One small achievement, one huge step for mankind!

I won the bronze!

 

It appears that I'm the third most prolific blogger in our little community, where most blogs have a readership of 2. I have been told that I can't get plenary indulgences for this.                                      

"The magisterium of the Church decides on plenary indulgences." says Rob. I have no clue what the magisterium is. Hang on, I'll look it up on Google.

The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "Whether it is in written form or in the form of Tradition". (I made some grammatical corrections to this quote)

I used to be a Catholic once. I remember that I used to recite, as an older child, "I love Jesus and I hate the Devil." This was induced by fear, and the Catholic church had taught me fear well.

I was at a wedding, last Saturday, and the ceremony was hosted by a guy from the Knox Church.

He told us, "This is a marriage of three people."

What he evidently meant was that Jesus (or God) was in the marriage too. This caused a bit of confusion for some of us who were there and not members of the Knox Church.  

I played some background music on my violin. I imagined Rob going around tables and playing the music that people liked.

"I will now play Paganini."

The wedding was in Martinborough, where they have the brandy that's made in the wire wrapper, and we made it to our B&B, only to find that it was shit. There were three of us, but I'd only paid $240. So, I drove to Greytown (no refund) and forked out another $400 for two motel rooms. An expensive night. 

I don't think that I'd necessarily call playing at a wedding fun. I had to set up a mic (and other gear) for the ceremony and, if you're playing, you can get stopped at any moment. Fortunately, there was no Neil Diamond this time.

Yesterday I drove our third motel person around greater Wellington (no Peter, it was not a sightseeing tour) for five hours. I got home just after 7pm and was wacked. Still, I won the bronze medal.

That bronze medal is the closest thing I'll get to a plenary indulgence. Anyway, a plenary indulgence sounds like a bribe.

Ciao tutti.

A great old joke.

 I wonder if Peter is cleaning a shed again today? 

I'm off to a wedding tomorrow. In Martinborough. I'm playing background music on my violin. The guy getting married is the same guy who replaced me with Neil Diamond (recorded music) when I was playing backgrounds a little while back. I guess it could be a short gig. 

Is playing background music similar to cleaning a shed? 

God would know the answer to that.

Do you get plenary indulgences if you're a Catholic and you clean a shed? Maybe it has to be a shed on church property.

Humble Catholics would probably clean atheists' sheds. Okay, there'd probably be a plenary indulgence or two thrown in for the humble guy.

Boar Ring.

 

The blogs have been a bit boring lately. Let's face it, cleaning a shed is just not that interesting.

Metaphysics is never going to compete with what cleaners get up to on the job.

Also, I've noticed that Tent Horn has been taken off the watch list.

Maybe that means the end of big words?

Yep, this blogging community is not the place to come if you're looking to read something interesting.

I guess that's why Ruby is important.

Hey, if you watch carefully, you might just catch a glimpse of me in the background.*

So, come on Peter and Robert, let's make a bit more effort to entertain (like Ruby does).

Maybe you both need some blogging lessons?

Ciao tutti.

* A bonus!

Ruby is proving to be very popular with our readers!

 Let's kick things off with a few words from Ruby.

Okay, it seems that big words are very popular, especially when one is talking about Christian religion or philosophy.

Here, at Richard's Bass Bag*, we try to help our readers along in life. So, here are some big words (and phrases) that you can throw into discussions to make you sound intelligent.

• Gigantic.
• Huge.
• Giant.
• Aircraft carrier.
• Very tall building.
• Erection.
• Very fat man.
• Very fat woman.
• Ethnomusicology (I learnt that at university, I didn't make it into 3P in 1966).
• 3,000 miles.
• Ego.
• Double bass.
• Grand piano.

I hope that helps you in your next discussion or argument.

Ciao tutti.

* the original bass bagging site 

Introducing Ruby.

 

"The right to vote is not intrinsic. Whereas morality is immutable."

 I bet that Tent Horn would have said that at some point, and very quickly.

Okay, okay, I confess, I had to look up the definition of 'immutable'.*

"Unchanging over time or unable to be changed."

While we're at it, let's check out 'intrinsic'.

"belonging naturally; essential."

So, in simple English...

The right to vote is not something everyone is entitled to, whereas morality is set in stone.

Let me try another translation...

No one can expect the right to vote but, hey, morality is not up for discussion.

Why is morality not up for discussion?

Robert the mate of Tent says, "CS Lewis said that the moral code is written in our hearts. Religious would say by God."

He went on to mention other people going with evolution as being where morality comes from.

Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian.

I don't know whether or not he invented staples or the stapler.

Personally, I don't really care what Clive thought and I'm surprised that Robert is listening to Anglicans.

As for God (humans have worshiped over 5,000 different gods), well.

I got involved with this topic through the 'bloggings' of Robert and Peter. It all seems to have started with Robert being happy that Arizona is banning abortion. 

"It's great to hear that the USA is leading the world in respecting the dignity of life." Robert says. I wonder why he didn't use bigger words when he wrote that? I mean, as a statement, it is easy to understand. That's all good, except that I must say that I'm glad I'm not a woman living in these abortion banning states who might have good reason to need an abortion. Robert would probably say that there are no reasons to justify an abortion. Sounds like Robert might be predetermining what morals we must have. Maybe Robert is one of those 5,000 gods?

Abortion or no abortion?

It seems that there is no middle ground, no room to say, "What if?"

It's unlikely that the pope will ever need an abortion.  Nor Robert.

There is no room for empathy with these old guys.

I think I'd rather have my moral code decided by someone else and preferably not that Staples guy.

Ciao.

* I don't listen to Tent Horn with a dictionary in hand.

Richard who lives slightly to the east.

 Gosh the posts on some well known seldom read blogs have been 'interesting' lately. It all seems to be about the pope and lawn mowing. Robert who lives slightly to the west brought up morals in a comment on The Religious Curmudgeon's latest post.

"Our society is all about what feels right. Morals are whatever you want them to be."

I bet he's saying that because he thinks his god made morals. Remember the ten commandments? I think his god was too concerned with what people thought about HIM - no false gods, etc. I think he wasted three commandments on that. 

The morals that we need for everyone to have a chance of living a fulfilling life are pretty obvious - don't kill, don't take other people's stuff, etc. You don't need to be a lawnmower technician to work those out. The hard part is getting everyone to practise them.

Anyway, the Testore Trio has a gig on May 4th (11am) at Tawa Library. Yes, I know, 'May the fourth be with you!'.

The trio is Richard - violin, George - 6 string bass, Daryl - guitar. 

We'll be playing some jazz standards and maybe a Neapolitan tune. It'll be good to have the band playing again. 

Okay, back to the blogging community. It seems that the pope has retrieved an old title to put after his name - Patriarch of the West. This is getting both Robert and Peter (two bloggers with a small readership) very excited about their own titles. Robert already has a few going - Robert the Sinner, Robert Sees Things in Sky (I think he's talking about Sky TV), Robert - doctor of mopping and Robert's Potato Bag. Word is that Peter is thinking of using - Peter the Lawnmower Technician, The Curmudgeon Part Three, Peter's 3 Pees or Peter's Thoughts from The Office. That last one can only be used while Lynn is overseas.

People often say to me, "It's great how your blog has never changed its title. It gives us readers a feeling of consistency. We like that."

I guess that's a lesson for both Peter and Robert... listen to your readers, even if there are only two.

Okay, it's going to be a busy day, so I'm off.

Ciao tutti.