zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — poets on the geolocation and fulminology of prophets ]
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Sources:

Sylvia Plath, The Hanging Man

Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America

[ by Charles Cameron — turning the wheel ]
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When Erik Schelzig tweeted:

Tenn. Senate Speaker @RonRamsey says Oregon shootings mean it's "time to prepare," urges Christians to get handgun carry permits. #TNLeg

— Erik Schelzig (@schelzigAP) October 2, 2015

Kevin Kruse responded

When Christ said "blessed are the peacemakers," He wasn't talking about Colt single action revolvers. https://t.co/HEnCjhTkZw

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 2, 2015

— and that’s about as neat and sweet a statement of the peace paradox as any I’ve seen.

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War and Peace: yang and yin?

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John 14.27:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

I don’t believe there’s any promise of the cessation of war here — the peace offered here is a peace that’s operative in times of both war and peace.

It must be peace from the warness of war, peace even in fighting, no?

To my mind this is the koan all peace-lovers, peace-keepers, and peace-makers must grapple with: stillness within?

I’ll be returning to this — “the dance at the still point of the turning wheel..”

[ by Charles Cameron — as if in brutal proof that “the bed waiting inside belongs to death” — that bridal and burial veils are one ]
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Does the Coalition have an official policy targeting weddings?

Sorry to be so blunt about this, but I get déjà vu these days when I read about Coalition attacks on wedding parties.

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Today, for instance, WaPo has this headline:

I believe that headline is only in white on a black background because that’s the “style” for WaPo’s “video channel” pages — but it’s suitable, really, eh? Funereal?

Lest we forget, let’s see, now, Wikipedia has entries for:

Deh Bala wedding party airstrike of July 6, 2008

Wech Baghtu wedding party airstrike of November 3, 2008

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Then there’s December 12, 2013, reported by the admirable Greg Johnsen:

If I’m not mistaken, that was also the occasion of these two headlines from Conor Friedsdorf:

Stunning, those headlines. Of course there may have been other funereal weddings that I’ve missed.

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Oh, and there’s always the money to consider:

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Headline sources:

Air strike on Yemen wedding kills

Sorry our drones hit your wedding party

If a drone strike hit an American wedding

The Wedding That a U.S. Drone Strike Turned Into a Funeral

Yemeni victims of U.S. military drone strike

Gregory Johnsen’s piece is beautifully written as always. Conor Friedsdorf’s title alone — The Wedding That a U.S. Drone Strike Turned Into a Funeral — deserves high praise.

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Déjà vu? If these things keep on happening, I’ll have to call them flashbacks.

[ by Charles Cameron — and the thought of Rabia of Basra ]
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In a variant on these words, which I’ve quoted here from Asra Nomani‘s Milestones for a Spiritual Jihad, Rabia also wrote this poem, translated here by Charles Upton:

O my Lord,

if I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.

If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.

But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then the beauty of your Face.

[ by Charles Cameron — a congruence of poems ]
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With a hat-tip to PR Beckman — and still thinking of Martin Luther King‘s dream, which the Pope mentioned yesterday.

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A poem of mine, from the long, long ago:

how can a man
sleep, with his dream
awake beside him?