, I should say, given the performance in the "Peter Kirby." thread, more of them.)

Johnnyboy

Happy Birthday Peter.

Steven Avery

No biting comments here, Peter. And I was distressed for a minute this morning to be reading about "promises" you had supposedly made that reflected none of the earnest reality of what you had actually shared on the other thread.

So I did find your comments about ..

"gladiator said .. What a fool! ... dodging question.. bloody arena .. critical dialogue-ish"

very insightful as to a frequent IIDB negative-dynamic of posturing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Kirby "Nothing will be revealed, in any case; here, only that I will be myself." Seriously, and plainly, if you want answers from me I will be a poor sport because I am not an answer man and never have been. If you want to tackle the questions with me, then I may join you with gusto, but I doubt this is the place to do it. I do believe, however, that we could dissect the words if we wanted a starting point.

Sounds good, sounds like a plan.
Amen.

Shalom,
Steven

Jobar

Thank you, Peter. I have to admit, I pretty much suspected that to be the case.

Ever since the days when you modded BC&H, I've had great respect for your scholarship and intelligence. Have you read Joseph Campbell? In particular, his book Myths To Live By; the chapter "Schizophrenia: the inward journey".

It's difficult to address this without appearing to be one of the ones making biting comments, but I do want to urge you to consider your theistic longings as being possibly an artifact of your brain chemistry being out of balance. See that work by Campbell, and also investigate temporal lobe epilepsy. There are neurological pathologies which mimic religious experiences. (Indeed, an argument can be made that all such experiences are the result of such pathologies.)

I hope, for your own happiness and well-being, that you seek the advice of a specialist in psychoneurology, and that you are willing to try out their recommendations for getting your brain and nervous system in balance. It's no shame to need to take chemical supplements to improve your mental health; I speak from experience, since I have to take a daily dose of Dilantin to avoid epileptic seizures. As I said in your other thread, I feel your quest (for happiness, truth, understanding) would be more profitably pursued pharmaceutically, rather than theologically.

John.

Jobar

Oh, and a Happy Birthday from me, too!

Plognark

This thread makes no bloody sense to me, but happy birthday nonetheless

WishboneDawn

Happy Birthday Peter!