part 2: ... and I feel fine.

I watched The Matrix for the first time yesterday morning. Any movie that combines philosophy, science fiction, and gymnastics is just good television, friends. I'm also in the middle of Specimen Days, by Michael Cunningham, and a few weeks ago I reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, wherein Dumbledore teaches Harry that believing makes it - anything - so. That's what I took from The Matrix, too. When he no longer believed bullets were real, he could catch them. Something about this idea makes me want to argue against it, but isn't this the basis of faith? Isn't the most basic tenet of Christianity is that by believing Jesus has saved you, He does? And by believing he hasn't, He doesn't? Doesn't Jesus reiterate this by the miracles? "According to your faith will it be done to you," and all that? But are there limits on this? And how does it fit into the current conservative Christian argument for absolutes? I don't know. I don't have any answers.

Anyway, because of Michael Cunningham and Keanu Reeves, the end of the world has been on my mind lately. In honor - Emily Dickinson.

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond-
Invisible,as Music-
But positive,as Sound-
It beckons,and it baffles-
Philosophy-dont know-
And through a Riddle,at the last-
Sagacity must go-
To guess it, puzzles scholars-
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Cruxifixion, shown-
Faith slips-and laughs, and rallies-
Blushes, if any see-
Plucks at a twig of Evidence-
And asks a Vane, the way-
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit-
Strong Hallelujahs roll-
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul-