The Divine Secrets of the Bedraggled Fatherhood

Sweltering weather, it seems, is bedraggling our minds in Ontario this summer. This blog topped the 1,000 hit mark recently, which truly boggles the mind. Who reads this blog outside of a coterie of friends? Evidently readership is greater than I think.

Aside from awaking stiff as a rock this morning from playing baseball yesterday, I have no reason to complain. Similar to the day I sought my fiancée's parents' for their blessing and permission to marry Vivian, today brought nothing but good tidings. I got a pre-approval for $10,000 ($15,000 if parents co-sign) to finance a new automobile, I got praise on my first cash training shift for being able to handle my own (without needing another cashier to supervise as wonted), and I got to come home and relax after work today - even sneaking in an afternoon nap.

In terms of books, I continue to read Golding's Pincher Martin, nigh to half-way done. A friend at church is reading The (Ethiopian) Book of Enoch, too, so I'm re-reading it for the sake of discussion. That, and there is something about this ancient apocryphal text that titillates the imagination. One particular aspect of the story, including the same tale from the Torah, about the angels or Watchers hankering for the daughters of man and thus begetting the giants or Nephilim has always disturbed me. Perhaps it's postmodern hay-fever, but I've always thought that the tale of the Nephilim and their annihilation to be a perfect parable for our modern world - overtones of racism, genocide, eugenics, power, cannibalism, all the relevant, as well as literary things for our times. Of course, I understand the biblical interpretations of the original story - children of fornication, death and destruction, amok with God's plan for mankind, - but this tale has always bothered me. Take for example: And to Gabriel said the Lord: 'Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy the children of the Watchers from amongst men: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have (1 Enoch 10:9). I know I'm being modern, that I will admit, but in terms of a story, it makes me queasy to fathom it. Assuredly, celestial fornication and divulging divine secrets of the heaven is anathema, everything amounting to excommunication from God's fatherhood, akin to Lucifer, and leading to bloodshed, all in all, not a good thing. I do admit, though, that The Book of Enoch makes much more sense of its gravity, in the case of man relationship with technology, witchcraft, magic, make-up, metallurgy, thaumaturgy, &c and all things that a biblical God regards as intervening between He and his kin. But that's enough for now.

Adieu.