People occasionally say to me "be blessed" in farewell. I don't mind it. I am of atheistic leaning, so I conclude that the only blessings coming my way will be in the other person's mind. But, it is a nice gesture, and I just smile away with my lips zipped.
Well, sometimes I do say "thank you."
Now, I have only heard this incantation during the past 10 years or so. Before then, no one said "be blessed," except when I sneezed and was told "bless you." This rise in the "be blessed" well-wishing got me to thinking about the phrase.
Etymology is not my strong suit, but I find word and phrase origins very interesting. A quick search via Google turns up virtually nothing about "be blessed", except for a song by that title by Yolanda Adams, published in 2005. That could be the origin of the use of the phrase in everyday life, but that is only speculation on my part.
One thing I do notice is that the folks who use the phrase are extremely devout Christians of some ilk. This suggests either the normal human action of familiar repetition, as if to continually reaffirm their identity to a group, or the efforts of someone or someones who want to combat the usage of another phrase:
"Blessed be"
This phrase is the de facto Wiccan greeting. You may know these people as witches. I came to know several witches long ago, when I immersed myself in pagan rituals looking for some meaning to life.
The Hollywood version of witches and Witchcraft is so far off base, it is pathetic. Wiccan rituals reminded me of the Christian dogma in several ways. Just to give two examples: (1) Whereas Christianity holds the belief that their God is one and three entities at the same time (Father, Son, & Holy Ghost), the Wiccans hold that their Goddess is one and three entities at the same time (Maiden, Mother, & Crone); (2) Christians hold several days in the year holy including Christmas and Easter, where the Wiccans likewise hold several days (sometimes the same) holy. As examples, there are Yule and Ostara, celebrated December 21st and March 21st respectively.
One more item: "Magic" in the Wiccan idiom is nothing more than personal enlightenment.
21 May, 2013
20 May, 2013
Bill Maher, Where Art Thou?
My wife and I watch only a handful of shows on television -- all but one on the pay cable channels -- and so we make an effort to listen and discuss what we see. I know several people who watch a lot of TV, yet do little more than laugh at the jokes and comment on the quality of the advertisements. In other words, my wife and I are highly selective creatures of habit who make time to watch the few shows that we find interesting or entertaining.
We have watched every episode of Real Time with Bill Maher because we found the show both interesting and entertaining. And until very recently Bill has held a fairly steady course, holding the candle (in his own way) up to the Generally Accepted Lies and Untruths in our society. This was one of the reasons we dropped our carcasses onto the couch for 60 minutes on a night when we might have better things to do.
Last week, Bill started off the show with the obligatory special guest and quickly set the stage for a point of view that has been simmering in his head for a while. Too bad he lost it.
Maher said quite clearly that he thought Islam teaches its devout to make war with and lay waste to the rest of the world. Wow. He further drove that point home during a roundtable tete-a-tete with Glenn Greenwald.
Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn countered with a description of destructive US foreign policies. Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn said the USA was partially responsible for the anger in the region, pointing out the recent Mulsim-friendly targets and the coziness the USA has with anti-Mulsim states (like Israel). Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn said other religions were bad and gave the Crusades as an example. Bill said Muslims were bad right now and the others were bad long ago, so they don't count.
Now, Bill and I share some of the same opinions on religion, but his jingoistic "Muslims bad!" is so far from the truth, it was painful to watch Bill ignore Glenn's arguments, especially since Bill had been one of those voices who lamented the US foreign policy.
If Bill keeps this up and his shows become an Islam-bashing frenzy, he will lose us as an audience.
We have watched every episode of Real Time with Bill Maher because we found the show both interesting and entertaining. And until very recently Bill has held a fairly steady course, holding the candle (in his own way) up to the Generally Accepted Lies and Untruths in our society. This was one of the reasons we dropped our carcasses onto the couch for 60 minutes on a night when we might have better things to do.
Last week, Bill started off the show with the obligatory special guest and quickly set the stage for a point of view that has been simmering in his head for a while. Too bad he lost it.
Maher said quite clearly that he thought Islam teaches its devout to make war with and lay waste to the rest of the world. Wow. He further drove that point home during a roundtable tete-a-tete with Glenn Greenwald.
Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn countered with a description of destructive US foreign policies. Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn said the USA was partially responsible for the anger in the region, pointing out the recent Mulsim-friendly targets and the coziness the USA has with anti-Mulsim states (like Israel). Bill said Muslims were bad. Glenn said other religions were bad and gave the Crusades as an example. Bill said Muslims were bad right now and the others were bad long ago, so they don't count.
Now, Bill and I share some of the same opinions on religion, but his jingoistic "Muslims bad!" is so far from the truth, it was painful to watch Bill ignore Glenn's arguments, especially since Bill had been one of those voices who lamented the US foreign policy.
If Bill keeps this up and his shows become an Islam-bashing frenzy, he will lose us as an audience.
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