Mid-morning and it’s high tide for a change. The greenish-blue waves are thick and soupy as the reach up to crash onto the lightly tanned sandy beach.
No real waves five hundred yards out, flatter than Lake Erie on a windless day. It might as well be a river out there. Motored craft a mile out with no sailboats as of yet. No dolphin either, at least not in range. More people walking by though, and as it is Memorial Day weekend the crowds, I would expect, will be as a thicker tide. Kim, Paul and Owen just arrived at their favorite spot and it looks like O boy forgot his hat. One last dip in the Gulf until mid-December, when walking along the beach with a selection of wading will suffice. Still, it ought to be fun and everyone is already looking forward to it.
Early afternoon. You drove straight back from the airport, had some leftovers for lunch and are ready for a nap. The condo is quiet as Carol is shopping with her sisters at the West Shore mall, then the three are eating out, and you suggested a chick-flick if a good one is playing.
Carol and two of her three sisters are close. Gayle lives in California and does not visit often, never did. The three are/were lifelong elementary schoolteachers and have children of similar age in common, along with being shoppers (they don’t have to buy anything and sometimes don’t). Linda and Carol are also ferocious readers, mostly fiction but not always. Linda has read my novels, Carol has little interest but she is content that I do my writing.
Mid-afternoon. You had a nap then cleaned up the condo with kiddies’ stuff mostly put away. The interest is focusing on scene eight. This is how it will be. Takis will go to Ezekiel to discover what he thinks about the world he as recently arrived from. Ezekiel will be attune to a matter of consequence though he thinks it pertains to G-D and . . . first, go back and renew your acquaintance with Ezekiel and his concerns.
I will do so. I do not see, as you are putting this, that to two will have anything in common that relates to “righteous anger” as they are of two different cultures (religions and philosophies).
But, if you remember, when the shaman danced above the Styx, it was Ezekiel (in this novel) who saw the vision of the wheel within a wheel – his interpretation of a dance of the selected Dead – from their perspectives all this can be within “the Grace of G---D”, can it not?
Ezekiel’s thinking would surely be G-D, but for Takis, by the grace of which god? This is where matters can get lost in translation. People debate meanings even within their own language. I cannot remember these points so I have to begin with a definition here.
Merriam-Webster software says: “Grace: 1c; a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace.” [My bold.]
Wikipedia says: “In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term used is Chen, which is defined in Strong's [Concordance] as ‘favor, grace or charm; grace is the moral quality of kindness, displaying a favorable disposition’.” (Under ‘grace’)
In my research today I came upon an old name known to me through various works of literature, Tiersias (Antigone among others).
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“Tiersias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Charicio; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself.. . . .
Stripped of its narrative, anecdotal and causal connections, the mythic figure of Tiresias combines several archaic elements: the blind seer; the impious interruption of a natural rite (whether of a bathing goddess or coupling serpents); serpents and staff (Caduceus); a holy man's double gender (shaman); and competition between deities.. . .
Tiresias's background, fully male and then fully female, was important, both for his prophecy and his experiences. Also, prophecy was a gift given only to the priests and priestesses. Therefore, Tiresias offered Zeus and Hera evidence and gained the gift of male and female priestly prophecy. How he obtained his information varied: sometimes, like the oracles, he would receive visions; other times he would listen for the songs of birds, or ask for a description of visions and pictures appearing within the smoke of burnt offerings, and so interpret them. . . .
As a seer, "Tiresias" was "a common title for soothsayers throughout Greek legendary history" (Graves 1960, 105.5). In Greek literature, Tiresias's pronouncements are always gnomic [maxim or aphorism] but never wrong. Often when his name is attached to a mythic prophecy, it is introduced simply to supply a personality to the generic example of a seer . . . .”
From: Wikipedia
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You came up from the pool early to finish what you have above. Linda and Carol just arrived. Bill, Jennifer, Sharon, Mary Lou, and Mia are still swimming in the Gulf.
Tiresias will make a good bridge and Takis will do well to draw on him as both he and Ezekiel are prophets of their respective cultures. I am enjoying this challenge and hope I can make it work.
Will wonders never cease. Post. – Amorella.
Going on twenty-one hundred hours and you are at Winn-Dixie once again as Carol invited Mary Lou, Sharon, Corey and Mia over for breakfast. The four leave on Tuesday. Tomorrow, Linda, Bill, Jean, Bob and Jennifer will be over for lunch out then the beach/pool the rest of the afternoon, which is fine for you.
I already have several pages of material on Ezekiel from Jewish Encyclopedia.com.
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Below from: Jewish Encyclopedia.com
Biblical Data:
. . . Ezekiel was married (xxiv. 16-18), and lived in his own house (iii. 24, viii. 1). On the fifth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of his exile (Tammuz, 592 B.C.), he beheld on the banks of the Chebar the glory of the Lord, who consecrated him as His prophet (i. 1-iii. 13). The latest date in his book is the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year of his exile (Nisan, 570); consequently, his prophecies extended over twenty-two years. The elders of the exiles repeatedly visited him to obtain a divine oracle (viii., xiv., xx.). He exerted no permanent influence upon his contemporaries, however, whom he repeatedly calls the "rebellious house" (ii. 5, 6, 8; iii. 9, 26, 27; and elsewhere), complaining that although they flock in great numbers to hear him they regard his discourse as a sort of esthetic amusement, and fail to act in accordance with his words (xxxiii. 30-33) . . .
. . . There is undoubtedly an element of truth in the opinion that the human monarchy was antagonistic to the dominion of God, and that the political life of Israel would tend to estrange the nation from its eternal spiritual mission . . . so that the opinion arose that the Prophets themselves were merely a sort of statesmen.
The Prophet's Spiritual Mission.
. . . In the absence of a worldly foundation it became necessary to build upon a spiritual one.
This mission Ezekiel performed by observing the signs of the time and by deducing his doctrines from them. . . . there is no reason to despair; for God does not desire the death of the sinner, but his reformation.
The Lord will remain the God of Israel, and Israel will remain His people. As soon as Israel recognizes the sovereignty of the Lord and acts accordingly,
He will restore the people, in order that they may fulfill their eternal mission and that He may truly dwell in the midst of them.
This, however, cannot be accomplished until every individual reforms and makes the will of the Lord his law.
His Individualistic Tendency.
Herein lies that peculiar individualistic tendency of Ezekiel which distinguishes him from all his predecessors.
He conceives it as his prophetic mission to strive to reach his brethren and compatriots individually, to follow them, and to win them back to God; and he considers himself personally responsible for every individual soul.
. . . the truth of the word that Israel was destined to become a "kingdom of priests" (Ex. xix. 6). Law and worship—these are the two focal points of Ezekiel's hope for the future.
The people become a congregation; the nation, a religious fraternity. Political aims and tasks no longer exist; and monarchy and state have become absorbed in the pure dominion of God.
Thus Ezekiel has stamped upon post-exilic Judaism its peculiar character; and herein lies his unique religio-historical importance.
Another feature of Ezekiel's personality is the pathological. With no other prophet are vision and ecstasy so prominent; and he repeatedly refers to symptoms of severe maladies, such as paralysis of the limbs and of the tongue (iii. 25 et seq.), from which infirmities he is relieved only upon the announcement of the downfall of Jerusalem (xxiv. 27, xxxiii. 22).
These statements are to be taken not figuratively, but literally; for God had here purposely ordained that a man subject to physical infirmities should become the pliant instrument of His will. E. G. H. K. H. C. . . .
God allowed Ezekiel to behold the throne in order to demonstrate to him that Israel had no reason to be proud of the Temple; for God, who is praised day and night by the hosts of the angels, does not need human offerings and worship (Lev. R. ii. 8; Tanna debe Eliyahu R. vi.).
Ezekiel's greatest miracle consisted in his resuscitation of the dead, which is recounted in Ezek. xxxvii. . . .
Twenty years later God took the prophet to the place where the dead boys were buried, and asked him whether he believed that He could awaken them. Instead of answering with a decisive "Yes," the prophet replied evasively, and as a punishment he was doomed to die "on foreign soil."
Again, when God asked him to prophesy the awakening of these dead, he replied: "Will my prophecy be able to awaken them and those dead ones also which have been torn and devoured by wild beasts?" His doubts were unfounded, for the earth shook and brought the scattered bones together; a heavenly voice revived them; four winds flew to the four corners of the heavens, opened the treasure-house of the souls, and brought each soul to its body. . . .
The resurrected ones at first wept because they thought that they would now have no part in the final resurrection, but God said to Ezekiel: "Go and tell them that I will awaken them at the time of the resurrection and will lead them with the rest of Israel to Palestine" (comp. Tanna debe Eliyahu R. v.).
The Book of Ezekiel.
Among the doctrines that Ezekiel set down in his book, the Rabbis noted the following as especially important: He taught "the soul that sinneth, it [alone] shall die" (Ezek. xviii. 4),
although Moses had said (Ex. xxxiv. 7) that God would visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children."
Another important teaching of Ezekiel is his warning not to lay hands on the property of one's neighbor, which he considers the greatest sin among the twenty-four that he enumerates (Ezek. xxii. 2 et seq.), and therefore repeats (Eccl. R. i. 13) at the end of his index of sins (Ezek. xxii. 12).
In ritual questions the Book of Ezekiel contains much that contradicts the teachings of the Pentateuch, and therefore it narrowly escaped being declared as "apocryphal" by the scholars shortly before the destruction of the Temple (Shab. 13b; Men. 45a).
No one was allowed to read and explain publicly the first chapter of the book (Ḥag. ii. 1; ib. Gem. 13a), because it dealt with the secrets of God's throne (comp. Ma'aseh Merkabah).S. S. L. G.
[My underlining and sentence/paragraph divisions for my own clarity.]
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The selected and underlined material above from the Jewish Encyclopedia.com will do although you have much more. Enough for tonight. Post. – Amorella.
I finally have a photo of a shaman from Tibet, the one I use for description. I cannot remember where I obtained this on the Internet. I do not remember if the photo is copyrighted, but I don't think it was. If I am mistaken I will gladly take it down.
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