“Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown.” [*]

..
………..
ρῷ 1we are but ………..………..ρῷ 1we are but ………..
ῥέειnow, R but………………..ῥέειnow, R but………
, ἀand whe A\ t……. ……….., ἀand whe A\ t…….
μw e ha ve b.……………..μw e ha ve b.……
6 φὶbeen fo Zr. ……….. 6 φὶbeen fo Zr.
δὲ κfive ye .Aa ……….. δὲ κfive ye .Aa
swin…ang…ines ……….. swin…ang…ines
W I M P L E , C O R N E T T EEPeirc
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…Venice passed under
…the power of
…Napoleon’s
…France

……………

Stomach sounds: like  spirited firefight in the future with lasers, followed by frog croaking, then a water glass being filled up from the tap. (The future, the swamp, and the everyday represented in this extraordinary temple or sculpture I’ve found to my side.)

Attendant at home: moment at which the cat instantly withdrew her bare foot from your bare foot, on realizing the latter was not the floor.

Attendant at home: What was that moving in his water glass, a bug? “It is a dark bead of refracted light,” he replied.

Cooling Strategy. Out the window, pedestrian spit out water into his hand and washed it over his tilted head. He breathed out and poured the contents of the water bottle over his head, then exhaled deeply twice again, his eyes in a dead stare. He drank from the water bottle, spit it out into his hand, rubbed it over his face and hair, and disappeared from view.

Good from Ezra Klein on whether climate change warrants eco-terrorism (no, because bad politics) and why it hasn’t already (we don’t believe in the future). Good afterward from Kevin Drum (humans have a history of destroying the environment they depend on. Only way out: massive investment to find new energy source.)

I fault Klein’s take a little for not taking on the idea of a climate John Brown. John Brown was bad politics, of course, but the issue was not to be solved politically.

*

God gives us these trials to teach us lessons, customer said. (What lesson did you learn?) To save money.

Customer was green-card holder carrying 7000 in debt from back rent accrued during Covid. Had one more day of not having “a penny to his name” (but a 401k and small crypto account) before first paycheck, which would be for 1500.

(Band name conceived on learning French name for owl: The Chew Its.)

Learned a new joke (what’s the difference between roast beef and pea soup?) in the morning and told it four times throughout the course of the day scoring two hits and two misses. I thought the key to the delivery was giving only the first half of the punchline while letting the customer supply the rest (well, you can roast beef…) but some customers couldn’t put the rest together on their own (but you can’t pea soup.) Interesting to reflect on how much the joke recipients’ enjoyment of the joke may depend on the level of their intellectual involvement in finding the answer. If they have to think about it (whether before or after hearing the punchline) does that make it funnier or not?

Dried fallen leaf on a branch shadow of the pavement. Cold to go cup lid in the shadow of a trunk.

.
…………iD….. *……..*……..* ……………..
f ………..dl..,. * * …… A. a I
a……………..O.,,…....v v ………iR
f………………,,,th…e a ……..,,,,,iv a v
f………………,,,….. hl……………,,,,,a i
a………………,,,…..ta…………..,,,. A R I
b………………,,,…..e. c ………….,,,,,.v a
o………………,,,…..m.. h ………….,,,,,.i r
u………………,,,…..o.. i …………..,,,,,.vair
…………..pae of Set l………… ale of eett l em…………….
…..d ……………………….. ……… …….. s…..
……..i………….cCt..i_a_a_cCt…….. o….
….s……….. oaa.|_ _ _|oaa………t
….p…………… lsn| _ *. |n……….n
….o……………daa|_ _ _|daa……….n
….s……………brf yiaaiaabr>f y……….e
6 φὶbeen fo Zr. ……….. 6 φὶbeen fo Zr.
δὲ κfive ye .Aa ……….. δὲ κfive ye .Aa
swin…ang…ines ……….. swin…ang…ines
W I M P L E , C O R N E T T EEPeirc
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…Venice passed under
…the power of
…Napoleon’s
…France

Based on internal evidence you affirm the soul to exist, now what do you say the soul to be? “‘I believe in myself and the spirit that’s in me.'” Correct. And now what do you think of intellectual activity and the soul? Do you think you are being more soulful, so to speak, when you’re doing a math problem than when you are working on your car or performing a feat of strength? What do you think?

“This may depend on the specific soul we’re talking about — on who a person is and what it means for them to truly ‘be themselves.’ But I suppose the head has an instrumental use like the hand has an instrumental use and is not any more related to soul than is the hand. A football player would be more himself performing the physical work of playing football than he would be performing the mental work of a mathematician. (Though, by the way, there’s significant mental work involved in playing sports.)”

Well, I accept that but still disagree with what you’ve said on two counts, if you care to hear them? Well, since I am you I don’t see any objection –what is the first? Consider the situation in which the football player reflects on his own playing. (Okay, I already agree with you, just by hearing mention of that concept of self-reflection, but let’s go ahead and flesh this out.) The football player watches himself on tape, identifies certain positive and negative patterns to his playing, and generates a plan to promote the former and delimit the latter. This is a sort of intellectual activity and I would say it might plausibly represent something more “soulful” than his actual playing. Because remember: before too long that football player is going to be too old to competitively play football, and yet the knowledge he derives from playing and reading and thinking about playing will always remain with him. (Although I already told you I agree with you, and I do, I hadn’t thought of that part of it yet, and find myself even more persuaded by you than I was initially. You’re entirely correct and there is no need for any additional argument.)

Second, consider prayer and/or meditation. Feelings of piety, tranquility. Perhaps you would call these the opposite of mental activity and a kind of anti-thought; nevertheless it is something that occurs in the head, or at any rate involves a mental condition, and it is also something involved with what we think of as our essence and soul. We don’t meditate or pray with the foot or stomach but with the brain, it’s a mental activity. So there again you have the head and mental activity associated with the most important of all human activities, not merely the uses you’re calling instrumental.

Related question. You saw a sort of menacing religious meme on the internet today that said “Satan doesn’t ask you to believe in him but asks you to believe in yourself,” which sounds a little like our Tolstoy quotation from a moment ago– “I believe in myself and the spirit that’s in me” — how do you respond to this? Do you think that belief in yourself could be wrong or sinful? I respond that believing in one’s self has got to be in some sense fundamental. Even if you decided to commit your life to a religious purpose, and if you said “not my will but thine…” there must be some you in you who has made that decision, an adult of some kind. Further, I would say that, while of course people who believe in “something higher” will want others to believe in that thing more than in themselves in a certain sense –“lean not on thine own understanding” and so forth– it is perverse to identify belief in self with evil incarnate. Believe in yourself, believe in Jesus, but believe not in the person who made that meme, is how I would respond.

Customer said he was glad attendant had forgotten the soup — he had already had enough to eat and would just have it the next time he came in.

The real suffering observed in the eyes of the customer as he ordered something, imploring eyes; then not an hour later, seeing him handcuffed and put in a squad car.

Customer said her momma was “her to the twentieth power,” was her “but even laughinger and louder.”

The way certain people put money in the tips receptacle indicating they’ve worked in hospitality: a manner of concealing the usually overly large amount they put in, thrusting their whole hand in.

The curve of the customer’s heel corresponded with that of his elbow, and the line where his rear met the seat mirrored that where his shirt met his pants.

Customer rotated his still wrapped brownie on the counter as he spoke– one edge per half independent clause spoken, I approximated.

Customer said she was involved in the Chamber of Commerce in a neighboring region and was impressed by the quality of the community around here — dogs and families, people out for walks in the evening.