riviersonderend

Nou ja, dit is feestyd en dit is ook verjaarsdagtyd. 26 Desember sal riviersonderend presies een jaar oud wees. Ja, die blog het op Welwillendheidsdag (in Engels bekend as Boxing Day) die lig gesien.

Baie water het intussen in die rivier geloop. Ek wil nie nou te veel skryf oor volgende jaar nie, maar daar gaan ‘n paar veranderinge wees. Die tyd het aangebreek om bietjie koers te verander. Diegene wat die afgelope paar maande aanhou lees het, ten spyte van die doellose ronddobbery, dankie.

Intussen wens ek elkeen ‘n wonderlike feesgety toe. Spandeer en vier dit op die manier wat vir jou sin maak. Dans waar jy ook al mag wees.

Riviersonderend gaan ook stiller raak gedurende hierdie tyd, want George gaan Italië toe. Wat maak ‘n mens in Italië in die winter, wil jy weet?

Maklik, jy drink chianti en grappa, eet antipasti, primi, secondi en i dolci. En dan gaan hang jy rond in Monsummano Terme se spa’s. En jy gaan shop in Firenze. En jy het ‘n date met Michaelangelo. En besoek moontlik Elba, nie omdat jy lus is vir Napoleon se sad storie nie, maar omdat jy op ‘n ferry wil ry. Of dalk doen jy dit maar net om weer goeie vriende wat oor 4 kontinente versprei is, te sien.

Ek is klaar besig om my Italiaans op te knap, want sekere dinge moet jy kan sê, soos:

Vorrei una birra/vino rosso/vino blanco (Ek soek ‘n bier/rooi wyn/wit wyn).
Basta! (Hou op).
Il motore si scalda (Die enjin oorverhit).

Ek sluit die jaar af (as daar nie ‘n internet-kafee langs die Bar Trattoria is nie – wat ek werklik hoop nie die geval is nie) met ‘n ietsie vir Stille Nag-aficionados. Ek hou daarvan, want dit is in Gallies, die naaste menslike taal aan die elwe se taal in Lord of the Rings:

My wens hierdie feesgety is van John O’Donohue:

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to your self.
May you be able to journey to that place in your
soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion,
kinship and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth and light
that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated; but may you always be
in the gentle nest of belonging with your
anam cara.

In lig en liefde

‘n Ruk gelede is daar hier gepraat oor die moontlike relevansie al dan nie van die goddelike. Eintlik wil ek by Gorecki se 3de simfonie (The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) begin om die vraag te antwoord. Maar ek het gedink dat dit dalk ook nodig is om kortliks te verduidelik hoekom reeds gebaande weë nie ernstig as opsies oorweeg kan word nie. Daarmee bedoel ek natuurlik dat daar nie metafisiese antwoorde te vinde is in die Christelike geloof nie.

Aangesien daar genoeg materiaal is wat oortuigend die probleme met Christelike dogma aangetoon het, wil ek nie regtig hierby vashaak nie. Ek plaas wel 4 aanhalings wat in ‘n neutedop van my grootste probleme met hierdie geloofsisteem vasvat:

Albert Ellis: In a sense, the religious person must have no real views of his own and it is presumptuous of him, in fact, to have any. In regard to sex-love affairs, to marriage and family relations, to business, to politics, and to virtually everything else that is important in his life, he must try to discover what his god and his clergy would like him to do; and he must primarily do their bidding.

Albert Einstein: If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

George Smith: In exchange for obedience, Christianity promises salvation in an afterlife; but in order to elicit obedience through this promise, Christianity must convince men that they need salvation, that there is something to be saved from. Christianity has nothing to offer a happy man living in a natural, intelligible universe. If Christianity is to gain a motivational foothold, it must declare war on earthly pleasure and happiness, and this, historically, has been its precise course of action. In the eyes of Christianity, man is sinful and helpless in the face of God, and is potential fuel for the flames of hell. Just as Christianity must destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.

Paul Churchland: History aside, the almost universal opinion that one’s own religious convictions are the reasoned outcome of a dispassionate evaluation of all the major alternatives is almost demonstrably false for humanity in general. If that really were the genesis of most people’s convictions, then one would expect the major faiths to be distributed more or less randomly or evenly over the globe. But in fact they show a very strong tendency to cluster…which illustrates what we all suspected anyway: that social forces are the primary determinants of religious belief for people in general. To decide scientific questions by appeal to religious orthodoxy would therefore be to put social forces in place of empirical evidence…

Om dus die vraag te antwoord sal ‘n mens baie verder moet soek. Geloof bied ‘n skuilplek teen die realiteit van die vrae van ons bestaan.

Daarmee meen ek nie dat mitologie nie waarde het nie. Mens moet net versigtig wees om dit nie vir die waarheid aan te sien nie.

Almal van ons het ons voorkeure. Uit die aard van die saak deel ons nie noodwendig mekaar se voorkeure nie. Ek lees hier van sonkind se voorkeure, en wonder toe as jy nie straight/gay was nie, maar aan die anderkant van die draad gewei het, op wie sou jy ‘n hopelose crush gehad het? Hel, skrap daai laaste sin, jy hoef nie eers aan die anderkant van die draad te wei nie…

Wie is jou man crush, of woman crush?

Ek wou natuurlik Angelina Jolie gekies het, maar dit sal te boring wees. Wie sal haar nie kies nie?

So, sonder enige verdere verwyl, hier is my hottie:

Sheryl Crow mense!