a few things today: including elephants again.

If I wrote a book today it would be called the heresy of science.
my little story wouldnt really fill a book though:
the scientist kills the butterfly in order to dissect it. If he then believes that he has come close to understanding the butterfly he is wrong because understanding and knowledge are not the same.
Man might eventually think that he understands almost everything. He will be more miserable and alone than ever because in truth he will have understood nothing at all.
I then wondered what that meaning of the word 'understanding' actually consisted of and it led me back to the old testament line:
'You gave him dominion over all the earth'
Understanding as dominion?
Except dominion in that sense has to do with domesticating the cow and the sheep rather more than splitting the atom or colliding particles.
It's fine to split atoms and collide particles. It's an essential part of who we are but, once the particles have been collided and the atoms split, the scientist must still head home to cook the dinner and look after his children.
the elephant thing:
Who could possibly imagine what an elephant looks like [even if someone described it very carefully to him] unless he has actually seen one.
If its so difficult with an elephant how much harder must it be with God?

In prayer, you eventually sweep away every preconception that we have.
For example, I once had this notion that prayer would make me a 'better person'. How bitter the pill to find out this is actually not true! Much later on, after some considerable apostasy, I realised that it wasn't that prayer wouldn't make me a better person, it's just that I had a totally false idea about what being a 'better person' actually meant.

Another thing: how could I write a book for someone I did not know? Wouldnt it be like writing a letter to a friend I didn't have? I know people do, it's just that I'm not sure how.

Another thing: I decided today that that symphony (B flat) was the last thing I needed to write and the questions it answered werent at all the questions that I thought I was asking. It was a relief to realise this.

Another thing which has been brewing for ages: the Anglo-saxon thing.
Bede and now Patrick. Then of course there is Cuthbert [and then there is the music. Why is it possible to relate the anglo-saxon thing to my music?
Not that it's essential to know. It really isn't. The link remains none the less. Its relevant to me right now because of my approaching visit to CWSG. Anglican hermits? Anglican in what sense?
What does anglican really mean? How deep is my Catholicism rooted? The link into catholicism was always more to do with a recognition of the inadequacy of my own anglican understanding coupled with my rejection of the notion of a nationalist church. There was also a strong artistic reason at the time which now alludes me completely bearing in mind the appalling state of specifically catholic art.
It wasn't about that of course as I know even now. It was more to do with an historical context.