When they reproached [Thales] because of his poverty, as though philosophy were no use, it is said that, having observed through his study of the heavenly bodies that there would be a large olive crop, he raised a little capital while it was still winter and paid deposits on all the olive presses in Miletus and Chios, hiring them cheaply because no one bid against him. When the appropriate time came there was a sudden rush of requests for the presses. He then hired them out on his own terms and so made a large profit, thus demonstrating that it is easy for philosophers to be rich, if they wish, but that it is not in this that they are interested.

|| Aristotle, Politics

What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s Resurrection? It is as though I play with the thought. — If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He is dead and decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer help; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation, roofed in, as it were, and cut off from heaven. But if I am to be REALLY saved, — what I need is certainty — not wisdom, dreams or speculation — and this certainty is faith. And faith is faith in what is needed by my heart, my soul, not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say: Only love can believe the Resurrection. Or: It is love that believes the Resurrection. We might say: Redeeming love believes even in the Resurrection; holds fast even to the Resurrection. What combats doubts is, as it were, redemption. Holding fast to this must be holding fast to that belief. So what that means is: first you must be redeemed and hold on to your redemption (keep hold of your redemption) — then you will see that you are holding fast to this belief. So this can come about only if you no longer rest your weight on the earth but suspend yourself from heaven. Then everything will be different and it will be ‘no wonder’ if you can do things that you cannot do now. (A man who is suspended looks the same as one who is standing, but the interplay of forces within him is nevertheless quite different, so that he can act quite differently than can a standing man.)

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lecture on Ethics, Culture and Value

In honor of 9/11 let remember the words of an evangelical christian president who disillusioned so many good people: “Let us go shop.”

This is how we can honor the national tragedy.

Show your confidence in the gods of capitalism. The gods of nationalism. The gods of militarism.

Go shopping. Continue buying clothes and food  that give you comfort and good feelings while driving more and more into severe poverty, hunger and disease.

Go shopping. Buy into the empire and pitch your incense at the temple of America. Let us remove the cross from our churches but wave the Stars and Stripes proud. Let us add to our Christian list of principles that of patriotism.

Go shopping. Buy more and more weapons so that we can control and destroy anyone who does not choose to democratic. Even better, let’s supply weapons to war-lords and the civil wars that ravage the land and innocent in Africa. Let us put more despots in power just so that we can have the privilege, honor and duty to destroy their country and hang that person on public TV.

Let freedom ring (from the barrel of a gun).

So, God (of capitalism, nationalism and militarism) bless America!

A slavery ring, centered in historic Westport, was discovered just this year. Here is an article from the Kansas City Star published this past week:

Mo. RICO charges a 1st for human trafficking case

Also an op-ed piece from the Wall Street Journal from a couple of months ago:

Modern Slavery Comes to Kansas

Kyrie eleison

To explain to you how I got where I am today, I will call it a series of train wrecks. Not because I know what a train wreck is like. But because that is just what you call it. I did not intend for the trains to derail; in fact I did not intend for much of anything to happen. I may not have even intended to get on the train in the first place. But there I am on train after train watching the scenery of reality blow by the like all the answers that Mr. Dylan sang about. Is it my very presence on the train that causes the train wreck? That is the consistency.

Subtle advertisements of the Departures board lures me to consider. Boston? Chadron? Billings? This time, however, there is a difference. It is so small and penetrating and arresting and unavoidable. A pause. A space of nothingness. A space of somethingness. Without the assistance of the many eager trains surrounding me, I am transported into the poetry of Wendell Berry and “I go among trees and sit still / All around my stirring becomes quiet / around me like circles on water.”

Do I want to take another train only to await the inevitable train wreck? Hope is for that which is unseen. I have yet to see an unwrecked journey, so the possibility for hope makes itself available to me. Despair chooses to make that which is my history my reality; jealously pushing possibilities further and further until they cease. Then I remember this thing that I call God. I remember that the people who lived so long ago and called this same thing that I do, God. And there’s is a story of wrecks. Of fathers of faith who are unfaithful to their family and wives. Of chosen sons who steal birth rights. Of an anointed and beloved king guilty of adultery, murder and pride.

This pause I endured for half a minute. Then went back to my considerations: Chicago? Baton Rouge? Clarksville? But one further destination flashed in front of me, though not on the official list of departures: Home?

May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we really can make a difference in this world, so that we are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.

To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame [Ps. 22.1-5].

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord [Ps. 27.13-14].

Today we went down to Tulum to visit the ruins of an ancient Mayan port city. Needless to say, this was the most incredible place I have ever been. The ruins are complete with a king’s palace and large temple seated at the top of a cliff. At the beach we were able to swim and snorkel a little in the world’s second largest coral reef. Is this place for real?