While Reading the Bible

On my computer, I downloaded the Kindle from Amazon.com and then I downloaded the King James version of the Bible.  I have lots of Bibles at home, but I didn't have one copy of the King James version which is the version I like the best.  This kindle is a wonderful tool.  I love how you can just right-click on a word and get the definition, because I'm the type that looks up words as I read and that takes up so much time if you have to thumb through a dictionary or even look it up online.  Anyway, back to my main subject the Bible.

I started reading Genesis.  I don't understand how some Christians can take this literally.  I think that the people who take this literally are people who take everything literally.  There are people who are incapable of understanding metaphor, therefore they are incapable of seeing hidden meanings, the meanings that can only be expressed by Metaphor.  Christianity is so entirely metaphoric, in comparison to Buddhism which isn't at all.  Understanding Christianity takes much more imagination--because that is what it takes to understand metaphors--than Buddhism.  Buddhism is the only other religion that I feel I have more than a cursory knowledge besides Christianity.  I like Buddhism, but I like Christianity better.  I think it's deeper.

I think people forget that the Bible was written by men, spiritual types, but they were still just men.   Genesis says that Adam and Eve ate bread, but that would be impossible, since crops and wheat hadn't been born yet.  In Genesis it said that God punished the snake by making him crawl on his belly and eat dust the rest of his life, but snakes don't eat dust.  They eat small animals.  However, a person writing this without any scientific knowledge, and a primitive mind, might think that was what they eat, because they hadn't any kind of zoological knowledge at that time, nor had the person ever observed a snake closely.

Dietrich  Bonhoffer

I still love the Bible, but I love the book of Psalms the most, because I've gotten the most real spiritual help from that book.  My spiritual hero, Dietrich Bonhoffer, said that one could devote all their religious studies to that one book.  I think he's right.  Everything that a person needs to know about God and about Christianity can be found in that one book.

About Reading "Ulysses"

My own stream of consciousness:

This guy takes dental floss out of his pocket and cleans his filthy teach.  I didn't know they had dental floss back in 1904.   Dental floss seems typically American, but I guess I'm wrong.  If the English and Irish had dental floss why such bad teeth.  It's funny that they would use dental floss but not brush their teeth.  By Joyce's writing, I can't tell who it was who was cleaning their teeth in front of other men, but I think it was professor MacHugh because he was the last name mentioned.  Newsboys were so poor in the Ireland of 1904, they didn't wear shoes.  Speaking of not wearing shoes.  That reminds me of a family photo of my ancestors that I found on the Internet.  This seems like a good place to ad a photo for interest.  I digress.

George Washington Vaughan (my 1st cousin 4x removed) with Grandchildren
GWV born 1820 in Hawkins, TN, died 1901 in Tishomingo, MS
the kids look dressed up but they don't have shoes.


September 28, 2011

I was reading a little more of Ulysses today and I was reminded of  e-mail talk.  When Joyce  shows that the person is screaming, he put the words in all caps.  Just like in email.  Other writers usually write something like "Oh shut up!"  Arnold screamed at his mother.  But Joyce, using his Ulysses style, would write OH SHUT UP, and he doesn't even say who is saying it.  The reader is just suppose to know, if he's paying attention.   In Ulysses, Joyce threw away the convention of "he said, she said."  


Joyce also abbreviates words and writes how they sound like rather than using conventional spelling.  It's as if he discovered computer language abt 100 years before computers, and everyone called him a literary genius for writing like that--breaking new ground as they say.  LOL    I rather enjoyed reading Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, but I'm not enjoying Ulysses as much.  I'm not interested in reading about it when anyone sneezes or takes a crap.  I'm only on page 130 so maybe I will feel different about this book by the end.  Joyce uses lots of Latin phrases in it, all of which seem to have to do with Catholicism, which shows one advantage of a Catholic school education--you get to learn Latin. 



I have another post called "Ineluctible Modality of the Visible" on another blog of mine that you might find interesting.  In it I try to explain what I think that phrase means.

History Becomes More Alive for Me

Viking Ship represents Denmark's King Valdar (the Mild) Hroarsson, [547-568]
my Viking 41st great-grandfather  

Alfred the Great (849-901)
my 34th Great Grand Uncle

As I've written before, I've been on Ancestry.com tracing my family roots.  This has been one of the most interesting experiences of my life.  It's life altering.  Seeing the broad scope of all my history has given me a completely different outlook on life.  I now see myself as part of a long chain.  I'm not isolated, but a part of something bigger than myself.

I traced my family history back through England to France to the Danes and the Vikings and found out the Vikings migrated to Scandinavia from Afghanistan.  Before Afghanistan they were the Trojans.   Since I found out that King Sceldwea of Troy (born 20 B.C.) was my 65th Great Grandfather, I'm suddenly so interested in Trojan history.  Can you believe.

The most ironic thing happened in doing my family research:  Since I started this blog, I've had the ad for "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (the 16th emperor of Rome) on the right side of this blog because it's one of my favorite books.  Then today in researching my family on Ancestry.com, I found out that Marcus Aurelius (86 -161 AD) was my 56th great-grandfather.  Constantine, who brought Christianity to the Roman Empire, was my 50th great-grandfather.  My mind has a very philosophical bent.  Now I'm wondering if that bent is something that could be in the genes.

Marcus Aurelius, Author of "Meditations"
My 56th Great-grandfather

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
― Marcus Aurelius

Edward III  (1312-1377)
 King of England
My 18th Great-Grandfather

The point of all of this is that by finding out that you have some kind of relationship to an historic character makes you that much more interested in history.  At least that's how it affects me.  As I read about my ancient ancestors, I'm increasing my knowledge of history more than when I just read out of history books that I feel no connection to.    If children knew about their family history before studying history, it would help them better to relate to history and they would find it that much more interesting.

If all of these people are related to me, that would also mean that they are all related to each other.  As I got into the Romans on Ancestry.com, I found lots of misinformation.

Marcus Antonius (aka Mark Anthony)
(January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC)
 Roman General
My 63rd Great Grandfather

Would Hillary Have Been a Better President?

This seems to be a question that people are thinking about out of disappointment with Obama.  It's like what if I would have done this instead of doing what I did.  What would my life have been like.  A person can drive themselves nuts thinking about things like that.  It's an area of thought that should be avoided.

Even though we are now, and I hope temporarily, disappointed in Obama, we forget his positive qualities.  One reason he got elected over Hillary, who had a much better resume, was that Obama could make wonderful speeches, much better than Hillary ever could.  Hillary never said anything that was really inspirational.  Obama's speeches inspired the entire world and helped repair all the damage in our foreign relations that Bush instigated. Foreign countries hated the Bush administration. I think the reason President Obama got the Nobel Peach Prize was just because he gave such good speeches.   Obama has taken out the American hubris in our foreign policy, which was badly needed.  Would Hillary have been able to accomplish that?  Obama is now being looked on as weak, but did Hillary ever come off very strong?  Before being elected President, he came off stronger than she.  It's doubtful that she would have gotten stronger as President.  In his post President years, Bill Clinton has really distinguished himself.  If his wife had gotten elected President, I wonder if he would have done the good same things that he has been doing.

Hillary probably would have received just as much prejudice for being a woman that Obama has received for being mixed race.  Hillary had the advantage of already knowing all the leaders of countries, but that advantage was best used in her being Secretary of State.  That is another good thing that Obama did--he appointed Hillary Secretary of State.  Most Presidents are not that generous to their former adversaries.  He was trying to follow Lincoln's example, which is a good prototype to go by.  Biden has also become a popular and admired vice-president, as Cheney was never able to do.  That was another good pick from President Obama.

This morning on Morning Joe they talked about Obama not having any business experience.  That all he knows about economics and business is what he has read in books.  Hillary never started a business either that I know of.

More About My Ancestors

The Luther Family Coat of Arms

Every day that I spend on Ancestry.com working on my family tree, I find something totally amazing.  Today was my biggest day yet.  Are you ready for this.  Maybe you should sit down:  Martin Luther (1483-1546) THE Martin Luther, THE German Priest who founded Protestantism, was my 15th Great-Grand Uncle.  There is probably no person in history that I admire more.  Like my lineage to William the Conqueror, this also comes from my mother's side of the family--the Johnsons--the Texas farmers, whom all the rest of my families looked down upon because they were poorer than all the other relatives.

I think I inherited Luther's religious gene, because I'm extremely religious, too, but not so hot on the Catholic Church or organized religion, which is a little ironic because most of my favorite thinkers have been Catholics and I have the Catholic mindset.  I wonder if how spiritual a person is could possibly be in their genes.  No one in my immediate family was religious, but I know it was just in me from the very beginning.

Luther wasn't against Catholicism.  He couldn't stand the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.  Jesus didn't intend to start a new religion, he just wanted to reform Judism, likewise Luther didn't want to form a new religion, he just wanted to reform the Catholic Church.  There's no one in history I admire more than Martin Luther (not counting Jesus, Plato and Kierkegaard), so it blew my mind to find out he was an ancestor.  I think it's also interesting to learn that a branch of the German Luther family immigrated to England and then after a couple of generations came to America.  I figure they liked the American ideal of religious freedom.

Martin Luther--my 15th Great Grand Uncle

Hans Luther--father to Martin, 
and my 16th  great-grandfather

Margarete Lindemann--Martin Luther's 
Mother and my
16th Great Grandmother

Katharine von Bora--wife of my 
15th great grand uncle Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) 15th great-grand uncle
Hans Luther (1459 - 1530) Father of Martin - 16th great-grandfather
Jacob Luther (1490 - 1571) Son of Hans - 15th great-grandfather
Johannes Luther (1517 - 1584) Son of Jacob - 14th great-grandfather
Johann Jacob Luther II (1537 - 1558) Son of Johannes - 13th-great grandfather
(immigrated to England from Germany)
Johann Jacob III LUTHER (1561 - 1597) Son of Johann Jacob - 12th-great grandfather
Capt John Samuel Luther (1595 - 1644) - Son of Johann Jacob III - 11th great grandfather
(immigrated to Massachusetts from England)
Elizabeth Luther (1626 - 1687) Daughter of Capt John Samuel - 10th great-grandmother
Abraham Weeks (1625 - 1691)  Son of Elizabeth - 9th great-grandfather
Francis Weekes (1653 - 1715)  Son of Abraham -  8th great-grandfather
Elizabeth Weekes (1678 - 1751)  Daughter of Francis - 7th great-grandmother
George Goodloe (1701 - 1741)  Son of Elizabeth  - 6th great-grandfather
Mary Goodloe (1731 - 1790)  Daughter of George -  5th great grandmother
John Quarles (1746 - 1789) Son of Mary - 4th great-grandfather
Lucy Quarles (1786 - 1854) Daughter of John  - 3rd great-grandmother
Moses J. Johnson Jr. (1832 - 1900) Son of Lucy  - 2nd great-grandfather
Harrison "Hal" C. Johnson (1854 - 1922) Son of Moses J. - my great-grandfather
Raleigh Homer Johnson (1885 - 1952) Son of Harrison "Hal" C. - my maternal grandfather
Frances Louise Johnson (1919 - 1983)  Daughter of Homer - my Mother
Gayle Manning Alstrom (1942 -     ) Daughter of Louise - Me