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Welcome back, Doron !

It's interesting that when Mat commented regarding the next verse needing to be posted, I intended to do that, but got so caught up in some other things, that I never made it back to do it. Thanks for doing it yourself and proceeding from there .


~ Lizzy

I had almost given up on you DB.

"There is no world without the blessing"

Is this a vision of the world without God?
BM

Blonde M,
I also get the feeling Leonard is suggesting that all actions must be sacred.
All actions must be taken in the awareness of divinity, for life to be meaningful.
Hence, the "blessing" of our daily lives.
"give us this day our daily bread" type of attitude. (acknowledging that we are "provided for" and need to recognise this in the scheme of things)

It is the phrases below that I am focusing on; that stand out to me as being indicative of his mood/perspective in this verse.


"...There is no world without the blessing.

...All walk the streets as though the ground did not recoil
...The harvest is gathered as if it were food
...They hear bad tidings, as though they were the judge
...There is no fence in their heart
nor knowledge of the one
...The rain will not be clean,
until the longing
for it be refined in deep confession.

...There is no world without the blessing. "

Amen.


Matj

blonde madonna wrote:I read it as an apocalyptic vision of a time in the future when the world will experience a judgment day.

I don't. I read it as a bleak picture of a possible take on the present. I had a mildly unpleasant interaction with a coworker this morning, and I have been looking for a way to see some beauty or love in it. Sometimes it's easy to see the world as if everything that happens is a blessing, a beauty, even the "bad" stuff. Sometimes it's not so easy, but I practice.

Manna wrote:I read it as a bleak picture of a possible take on the present.

That's interesting Manna. Is this how you see the world on a bad day? And applying your thinking to this verse would make it more about the feelings of the speaker than any sort of objective outlook on how the world actually is. But then you have to ask why does he feel this way?

II.30
Let us be proud of our region.

Oh !
Has a new region been discovered that they are not in ?
one that doesn't include me?

blonde madonna wrote:Is this how you see the world on a bad day?

Maybe, in a fit of displeased hyperbole, I might see things like this. The idea seems so laughable right now, though, with a beautiful fresh white coating on the pine trees outside my kitchen window, my child playing music, my husband shoveling the neighbor's front walk, and the breakfast dishes done.

And applying your thinking to this verse would make it more about the feelings of the speaker than any sort of objective outlook on how the world actually is.

yes. is there any such thing as objectivity? after all, this wasn't written by a guy who'd gained notoriety for his cheerfulness, and it was written by one single guy, and one single guy will always have his own view. Which isn't to say he can't understand and empathize with others', just that I don't know if I can see a single person as a truly objective source of anything other than his own experience.

just that I don't know if I can see a single person as a truly objective source of anything other than his own experience.

And even there...


~ Lizzy

The idea seems so laughable right now, though, with a beautiful fresh white coating on the pine trees outside my kitchen window, my child playing music, my husband shoveling the neighbor's front walk, and the breakfast dishes done.

Visualizes like a potential poem.


~ Lizzy

mat james wrote:It is the phrases below that I am focusing on; that stand out to me as being indicative of his mood/perspective in this verse.

...There is no fence in their heart

Matj, what are your thoughts on this phrase? It confuses me because having no fence in my heart sounds like a good thing. I picture no barriers to letting God's love in or your love for others out. What would be a good fence and what would be its purpose?

BM

Manna wrote:is there any such thing as objectivity? after all, this wasn't written by a guy who'd gained notoriety for his cheerfulness, and it was written by one single guy, and one single guy will always have his own view.

I read this Manna and thought how frustrating it is to express myself with exactness. I agree with you, to me this is self evident. But how do we understand another person - our subjective self reaching out to their subjective self? It is like you are saying "lets dismiss this, he's obviously having a bad day, end of story".

BM

B. Ma,
I didn't mean to dismiss Leonard's bad day, only my own. ha ha ha! Isn't it sweet that we can communicate ourselves at all? All are complete.

This verse, to me, seems to be about the use of they as opposed to the use of we. It sounds to me like he is picking on those who use they this way - to distance themselves from humanity's darkness. Saying they lends to the thought that they are not as human as we, they are animals, they are vicious. And we should rid the world of them! Won't we be saviors if we rid the world of them?!? ha ha ha, oh!

ps. Re: fences in the heart
the previous phrase gives an example of a good fence. They hurt people because there is no fence. The heart doesn't deal only in love, but also in blood. When feeling angry and vindictive, I find the best thing to do is wait, let it rest. The feeling will pass, and then I can see the beauty again. Not everyone knows this little trick. I only partially know it.

ok

I love your new avatar, Jimbo. Your devil looks a bit reluctant.

yes he didnt get his red bull??
and he cant get past the fence

Manna wrote:This verse, to me, seems to be about the use of they as opposed to the use of we. It sounds to me like he is picking on those who use they this way - to distance themselves from humanity's darkness.

I find your take on this interesting Manna because you have a different perspective. It was the use of 'they' that made it sound biblical and prophetic to me. As if it is not, perhaps, Leonard himself speaking but some doomsday prophet or even God himself.

ps. Re: fences in the heart
the previous phrase gives an example of a good fence. They hurt people because there is no fence. The heart doesn't deal only in love, but also in blood.

You make a good point here. You're right, a heart can be filled with all sorts of feelings, some that need to be fenced in, some that need to be let out to pasture, some that need to be set free.

love
BM