Thumb Update

Still numb...is that normal?

One and Many and Jason

Jason writes,

I'd partly agree with you, in that an answer can be found in the Trinity. But much like the end of the movie our answers do not have to be mutually exclusive.

I would strengthen the claim that an answer can only be found in the Trinity. I am open for an example of another answer, but I fear that it will ultimately fail. The Trinity is the one and only solution precisely because there are no other examples of how it is that unity and diversity exist in perfect harmony. Pantheisms fail in that they can only have the One. Materialism fails because there can only be the Many. To a lesser degree, whatever comes in between won't make it; they either lean more toward the one or more toward the many. In short, close but no cigar.

As to mutually exclusive answers, if the Trinity is the only answer, it follows that the answer is mutually exclusive. Anything denying this claim would therefore be false. This shouldn't be a problem, as mutually exclusiveness is presupposed in the claim that 'answers do not have to be mutually exclusive'. It assumes that the claim, 'answers do have to be mutually exclusive' is false.

Exciting Day at the Shop

I had an interesting day at work. I shot myself in the thumb with a one-and-one-quarter inch chisel tip brad nail. Actually, it was more through my thumb, as only about 3/16 of the nail went into the material, the other inch and one sixteenth went through the meaty part of my thumb. (Which, by the way, is still numb--is that normal?) I'm putting together vanities for a job we're working on and in order to do so, I shoot brad nails into the material to stabilize them and then I screw them on tight. Well, chisel tip nails are made in such a way that they curl upon entering the material. This allows them to hold stronger than straight tip brad nails. This one curled more than I expected to say the least. Here's a reinactment...

Scene opens with Josh (unaware of the encroaching crisis) working at his table, holding material with left hand and nail gun in right hand. Radio set to the Morning Animals.

Josh lines up material, aims gun, pulls trigger.

Close up on brad nail curling out of material and into (through) Josh's thumb.

*expletive*

Josh looks down at thumb to see two holes in thumb, an insert wound and an exit wound. Gore ensues.

Josh goes to clinic to get tetanus shot and sore arm.

Thoughts on I ♥ Huckabees

Kirsten...I mean, I watched I ♥ Huckabees last week. I thought it was an interesting movie. The main character, Albert, hires two existential detectives in order to solve a thrice experienced coincidence. These detectives attempt to show Albert that his problems will be solved if he will recognize that we are all connected. Life is analagous to a blank sheet, humans, events, etc. are just points on that sheet but we are all connected and ultimately part of the one reality. In short, there is only The One. Alas, just as Albert is beginning to grasp this, in comes Caterine. She is a disgruntled former star pupil of the detectives hired by Albert and takes the exact opposite view. Her therapy consists in showing Albert that nothing is connected, there is no sheet. We are all just bare particulars and life is ultimately diversity, The Many. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get at the resolution, as the most important discussion was unwatchable due to a technical difficulty with either the DVD or my player. I'm blaming the DVD.

What interested me was the attempt to solve the ancient philosophical problem of the one and the many. Not a few have characterized the whole of western philosophy as the attempt to unify in a coherent whole the innumerable particulars we encounter each and every moment. The problem with these attempts at reconciliation is that in one way or another they miss and absolutize either the one or the many. In cases of the former error, the many are eliminated, leaving only One. In so doing, the personal is destroyed, as is evident from the discussion between Albert and the detectives. In cases of the latter error, however, just the opposite effect takes place. Only the many exist and there is nothing that ties them together, as is evident in the discussion between Albert and Caterine. Only the individual exists and he alone is the measure of what is. Chaos and nihilism are the offspring of such thinking. It seems to me that we have hope of answering this question if and only if there is one and many in perfect unity and diversity standing behind all our experiences, that is to say, the problem of the one and the many is solved only in the Trinity. All other worldviews fail by sliding into one extreme or the other.

Buckle Your Seat Belts

Climb to your rooftops!

Watch for the bloody red moon!

Pack your bags baby, Jesus is coming!

According to this, were closer than ever before.