Last night Grimsley came over, which is why there was no blog. I began writing one, but because I had no topic it just turned into another Trump screed, and after I got halfway through it I thought, "why bother"? I wasn't saying anything I hadn't already said, and we all agree anyway on every aspect of the subject. Though no one detests Trump more than I, I don't wanna just run off at the mouth about him, unless the news warrants it, because the world is too big and there are too many other things to think and write about. So last night I deleted everything I wrote and felt better.
The news sucked today, and we are resigned for the inevitable tomorrow, but I just wanted to share something that occurred to me maybe about a year ago, that has been helpful to me in this era we are living through. I have a deep faith in God and Jesus Christ, but I also believe that there is a dark force in the world. You can call it by whatever name you choose, but I have always called it the Devil.
Some days the news can be overwhelming, and it seems like a neverending stream of bad things are happening. I always remind myself that "bad things", if you take away natural disasters, almost always involve the actions of people, and people who are involved in bad things are almost always in some sort of emotional distress involving aggression or jealousy, or avarice or some variation or combination of sins that motivates them to do "the bad thing", which is often violence. I believe that violence is the Devil's greatest weapon. By "Devil" I don't mean a big red guy with a pitchfork any more than I mean God to be an old man with a white beard. "Devil" just means a dark force. I don't know what it is, or if it has an embodiment. I just know that it is.
And I hear the news every day, just like you do, and it stresses me out, but I also always think, the best the Devil can do is to antagonise people. That's all he's got, is to try and pit people against each other, by tempting them with greed, and illusions of power. He can cause a lot of misery that way, if people buy into his temptations.
But what I wanted to tell you is that one day about a year ago it hit me. I was outside, and looking at the sky, and I thought "the Devil didn't create that". Then I looked at the Santa Susana mountains and I thought, "he didn't create that either". The rest followed : "he didn't create the ocean, or the Earth, or the Sun or the Universe".
He didn't create anything.
God did. He created everything. If you want, you can call it nature or whatever, but then you'd still have to explain where nature came from, and ultimately we would be back at the Topological Metaphor which proves that, at some point, "something" must come from "nothing". There must, at some point be an Uncaused Cause for anything at all to exist. And that Uncaused Cause is God.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you, that no matter how bad the news is (and it's been a lot worse, think World War Two), just remember two things : 1) That the Devil has no real power, even though he causes a lot of chaos and misery, that is the best he can do. He can't knock down a mountain or empty the sea or take down the sky. And he can only get you if you let him.
More importantly, for #2), remember that the Devil never created anything. Look at the Universe, stare up at the night sky, look at the mountains or the ocean or a flower or an animal.
There is no way a bad guy created any of that. All that guy can do is create chaos, because he is able to stir up humans and pit them against one another. And while I am against Trump with everything I stand for, and against all of his cronies and associates, I will not let it become an emotional turmoil inside myself. Trump is merely someone who must be removed, and as soon as possible, but we should resist getting caught up in his chaos. He is a prime agent of the Devil, but if we don't react emotionally to everything he does (which he does by design), we will have deprived him of a large part of his power. The yahoos who go to his rallies will support him regardless, but both he and his fans thrive on knee jerk opposition.
Let's not give it to him, and instead concentrate tooth and nail on putting him in prison where he belongs. /////
Well, tonight I did watch a movie : "Mark Of The Vampire" (1935), starring Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill. I figured the time was right to start the annual Halloween Horror-thon, even though it's still early in October. This movie was the final selection in my six-movie dvd set called "Legends Of Hollywood Horror", the other five of which I watched and reviewed during the Summer. I deliberately saved "Mark Of The Vampire" for Halloweentime, because I had seen a few minutes of it on TCM, and the visuals were incredible. It looked like a classic Vampire movie, and now I can report that it's one of the best I have ever seen. This is mostly because of the atmosphere and art direction, but also because of the eccentric lead performance by Lionel Barrymore as a doctor who is trying to rid an old castle of vampires. At the beginning of the movie, the lord of the manor is found dead at his desk. His loyal servant swears it was vampires, known to lurk in the area (some undisclosed Transylvanian type location). A detective (Lionel Atwill) is called in, but he doesn't go for any of that hogwash. He doesn't believe in vampires.
But then we see Bela Lugosi lurking at night outside the windows of the castle, along with his spooky long haired daughter, all dressed in white and looking like she recently passed away. Soon enough, the daughter of the manor lord, and her young husband, are both attacked late at night - seperately - and are found to have tooth marks on their necks.
Holy smokes. It's not a good situation. Meanwhile, we can see the creepy crawler daughter staring into the windows, trying to hypnotise the young couple. Her name is Luna, played by an actress named Carol Borland, and she is one of the great characters in horror history. Lugosi doesn't have as much to do, but in his brief scenes he projects his infamous persona for all it's worth. Mostly he is directing his daughter's dirty work, while the very weird Lionel Barrymore tries to stop them.
But wait!
There may be another element at work.
I think I will say no more, because to do so would be to reveal too much.
"Mark Of The Vampire" goes by quickly at only 60 minutes in length, and while I love one hour movies, this one is so good that I wish it had gone for a while longer.
It's more like an "Old Dark House" investigation movie than a Dracula film. Lugosi is not a central character, but his daughter is, and the scenes with her are some of the greatest I have seen from the classic horror era of the 1930s. But don't get me wrong, Bela is great too. Overall, it's Lionel Barrymore's movie, and he plays it to the max. Director Tod Browning, who made the original "Dracula", gives you the vampire world of your dreams, the one you would envision at your horror Disneyland.
Two Huge Thumbs Up, see it this Halloween season. :)
That's all I know for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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