I wish today were only Armistice Day. . .

But since we've added more wars and more soldiers to our national history, I desire to honor all vets today.

Wilfred Owen, a soldier, poet, and victim of WWI wrote this poem:

Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Wilfred Owen

Pasted from <http://www.poemtree.com/poems/ParableOfTheOldMan.htm>


Soldiers sacrifice themselves both in death and life. Their willingness to do so in a world that operates on a violence paradigm puts a serious moral burden on anyone who commits soldiers to combat.

Borgesian Library Acquisition #7564

I know one thing for sure: Borges should have won a Nobel Prize.

Speaking of Borges, here are the opening lines from a new book at the library entitled Now Won:

Always talk with the person you're talking with; always be with the person you are being with. Monologues, arguments with the absent, and absent presence deprive us of opportunities to build gratitude and reverence for ourselves and others.

Borgesian Library Acquisition #7373

Title: Questing for the Authentic in the Self and the Other

Opening Lines: To grow up is to exchange innocence for naïveté. A presence that is mostly absent, delusion is dilution.

The Against Alphabet: F Through Q, Graciously by the Coffee House Cafe, Tuesday Night 22 September 2009

F by Serenity

F is against fighting, forgery, filing paper medical records, having a frenzied day and feeling frazzled; frostbite, frigid South Dakota weather and freezer burn on a fancy cut of meat.



G by J. Wise

G is against . . .

* greed that we are so overindulgent that we have lost generosity
*guns that cause grief & genocide
*always going from here to there so much that we miss the gold that is found in slowing down to greet & be kind



H by Rick L. Janssen

H is against hitmen and
Damn hades,
That HIV
And 100 degree plus
Hot days



I by Amy W.

I is against
--ignorance
--indifference
--idols
Dis-ingenuous people
--insects that bite people
--inspections
--insurmountable challenges
--intolerance
--introductions via blind dates
--IM'ing



J by Loralie Harper

J is against . . .
Jealousy
Jerkitude attitude
Jive talk and jeers
Justice for some
But not for all


K by C. Meyer

K is against killing and killing killers, against kings and killing kings



L by J.H.

L is against
Lies
Low lifes who do nothing with their lives
Laziness
Lawlessness
Losing love, life, just losing



M by Anonymous

M is against
Murder
Misery
Meniscus
Malicious marauding Martians


N by Justin B.

N is against
Nonthinking responses
Nepotism
narcoleptic Weiner dogs--No Weiner dog should be forced to live without sleep
[See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvMyuZKGKAY ]

O by Jennifer Ya-Ya

O is against overbearing, overzealous, ostentatious opinions expressed by overpaid ubiquitous ogres


P by Blaine Liebnow

P is against pointless wars that we have--
Pollution, prostitution
And the pornographic images
We allow our children to watch.


Q by Adam Wells

Q is against

Quiet . . . Most of the time
Q, because it always needs U

The Against Alphabet: E

E is against egregious entertainment, escalations, execrations and the idea of an enemy.

The Against Alphabet: D

D is against dog fighting, damnation, deception, delusion, and dreary wastes we will to remain in longer than necessary.

The Against Alphabet: C

C is against criticism, cruelty, and criminalization ("If I had been righteous myself, perhaps there would have been no criminal standing before me.")

Another Borgesian Book

For 16 months the budget has been lacking at the Borgesian Library. Thanks to a million dollar gift from a nameless donor, new books have been purchased, including one entitled Boredom Not Unto Sanctification. Its opening lines:

All the bad ideas have been taken; clichés (in thought, word, and deed) cause human suffering. Conversely, take it as a proof, similar to the argument from design, that beauty is new and everlasting.