Jehovah's Witnesses

That was a close one.

We've had our first visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses today, two young, seemingly normal women. They were pretty young and rather cute, too. Their heavy makeup and high heels surprised me, as well as the fact that it wasn't two men.

They didn't ask about my religion or lack thereof, nor did they keep me overly long. Madeline and I were both standing at the door in our pajamas and robes, so I guess they read the clues and simply handed me an invitation to a service which would explain to me (as if I, steeped in Catholicism, wouldn't know) the reason for Jesus' death and resurrection. But I guess even the Catholic version, to them, is the wrong version anyway. But I really didn't feel like discussing the issue; I was terribly nervous.

I guess they thought I seemed nervous because I wasn't properly dressed, but that wasn't why. The whole time they were talking, I was terribly distracted by noises Malkhos was making as he hastily was trying to pull on clothes. He knows.I thought. He's going to come and confront them and cause a scene. The neighbors will call the police. I'll have to bail him out of jail..

Just as he approached, the two young women were wishing me well and moving off the porch. Simultaneously, Malkhos was coming up behind me. Little did they know it, but Madeline and I were the only things between them and Malkhos's wrath. I shut the door just as he approached.

"Who was that, Mama?" Madeline asked.

"Don't worry about it, Madeline," I said.

"Dangerous lunatics, that's who it was!" Malkhos said.

"Madeline doesn't understand that," I said.

"What did they want?" Madeline asked.

"They want to see us burning in hell," Malkhos said. "They look forward to it with glee!"

"Don't frighten her," I said, handing him the tract they'd given me.

Rainbow revisited

Here is a fundamentalist perspective on the rainbow, finding on its own god in the rainbow without reference to Ezekiel:


Some things can not be explained by science. Take for example, rainbows. Rainbows are a mystery and you can not touch them, just like god. Despite this fact, they are still there even though there is no scientific explanation for them. So next time you find yourself doubting your faith, think of god as a rainbow. I know that this can be a difficult concept for some of you to grasp. It is just like air you can't see it but you know its there.

I guess the author never read this fragmentary recollection of the Immortal Dinner:

                                Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy? 
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, 
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine—
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person’d Lamia melt into a shade.

He might be forgiven, however, for passing over Mark Akenside's 1744 Pleasures of Imagination (of which this is only a small sample):


For man loves Knowledge, and the beams of truth
More welcome touch his understanding’s eye,
Than all the blandishments of sound, his ear,
Than all of taste his tongue. Nor ever yet
The melting rainbow’s vernal-tinctur’d hues
To me have shown so pleasing, as when first
The hand of science pointed out the path
In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west
Fall on the watery cloud…
Piercing thro’ every crystalline convex
Of clust’ring dew-drops to their flight oppos’d
Recoil at length where concave all behind
Th’internal surface of each glassy orb
Repells their forward passage into air;
That thence direct they seek the radiant goal
From which their course began; and, as they strike
In diff’rent lines the gazer’s obvious eye,
Assume a diff’rent lustre, thro’ the brede
Of colours changing from the splendid rose
To the pale violet’s dejected hue.