Bright Eyes, Bright Minds, & A Single Poor European Faulkneresque Paragraph Written in Six Minutes

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:           Bright Eyes;         First Day of My Life

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music in a new browser window.   You’ll need to have the music open because we’re going to have a hum along at the end, towards the bottom)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5rhhQbyYV0

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Francis Bacon:   “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”  I’d like to get knighted and called “Sir” by everyone.     I’d have sandwiches with bacon at the cermony thing.   Bacon makes any sandwich tastier.  

Albert Einstein:  “A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty – it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

 

Isaac Newton:  “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion on an intelligent and powerful Being.”

 

John Parr’s Man in Motion from “Saint Elmo’s Fire” was blasting on the Citroen G3’s radio as I careened towards Schaffhausen’s Germany/Switzerland border checkpoint, clocking in at just under 267 kilometers per hour and swerving from the car lane into the truck lane…truck lane into car lane…car lane into truck lane, the gaping mouths of the other drivers my silent compatriots as I braced for a collision, potentially unable to slip the thread of my rental Citroen through the needle of the too close together border agent booths.   As it often does, this evening’s adventure began with the German version of gummy bears, a confection one might believe to be universal all over the world, but, oh no.     The German version of gummy bears are seventeen times more gummy than in other countries and exponentially more tasty than elsewhere because Hans Reigle and the brilliant Haribo astrophysicist candyologists have more than just the standard galaxian lemon, orange, strawberry, pineapple, and lemon flavors here in Germany.    As I pulled out of Tuttlingen this afternoon, Cee Lo crooning the unedited, European version of F You on 107.3 FM, the unopened gummy bear bag sat upon the Citroen’s passenger seat, mocking me with crinkling noises as I plowed the southern Germany highways, speedometer pinned and G-forces rocking, strapped loosely into the Strasbourg Avis office’s version of a “knock knock” joke of a rental car.   The Franco Avis counter person never figured on me having my Tuttlingen car mechanic friends drop a Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine into the Citroen while I was in meetings, and they most certainly underestimated the depths of my determination to not show my passport to the Swiss border guards…high on gummy bear sugar and positively giddy about having the opportunity to watch Reese Witherspoon’s  “How Do You Know” three more times on the Zurich Atlanta leg tomorrow; just like I did on the way to Paris what seems like years ago, yet is only days.  Play the game:  you know you can’t quit until it’s done.  The Swiss flag marks the end of the faux Faulker.   End faux Faulker.

Stephen Hawking:  “Then we shall… be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God.”

CS Lewis:  “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

 

Max Planck: “the holiness of the unintelligible Godhead is conveyed by the holiness of symbols.”   God is present everywhere.

The brilliant folks above spent years and countless Number 2 pencils postulating on the existence of some sort of deity when all they had to do was turn on some Conor Oberst.  Music like the one you right clicked on above proves the existence of some sort of a deity.   Get out this weekend.    Go see some deity driven music.   Group Bright Eyes hum….key it back up to this part:

“..and I wondered if I could come home.   Hmmmm…..mmmmm…hmmmm.”

 

Thanks for visiting this evening.   Leave your carpet square over there on the way out.   Keep the cup as a souvenir.   You are welcome.   

Bonus!    Watch the video now.    That’s one of the coolest videos ever…great for a date night video.  Grab your significant or relatively significant other:  bring them over and sit together.    Rewind the video.    Watch it together and canoodle.   Rinse.   Repeat.     Again, you are welcome.

“Uh-huh.  Mmmm….mmmmmm.  Besides, maybe this time it’s different.   I mean, I really think you’ll like meeeeeeeee.  Eeeeeeee.    Eeeeeeeee.