Running Across The Ice With Tigers

On This Day In History
1925: Scopes Monkey Trial begins

Quote Of The Day
"To be an effective criminal defense counsel, an attorney must be prepared to be demanding, outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade and a hated, isolated and lonely person - few love a spokesman for the despised and the damned."
(Clarence Darrow)

Definitely needed that 22k run this morning to regain my mental equilibrium.

WARNING - if that title and opening sentence were too pretentious for you, then stop reading. The text which follows contains nauseating self-indulgence, mawkish melodrama and crass homo-erotic allusions. If you do read this drivel, please do so with a large handful of salt and a hefty dollop of humour.

Last night I experienced a seismic quake in my doctrinal paradigm. The veracity of the book that has served as the bedrock of my personal creed for my entire life came under attack. The sanctity of its author subjected to a digital stoning. I speak, of course, of Cosmos and Our Lord Carl Sagan. One of my favourite chapters in The Good Book describes the magnificence of the Great Library of Alexandria and the last scientist who worked there, the mathematician, astronomer, physicist and the head of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy, Hypatia.  The Great Library of Alexandria was burned to the ground in 415CE by the fanatical followers of Archbishop Cyril after they had raped and torn the flesh off of Hypatia's body. 

However, last night I read an article in The Times which claims that there was no Great Library of Alexandria. There were two libraries, the Serapeum and the Mouseion. The Serapeum was most likely largely destroyed  by two fires, one in CE 181 and another in CE  217. The Mouseion was probably destroyed by the Emperor Aurelian in CE 273 after he recaptured Alexandria from the insurgent rebellion of Palmyra.

How could Carl Sagan do this to me? He was my Sun and Moon, my Alpha and Omega! Now I am set adrift on an ocean of doubt. What's to become of me?

OK, that's kind of how I felt for a few minutes. But hey, I quickly realised that Carl Sagan and Cosmos were not as integral to my being as I had thought they were. The sources of my core beliefs are far more diversified than that, and that seismic paradigm quake was actually just a minor tremor. I never really thought Carl Sagan was a messianic being; he was a dope advocate and he worked for Project Blue Book (yes, swamp gas, weather balloons and all that rubbish!) A great scientist, yes, but not a god.

So there you are. Learn from my (near) mistake, don't put anyone on a pedestal. Even the greatest individuals have feet of clay. 

Now don't get me started on what I learned about Gene Roddenberry this morning.

This is definitely a three song kind of day.

Running Across The Ice With Tigers

Personal Jesus

I Will Survive