Wit and Wisdom of the Day

Woody Allen gave an interview on books and life, and when asked, "What drives you nuts?" he answers:

The human predicament: The fact that we’re living in a nightmare that everyone is making excuses for and having to find ways to sugarcoat. And the fact that life, at its best, is a pretty horrible proposition. But people’s behavior makes it much, much worse than it has to be.

I usually like hearing what Woody has to say, and precisely becuase he has a gift for hitting that note of existential despair, but one imagines if you are feeling depressed and suicidal, he probably isn't the best person to talk to. Sometimes you got to have a little faith, sugarcoating or not.

Wit and Wisdom of the Day

Woody Allen gave an interview on books and life, and when asked, "What drives you nuts?" he answers:

The human predicament: The fact that we’re living in a nightmare that everyone is making excuses for and having to find ways to sugarcoat. And the fact that life, at its best, is a pretty horrible proposition. But people’s behavior makes it much, much worse than it has to be.

I usually like hearing what Woody has to say, and precisely becuase he has a gift for hitting that note of existential despair, but one imagines if you are feeling depressed and suicidal, he probably isn't the best person to talk to. Sometimes you got to have a little faith, sugarcoating or not.

Another Version of the Fall

We have another sonnet about the Garden of Eden. This one is directly after the fall, but proposes a different outcome. When reading Milton’s epic account, one enjoys the opportunity to dwell on the possibility of Adam standing firm and rising above Eve’s temptation to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, before he fatally gives in to his gullible lover in direct contravention of the heavenly Father’s order, for which God chides Adam harshly, quoting Milton:

To whom the Sovereign Presence thus replied:
“Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before His voice Or was she made thy guide,
Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whole perfection far excelled
Her in all real dignity? Adorned
She was, indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection. And her gifts
were such as under government well seemed,
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.”

Mr. A. D. Hope, our poet du jour, in his “Paradise Saved (Another Version of the Fall)” (1967), has Adam standing fast to his Lord’s command, spurning Eve’s bitten apple. However, in this roll of the dice, Adam still does not come out so well:

Adam, indignant, would not eat with Eve,
They say, and she was driven from his side.
Watching the gates close on her tears, his pride
Upheld him, though he could not help but grieve

And climbed the wall, because his loneliness
Pined for her lonely figure in the dust:
Lo, there were two! God who is more than just
Sent her a helpmeet in that wilderness.

Day after day he watched them in the waste
Grow old, breaking the harsh unfriendly ground,
Bearing their children, till at last they died;
While Adam, whose fellow God had not replaced,
Lived on immortal, young, with virtue crowned,
Sterile and impotent and justified.

A man just cannot win in this world - damned if you do, damned if you don’t! It’s a cute spin off the story, emphasizing that man can not live on bread alone, not even the bread of godly wisdom. But it’s just another story. We know that men and women fall together in this fallen world of passion and pain and dying. It was ever so and ever shall be.

Another Version of the Fall

We have another sonnet about the Garden of Eden. This one is directly after the fall, but proposes a different outcome. When reading Milton’s epic account, one enjoys the opportunity to dwell on the possibility of Adam standing firm and rising above Eve’s temptation to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, before he fatally gives in to his gullible lover in direct contravention of the heavenly Father’s order, for which God chides Adam harshly, quoting Milton:

To whom the Sovereign Presence thus replied:
“Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before His voice Or was she made thy guide,
Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whole perfection far excelled
Her in all real dignity? Adorned
She was, indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection. And her gifts
were such as under government well seemed,
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.”

Mr. A. D. Hope, our poet du jour, in his “Paradise Saved (Another Version of the Fall)” (1967), has Adam standing fast to his Lord’s command, spurning Eve’s bitten apple. However, in this roll of the dice, Adam still does not come out so well:

Adam, indignant, would not eat with Eve,
They say, and she was driven from his side.
Watching the gates close on her tears, his pride
Upheld him, though he could not help but grieve

And climbed the wall, because his loneliness
Pined for her lonely figure in the dust:
Lo, there were two! God who is more than just
Sent her a helpmeet in that wilderness.

Day after day he watched them in the waste
Grow old, breaking the harsh unfriendly ground,
Bearing their children, till at last they died;
While Adam, whose fellow God had not replaced,
Lived on immortal, young, with virtue crowned,
Sterile and impotent and justified.

A man just cannot win in this world - damned if you do, damned if you don’t! It’s a cute spin off the story, emphasizing that man can not live on bread alone, not even the bread of godly wisdom. But it’s just another story. We know that men and women fall together in this fallen world of passion and pain and dying. It was ever so and ever shall be.

Shit My Students Write

Sammy Davis Jr. was the son of Sammy Davis Sr.

-- ShitMyStudentsWrite.Tumblr.com

I think there are some more where that came from.

( Read more... )

Shit My Students Write

Sammy Davis Jr. was the son of Sammy Davis Sr.

-- ShitMyStudentsWrite.Tumblr.com

I think there are some more where that came from.

( Read more... )