Monthly Archives: June 2013

Voting Rights Act decision, June 25

“Five unelected, life-tenured men this morning [June 25, 2013] declared that overt racial discrimination in the nation’s voting practices is over and no longer needs all of the special federal protections it once did. They did so, without a trace of irony, by striking down as unconstitutionally outdated a key provision of a federal law that this past election cycle alone protected the franchise for tens of millions of minority citizens. And they did so on behalf of an unrepentant county in the Deep South whose officials complained about the curse of federal oversight even as they continued to this very day to enact and implement racially discriminatory voting laws.”

–Andrew Cohen in The Atlantic, linked below.

The Atlantic

from Wikipedia:  “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissenting opinion that was joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. She noted that ‘Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.’[8]

NY Times

The Life of Pi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi_(film)

A strong sub-plot of this story is the progression from Pi’s offering meat to the tiger Richard Parker in his keep in the zoo, to his reaching out and touching him just before their apparently impending deaths, near the end of their voyage in the life boat.  It can be seen as Jungian integration of the shadow (the tiger) into the personality, central to the process of individuation.  As Pi explains to the novelist at the end of the story, he (Pi) is the tiger.

Sometimes religion seems like the tail feather offered by the crow to Dumbo in the movie of the same name.  This magic will enable you to fly.  This religion will enable you to live forever.  It can bestow confidence that may not already be there.  You learn eventually that you may not live forever, you may not be interested in living forever, but you find that you would rather be a mensch than a schmuck.  Religion is or can be the key.

Karen Armstrong speaks of two senses of truth, Logos (factual, scientific, literal) and Mythos (meaningful, spiritual, allegorical, metaphoric, poetic).  The movie/novel touches on this at the end, when Pi asks the novelist which account of his ordeal he prefers: the factual (?) one the insurance investigators requested, or the fictional (?) one involving an actual tiger.  Pi:  “And so it goes with God.”

Albert Nolan on miracles

“Miracles are very often thought of, both by those who believe in them and by those who do not, as events, or purported events, that contradict the laws of nature and that therefore cannot be explained by science or reason.  But this is not at all what the Bible means by a miracle, as any Biblical scholar will tell you.10  ‘The laws of nature’ is a modern scientific concept.  The Bible knows nothing about nature, let alone the laws of nature.  The world is God’s creation and whatever happens in the world, ordinary or extraordinary, is part of God’s providence.  The Bible does not divide events into natural and supernatural.  God is in one way or another behind all events.

“A miracle in the Bible is an unusual event which has been understood as an unusual act of God, one of his mighty works.  Certain acts of God are called miracles or wonders because of their ability to astonish and surprise us, their ability to make us marvel and wonder.  Thus creation is a miracle, grace is a miracle, the growth of an enormous mustard tree from a tiny seed is a miracle, the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt was a miracle, the kingdom of God will be a miracle.  The world is full of miracles for those who have eyes to see them.  If we are no longer able to wonder and marvel except when the so-called laws of nature are broken, then we must be in a sorry state.”

10[author’s footnote] Cf. R.H. Fuller, Interpreting the Miracles, London, 1963, pp 8-11.

Albert Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1978, p.33.

Reminds me of Jung’s concept of Synchronicity, an extraordinary, highly improbable event that is meaningful.