Notes from the Wired

Inwards By the Platonic books I was admonished to return into myself.18 With you as my guide I entered into my innermost citadel, and was given power to do so because you had become my helper (Ps. 29: 11). I entered and with my soul’s eye, such as it was, saw above that same eye of my soul the immutable light higher than my mind—not the light of every day, obvious to anyone, nor a larger version of the same kind which would, as it were, have given out a much brighter light and filled everything with its magnitude.19 It was not that light, but a different thing, utterly different from all our kinds of light. It transcended my mind, not in the way that oil floats on water, nor as heaven is above earth. It was superior because it made me, and I was inferior because I was made by it. The person who knows the truth knows it, and he who knows it knows eternity. Love knows it.20 Eternal truth and true love and beloved eternity: you are my God. To you I sigh ‘day and night’ (Ps. 42: 2). When I first came to know you, you raised me up to make me see that what I saw is Being, and that I who saw am not yet Being. And you gave a shock to the weakness of my sight by the strong radiance of your rays, and I trembled with love and awe.21’ And I found myself far from you ‘in the region of dissimilarity’, 22 and heard as it were your voice from on high: ‘I am the food of the fully grown; grow and you will feed on me. And you will not change me into you like the food your flesh eats, but you will be changed into me.’ […] I heard in the way one hears within the heart, and all doubt left me.23’ I would have found it easier to doubt whether I was myself alive than that there is no truth ‘understood from the things that are made’ (Rom. 1: 20).

Brazil (1985) Spoilers ahead. I wrote while watching, so this is very stream-of-consciousness. Take care. The actress is very cute, but holy this is so undeserved. Our protagonist destroys her whole life and she falls for him??? Also, suits with a hat and a long mantle are such a vibe. The movie looks gorgeous, I love its surreal aspects. It works a lot with perspective tricks, which is cool.

Reflections on the Psalms Very short book, can be read in a matter of two to three hours. One probably gets more out of it if one is very familiar with the Psalms or reads it alongside them (though he mostly repeats the psalm he is currently talking about). I liked, for the most part, his interpretation. Here’s a summary of what I found interesting: Some Psalms go all the way back to David, but most are believed to have been created after the Babylonian captivity. The most common pattern/technique in the Psalms is parallelism — the practice of saying things twice in different words. One of the few poetic techniques that can survive translation (meter and rhyme usually don’t). Many Christians tremble when they hear of Judgment Day, meanwhile the Psalms talk very positively about it. Lewis compares this to how the Jews viewed judgment as a civil case with themselves as the plaintiff, while Christians think of it as a criminal case where they are the accused. Behind this is the historical fact that it was often very hard for a regular person to get justice without the resources to bribe judges and officials, so they looked forward to divine justice. In that sense, the Jewish picture enhances the Christian one: Christians fear Judgment Day because they know they could never adhere to the divine and infinite standard of purity, while the Jewish perspective helps us realize we don’t even adhere to the human standard. Who among us has never wronged another human? Many times in the Psalms there is a lot of hatred against the writer’s enemies. How should Christians deal with this hatred? Ignore it? Accept it? One approach is to recognize that we modern people also have plenty of hatred — we simply disguise it — whereas they were more honest about their feelings. I am exceptionally blessed in having been allowed a way of life in which, having little power, I have little opportunity of oppressing and embittering others. Let all of us who have never been school prefect, NCO, schoolmaster, matron of a hospital, prison warden, or magistrate give hearty thanks for it.