St. Jerome, you rascal you

Ooh, there's so much ground to cover in this blog, but first i want to start with something i stumbled upon while reading at the breakfast table one day this week: another entry in a category of items having to do with the idea that so much of what we think we know is true is not. Would anyone who thinks of a snazzy name for this category of things post it in the comment section please? Thanks.

Jacqui had brought down from her bookcase a couple of days previously a fairly massive book about the history of dreams called Our Dreaming Mind (Robert Van de Castle, 1995). On this particular morning i was reading a section on St. Jerome, who is famous for having translated the bible in the 4th century from Hebrew to Latin; he is the author of what's known as the Vulgate version, which "served as the authoritative Latin version of the Bible until the 20th century."

As it turns out, the word for witchcraft appears 10 times in the Old Testament, and Jerome translated the word correctly on 7 occasions. However, he substituted observing dreams for witchcraft in 3 places [Leviticus 19:26 and Deuteronomy 18:10], so that the prohibition "you shall not practice augury or witchcraft" became "you shall not practice augury or observe dreams." As Van de Castle goes on to say: "The stage had now been set for the western church fathers to relegate dreams to the nether regions." [The eastern or Orthdox church followed a bible based on translations from Hebrew to Greek, and so a respect for the value of dreams and what they have to tell us was maintained more strongly in the eastern Catholic church.] The Why Jerome would have done this is an interesting little path through the woods of history all by itself, but for the rest of the story, get thee to a library or to your local independent bookseller's. Surely i can't be paraphrasin' every little interesting thing that comes across my purview, now can i.

This is like the 3rd time within the past couple of months that i've stumbled across evidence of a fact or claim contradicting another which is widely held to be true .. which reminds me all over again of the extent to which we are all personally involved in the creation of the reality which we experience. We all choose to believe (whether we admit to or are aware of it or not) that which we are told, by our parents, by our peers, by our teachers, by government and religious leaders and advertisers (etc.) and to what degree, or not. It's a lot more responsibility and work to doubt more of what 's going on around us, but personally i'd rather know and be involved in creating (something more closely resembling) the truth, than to simply go along with what everyone else is (or seems to be) thinking, just because it's less work.

Here's something else that falls into a similar category. Just about everyone will have heard about how some time ago [1992], McDonald's was sued by a woman who was burned by their coffee. The woman won her lawsuit, and part of the settlement required the fast-food chain to place statements on their coffee-cups warning customers that the beverage inside is hot. The case has generally been held up to illustrate a couple of things, namely 1) the propensity of Americans to sue over the most ridiculous things, and arguably 2) the stupidity of Americans, who require warnings on their coffee cups that the coffee might be hot.

Yes but! Did you know: 1) the woman was not driving, as was widely mis-reported; she was sitting in the passenger-seat of a car, and was attempting to remove the lid, after having placed the cup between her knees, when the cup spilled into her lap. 2) She was wearing sweatpants which held the coffee close to her skin and [get this] she suffered THIRD-DEGREE BURNS over 6% of her body.

The upshot is that -- even though they reported over 700 claims from others who in the previous ten years had been burned by their coffee -- McDonald's continued serving it at a temperature between 180 and 190 degrees F, figuring that most of their customers were going to drive some distance before drinking it. You should know for comparison purposes that coffee served at home is generally around 135 degrees F. McDonald's was serving coffee which was not just hot, it was scalding. Given the millions of people who buy their coffee, it was inevitable that some people were going to be seriously hurt in spilling it on themselves, or in attempting to drink it before it had cooled a significant amount of time. Check out the details of the case here "Warning! Coffee is hot!" and make up your own mind.

And then this morning (i'm writing this part Mon. 3/21), i learn that a quote i'd seen and fallen in love with is just the latest case of a frequently misattributed quotation! (See the Feb. 1 post for a discussion of Go placidly amid the noise and haste ... Desiderata.) It begins Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, and it was [wrongly] attributed to Nelson Mandela. It actually was written in 1992 by a woman named Marianne Williamson. This page here is a threaded discussion that attempts to nail down how Marianne's lovely poem got ascribed to Nelson Mandela (inconclusive), and is full of links to other very cool websites. One website that was among the first few hits resulting from my search for "our deepest fear" which i particularly enjoyed was this one belonging to a Danish guy .. i really liked the simple yet elegant overall design of his site, and what he chose to include there, from photos of good-looking Danish people enjoying the great outdoors (go-karting, picnicking, etc.) to his favorite recipes and writings. There's a bunch of very cool material here .. don't leave before at least clicking on his Spirit link.

Ideas for my t-shirt production business
1. My Religion Forbids Ironing

Things that make you go D-OH!
Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them.
-- Samuel Palmer (WHAT a common name! this one an english artist born 1805 - d. 1880)

Website wecommendations
Society for the Representation of Society
The Yes Men

Quotes i like
1. To be a Toltec is a way of life .. where there are no leaders and no followers, where you have your own truth and live your own truth. A Toltec becomes wise, becomes wild, and becomes free again. Toltec knowledge arises from the same essential unity of truth as all the sacred esoteric traditions around the world. Though it is not a religion, it honors all the spiritual masters who have taught on the earth.

2. You are alive. So take your life and enjoy it.
You were born with the right to be happy, to love, and to share your love.
Just to be, to take a risk and enjoy your life, is all that matters.

3. Keep your attention on today, and stay in the present moment. Today is the beginning of a new understanding, a new dream. [These three by don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements.]

Say what?
On the front door of the Exective Building, 36 W. Main St., Rochester NY (where many lawyers have offices): No Solicitors

Yes there really is a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Esteem. How many people do you suppose would screw up the courage to purchase it?

Poetry corner
I'd gone out two weeks ago to buy a birthday gift for the now 11-year-old daughter of one of my oldest friends, and after much anxious furrowing of my brow, stumbled upon a children's book i'd thought was a lucky find -- more or less within my SO limited budget -- only to find when i got it home that it was earmarked for a younger reader. i was already late getting it in the mail to her, so as best as i could tried to explain to the tyke what had happened, starting out my sorry-assed explanation in prose, and finishing (inspired, obviously) in verse, which went:

But then i had a most wonderful thought
About the big book which i had just bought:
"If Molly will READ it to our little Miss Lucy --
why, the thought of it makes my arms go all goosey! --
Then perhaps as a gift she will not find it so crappy!"
And this did she do, which made silly Doug happy.
Molly sat herself down with a sigh on an isthmus,
Consoling herself that it soon would be Christmas.

Guess what city i was living in when i wrote this ...
What's linear?
What's not?
Is it so either/or?
(What is "it?")
Yes it is so either/or.
And not.

Just call me a Dr. Suess wanna-be ...
Yes you CAN
have your cake,
And you CAN
eat it too.
Why keep a cake
if you can't eat it too?
But keep your eye
on the why
And know when to take
a break
from cake.

TONS more to share, but you'll have to wait a week.

Like what you've read? Got a bone to pick? Too much time on your hands?
Post a comment before u leave ...

See ya!