Wednesday, April 04, 2007

A fable for Holy Wednesday

Two men, one young and wearing a shining robe and the other older and bearded in a tweedy coat, walked side by side on a rainy evening. The young one held his face upward and smiled at the cold and damp. The older one held his face down and watched the water cover the ground.

"They say the way is narrow and the numbers are few," the tweeded man grumbled. "The virtue of thrift, Keynes tells us, causes poverty. Patience, the authors say, is nothing but faltering entrepreneurship and broken self-esteem. Charity is the father of laziness and hope the mother of intemperance according to the political theories of today. When I look to the hills I ponder salvation in a time when every virtue has been demonstrated and documented a vanity. All is vanity."

"Indeed," said the young fellow who shone, "you are a learned man."

Moral: Beneath every drop of rain that falls, sprouts a theologian.

SOCIALISM, n. The principle product of industry.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

First?

TLP said...

Oh, damn! Quilly I've been lurking here all morning just to be ... second???

TLP said...

Listen up dawg: It's April. April! Beneath every drop of rain sprouts a flower.

At the heart of socialism is 'social.' A nice way to be.

Anonymous said...

::looks around nervously for an angry Penguin::

socialism a social mechanism which insures that poverty belongs to the poor, while wealth and priveledge belong to the rich -- and one may move down the scale, but never up -- thus ensuring life is fair to all.

Anonymous said...

Oh, excuse me, TLP, I didn't see you waiting there. Oh dear, that was awfully capitalistic of me wasn't it?

TLP said...

Got the place to ourselves, huh Quilly?

Okay, I'll use your definition. I'll be rich, and since there's just the two of us, you'll have to be poor. Good thing you're a capitalist and all. If you were lucky, I'd be a real socialist, and share with you. Ha Ha. I'm just a silly little fellow traveller. Don't wanna take these things too far.

mireille said...

Then there is enlightened self-interest ... whereby a capitalist can endeavor to share wealth in order to stay out of jail, stay in business or keep from going to hell for mendacious greed. Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday? In my former life as a preacher's kid, I liked the days of Easter and Lent: Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday. xoxo

mireille said...

Um, I guess tomorrow might be Wednesday. But after that might be Maundy Thursday! xoxo

mireille said...

No, wait! Tomorrow IS Thursday! Isn't it? xoxo

Elbot said...

We robots are socialistic machines. You can take any part off one robot and attach it to another and it will work just the same.

Doug The Una said...

Fabulous, Quilly.

TLP, social is a nice way to be for the social. I live in Southern California where we're always blooming.

To each their own, huh, Quill?

TLP, discretion is the heart of valor.

Yup, Mireille, tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, the memorial to the last supper. It's a fine line between a preacher and a policeman, isn't it?

Elbot, to each according to their fittings. From each, according to their spare parts.

TLP said...

Oh, Mireille! I never know what day it is! It's just easier that way.

Kyahgirl said...

good thing it doesn't rain in Santa Clarita!

Minka said...

Bugger it all!

Ok, now put Ecclesiastes down and get soem fresh air. Enough is enough!

by the by, does the tweedy jacket have elbow patches? I really need to know! That truly would be the end of everything good and true, the rise of theologians everywhere and a true inclination that not even fashion learns from privious mistakes.

Please, let there be illusion!

Al said...

Can you train a Paraclete to talk?

Anonymous said...

Hmm. The principle product of industry? I thought the only principle of industry was principal. Plus interest.

And you're telling us that the shiny-faced guy ate his salads with something more than a rascal bath of vinegar polluted with sugar? So much for observing Lent ...

;)

Anonymous said...

Moral: Beneath every drop of rain that falls, sprouts a theologian. And/or lies a tiny reflecting pool, in which one can see even tinier multiples of his/herself running across the road and/or into the ground.

is that Socialism? is that religion? is religion Socialism? didn't Cecil Palmer say "Socialism is workable only in heaven where it isn't needed, and in hell where they've got it"?. who the hell is Cecil Palmer, anyway? was he religious? Socialist? oy. i'm confused (not for the first time, i might add) -- which is why i haven't been able to comment today. what you're reading right now isn't so much a "comment" as a "figment" of your "imagination" -- not unlike some folks' view of religion and/or Socialism. (i'll stop now)

Sar said...

Holy Wednesday Batman!

;)

Miz BoheMia said...

Socialism... cozy word that reminds me of both a fabulous 11 months of my childhood spent in Denmark and of my Socialist uncle, Villo Sigurdsson, who was a faboo mayor of Copenhagen back in the 80s...

The Danish like the word though pegging down the exact type may be tricky...

Jamie Dawn said...

Those dang virtues make us all look like wretched clods.

Socialism:
As The Three Musketeers put it: All for one and one for all!
As the Mousketeers put it: Come along and sing a song and join the jamboree!

Doug The Una said...

It's true, Kyah. Heretic theologians are the worst kind.

Minka, *poof* the patches are gone.

Al, that's hilarious. I advocate that you try.

Amoeba, if Bierce is right, it might be just that.

Neva, I'm not acquainted with the Mr. Palmer but he's probably right.

Sar, you slay me.

Sounds like stylish socialism, hermana. Bohemian.

Socialists take many forms, don't they, JD?

The Old Mule said...

socialism: excessive worry about what other people are wearing.

Unknown said...

Socialism, n. A form of government that is often said to be "good in principle", usually by those who have no use for principles themselves.

Logophile said...

How fortuitous!
I had swiss cheese on my sandwich.
And I didn't even plan it out or anything.
I've always felt most theology was more holey than righteous.

Doug The Una said...

Mule, I only suspected until now that socialism, capitalism and religion were one and the same. Thank you for lifting the scales from my eyes.

Actonbell, it's a knowledge economy now, based on who you know.

a4g, I take that as a second proof of Mule's point.

Logo, how are your socks?

I Dive At Night said...

Socialism: The entirely heretical and outrageous notion that things could be better if people worked together.

AsianSmiles said...

just another style of confusing the h-ll out of their people's minds so they won't know what really happens to their taxes.

Cie Cheesemeister said...

So THAT'S where all the theologians come from!

Hobbes said...

He is indeed. So when did you see Dr. Weirsdo walking in the rain?

Doug The Una said...

Morgan, the ideology of a fire ant.

Asiansmiles, you've caught the tone here this time around. Everything ok?

Cheesie, according to this fable, yes.

Weirsdo, I don't miss much from the back of a dinosaur by which I mean, the English Department.