Clarification Based on a Comment and a Link

I thought I had said everything I wanted to say about the election and my response.
But I do have something further to discuss.
It was provoked first by a comment to my post last Wednesday, The Morning After.
In that post, I embedded a video from You Tube that featured a parody of the old Soviet national anthem. The parody pokes fun at the Obamaniac's rather messianic view of him, among other things.

The anonymous commentor--aren't they always anonymous?--thought that my post was "disrespectful" and that it is "One thing is being unhappy with the politics of the winner. Another one entirely is bashing the candidate that won."

I think I answered the issues well in follow-up comments and in my more reasoned post Making Ready. The tendency of Anonymouses towards no sense of humor aside,I had the sense that there was something wrong with the idea that the conclusion of a presidential election is necessarily like that of a football game, and the consequences of the ideas are just as fleeting. But I have had a bad virus, and clarity has also been fleeting. Fortunately, Kathy Jo in What He Said, found someone who said it better than I can! This is very good.

And that's the last of the links for the day!

Snows Are Falling On Sedillo Mountain . . .

". . . snows are falling so deep.

Snows are falling on Sedillo Mountain,

putting all the bears to sleep."

Of course, the song is really called "Douglas Mountain" but I couldn't resist changing it to fit our snug little house in the mountains.

I took the picture this morning as I walked the dogs. Neither rain, nor snow nor darkness of night . . . or bad virus, can keep us from taking care of them.

I did go to work at the university this morning. For a total of one hour. And then I went home. This is a nasty virus. I spent the afternoon in bed, listening to the radio, a rare pleasure in my busy life. (Listening to the radio in the middle of the day, that is. Being in bed because I am sick is less than a pleasure).

Now I am in the recliner in the Great Room (as the realtor called it), with a cup of tea--two teaspoons of honey--and the laptop. I am having a hard time thinking about much, and I am feeling so tired that I am not even feeling guilty about the fact that I can't study well. It would take too much energy. So, as the snowfall continues off and on, I have been catching up with some of my favoite blogs.

Sarah, over at Homeschooling the Doctorate, shared a very interesting discussion about the value of a college education. I have enjoyed Sarah's blog over the years, since she and her husband are both getting doctorates while homeschooling. Here at Ragamuffin house, I was getting the doctorate and homeschooling.

Then I stopped by Farmer Ernie's place, Deliberate Wanderer, to see how things are going over at Tanglewood Farm. It seems that Ernie was in an elevator in Chicago this weekend, and he ran into some celebrating Obama supporters. Just one comment: Ernie, didn't you think: "Oh, to be young and naive again!" And over at Tanglewood Farms, on Kathy Jo's blog, irony prevailed when Liberty and Justice (the chickens) died on election night, and Ernie tells us that Heidi the Cow had a bad day!

Perusing right along, I learned that I am not the only one who has seen a child attain a milestone lately! Farmer Ernie and Kathy Jo's eldest has turned 12! And Frankie, over at Kitchen Table Learners, has a new teenager in her house! (Sorry, Frankie, I had to get sick to catch up with you. It was also very good to hear that the new furnace is now installed. I hope you can catch up with your sleep). And over at The Common Room, they have just celebrated a wedding!

Sandy, over at Junkfood Science, recounts a different kind of milestone. The death of one of my favorite authors, Dr. Michael Crighton. May he rest in peace.

On the homeschooling front, Amie has new pictures of her boys and girl over at Boy Story . . . And Beyond! And I love the pictures of the fall that Mom in Madison has put up. Her Wisconsin photos often make me homesick for the midwest! Christine has been thinking a great deal about serious children's novels over at The Thinking Mother, and Susan, over at Corn and Oil, has kept me up with the latest homeschooling politics.

And of course, speaking of politics, I follow blogs across the political spectrum. Since election day, the opinions have flown fast and furious. Some, like Doc, Frankie, and Magpie Ima, were happy about the election results. Others, like me and Rational Jen did not vote for traditional people in the election, although we are still concerned. And many, Farmer Ernie, Kathy Jo, Amie, the Headmistress, and Judy Aaron are deeply concerned about the future of the Republic.

And for a large dose of rational discussion, I checked out the Objectivist Roundup, as I do every week.

And now, as the darkness falls on Sedillo Mountain:

"Trimming the wicks on Sedillo Mountain,

Shining the chimneys so bright,
Trimming the wicks on Sedillo Mountain,

So that G-d can bring on the night . . ."

Sweat Equity: Chem Geek Princess Update

The Chem Geek Princess called us as we did the walking tour of Albuquerque to tell us that she had just closed on her first house.

It is a foreclosure, so she got it for a song.
It is also an older home at the edge of a reasonably good neighborhood in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights, so with some sweat equity, the CGP should be able to resell it for more than she got it when she decides to get married.

Now, every day after work, and for long hours every weekend, she and her Very Serious Man Friend are doing some extensive remodeling. But by putting in their own work, and buying at bargain basement prices, they are converting their time and frugality into equity that will serve the CGP well. What does the VSMF get out of it? Well, he did say that he thinks it very likely that the house will become one of his rentals.
I was tempted to ask when, but, as the future mother-in-law (I hope!) I wisely refrained.
Very unusual for me.

Take a look!
The 'before' pictures were taken the day after the CGP closed.
The 'after' pictures were taken on Thursday evening, when the Boychick and I stopped by after Taekwondo.


Here is the living room before the remodeling began.

The house was entirely white on the inside, and rather dirty, but it has, as the CGP puts it, "good bones."

The CGP wanted a tree in front and she got that. There is also a grocery store within walking distance, and a very fine group of kids on the block.
The CGP loves children, so when she told the last, I was tempted to say, "So, nu? What about my grandchildren?" But with the VSMF in the room, I bit my tongue and smiled.


Here is what the CGP and her VSMF did to the living room. They painted the bottom a green-gray slate color, and put a warm cream colored Venetian Plaster textured paint above. They then installed the chair rail.

This picture is taken looking in from the door, because the chair rail was already up there! I need to get a daylight picture of the walls so that the texture is more visible. It is really stunning.

On Thursday, the carpet was not yet in. This afternoon, I stopped by, sans camera, (alas!). The CGP and her VSMF had taken our old carpet--a very good wool berber--and installed it yesterday. They got a good, albeit not perfect, carpet for free! I am currently looking for fabric to make new curtains for my breakfast nook and dining room windows, and the CGP is going to take my old ones for her front room. Again, a penny saved . . .


This is the den, before the remodeling began. It is the largest room in the house, and the CGP liked the added space it gives her.

The wood on the floor was on the wall across from the door. Very 1970's. They removed it, and textured that wall as well. The wood is going to be made into a small deck just outside the back door in the picture.
Kids these days are so much more sensible than I was! Why throw it away, if it is useful.



This is the back wall of the den in the midst of remodel. You can just see the window next to the back door on the left.

The deep cherry color really warms up the space, and the nearby walls--a warm cream--pick up a bit of the pink. The carpet was not in there yet, either, but it makes the room look even better.

The CGP moved the ordinary ceiling fan to another room, and installed a garage-sale funky fan in its place. It looks just right for the room.


Here is the master bathroom before sweat was applied.

You can see that it is very small and very white. It is really a three-quarter bath, no tub. But the CGP had plans. The VSMF has friends that own one of the local flooring companies. They contract with some of big, semi-custom home builders in town, and they have left-overs. So the VSMF was able to get an MOT discount above and beyond that gained from buying remnants of big orders.

The CGP believe firmly in the old Jewish maxim: Never buy retail.





Here is the shower with much of the tile installed. The floor of the shower has complimentary smaller tiles, and is ready for two shower heads: one in the ceiling and one on the wall.
Frankly, I'm envious!
The walls are being painted a very faintly pink cream color, but the new low-flow custom toilet (a floor model from Lowes--$25.00 plus tax, plus a water-bill rebate) has yet to be installed. The tiny new sink fits "cunningly" on the wall opposite. It has a real marble top. Another floor model, the backsplace was cracked. No matter, it can be glued. She got it all for 75% off. That's my girl!

Glass block will be used to fill in the now empty wall next to the (not yet installed) toilet. They will go up to two feet below the ceiling, and a glass door will be installed across from the sink.

Today, when I stopped by, I saw the floor tile. It is tan with a hint of pink, and the CGP had made the VSMF install some of the small shower floor tiles at every-other intersection of the floor. It was a great deal more work, as the VSMF pointed out, so he really must love her! (Which is good for my prospects for beautiful grandchildren). The kitchen tiles (the same) were also being installed, as was the small entry area and the hall.

She thinks she'll be moving within the next two weeks.

I am very excited about the empty guest room at our house. I have plans!

But . . . there's an empty spot already in the making in our house and in my heart.

Children! They grow so quickly.

Making Ready: Cross Quarter, the Election, and Saecular Winter

Christine over at The Thinking Mother made the following suggestion in her post Election Outcome a few days ago:

"Now that we have elected a new President I have an idea. How about if we all write down our thoughts about our futures and our hopes or worries?"

In her post, she says that is is not necessary to blog it, but just to write it down for our own future reference. I am going to blog it, though I certainly understand why Christine and others might want to be more circumspect.

I have not been paying much attention to the news since Wednesday. The Engineering Geek and I have both caught rather bad colds for the first time in three years. We believe it is a function of the Boychick's return to school and my return to work. More contacts with random people means more viruses we haven't yet had.

But I have been paying attention to the light and the turning of the season. Winter is coming to Sedillo, and Thursday night was the last cross-quarter day of Common Era 2008. Friday morning, the temperature at 5:45 AM was 16 degrees F.

As the sunrise appears to move south of east, the meadow grasses are dried and waving in a cold north wind.

And just as we go through the seasons of the year, our civilization goes through cycles and seasons: summery seasons of civic and economic growth, and winters of civic and economic crisis. In their book The Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe predicted that at about this time in our history, we'd be entering another winter in the cycle, another crisis in our history, comparable to others such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, or the Great Depression-WW II.

We have elected a new president, and his election is historic, not only because he is the first black president of the US, but because he has been elected at a crucial moment in our history. It is a time of war and economic uncertainty, and a time when our Constitution is in peril. The problems that he has inherited are grave, and they are not the result of the trends of the last eight years, as the campaign rhetoric would have us believe. the man we have elected to this office is relatively inexperienced: he has no executive experience and served in the US Senate for less than one full term. His campaign rhetoric about foreign policy was naive at best, and his progressive economic ideas are unseasonal and out of step with the reality that the Federal government is not only broke, but the valueof the dollar is in question due to the printing of billions, and the economies of developed nations across the world are in trouble. He is, however, a good orator, and he gave a good speech in Chicago on the night of his election. In it he said:

"And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too." (B. Obama, Nov. 4, 2008).

I am one of those Americans whose support Obama has not yet earned. I am waiting to see whether this high-flown rhetoric is real, or whether the nastiness of his supporters towards those who disagree with them is going to be the order of the day. I hear the words, but I am waiting to see how well Obama can work within his own party to quell the "partisanship and pettiness . . . that has poisoned our politics for so long", (ibid.) as well as how readily he will reach across the aisle to work with those who have different ideas. Will they be supressed or will debate be allowed? The Democrat majority in Congress has, during the last two years, been every bit as willing to supress debate as have the previous Republican majorities. And we are going into this new administration with the same leadership, only more so, of the most disapproved of Congress in the history of the United States.

Here, I need to clearly state that my concerns and views have not been represented in this election by either major-party candidate. The disenfranchisement that I feel comes from the fact that other voices were shut out by the press and the major parties, and that many important issues were not discussed. We got sound bytes and debates in which the argument was about who did not vote or did vote for specific bills, but with no indication of which earmarks or unrelated language decided their votes. Thus the trading of accusations was meaningless. And I was further unimpressed by the treatment that Sarah Palin received from the Obama supporters. Although I disagree with Palin on many issues, I was apalled by this kind of behavior. It makes me wonder what Obama means by the word 'unity.' Does it mean forced, lockstep agreement, or does it mean bringing consensus from varied viewpoints and within the mandate of the Constitution? I hope for the latter, but given the vituperative nature of the campaigns, I am prepared for the former.

As an American who loves and respects the Constitution of the United States, I accept Obama as the Constitutionally elected President of the United States. However, my loyalty must be to the US Constitution, not to his person, or the person of any president or government official. Government is our servant, not our master; the duty of government is to protect our rights, not to save the world. I am uncertain as to whether Obama and his supporters understand this. (I am certain that his predecessor did not). I will know by what he does and not what they say. At his inauguration, he will swear to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in this duty I wish him success and resilience. The Presidency is an awesome job and a great responsibility, and so I wish him health, long life, and good courage. But I do not promise him unquestioning loyalty or unwavering support. That would be inappropriate. I am a citizen, not a subject.

I believe that the crisis that is coming could not have been averted no matter who had won the presidency. As I said in response to a comment on a previous blog entry:

"Sooner or later you have to pay the piper; he is at the door, bill in hand."

The longer we try to stave off the pain, the worse it will be when we finally face it. So, just as the birds are gathering their seeds for the coming winter, we have been preparing for the coming hard times. Not with panic, but with purpose. We have stocked up reserves of food and other necessary items, in case the current printing blitz at the US Treasury leads to inflation. We have moved investments out of the country, because Obama has promised much higher capital gains tax rates. Such high tax rates have historically supressed investment, profit-taking, capitalization, and trade. We have also purchased a hunting rifle and ammunition for the Boychick, because Obama has promised to raise taxes on them. Hunting is a good way to supplement the food supplies if the recession deepens or a depression comes. The Boychick has passed his BSA badges for the rifle and the shotgun. The Engineering Geek, being a veteran, already has a rifle and a side-arm.

Frankly, I remember the Carter years, and his economic policies (which were a deepening of Nixon's and Johnson's) led to stagflation and misery for the middle class and working people. Obama's economic plans are very similar to Carter's. So I am expecting an economy like the '70's or worse.

But even though I am expecting hard times, I am not unhopeful about the future of the country. My hope does not rest upon the president, nor upon the leadership of the government; rather it rests in the wisdom of our forefathers and in the Constitution. As Thomas Jefferson said:

""It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights... Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:388

And so, as we pass the fourth cross-quarter, and move into this year's winter, I believe we are also passing into the Saecular Winter, a time of testing and crisis. The Spirit of America has been there before, and has come forth stronger.

As Judy Aaron says in the sidebar of her blog, Consent of the Governed:

"The answer to 1984 is 1776. Teach your children well . . ."

Our Constitution is in peril. If we are to emerge from the hard times ahead with our values in tact, our children must know what the Constitution says, and they must see us prepared to act upon threats to it. The greatest threat to it is the unqualified trust we have put in our government of late. We must let them know who is the servant and who is the master. It may be that the historic nature of this election can be useful for teaching our children more carefully about their rights and the proper way for Americans to secure them.

The Morning After

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The hair of the dog that bit you . . .

It's what we expected.

Voting in Tijeras: Crests, IDs, Ballots and Other Things Totally Un-PC

So call me old-fashioned.

This morning, the Engineering Geek and I drove down to the Tijeras Village Hall to vote.

Yes, on election day itself.

What a concept.

I like voting in my precinct in my neighborhood. I see my neighbors. We chat while munching on coffee and cookies provided by the Village of Tijeras.

There are some unspoken rules about what to chat about while waiting in line.

We do talk about the weather, the progress of the I-40 rennovation in the canyon, the village crest--which sports a conquistador helmet with a Zia, a Spanish sword, the charter from Spanish King Phillip II, a yucca plant and a rosary. Rural New Mexico is refreshingly politically incorrect.


Digression: Bernalillo County's crest used to sport a cross above a green hill with sheep grazing and the legend "In hoc signe venices." Then we got an influx of refugees from Lebanon in the 1980s. Some of them were uncomfortable with the cross, which reminded them of being hassled by the Christian police. So, in the name of New Mexico hospitality, the county took the cross off. For a while, the legend remained--In this sign we conquer-- proudly emblazoned over the grazing sheep. (!) Eventually, someone down at the county building in Albuquerque must have noticed the irony, because now there's just the sheep grazing on the hill and a Zia. No cross and no legend.

But back to what is and is not talked about in the voting line:
We do not talk about candidates by name, nor do we wear any T-shirts or campaign buttons.
In small towns, we have to get along long after the election is over. So the joking is mostly on the level of saying that we think we'll write in the totally politically incorrrect Coronado himself, or a neighbor, or the Rancho Verde cat that everybody feeds but nobody owns.


When they officially opened the doors to our precinct station, we filed past the poll watchers, who helped us find our numbers, and then we gave our name and address to the poll-worker. Sometimes they ask for an ID, although the Dems that run the state have made that illegal. You can just state your name and address. When a poll-worker asked for my ID--probably because I am registered third-party--I smiled and stated my name and address again. They gave me the ballot. I wrote down my ballot number as well as my registration number and page, before proceeding to vote.


New Mexico has gone to paper ballots. This is actually more efficient because we sit at study carrels and darken in the ovals with the pens provided. There is room for about 50 people to vote at once this way. So I sat down at the carrel indicated by the poll worker, and began to darken in ovals. It was a lengthy ballot, but I had looked up the ballot on line to plan my vote.


Aside from the presidential race, I mostly voted major-party for the Republicans, because I figure that if the projected coronation takes place, we'll need opposition in Congress. And there were no third party candidates anywhere else on the ticket anyway.


There was a long list of judges up for retention. There were a few I did not know about, so I left those blank. (I believe it is immoral to vote for or against someone I know nothing about). Most of the others are worthy of retention, with one noteable exception--the judge who sentenced a marine who defended his home and family from a crystal meth-crazed car thief at 2 AM to a felony because he shot the guy. I guess this judge thought the guy should have let the gang banger live to come back for revenge--maybe when the wife was home alone with the baby.


While I was mulling over this decision, I was also listening to the busy sounds of neighbors voting. In the old days of machines, the voting rooms were remarkably quiet. Not so, now that we are at carrals. An elderly man and his wife were loudly talking about this same judge. "Vote no for ______!" the wife said authoritatively. "He lets criminals out of jail."
"Too bad we can't vote out the mayor of Albuquerque," he responded. "That one is more interested in telling city workers that they can't have a candy-bar on break (not healthy enough, EHL) than in the fact that the armed burgulary rate is five per day, and the police are busy hassling elders for leaving the dog in the car for five minutes!"
"Vote against the incumbent for District Attorney,then." Said another voice. "She's the one who decided to prosecute (the marine)."


Well, I guess this couple did not wish to keep their entire ballot secret.


I continued down the list. On to the county bond issues, the mill-levy, the constitutional amendments, and the state bond issues.
The county bonds were mostly for things the county should do, not very expensive, and in one case, overdue. A few were not so good. The mill-levy was a continuance of support for UNM hospital that had been first voted on in 1957. The state bonds took even more consideration. Some would support services I use--but not everybody does. And on the other hand, all of them were expensive and the taxpayers are already in hock to the maximum. And we don't know what is going to happen with the economy. If Obama is elected, and keeps even a third of his promises to spend money the Federal government does not have, we'll be in so deep that people won't be able to pay.
So I voted against all of them.
The State's got to learn to live on what it has.


As I was checking my cheat-sheet about the constitutional amendments--some were good and some were not so good--I heard a woman behind me ask for a new ballot.
She had spoiled her ballot. She sounded frazzled, but the poll-workers reassured her and issued her a new ballot and a magnifying glass (cool, huh?); there was a little hub-bub about how to record the problem. It sounded exactly like a busy classroom.


As I continued to accept and reject specific constitutional amendments, someone came in and could not find his name on the list. I listened with interest as the poll-workers used a cell phone to call the county clerk, and then proceeded to check on how to issue a provisional ballot.
All in a day's work.


In New Mexico, the poll workers cannot turn you away ballotless. They must have you sign an affidavit that you have not voted yet, and then you can cast a provisional ballot. It will not be counted, however, until after it is confirmed that you have not voted elsewhere, and that you are a legitimately registered voter in the same county.
This is what delayed our returns during election 2004, when we were still voting with machines. But I'd rather have late returns so long as no one is disenfranchised and yet every vote is legitimate.
Given the state of patronage politics in New Mexico, however, I have serious questions about both.


Everyone at the precinct sounded awake and cheerful, not yet tired from the long day ahead at the precinct polling place. At 7:17 AM, I fed my ballot into the combination ballot-reader and locked ballot box. It read with no problem.
I had cast the 17th ballot in precinct 553. I wrote that down, too. In case of irregularities, I will go down to the county clerk's offices, as I did in 2000--when Gore won the state by just 400 votes--and be an unofficial watcher--to try to make sure the process is fair.


Now we just await the results.
Along with Rational Jenn, I Can't Look.
In New Mexico, this election will be close. And there is much at stake.


I hope there are no Ohios or Floridas this 'lection.
No hanging chads and pregnant bubbles.
It's going to be close nationwide. And the country is so divided . . .
And I worry about what ACORN may have done to fan the flames of division into a full-scale wildfire.

But I did my civic duty. Even though I have very little faith in the whole electoral process. Such as it is.

Here at Ragamuffin House, we have begun to prepare for the economic devastation of an Obama victory. But that's a different post.


Now. We. Wait.

Noakh: Here Comes the Flood

This past week, as autumn has been deepening in the Sandias, I have been living with Noakh, and the primeval mythos of origins from the Akkadian and ancient Hebrew.

It is an odd juxtoposition.
Such stories might be understood better in the burgeoning life of springtime.
But the Torah has a logic of its own. So we study the Hebrew myths of chaos, creation, the bursting of boundaries, and re-creation all in the weeks following Sukkot, as the earth travels towards the cold sleep of winter in the northern hemisphere.

Last Saturday evening, the Women's Torah Study Group had a late afternoon study session, followed by Havdalah. And since we begin the next week's parashah on Shabbat afternoon, we began the new year of study with Parashat Noakh. And then this week, along with work, news of the election, and neuroscience, I was preparing to leyn (chant) Noach for the Parallel Minyan today. And so I set the gathering stormclouds of political change and national crisis to the tune of the ancient Deluge that beset the Two-Rivers sometime in the long ago.

Parashat Noakh is interesting, following as it does on Parashat B'reshit, which contains two different creation stories and some geneologies. In B'reshit, the first creation myth tells us that creation was essentially about bringing order from chaos through establishing boundaries:

"Once when G-d was about to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a chaos, unformed, and over the face of the tehom (the great deep) there was darkness . . ." (B'reshit 1:2)

(Note the translation: B'reshit does not mean "in the beginning," a phrase that uses the definite article; rather, the Hebrew word is indefinite, signalling that this is a myth--a story told for the purpose of making meaning, not a factual report).

The first creation story in B'reshit is the younger of the two stories; it is written in classical Hebrew and it is carefully crafted to convey a precise meaning. The use of certain Akkadian words such as tehom, the root of the name of Tiamat, the primeval goddess of the Enumah Elish (the Mesopotamian creation myth) is intended to draw the hearer's attention to the similarities and differences between the two stories. For in B'reshit, the primary act of creation is done by the separation of the forces of nature, bringing order out of chaos. And in B'reshit, the capstone of each act of creation is the acknowledgement that it is good. Human beings are not the accidental product of a war between the gods as in the Enumah Elish, doomed to suffer purposeless and chaotic existence; for in B'reshit, when the human beings are made, they are the capstone of creation, and are pronounced very good. And when human beings, endowed with free-will, choose to leave the garden/womb and become moral beings, they become productive partners with the Eternal, making their living by the creative work of their hands.

From this story we learn two things:
One, that material existence is not only good, but very good. Thus, Judaism rejects Platonism.
And secondly, that bringing order out of chaos by separation and boundaries is very good.
The root of the Hebrew word for holy--kadosh-- means separate, set aside.

Judaism does not interpret the eating of the pommegranite as a fall into sin; the story is interpreted as the human first choice to know the difference between good and evil, with the attendant consequence of the recognition of human mortality. The serpent--nakhash--is the ancient Mesopotamian symbol of wisdom. This interprative difference between B'reshit and the more well-known Christian understanding of Genesis, means that Judaism has no concept of original sin. Rather, in Jewish understanding, humans are moral creatures, and in the exercise of free-will must make choices. And in Torah and in the Midrash, we see that G-d (who is not portrayed as omniscient and omnipotent) is consistently surprised by the consequences of creating human beings--who are set apart from all other animals--by this need to choose, to reach, to strive.

And this is the point of the Hebrew version of the story of the Deluge. The ancient mythos of the middle east has many flood stories, probably due to some dim memory of a great deluge--perhaps at the end of the last ice age. In the Gilgamesh Epic, the flood story is about the fruitless search for immortality, in which the hero learns that he is missing his life by making the search. But in the Hebrew myth, the story seems to be about chaos breaking out due to the transgression of boundaries by humans and by G-d. The story is confused because of the redactor's weaving of numerous older versions of the story so that multiple meanings can be discerned. However, the thread is there.

At the beginning of the story, it is said that the Eternal (Elohim) sees that human choices have made the earth full of corruption and Khamas. Khamas, often translated as 'violence,' can also mean the full range of human evil. No boundaries--no law--has been set on human choices, and so chaos breaks forth due to human choices. But further, the Eternal has not set boundaries on the Eternal. Thus the chaos that breaks forth is deadly to all life. It cannot be punishment for sin, since no law has been set forth, and since such punishment would be confined to human beings. It is rather, the transgression of the primordial boundaries set forth to bring order out of chaos:

". . . on that day all the springs of the tehom--the great deep--broke out, and the firmament opened. Rain fell upon the earth . . ." (B'reshit 7:11)

Note the use of the word tehom here; chaos, in the form of the primeval waters of the great deep, breaks forth ferociously, just as in the Enumah Elish, in the war between the gods.
And at the end of the flood, when the boundaries on chaos are remade, and when Noach makes an altar in some inchoate thankfulness for his return to life, the Eternal understands the divine mistake. Boundaries are set upon human behavior and law is made:

"Be fruitful and multiply and spread out upon the earth. And let the awe and dread of you be upon the land animals . . . moreover, for your own bloodguilt I will require your lives: The one who sheds human blood/ that one's blood shall be shed by another/ for human beings were made in the image of G-d (e.g. willfull and creative, and with an understanding of their own mortality)." (B'reshit 9:1-6)

And boundaries are also set on the Eternal:

". . .never again will I destroy all the living beings as I have just done.
As long as the world exists/ planting and harvesting/ cold and heat/ summer and winter/ day and night/ will never end." (B'reshit 8: 21-22)

The covenant is sealed with the sign of the rainbow, meant to remind both human and G-d about the boundaries set:

"Here is the sign of the covenant that I am establishing between me and you all that breath upon the earth . . . I have hung up my bow in the clouds . . . and when I see it, I will remember the everlasting covenant between G-d and all that breathes upon the earth." (B'reshit 8:13, 16).

We humans are concerned with chaos and with order. Creativity is the process of setting and breaking boundaries, only to remake them; it is the process of bringing holiness--separations--into the world for the purpose of making life good. Human beings have an understanding of chaos and the ticking of time towards our own mortality. In order to live by the work of our hands, we create the Rule of Law, that even the Eternal may not transgress. All of our science, all of our technology, and our very lives rest upon this fragile bridge: the understanding that the universe is a lawful place, that choices have consequences, and that we cannot wish away their reality.

And that when we refuse to see the difference between good and evil, when we try to wish away the reality of consequences, we loose chaos--the Deluge--again upon our worlds.

I have been thinking of all these things this week, as the politicians in this time of election, beguile us with promises that they have the power to set aside reality and its consequences.

"When the night shows, the signals grow on radios,

All the strange things, they come and go as early warnings,

Stranded starfish have no place to hide, still waiting for the swollen Easter Tide,

There's no point in direction, you cannot even choose a side.
Lord, here comes the flood . . . " (Peter Gabriel).

And human hope? It comes not from a politician who has begun to believe his own press.

Hope comes from the memory of past struggles and the establishment of boundaries. We remember that the price of our liberty is that we be mindful of what is true and real.

And that we understand that our task in life is to bring order out of chaos by our mindful choices.

And then, may we remember the rainbow . . .

Blessed are You, Eternal . . . who remembers/is bound by the covenant with all that lives . . .