It’s 8am Eastern......time for class!
Another Polysemous word is career. Forty years ago I got into a big argument with an Australian friend of mine one night in TX over the proper use of “career” and “careen”. I said that the prober word to describe rolling down a slope — out of control — was “careen”. He insisted that the proper word was “career”, as in “The skateboard careeed down the slope.” Or, “The car careered down Lombard Ave., San Francisco’s twistiest street.” I pulled out a dictionary and learned (much to my surprise, that the English (and their former colonies) use the word “career” in a very different way from us. Much like “boot”, etc.
Giving cover to the liberals is the biggest fallout and most problematic IMO. Yes, i see that the gesture was one of service and not ordination. Yes, i see that it can be considered pharisaical and overly legalistic to put rubrics and canon law over a gesture of loving service. But, as in anything, disregarding the rules and rubrics and just going with the flow, promotes chaos.
Liberals will find it far easier than conservatives to claim that Francis’ actions are endorsements of their liberal thing. Remember this: Liberals could give a damn about the gender of the person whose feet are being washed. Their focus is really the gender of the one doing the washing. Liturgical liberals are included in this. They only care about the washing of the feet of women, because ultimately they want women to do the washing. This is about the ordination of women, not about their feet. Before these liberals start taking their victory laps, I would remind them that Francis is not going to touch doctrine. He has clearly talked about the Devil. He has spoken clearly before his election about same-sex stuff as discrimination against children. He has firmly fought Liberation Theology. What liberals forget in their present crowing is that even as Francis makes himself – and the Church – more popular by projecting a compassionate image, he will simultaneously make it harder for them to criticize him when he reaffirms the doctrinal points they want him to overturn.
Bill Clinton said “is” was polysemous.
It is 71 and sprinkling off and on-I hope it pours...
With the twisting and turning
To avoid a truthful statement
The use of polysemous words
Continues without abatement
Whatever “is” is, or is not
Is part of the obfuscation-
But it is only one part of
The Obama minion creation
The rhetoric is more transparent-
Every time they spin a word,
A lot of us say enough of that-
Just more crap we’ve already heard...