I have long wanted to say this here, and
now seems a good moment. One of the bloggers I most admire (yes, Michael G, you
know who you are) has resolutely turned off any comment facility on his site,
presumably to stave off robocomments and the purely asinine. It had occurred to
me to do the same, but I decided not to. Nevertheless, I have found that few
people do in fact leave comments, and when I share a blog post to a Facebook
link, those who get to it from there usually comment on Facebook itself.
So this is where I crawl out of my usual
shell and invite comments. Why? Because the kind of topics I deal with on this
blog, I think, invite conversations. And since comments are legible to all,
others can then join in – something else I invite. The beauty of the Internet
is that it temporarily and partially annihilates vastnesses of Time and Space.
This strikes me as a genuinely religious effect. I am in the South of France.
You may be in Oregon, in Yemen, in Moscow, in Pretoria, in Buenos Aires or in
Wellington. Yet we can talk about prayer, about the gifts of God, as if we were
leaning on a bistrot counter over a glass of wine.
Obviously, those who are gratuitously rude
will be deleted: the usual rules apply. But on the basis of respect and
affection, conversations may commence and proceed. Not on Facebook (much as we
love it): right here.
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Hi, Roger! I love your blog. I have particularly enjoyed your Eastertide meditations. I would also like to know what you think about yesterday's Zechariah 4. I use the Geneva Bible for my daily lessons, and its notes were particularly helpful. I never realized before how functional the lamp setup is, with the olive trees (i.e. the Holy Spirit) providing a constant supply of dripping oil. Its a kind of heavenly Rube Goldberg contraption, isn't it? Anyway, keep the good stuff coming, and have a Happy Pentecost!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brad. The Zechariah 4 passage is astonishing. I use Bible Gateway, which lets you compare dozens of versions. You're right: the Geneva has good notes. But it is still seriously weird. Boy, those prophets had some visions, didn't they? I imagine Geneva is right in its interpretation. But I love the menorah with the 7 tubes, straight from the trees: reminds me of maple trees in Quebec. Notice that there is no mention of a press, between tree and lamp . . . I have two olive-trees in my garden, over a century old and transplanted from Spain: maybe I should try the tube thingie?
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