hierology

[hierology]

I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today.

It's right-handed

I am right-handed

There are grooves for the thumb and knuckle to grip that fit my hand perfectly

I have calluses there from holding my stylus and pencils and the gardening tools.

There are sharper and blunter parts of the edge, for different types of cutting, as well as a point for piercing.

I know exactly how to use this to butcher a carcass.

A homo erectus made it

Some ancestor of mine, three species ago, made a tool that fits my hand perfectly, and that I still know how to use.

Who were you

A man? A woman? Did you even use those words?

Did you craft alone or were you with friends? Did you sing while you worked?

Did you find this stone yourself, or did you trade for it? Was it a gift?

Did you make it for yourself, or someone else, or does the distinction of personal property not really apply here?

Who were you?

What would you think today, seeing your descendant hold your tool and sob because it fits her hands as well?

What about your other descendant, the docent and caretaker of your tool, holding her hands under it the way you hold your hands under your baby's head when a stranger holds them.

Is it bizarre to you, that your most utilitarian object is now revered as holy?

Or has it always been divine?

Or is the divine in how I am watching videos on how to knap stone made by your other descendants, learning by example the way you did?

Tomorrow morning I am going to the local riverbed in search of the appropriate stones, and I will follow your example.

The first blood spilled on it will almost certainly be my own, as I learn the textures and rhythm of how it's done.

Did you have cuss words back then? Gods to blaspheme when the rock slips and you almost take your thumbnail off instead? Or did you just scream?

I'm not religious.

But if spilling my own blood to connect with a stranger who shared it isn't partaking in the divine

I don't know what is.

[hierology]

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE GOOD YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WALK ON YOUR KNEES FOR A HUNDRED MILES THROUGH THE DESERT REPENTING YOU ONLY HAVE TO LET THE SOFT ANIMAL OF YOUR BODY LOVE WHAT IT LOVES

[hierology]

Studying commentary on the Torah is a bit like joining a conversation that covers the entire world and all of history

This guy from the 1880s disagrees with that guy from the late Middle Ages about what the text means

A dude in 16th century Poland is building off what that dude in 12th century Egypt said about why the text is written this way

Guys come read Gemara the Old Men are fighting again

[hierology]

Imagine a bee rn in a hive muttering "the beekeeper is not real because he is not intervening or helping me at all with this disastrous relationship I have with another bee". now imagine that's you talking about the good lord. now imagine a dog with a propeller hat on

[hierology]

I don't think anyone appreciates how funny Pope Franics actually is. Imagine being elected to the head of an over the top bad guy organization that would make you the final boss of a jrpg, and you spend your entire time there sitting around and saying things like "maybe we should reconsider our 'people dying is good' policy. I'm not saying we should reverse the 'people dying is good' policy, it's been our policy for thousands of years after all, but maybe we should, oh I don't know. Reconsider it." And every time you do so it causes half of a major world religion to get so pissed off that it almost causes a religious schism

[hierology]

today’s weird medieval guys has truly captured the vibe

[hierology]

Gratified to see that Amazon thinks Robert Alter’s translation of 1 & 2 Samuel is appropriate for anyone ages one and older. It’s never too early to become a religion nerd. 

[hierology]

[hierology]

"According to the Buddhist teachings, difficulty is inevitable in human life. For one thing, we cannot escape the reality of death. But there are also the realities of aging, of illness, of not getting what we want, and of getting what we don’t want. These kinds of difficulties are facts of life. Even if you were the Buddha himself, if you were a fully enlightened person, you would experience death, illness, aging, and sorrow at losing what you love. All of these things would happen to you. If you got burned or cut, it would hurt.

But the Buddhist teachings also say that this is not really what causes us misery in our lives. What causes misery is always trying to get away from the facts of life, always trying to avoid pain and seek happiness—this sense of ours that there could be lasting security and happiness available to us if we could only do the right thing."

- Pema Chodron

[hierology]

[hierology]

For COVID reasons, our church is using tiny plastic cups to distribute wine for communion. This is tacky but understandable. There are always a few drops left at the bottom of each cup no matter how thoroughly we empty it.

My mother tucks our cups into her purse after the service, dodging the trash can set out for them. She will not throw away Jesus' blood.

When we arrive home, she fills a silver mixing bowl with fresh water and rinses them gently, the drops of wine turning the water a faint pink. She disposes of the six cups unceremoniously once they're clean—they were just vessels, now stripped of their importance.

The bowl she carries carefully into the garden, kneeling down in the dirt. After saying a short prayer, she pours the wine-stained water into the grass—she will not let the blood of Christ go down the drain. Better to bury it.

My father shakes his head and says, "If Jesus knows when to get in the wine, he knows when to get out." But he bows his head anyway.

My brother asks her why she doesn't just lick out the cups. This goes resolutely unanswered.

[hierology]

[hierology]

“And Rabbi Ile’a said in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon: Just as it is a mitzva for a person to say that which will be heeded, so is it a mitzva for a person not to say that which will not be heeded. One should not rebuke those who will be unreceptive to his message. Rabbi Abba says: It is obligatory for him to refrain from speaking, as it is stated: “Do not reprove a scorner lest he hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you.”

–Yevamot 65b

[hierology]

gender nonconformity brings us closer to God btw hope this helps

[hierology]

[hierology]