Reflection

Heard a song at Church today that I found meaningful. I read its words in light of my many failures and disappointments of the past 4 years, the grief and regret caused by their memory, the fear I feel towards the coming year and an imminent graduation.

Be Still, My Soul

Be still, my soul:
the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently
the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God
to order and provide;
In every change,
He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul:
thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways
leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul:
thy God doth undertake
To guide the future,
as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence
let nothing shake;
All now mysterious
shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul:
the waves and winds
still know His voice
Who ruled them
while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul:
when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened
in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know
His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe
thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul:
thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness
all He takes away.

Be still, my soul:
the hour is hastening on
When we shall be
forever with the Lord.
When disappointment,
grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot,
love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul:
when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed
we shall meet at last.

angry

Max Weber's Ancient Judaism is the worst piece of writing I have read this entire year. Yet, in order to write a short, three page paper, I am not only forced to read it, but to squeeze the text for meaning. His rationalization of the bizarre stories found in the Jewish Bible are elaborate rereadings based out of psychology, sociology, and economics. Such rereadings might be interesting if his rereadings weren't so hard to stomach, challenging the mythic-bizarreness of the original texts with a new plain, naturalistic-bizarreness. His 'scientific' writing is about as believable as Sigmund Freud's.

I am convinced Max suffered from intellectual insecurity when he wrote this text; that, or he was a pompous asshole. Ancient Judaism is an extremely reader-unfriendly text. Perhaps it is the translation. I hope it is the translation. But, most likely, it is not. For one, Max feels the need to accompany every point he makes about Jewish society with three clarifying points taken from other societies, namely those of India and other Asiatic countries, which might be ok if his examples weren't incredibly obscure such that only a scholar would get them (!!!) WTF. I might understand if he was Indian or Chinese, BUT he was a freaking German.
THE END
back to my papers....
so many...
so behind...
help.