Thursday, May 9, 2013

The ironies of life, part 2



As we all know, life is full of ironies.



If you’re a regular follower of this website, you may be interested to know that the article connecting James Dean and Paul Newman is one of the most popular stories that I’ve published to date.

Another story laced with irony surfaced in a local newspaper a few days ago, but the original source was the very familiar Associated Press. The irony comes, in part, from the link between today’s world and some ancient writing, but also includes a link between religion and an author who would be considered a heathen by some members of our society.

Cursive is rapidly becoming a dying art, but there was a time when it was vital to the preservation of history. During the depths of the Dark Ages, Irish monks painstakingly copied manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, thus ensuring their survival to the present day.

After the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century, writing by hand became less important, and typewriters and personal computers have made the art form even less popular.

In view of the diminishing importance of handwriting, why in the world would someone copy an entire book entirely by hand? More to the point, why would anyone want to copy the most revered of all books, the Bible, when there are already MILLIONS of printed copies of the book already in existence?

No one knows for sure, but the man who could provide those answers for you is a New York resident named Phillip Patterson, who has spent 4 years copying the King James version of the Bible by hand. His project will be completed in the near future, at which point he plans to donate the completed work to his church.

His inspiration for the project came from his domestic partner, who is a Muslim. Patterson himself does not consider himself to be a religious man, even though he DOES attend church on a reasonably regular basis. The fact that he is a gay man would likely cause consternation among those who are quick to drag out a particular verse from Leviticus, but that fact doesn’t diminish the fact his efforts make him a holier man than most of our society.

Homosexuality has existed in various societies since the time of the ancient Greeks, and likely before then. What did Jesus say about homosexuality?

Absolutely nothing, a fact that's ignored by the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.

There have been countless songs over the years about ironic situations, but only ONE song that was titled “Ironic”, which Alanis Morrissette recorded in 1996, when she was 22 years old:

isn‘t that ironic?

An old man turned ninety-eight

He won the lottery and died the next day

It's a black fly in your Chardonnay

It's a death row pardon two minutes too late

And isn't it ironic... don't you think

It's like rain on your wedding day

It's a free ride when you've already paid

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

Who would've thought... it figures

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly

He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye

He waited his whole damn life to take that flight

And as the plane crashed down he thought

"Well isn't this nice..."

And isn't it ironic... don't you think

It's like rain on your wedding day

It's a free ride when you've already paid

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

Who would've thought... it figures

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you

When you think everything's okay and everything's going right

And life has a funny way of helping you out when

You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up In your face

A traffic jam when you're already late

A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

It's meeting the man of my dreams

And then meeting his beautiful wife

And isn't it ironic...don't you think

A little too ironic...and, yeah, I really do think...

It's like rain on your wedding day

It's a free ride when you've already paid

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

Who would've thought... it figures

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you

Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out

Helping you out

No comments:

Post a Comment