RUDIMENTS 515.

RUDIMENTS, pt. 515

(penitential omnipotence)

My own ways of processing

thought, I think, were always

different. I was never one for

much of that slap-back happy

guy stuff, and I liked to measure

progress (and prosperity) by

intangibles; things other people

would look at me crazily for.

(They would also look at me

AS IF I was crazy, but that's 

a different thought  -  if you 

take the time to compare the 

two statements, you'll see).

Items that would preoccupy

me for hours would make

other people deliriously 

bored. I got away with a

lot of that in the seminary,

because it could all be easily 

concealed as either 'praying'

or 'studying.' One great hook

in to a million things language

wise was the study of Latin.

Like the word omnipotent  -  

it was most often, in seminary 

days, used as the character

description for God  -  The

Father. These distinctions had

to be made, because, I don't

think, the claim of omnipotence

was ever given to Jesus  -  a

chip off the old block, if you

will. That always struck me

as strange, that diminishment,

but I guess it wasn't hereditary.

It kind of always baffled me, but

no one really dwelt too much

on that stuff. They just went

along. I always felt as if I was

on a pony express wagon, one

surging westward  -  the wagon's

running, it's loaded up with mail,

everything's running along, so

DON'T stop and inspect the

wheels, OK (?). OK.

-

If you break it down, Latin wise,

it's merely the combined effort

of OMNI, which means 'all'  -

like a bus has 'omnibus' plates,

and POTENT, which, obviously,

means power, strength, potency.

OK, that's pretty clear. (You can

do that with Latin, because must

of our words now, or a lot of

them anyway, can easily be 

distilled down to their roots).

It all always fascinated me, 

and a lot of really magical 

stuff, by it, has come through.

Like the simple word 'today.'

Way back, in Latin days, it

was 'hoc die'  -  which means

'this day'. Then, still in Latin,

it was shortened down to 

'hodie,' (ho-dee-ay) which

is Latin for 'today.' Then,

over the years and through

all those settlements and 

tribal meshes and wars and

all long after the Romans,

it entered the Germanic and

English tongues, as they

slowly developed, as a 

variant  -  our 'today.' So

very cool, no? This sort of

thing happened thousands 

of times, and if you still

study the language and its

uses, examples of such can

be found most everywhere.

-

So, back to omnipotent  -  

man, that was quite the 

concept to throw around. 

It is, in its reality, just a 

word, but these doctrinaire

clerics and religious guys,

they handled that word as

if it was nothing more than

some scrambled eggs on a

platter. 'Ho-Hum, so boring!'

Not for me, ever. (And another

thing, how did 'clerics' - church

people, who do clerical things,

how did that word get turned

over to the sort of boring

office work and 'clerical' details

that keep so many so busy

for so little. Talk about 

diminishment!)....The

complete concept of 'God'

and the extent of omnipotence

baffled me. First off, it is NOT

in any way a comparative word,

which makes it already difficult

to grasp. There can be no

'degrees' of omnipotence; it's

either all or nothing. And if 

one guy has it, like this God

concept portrays, then no one

else, no other entity, can 

equally have it, nor any part

of it, since it's not a comparative

word, as I said. It was always

my personal inclination to see

that as the origin of 'Devil,'

such being another (losing)

claimant to 'Omnipotence' 

or even some part of it 

(though impossible). That

then was the breaking point

among all those Divine

creatures. Lucifer, after

all (Latin again) being

made up of the Latinate

factor for 'light.' But,

apparently, 'fallen' too.

I could see all this with

the ancient Gods, all

those Assyrian, Egyptian,

and Mesoptamian Gods,

and the Greek Gods on

Mount Olympus and all.

always brawling and

fighting with each other,

stealing God wives and

special talents and the 

rest. But the Judaic 

thing, One G-d, amid 

reverence and perfection,

anger, war, no foibles, 

and then its influence

and transfer into all the 

Christian later civilization

things we know of  -  it

just never washed. I had

more faith in those twisted

weirdos from the Salem

Witch Trials than I did

in these stories of power

and glory. At least the

witch goons, and the

accusers and torturers 

and killers, were tainted 

and flawed people. Any

'Omnipotence' was the

last thing on their mind.

More like 'Pittance.'

-

Does all this get pretty 

boring? I'm not sure

people even really like

to read anymore, but

these strings of words

that I patch together, I

always try to keep ideas

twisting within them, 

and, as well, I throw 

in zingers that become

un-missable. Remarkable.

Like 'able to be remarked

upon,' which is somehow

a combination of 'mark' and

then 're'mark, as in go back

and do it again. If you can't

be quite, well Hell, say

something, anything.

Lucifer.