11 Comments

I am really being split between enjoying your deep vocabulary and absolutely drowning in it. Also essentially you are saying to not overthink things when it comes to God or?

Expand full comment

Not exactly, what I like about God is you can't really out-think him. He's always one step ahead of me, at least. I don't know if I can summarize it to a single point, it's various comments on much longer and more detailed dialogue in the linked article.

Expand full comment

I see. I feel similarly about not being able to outthink him. I guess I will read the linked article too to get a clearer idea.

Expand full comment

Getting serious Kierkegaard vibes from this. Great as always.

Expand full comment

So to you I ask; do you laugh at the joke played on you by God?

Expand full comment

Depends on the joke, some are more peculiar-funny. Often it's more of just a smile and a short weird grunt or snort.

Expand full comment

Do you mean your response to be a critical response to the CSV piece or a further expostulation on the same theme?

Expand full comment

more playful than critical, both

Expand full comment

I second the Kierkegaard comment. You seem to be playing out the four stages in a completely different and coherent way.

May I ask, since I am new, what is meant by yes-and? You use it all the time and I want to be sure I have understood it, although it is rewarding and fun to tease it out on my own - perhaps a subversive request in this context

Expand full comment

It's a comedy technique, where the idea is, in any dialogue, "no matter what the setup is, you always say 'yes, and' to it". You agree with the premise and add more, build on top of it. In a subversive sense there's perhaps a head nod to the political concept of 'agree and amplify'

Expand full comment

Most rules and rituals are man-made, just to help keep the population's behavior in check for the benefit of all and especially for the benefit of those men already in power. How I wish I better understood all of God's rules of play. As for Kierkegaard, he seems to value authenticity and being true to oneself, and resistance to social norms and expectations. As society advances and develops rules or at least expectations for our behavior that are beneficial, resisting the pressure to conform just for the sake of conforming, before understanding the value of the rules, can lead to less following of a rule just because the rule has been clarified. At that level of thought it reminds me of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, not being able to know a particle's every detail because by measuring one thing we alter its existence.... Likewise when society grows enough to clarify what may be a rule from God, and a government authority becomes the enforcer, does it not encourage a bit of resistance and rebellion? That is our animal nature, the very thing we must try to overcome.

Expand full comment