rainy days and Mondays always ...
"The Israeli military’s attack on Rafah 'and its horrific massacres against defenseless civilians and displaced children, women, and the elderly… is considered a continuation of the genocidal war and the forced displacement attempts it is waging against our Palestinian people,' Hamas said."
That the entire war is the result of Hamas' unspeakable 7 Oct atrocities causes the outrageous irony and hypocrisy of the Hamas statement to offend any decent human being
(except possibly a self-righteous American college student; BTDT myself, such that I try to understand their radicalism - - which was instrumental in bringing down our government during the Vietnam War - - "hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?").
The news also reports IDF's rescue of two elderly hostages who had been held captive in a Palestinian home; like other reports from earlier, suggesting that ordinary Palestinian families are willingly and fully complicit with Hamas in hatred of Israel and hateful treatment of Israelis.
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but neither a political blog nor a food blog, so wander elsewhere this dark and warm, rainy Monday
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Here's one of our Lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday, which will be Lent 1, Year B
Genesis 9:8-17
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
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which always brings to mind James Baldwin's book of essays, "The Fire Next Time" about the terrible issues of race and religion in America, reflecting on divisions in our society that are as unsolvable as the hatreds in the Middle East. Grievously, as with Israel-Palestine, our problems are intensified by extremist populism in politics: ratify their hatreds and religious certainties and they will vote for you. Only morons could miss this.
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Anyway, our Great Flood story in Genesis is not original to us and our Bible, the flood epic is a common theme in prehistory, and there are excavations showing reasons for stories remembering a devastating flood. The only absurd thing about it all is popular publications coming forth with sensationalist "Noah's Ark found!!!" nonsense,
In our case, the Flood Story constitutes God's wiping out everything because of human sinfulness, and starting over with a new creation from Noah, the only righteous man.
Sadly, of course, human sin resumes as soon as everyone is off the Ark.
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Broiled oyster sandwich for breakfsst, and a busy day ahead.
RSF&PTL
T88&c