Solar Power

Oh dear, looks like someone forgot to pay their Weather Tax, and now the sun's beaming down with incandescent fury. Who knows, maybe solar power will energize the road crew filling in asphalt seams outside of Citizens Bank.

Or maybe it'll power up this boutiquey whiskey bar, which I don't go to because that'd be tempting fate. Hey, good luck to the kids that set it up, prosper in the market place of this heat driven Texan Sahara. Once upon a time this street was lively, full of shops and custom, then the asset strippers moved in and that was that. Who knows, maybe Sol Invictus will raise it up again to glory.

In the meanwhile, even my son's exuberant and ferocious Pit/Lab cross is knocked out by the heat. Who can blame her? We all can, the wretched dog didn't pay its carbon credits.

Yours,

LSP

Sol Invictus

 

The sun rises over Texas, incandescent, unrelenting, invictus, unconquered. Do we back down and hide, skulking like so many knaves in our air conditioned dens? No, we stride out to meet the challenge, all the way to the nearest Pick 'n Steal.

Sure enough, there's modern age debris strewn across the way. A rubberized glove, some ear defenders, but no weaves, dime bags (right price, Ed?), needles, losing lottery tickets and beat up VIP passes to Taylor Swift gigs. Such is life in this blighted second decade of the Great Reset.

No matter Green New Deal, whoever said life'd be easy? Here's our 81 million vote beloved ruler, Old Joe, whom everyone loves:

Your Very Best Pal,

LSP

Transfiguration

Tomorrow's Gospel describes the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain, in which "Christ, like the sun, too bright to look upon, reveals his luminous power by the fresh colours he awakens in the wide garden of the world." (Farrer, Saving Belief)

With that in mind, you might like this, from First Things via Rod Dreher:

The glory of Christ on Mount Tabor embodies a joy that is unspeakable. In order words, the transformation of human affections impacts bodily states, causing a change in countenance. There is a radiance on the face of the joyous that pulls out the beauty of the divine image, which lays buried underneath the veils of the passions. If holiness concerns reintegrated and redirected emotion and desire so that perfect love reigns in the heart, then it creates a joy that alters human existence. The transfiguration symbolizes the Psalmist’s admonition to taste the Lord and see that he is good. Every moment of joy is but a foretaste of that deeper bliss, and it breaks through in serendipitous ways as C. S. Lewis discovered.

The transfiguration, then, symbolizes the life to come and thus the goal of ascetic pursuit. It reminds the believer that the vision of God unfolds amidst the splendor of holiness while also pointing toward the way in which the final movement to ecstatic wonder is always grace-filled and joy-laden. It is the sudden burst of divine light as when Helios peaks over the horizon casting his rays on all creation so that the world glows in the golden haze of dawn, translucent and transformed.

I like that a lot but bear in mind that the transfiguration isn't something stupid, like a reworking of the mithraic cult of Sol Invictus, a "cleverly devised myth."

On the contrary, the symbol exists because of the event as opposed to the other way around. As St. Peter reminds us, he was an "eyewitness" on the "holy mountain."

God bless,

LSP