Saturday, January 01, 2005

 
Submitted for the comments thread Scrappleface.com's "Study: Family, Friends Reduce Quality Internet Time.":

Well, the internet *did* allow me to come up with the following links-which are probably of more interest to other Scrapplites than to me. While the subject is a little off-topic(though not exactly "off-season"), you all might wish to "discuss amongst yourselves" -or with family members:

Deciduous Man Walking
Or: A True "Christmas Tree" Miracle?

I clicked on John J. Miller's NRO Corner link (amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001F7U9S/ref%3Dnosim/nationalreviewon/104-8397531-0799937)to his "favorite album of 2004," *Seven Swans* by Sufjan Stevens, thinking that it was probably a joke and/or that the "Sufjan"(1) was one of the names of the artist formerly known as "Cat." The audio clips on Amazon, while not for my taste, suggest that Miller was serious. And the title of the track, "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands" reminded me of an old National Review article about Mark's account of Jesus healing a blind man.(carmical.net/articles/bethsaida.html) Before reading that, I had not recalled hearing of the formerly blind man's statement, "I see men as trees, walking" perhaps because my ministers might have left that part out -finding it a little weird or incomprehensible.
I should state for the record that I no longer have a Christian faith and also note that the *History Channel* broadcasts a segment from time to time documenting the ability of Roman surgeons to extract the lens of someone suffering from cataracts. And perhaps there will come some debunking similar to the radio-carbon dating of the "Shroud of Turin,"(yeah, I know there's debate about the contamination by fire) but I doubt that many will read D. Keith Mano's piece without being inspired, or disturbed or *something*.

1.One hopes that some murderous Islamofascist doesn't suspect that this musician is someone who has committed the capital crime of converting from Sufism.