Juarez resisted the French occupation, and, with military help from U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, expelled the French in 1867. He was reelected President twice more, in 1867 and 1871. He died of a heart attack while in office.

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Tough, stubborn, and unstoppable, Juarez is remembered in Mexico today for his belief in democracy, the rights of Mexico’s Indians, and secular government. He is generally regarded as Mexico’s greatest president, and has been called “Mexico’s Lincoln.” He came closer to realizing the dream of an independent, federal, and democratic Mexican republic than anyone before the Mexican Revolution.

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Photo: President Benito Juarez, WikiCmns, Public Domain.

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Þ

It’s 8:08 in the morning, but here goes anyway:

the question is shadow to the answer

So, an unusual but satisfying start to the day…  RT

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Photo: Cafe on the River See; User, Mattes; WikiCmns; Public Domain.

Valentine’s Day evokes as many tears as its does sighs of pleasure; love is the most desired, and yet the most difficult, emotion. We fall in love with people who do not love us, or who can’t stand us; or again we see that someone loves us and know that the relationship cannot work for practical reasons; and still other times we marry the person we imagine is right for us, only to find ourselves falling out of love with him or her, sometimes many years later.

We hunger for experience, for intensity, for connection–and nothing beats the sheer exhilaration of falling in love. It is the lifeforce itself, as people all over the world recognize.

Surely with mankind the appreciation of flowers must have been coeval with the poetry of love. 

—Kakuzo Okakura

And I can think of no better love poetry to celebrate this demanding but essential passion than the Song of Songs. Here is its opening:

ς

The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

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Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.
Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?
If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

ς

Happy Valentine’s Day!       RT

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Photo: Old Love Letters; Rachel Ashe; WikiCmns; CC 2.0 Generic.

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Another superb image from the seemingly inexhaustible work of Edward S. Curtis….    RT

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photo: Cahto Woman (1924); Edward S. Curtis; WikiCmns; Public Domain

morning.

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The Book of Kings records some of the most powerful–and violent–stories in the Bible. In its pages we find Elijah summoning the rain, the death of Jezebel, Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem, and the reforms of the Judean kings Hezekiah and Josiah. Kings is our principle source of information on the history of Israel’s divided monarchy–the period between 922 and 722 B.C., when the twelve tribes were ruled by two different kingdoms–the Northern Kingdom of Israel (or Samaria) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

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The victors write a conflict’s history. 1 Kings and 2 Kings (as the Bible presents Kings) are fine examples of this adage, emphasizing the apostacy of Samaria from the true religion of God. Kings makes no bones about how Samaria veered off course: 1) it rejected the rule of the House of David (mandated by God); 2) it worshipped at the two cult centers at Beth-El and Dan (as opposed to the true center of worship, Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem); and 3) it worshipped the Canaanite god Baal and his images (which were forbidden by the Torah). God eventually gave up on Israel and allowed the Assyrian Empire to conquer the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. (Judah, on the other hand, survived the Assyrian assault.)

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Let’s see if we can add some details to this picture. We should begin by noting that the Judeans worshipped Yahweh (or at least the elite did) at the temple built by Solomon. Archaeological evidence has shown that this picture holds true only for the major cities–outside the cities, people continued to worship the old Canaanite gods at local altars–as was the custom throughout Samaria.

In contrast, the Samarians followed two gods–in the south, they continued to worship Yahweh at Shiloh (though David had moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem); in the north, they worshipped Baal at his various altars. This cultural/religious split proved profoundly destabilizing for Samaria and eventually led to its collapse.

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But not before the Samarian kings went to extraordinary lengths to eliminate the religious division in their realm. Jeroboam I (r. 931-910), the first king of Samaria, built the “golden-calf” cult centers at Dan and Beth-El as a means of unifying the ritual practiced by northern and southern Samarians and named a new priesthood to each meant to reduce religious tension in his kingdom. Ultimately, he failed; after his death, his heir was murdered and a new royal house took its place, suggesting that a substantial part of the population had rejected his compromise. Several decades passed without a further attempt at resolving the religious split.

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Enter Omri and Ahab, the greatest kings that Samaria produced. Omri (r. 876-869), perhaps wanting to imitate David, purchased a steeply sided hill and built an impressive new capital city on it, which came to be called Samaria. The top of the hill was levelled–an extremely demanding and expensive architectural feat at the time–and the city surrounded with walls built of the highest quality ashlar masonry–another expensive item. It appears that the city had a highly cosmopolitan population, including a considerable Syrian merchant community–to satisfy the residents, Omri probably permitted the construction of temples for Yahweh and Baal within the city walls.

And there is the question of where the money to build this new city came from–RT guesses that Ittobaal funded the project, in return for a marriage contract authorized by Omri.

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But it is with Omri’s son and heir, King Ahab (r. 869-850), that Samaria came to be associated. Though Ahab was the greatest of Samaria’s kings (bringing his country’s fortunes to their zenith), he is mostly remembered for his marriage to Jezebel (the name means “Baal Exalts”), the daughter of a powerful Phoenician King, Ittobaal (r. 878-847), who managed to unite most of Phoenicia under his rule. Ittobaal was a priest of Astarte before he seized the throne of Tyre, and it seems his daughter was bent on imposing the worship of Tyre’s pantheon, and in particular, of Baal, throughout Samaria/Israel. She honored the prophets of Baal by dining with them, and may have ordered a mass execution of the prophets of Yahweh–a gesture it seems was reciprocated by a massacre of the prophets of Baal.

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How did Ahab respond to the appalling religious war in his kingdom? RT thinks he may have ordered the composition of the Elohist (or “E”) text, tasking its author with writing a work that would unite his kingdom under the worship of another, compromise, ancient divinity, El (or Elohim)–who reveals himself in the middle of the story to be none other than Yahweh.

In short, the Elohist text was the first of the four main strands of the Pentateuch to be composed. During a bitter struggle over the worship of Baal and Yahweh, the Israelites took the first step towards forging a new world consciousness.

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P.S. What does the Ivory House have to do with all this? Could the reference have been to a winter palace, a favorite retreat of the king’s? It may have been the place where the E source was composed.

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P.P.S. For more information on the Elohist Source & a link to the online E text, go here.

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Map: Map of the Divided Kingdom, WikiCmns, Public Domain. Photo: Site of Ancient City of Samaria, 1910. WikiCmns, Public Domain. Painting: Adoration of the Golden Calf; Nicholas Poussin; WikiCmns; Public Domain.

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He is not one of the most famous French painters, but Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin at his best seems to me to catch the beauty and dignity of France in the decades leading up to the Revolution. And this painting, Girl Holding a Shuttlecock, is my favorite of his works. The freshness of the subject, her lack of self-consciousness, and her plain attire herald a France turning away from Baroque excess towards a more modern view of the world. Enjoy!       RT

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Image: Girl Holding a Shuttlecock. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin. WikiCmns. Public Domain.

The problem: there is no heaven on earth. And here’s another one: the very institutions we trust to create safe space can be used to destroy it. There is no wall strong enough to keep out the world.

Call it what you want: breakage, collateral damage, friendly fire. Embarrassing, agonizing, and can’t we do something about it? Probably, but not what you think. For starters, people are designed to handle danger. To judge by the durability of culture and social institutions, we are remarkably good at it. But there is a price: our hair-trigger response to signs of danger. In fact, our problem may not be being safe; it may be feeling safe.

And here’s another thought: one man’s safety may be another man’s chains. Walls around a city make people inside feel safe, but they also make people on the outside feel powerless and jealous. Want to sell your stuff at the market? You’ll have to talk to the gatekeeper.

In sum, living well requires courage.

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What has provoked these reflections? SOPA, PIPA, 9-11, and the general tendency to rely on walls. What is my solution? The creation of a category called Unsafe. To give an example, I would say that driving while drunk is dangerous; moving to a new city to look for work is unsafe. Drunk driving invites serious injury; new cities expose arrivees to practical challenges that may lead to trouble. Here is a principle difference–there are no benefits to driving while drunk, while moving somewhere to find work or a better career offers a tangible benefit in return for the risk.

Of course all of this is a spectrum–and some unsafe activities can border on the dangerous (or foolhardy)–investing rent money in stocks, taking out a loan without a secure income, investing vital corporate funds in a marginal scheme. And yet there are times when even these actions can make sense. Much depends on whether you have a firm set of goals in mind and have thought your plans through.

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So here’s an invitation that might have delighted Teddy Roosevelt. The 99%/Occupy movement is holding a convention to draft a list of political grievances and proposed solutions in July of this year. Election for delegates takes place in March. Safe, unsafe, or dangerous? I vote for unsafe, but tending towards safe.

Interested? Here’s the link: http://www.the-99-declaration.org/the-plan-for-the-99-declaration/.

Bully, Bully!          RT

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Photo: Theodore Roosevelt; WikiCommons; LOC; Public Domain.

Folks:  Wash away your winter blues!    RT

Afternoon break: I want to go to there.