Mfalme wa Kipepeo:1  An Attribution

By
Dallas F. Bell, Jr.

The 16’’ x 20” acrylic on canvas painting by Dallas F. Bell Jr. is titled Mfalme wa Kipepeo.  The butterflies from top left to right are the Giant African Swallowtail, the Red Cabbage, the White Cabbage, the Christmas Butterfly, the Gypsy Moth, and the Blue Mother of Pearl.  (The Democratic Republic of the Congo flag colors used are yellow representing wealth, red representing martyrs, and blue representing peace.)

1.  Mayai2

Coming by night, furtively, one by one, So feeble, so helpless, no one could suspect, Themselves, make friends in all directions, And when it happens, there will be no fuss,
A new generation has taken over.—Alec Hope3

If reversed, the asymmetry of time becomes symmetrical.  The link between disorder and irreversibility is the arrow of time.4  All too often, then, there is a time and place where the commodity of truth must be prudently exchanged in the academic marketplace via story telling.  A master of that oratorial skill is Christine K.5  She completed a degree from a Christian College in Chicago and has returned to the equatorial city of Kinshasa to pass on her knowledge to other Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, progeny.  The DRC is the second largest country in Africa with Algeria being the largest, as the DRC’s forest elephant, loxodonta cyclotis, is the second largest after the African savanna elephant, loxodonta africana.6  Living up to the DRC’s motto of Justice, Peace, and Work, Mrs. K. is an actual scholar, unlike American gypsy moths7 that flutter in affirmative action8 winds from night light to night light.  They harden their faces and their hands refuse to labor.9  Those greedy coveters are thought of as little more than winged periplaneta americana10 feeding off of university tenure, Pulitzer and Nobel prize committee’s misplaced guilt, living in constant fear of justly being crushed under intellectual feet in the morning sunlight.  Mrs. K. is becoming formidable, deemed worthy of attention by most people, especially by the students that hang on her every word.

As the students enter the classroom for the beginning of a lecture, Mrs. K. says, “Take your seats.”  When they quite down, she immediately points to a framed plaque of a butterfly on the wall and asks Paul, “Please read the inscription on the plaque.”

Paul stands and reads, “Mama wa bluu…”11

Mrs. K. stops him and states, “Swahili is a lingua franca, Kingwana dialect, that bridges our communication for trade in regions like the southeast Katanga copperbelt.  Some calque may be necessary to create a new lexeme,12 but for our instruction purposes we will mostly use English.”

Paul begins again in English, “A blue mother of pearl specimen found near the Congo River in 1997.”13

Mrs. K. says, “Undoubtedly, many of you have seen daguerreotypes14 of butterflies in old magazines or books.”  Then she employs the Socratic teaching method and rhetorically inquires, “Is the statement Paul read on the plaque true?”

A student named Pius raises his hand, “It has been on the wall for some time and most people surely consider it to be true.”

“Interesting.  If they say the moon is blue, it must be true?15  Beggar belief, eh? 16“  Mrs. K. remarks.  “How can we prove it is in fact true?”

Paul adds, “It can not be proven.  Not beyond reasonable doubt anyway.”

Mrs. K., “Please elaborate.”

Paul continues, “To prove perfectly requires infinite knowledge by the prover that something can not be false.”

Mrs. K. leads, “Your scientific observation and theory is logically accurate…And that ability is epistemologically called?”

Pius, “Omniscience, I believe.”

“Thomas Aquinas could not have explained it more succinctly.”17 Approves Mrs. K., as she simultaneously acknowledges another student, “Yes, Zhuangzi.”

Zhuangzi stands, “Maybe there are two truths.”

Paul explores, “Truth is not both A and not A simultaneously.  Sarah was simultaneously the mother of Isaac, one data set, and Isaac’s aunt, another data set.18  That was not as an electron superposition is imagined by physicists.”  

“Yes.  Niels Bohr himself ha scritto of the old joke that says the negation of any deep truth is also a deep truth.19  Now infinite God is omnipresent and so is both here and there at the same time.”  Pius eagerly adds.

“You’ll are beginning to touch on the finite limits of our understanding truth realities.  Zhuangzi, please go on.”  Mrs. K. cajoles.

Zhuangzi continues his thought, “One truth would be the conventional reality in our concrete world and another would be the ultimate reality, which is empty of any concreteness.”

“Isn’t that nihilism?”20  Pius spouts.

“Not if conventional truth is between the perceiver and the perceived, and ultimate truth is beyond that duality.21  Listen, if you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for?  Isn’t love hard to believe?”22 Zhuangzi reasons.

Paul immediately thinks love is from God and God is love.23 He murmurs under his breath, “Love is not hard for me to believe.”

Patrice eagerly continues, “Conventional reality would include things like air, water, fire, earth, and spirit.  They would be used to enhance our power.”

Mrs. K. anticipates, “Especially against colonists, I suppose?”

“Of course.”  Patrice responds confidently.

“With empowered omniscience, as Macbeth’s witches?”  Mrs. K. directs.

“That’s Shakespeare, Patrice.” Pius says with an air of superiority.

Mrs. K. intercedes as the classroom is electrified, “Let’s settle down.  This is not a nzango24 contest…A good story might focus our attention like an artificial eye—oculus artificialis.25  Would anyone like to hear a story?”

In unison, the class is placated and the cheers of enthusiastic support for the idea are interrupted by Paul, “I read ‘there is a moral for all human tales: it is but the same rehearsal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory—when it fails, Wealth, Vice, Corruption—Barbarism at last, And History, with all her vast volumes, Has but one page, better written here, Where gorgeous Tyranny has amassed All treasure, all delights, that Eye or Ear, Heart, Soul could seek—Tongues ask—Away with words!’”26

Mrs. K. finishes the quote, “’Draw near.’” and adds, “This influenced Thomas Cole to paint The Course of Empire during the Second U.S. Great Christian Awakening and is said to have influenced a Third Awakening.  Cole’s five simple stages of state being The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation Empire, Destruction, and Desolation.27  Judging for how His stories changed the world by speaking in parables to crowds,28 Jesus the Christ was the Master Storyteller.  His prodigal son story29 influenced Albrecht Dürer’s engraving of The Prodigal Son Amongst the Pigs30 and Rembrandt’s Baroque painting of The Return of the Prodigal Son.31  The Fiddler on the Roof was inspired by Tevye the Dairyman.32”  Mrs. K. redirects, “Now game theory looks at options and choices made by players.  A good story will provide an analysis of something, as if that thing were taking place from decision to decision by its players.”

Paul grows more confident, “A decision-tree.”

“Sure.  An individual one-dimensional decision-tree will be expanded into multiple individual dimensional decision-trees interacting, as with the prodigal son, his father, the prodigal’s wicked pseudo-friends, and his brother.”  After Mrs. K. quickly affirms Paul’s scholarship, she continues, “Bao33 is begun with the namua phase as seeds are put into holes, mashimo.  Capturing and sowing takes place until one player is out of seeds in his hands.  The myaji phase begins when that player takes seeds out of holes and re-sows them.  Some sow only two seeds called taxing, nyumba.34  The end comes when the loosing player is without seeds in his inner row or cannot move anymore.”

Zhuangzi asks what most everyone is thinking, “But what story are you going to tell us?”

The class erupts again, “Yea.”  

“Okay.  Okay.  A very good question.”  Mrs. K. purposefully strolls around the room seemingly to ponder the perplexing quandary, as was her artful routine.  When all eyes become fixed on her, she suddenly turns toward the class and says, “If no one has lepidopterophobia,35 I think butterflies.”  

The students nervously breath out “oohs” and “aahs” in cautious approval.

And, as if reaffirming the decision, Mrs. K. looks toward the ceiling and smiles saying, “Yes, butterflies it shall be.”  

2.  Viwavi36

Of all the insects in the world, butterflies are the most beloved.  They were known as butterfleoge in England and papillon in France.37  German storytellers told of witches that disguised themselves as butterfliege or buttervogel38 to steal and eat uncovered butter and cream.  To this day, containers of butter and milk are covered with cloth for protection.  The parpar39 in Israel was written of by their national poet, Hayim Bialik.  He wondered, perhaps as a butterfly around the flame dancing and twirling my soul will leave.40  The poet son of a Lutheran minister, Carl von Linné41 was the princeps botanicorum, the prince of botanists, the Pliny of the north.  As the father of taxonomy, he named moths, a biblical symbol of destruction,42 and their subset of butterflies Lepidoptera for their scaly wings.43  Those scales account for the brilliant color patterns on butterflies and moths.  They come in many sizes, shapes, and colors.  The oldest known butterfly fossil, Protocoelíades Kristenseni, was found in Denmark.44  Since their creation on the fifth or sixth day,45 they have been active each day, showing off their beautiful colors and whimsical flying.  Noah took flying creatures, like birds, on the ark that breathed through their noses, which excluded butterflies.  It is likely they floated on debris in whatever stage they found themselves.  There are four stages of butterfly life.  Each stage has the same DNA, but with genes that are switched on at their appropriate stage.  The highest state of their biological order is the first stage, an egg containing the least corrupt DNA.  The adult female carries the sperm of the male after they have mated.  In her given time, she lays the small fertilized eggs, one at a time or in batches, on plant leaves.  As an infant in a small boat guided down a river,46 this oviparous process of several weeks seems to reduce the vulnerability to predators.  Soon the egg will darken and a young caterpillar can be seen moving around inside.  Just before emerging, it will make a circular hole in its shell and wriggle until it frees itself.        

With the entomological knowledge of a lepidopterologist, Mrs. K. begins her aurelian story, “Having been raised in the DRC, many of you will be familiar with lots of the story’s general details...So I am sure those not as conversant with the DRC would appreciate your patience.  Okay, then, there was a family that lived in a copper mining town not far from here.  The father, Maaseh,47 was an engineer who liked to entertain his only daughter, Poiéma,48 with humorous quips like, ‘The pirate failed his physics’ test because he could not walk the Max Planck.’49  This use of humor indirectly encouraged his daughter to think laterally.50  His acceptance of divergent thinking, as Solomon did with the two women and the one baby,51 did not allow for excluding vertical logic, so he took every opportunity to impart the love of math he learned at the Université Protestante au Congo.52  On one memorable occasion, he triangulated their family dynamics explaining he was A squared and her mother, Clémentine, was B squared equaling Poiéma, who was, of course, C square.53  ‘Poiéma,’ they said proudly, ‘You are our hypotenuse.’  A title of affection she cherished deeply.”

“Poiéma was reading about the archangel blowing the horn on judgment day.54  She imagined the horn as a cone.  Its math would be π times the radius squared, for the base area, plus π times the radius times the surface, for the surface area.  Its volume would be π times the radius squared times the height over three.  This means the volume is one third the area of the base, AB and the height, or V equals one third AB times the height.  She then thought about what would happen if the cone’s height is increased as its radius is decreased while maintaining a constant volume.  If that process is continued forever, there would be a finite volume with an infinite surface.  She experienced momentary confusion, as long before afflicted Thomas Hobbes and others with incorrect ideas on actual boundaries of infinity as opposed to practical boundaries based on finite utility.  She assumed math had the potential to clarify what seemed to be a paradox.  The volume converges with the function of infinity and one times distance times x over x squared, as the surface diverges with function of infinity and one times distance times x over x.  Thereby, math did disprove what seemed to be a conflict, as she had hoped.”    

“The job Maaseh enjoyed was abruptly terminated when the Chinese took control of the mine.  He was one of the few Congolese allowed to stay on, partly because he knew the most about the operation, but mostly because he was also a hard worker.  Maaseh’s piercing intellect and diligent work ethic was almost legendary in those parts.  But his cut in pay to a dollar a day and the incessant mocking by the Asian invaders began to take its toll.  He would say, ‘It is better for the poor to walk in integrity than in perverseness like the rich.55  They are full of contempt,’56 he warned, ‘Do not learn the ways of the heathen,57 the heart of the prudent seek knowledge.’58 He would boast, ‘Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of the times.’”59  

“Maaseh and Clémentine each regularly quizzed Poiéma on the short catechisms.  The question most rehearsed was, ‘What is the chief end of man?’  To which Poiéma would happily reply, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.’60  Those good times were to be forever changed.  After two of Maaseh’s mining friends left off talking in whispers to Clémentine one afternoon, she began to weep uncontrollably.  Poiéma pleaded with her mother to determine why.  To her horror, she was told her father had been killed in an accident.  They had lived from payday to payday and had no economic reserves.  Poiéma felt mathematically different; she, C squared minus her father, A square, now equaled her mother, B square.”

“Poiéma was proud her father’s funeral was a burial and not a Philistine cremation.61  Soon after the funeral, it became apparent they would have to move or starve.  Clémentine explained to Poiéma they would travel to Kinshasa.  She would look for work and put her in a good school.  Poiéma remembered how her father had spoken fondly of his time in Kinshasa, as a college student, and she looked forward to the trip.  Her mother was much more apprehensive.  She explained they would travel west at evening and through the night for safety.  ‘Just follow the setting sun and in no time at all they would arrive leaving their shadows behind,’ she stated confidently.  ‘One last thing,’ Clémentine said deliberately, as she removed her gold hoop earrings and naturally thought about Maaseh giving them to her on their first wedding anniversary.  They were too extravagant, she thought then, but Maaseh was proud of his good job at the mine.  Clémentine rolled up the cuffs on Poiéma’s pant legs and carefully stitched one earring onto the underside of each leg.  As she rolled the pant legs back down and patted them, she said smiling, ‘Now we are set!’  Her confidence gave Poiéma needed peace.”  

“Just like that, they set off with all their possessions on their backs.  Like a good mother, Clémentine did not tire of answering Poiéma’s near endless queries.  The conversation helped pass the long night hours and drowned out the many scary sounds coming from the jungle.  Always teaching like a good mother, Clémentine maintained it was never okay to say something is true when it is false, but she pointed out that a person is not to utter all they know.62  Jesus refused to tell his enemies by what authority He did things.63  Just war theory validated, at times, it was prudent and righteous to withhold information.  Poiéma understood as she remembered the story of Ehud telling the King of Moab, Eglon, he had a message for him, while not telling him he was sent there by God to kill him.64  She loved her mother’s teaching her from as far back as she could recall being taught to tie her shoelaces.  Knot theory relates to geometric positions, it was explained.  In the case of shoelaces, a reef knot will tighten when stressed but can easily be unloosed when needed, whereas a granny knot may be easy to unloose but will loosen when it is stressed.  So, the reef knot is good and the granny knot is bad.”  

“At daylight they found a secure place from people and animals.  They then scavenged for ground nuts and fruit; mangos were Poiéma’s favorite.  Their only pot was used to boil drinking water, which took a few minutes to cool.  Later, a second pot of water was always heated to wash out clothes and to bath.  Clémentine feared the tiny fire would draw unwelcomed guests.  Fortunately, it was not unusual for there to be many fires in the morning, as people routinely started their day with a hot meal of bushmeat.  With only the few calories they consumed, naps were very restful.”

“Grateful for rides in the back of trucks with large friendly families, they arrived at the foot of the Rwenzori mountain range.  They were not very impressed by the bland U.S. embassy on the Avenue des Aviateurs.  Their overall reception in Kinshasa was as chilly as the glaciers on Mount Ngaliema.65  Basic housing was many times the annual income for Congolese people.  Like many people in their circumstance, they settled in the Kinshasa slum of Ngaliema.  There were places to see, like the presidential guest residence of Palais de Marbre66and Camp Militaire Colonel Tshatshi67 where the DRC Joint Military Chiefs of Staff are headquartered.”

“Clémentine wasted no time in finding a school for Poiéma.  The American School68 was in walking distance of their squatter’s shed.  It had a reputation for academics and would teach her English.  The Baptist teachers patiently allowed Poiéma to catch up with other students.  She overheard one missionary comment that she had a quick learning curve and was even far ahead of other students in math and the long catechisms.  While she was learning, Clémentine dried fish, ndakala, she caught in the Congo River tributaries.  They ate some and sold some in the street.  Encouraged by her newfound foraging skills, she collected the luxury food, caterpillars, and dried the mbinzo69 to trade for cultivated yams, a favorite of her and Poiéma, and cassava.70  She carefully avoided trees marked for caterpillar collection by families, usually with a cross carved in the trunk.  The caterpillars were often named for the type of tree and plant they were found on.”

“Both Clémentine and Poiéma agreed they would never eat okra called mulenda or dongo dongo by some.  During reflections, Clémentine feared Poiéma becoming one of Ngaliema’s street children.  Of the near 700,000 people, as many as 70,000 were street kids.  Forty percent were girls.71  They were like the bonobo72 roaming in gynecocracy armies73 scarcely capable of self-recognition in mirrors.  They have their own begging language, and are always operating.74  Known as maibob by some and affectionately called shégués75 by communists.  It is an abbreviation for the Cuban mass murderer, Che Guevara, who had a depraved indifference, eventualvorsatz or dolus eventualis,76 toward the pain of others.  Girls that turned to prostitution are tsheill.  Clémentine made every attempt to shelter Poiéma’s heart from becoming vexed by visually and audibly witnessing acts of sodomy, and other wickedness in the streets, as Lot had experienced millennia earlier.77  A member of the Society of Catholic Priests, the Archbishop of York is a public supporter of sodomite marriage and his personal rebuke of Jesus Christ for the Lord’s Prayer for being part of an oppressive patriarchy was logically consistent.”78          

“Catholic Salesians have facilities to care for and educate children.79  They are often avoided for the musungu80 sexual predators there.  Baptists offer an alternative religious safe space.  Not all street children are orphaned, many have been put out of homes for their embracing witchcraft.  The largest DRC group is the Luba with the Baluba religion.81  The potential chief, mulopwe, must test the demonic spirits by incest with a female family member and be smeared with blood over his naked body.  They believe in a universal creator, shakapanga, and afterlife.  Their three supernatural figures are the supreme god, Leza, territorial demonic spirits responsible for getting game and fish, and the demons that possess humans and ancestors, bankambo, are bavidye. The three earthly figures are priests, kitobo or nsengha, healers, nganga, and witches, mfwintshi, who practice divination and speak to the dead.  Their core self-righteous beliefs are genuine personhood, bumuntu, good hearts, mucima muyampe, and self-respect, buleme.  Their government is based on the will of ancestors, kishila-kya-bankambo, as passed down in oral tradition.  The religious lodge, bambudye, ensures compliance with the will of ancestors.  After worldwide exposure,82 Catholics and then protestants dominated those religious beliefs, although there are still many adherents.83  Demonically possessed street children, with the spirit of divination, Puthōn,84 call the Baptists, dŏulŏs85 of El Elon, the Absolute Sovereign Most High God.86  By contrast, the snake spirit, python in Greek mythology, was believed to guard the oracle of Delphi.”

“Life expectancy in the DRC is 59.74 years.87  When Poiéma returned from school one day she found her dear mother had developed a sensitivity to light, photophobia.  At evening Clémentine’s fever grew hotter and hotter.  She appeared to be mentally confused.  They both had dormant tuberculosis, as many people had.  Poiéma thought this must be the problem.  She managed to get her mother to the Ngaliema hospital before she collapsed.  The medical doctor immediately diagnosed the problem as Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, CCHF.  They both listened to the dire forecast of a forty percent fatality rate.  Like all youth, Poiéma did not accept the warning.  On the other hand, Clémentine prepared herself for the inevitable and motioned for Poiéma to come closer.  Clémentine instructed Poiéma, in the event of her death, to go to the Baptist missionaries and let them know and accept their recommendation.  You will be en bonnes mains.88  ‘Remember reading how righteous and self-sacrificing Solzhenitsyn’s Baptist was?’ she questioned.  Of course, Poiéma affectionally recalled that character of her first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  She held her mother’s feeble hand and flashed her signature smile affirming her request.”

“As Clémentine faded into unconsciousness, Poiéma questioned the doctor about CCHF.  Realizing her high intelligence, he empathetically began by saying, ‘There is no known cure.  It is spread by a tick, hyalomma tick vector, virus, nairovirus,’ adding, ‘Somehow your mother was infected by the body fluid of a carrier.’  ‘How?’ Poiéma questioned.  The doctor replied, ‘God knows?  It could be as simple as she inadvertently allowed a diseased dog to lick her hand within the past few days.’  Clémentine’s nightmare came true as she died before morning leaving Poiéma an orphan in a cluster89 of hatchling street children.”           

3.  Chrysalises90

After emerging from its shell, the caterpillar, larva, eats its empty shell which provides needed nutrients until it locates edible plants, as a youngster guiding their boat downstream with their own hands.91  Some of their soft bodied lives are protected by looking like a leaf or a twig, or having irritant hairs or stinging spines, and still others make warning and threatening movements when alarmed.  Survivors eat as much as possible for several weeks until they attach themselves with silk to a plant stem.  The caterpillar’s skin splits along its back and the chrysalis or pupa emerges from the old skin.

Mrs. K. persists, “Orderlies came into the room and began unhooking Clémentine from the beeping life support machines no longer needed.  As in a bad dream, the doctor vanished and no one in the room spoke except with their judging eyes saying, ‘It is over…Move on little girl.’  She followed the emotionless attendants into the hallway and watched them wheel her mother around the corner, like a load of fire kindling and through large hospital doors out of sight.  Alone in the hallway, Poiéma leaned against the lime green block wall and collapsed to the floor.  ‘What now?’ she thought.  She had no father, side A, nor mother, side B, and questioned what good she, side C, could be; a triangle with only one side.”

“Sitting on the cool hospital floor of checkered tile that looked like a giant chess board through Poiéma’s tearful eyes, her heart poured out to the heavens, ‘Show me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed; because thou, Lord, has helped me and comforted me.’92  Poiéma has been given the opportunity to realize early in her life that we all have the sentence of death within us so we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”93

“’Poiéma, Poiéma,’ someone said shattering her concentration.  The voice was familiar.  She looked upward and saw it was her Baptist English teacher from school.  He helped her to her feet.  ‘This is my wife,’ he said by way of introduction.  ‘We were visiting a sick friend and heard about your mother in the waiting room.’  His wife hugged Poiéma and said, ‘We are sorry you have to go through this.’ Adding, ‘We must not succumb to weltschmerz.’94  Poiéma responded, ‘World-pain?’  Knowing maturity is required to bond the concepts of language and death, the wife could immediately see Poiéma may have very advanced linguistic knowledge but she did not yet have the tools to comprehend the extent of her consoling lexicon.  So, she asked, ‘Would you like to go home with us?’  Poiéma nodded, yes, as her heart was much more grateful than the silent gesture indicated.”

“They walked the short distance to the teacher’s home.  It was very modest for people of their education levels.  Poiéma had passed it a few times without any idea she knew the people that lived there.  Naturally curious, Poiéma awkwardly inquired what age their children were.  The wife said, ‘We had not been blessed with children.’  And her husband interjected, ‘Why don’t I see if we can get something to eat; I’ve found food always lifts the spirits.’  Poiéma sat in the narrow cloth chair in the corner and upon thinking it may be their favorite chair, jumped up and stood, almost at attention, like a soldier ready for orders.  Hearing the commotion, the wife stuck her head around the corner and said, ‘Please sit where you like…It may be a few minutes.’”

“Poiéma’s drowsy state was interpreted by a very pleasant smell.  She could not recognize it, but knew it must be something exotic.  They brought two plates of food and offered them to Poiéma.  The wife apologized, ‘Please forgive our mispronunciation of words…We primarily speak English.  One is soso, chicken and rice, and the other is loso na madesu, rice and beans.  We are out of ntaba95 for now.’  Poiéma thought either was many times better than pili pili,96 and thanked them with all her strength.  The teacher and his wife exchanged the warmest of glances, as they exited the room to let Poiéma eat in peace.  After she had eaten both plates, the couple came in to enjoy their meals.  Seeing their meager portions, Poiéma felt ashamed for having eaten that much food.  ‘What an ungrateful guest,’ she figured they must think.  They seemed to be preoccupied and too ate hardily.  ‘We have a garden in back with orange trees,’ her teacher said abruptly.  His wife added, ‘We make extra money selling honey from our hives.’97  ‘I say that,’ she added, ‘In case you go outback for a walk; they haven’t stung anyone yet.  We will make a bed for you in the other room.  If you like,’ she offered.  Poiéma nodded, yes.  They motioned for Poiéma to go into the bedroom.  It smelled like flowers, which matched the roses on the wall paper.  They left her with the guidance, ‘We’ll see you when you have rested.’”

“Poiéma had not slept that sound or that long in what seemed like forever.  She stretched her arms and removed the soft sheets. If the clock was correct, she had slept nearly twenty-four hours.  Hearing talking in the living room, she cautiously entered wondering what the future had in store.  ‘Was their generosity to be short lived?’ she naturally thought.  ‘Good morning!’ the teacher and his wife chimed.  Poiéma sheepishly replied, ‘Good morning.’  The teacher said, ‘We have hot eggs and toasted bread with our honey in the kitchen.’  ‘Help yourself,’ his wife added.”

“After eating a modest portion that morning, Poiéma went into the living room.  The teacher and his wife sat down on the brown striped couch beside her.  To break the tension, he began, ‘While you were resting, we made a few phone calls.  First, we contacted the hospital and made plans for your mother’s funeral tomorrow afternoon, and plan to lay her to rest in the church cemetery.  We realize you do not have any relatives buried there and may not even know where it is.’  Poiéma was again grateful and said, ‘Thank you, you all are too kind.’  He continued, ‘Great! Second, according to the school enrollment records, you do not have any relatives.  Is that true?’  Poiéma affirmed, ‘Yes.’  Her mind was racing, ‘Could it be they would allow her to stay there for a while?’  The teacher and his wife exchanged glances, as if knowing exactly what each was thinking.  ‘Well,’ the teacher began by clearing his throat, ‘We had hoped you might like to stay with us for a while.’  Poiéma’s heart was pounding, yet she managed to squeak out, ‘That would be wonderful; if it is not too much trouble.  I promise to help out.’  They smiled and said, ‘Wonderful!  You are an answer to prayer.’  Poiéma did not quite understand the gravity of their joy, but was also joyful, none the less, and she flashed her winning smile.  ‘We have some errands to run,’ the wife added.  ‘You may take a bath, if the water is working today; we will wash your clothes when we return.  What size are you?’ she asked.  Poiéma proudly replied, ‘Anthropometrically, I’m a mesomorph.’98 The wife responds, ‘Never mind…I do ask the silliest of questions sometimes.  We’ll pick you out some clothes at the market and you can pick which ones you prefer.  Is that okay?’  ‘Yes,’ Poiéma nodded easing the wife’s insecurity as she focused on the wall of books behind the couch.  The teacher reacted in approval, ‘You may read any of the books you want.  We must be off,’ his wife added as they departed out through the mahogany front door, which made a solid boom when it closed behind them.”

“To Poiéma’s surprise, the water did work.  She soaked in the tub of clear warm water with lavender soap for almost an hour.  It seemed like she was going backward putting her dirty clothes back on.  But she was grateful for the needed bath.  How happy her mother and father would be to see her new surroundings.  ‘They would approve,’ she thought.  She strolled into the living room and went straight to the book shelves that were wall to wall and floor to ceiling.  There were dictionaries for most known languages and books by Congolese women.99  She enjoyed Ikole Botuli-Bolumber’s ‘Evidence’ Dombi100 Elisabeth Tol’Ande Mweya’s Remous de Feuilles, N’Tumb Diur’s Zaïna,101and Lima-Baleka Bosekilolo’s Les Marais Brûlés edition with what looked to be a butterfly on the cover.102  They had worn copies of Solzhenitsyn’s works, many of which she had not been aware.  There were classics from other Russian authors and famous philosophers like Epictetus.  She read part of his Enchiridion, indicating freedom requires accountability for moral choices, which makes all other things a lesser priority.  She skimmed Hans Christian Anderson’s Sommerfuglen, The Butterfly, were ‘it is not enough to merely exist, but to live, a butterfly needs sunshine, freedom, and a little flower for a companion.’103  Naturally, a Smithsonian handbook of insects, with a butterfly on the cover, caught her attention.  She read through it with great care realizing how unaware she was of the creatures in her environment.  She reasoned, ‘Creativity from a core of love is kind and graceful, even Godlike. And, hope itself is a theological virtue.  If X is love, justice, and grace, then God would be infinite X.’  She recalled how Jonathan Edwards said, ‘There is such a thing as undiscerned sin, which is legalistic and prideful,104 and easily besets us and should be laid aside to run the race with eyes fixed on Jesus.’105  With that, Poiéma’s eyes became heavy and she fell asleep on the couch.”

“The teacher and his wife returned and were happy to see Poiéma resting.  ‘She picked butterflies,’ the wife said carefully removing the book from Poiéma’s hands with the dexterity of a bomb diffuser.  Poiéma was awaken from a sound sleep refreshed for the first time in many days.  ‘I’ll lay the book on your bed to read later,’ the wife assured her and added, ‘We found a few things you might like to wear.’  Poiéma was thinking of her mother’s funeral the next day and choose a black dress with white flowers for the occasion, from among the many articles of clothing in their shopping bags.  Recognizing they did not have enough money for all the items they purchased, Poiéma said, ‘You can return the rest.’  The teacher said, ‘We thought you might like the rest of the clothes for school next week.’  The wife removed some fragrant tubes of women’s makeup with English writing on them, ‘You might like these as well.’  Poiéma was overwhelmed and profusely thanked them.”

“Poiéma waked with the cloud of her mother’s funeral hanging over her.  She ate, bathed, and put on the new dress.  The wife took her aside and said, ‘I know I needed help with makeup when I was your age.’  Poiéma was again grateful for the assistance.  The wife gently brushed on pink and blue makeup on her cheeks and eye lids.  When Poiéma looked at herself in the mirror, she seemed to glow and the wife was pleased to help, never failing an opportunity to teach her, ‘When it comes to makeup, subtilty is your friend.’  ‘Less is more.  Right?’ Poiéma responded.  ‘Exactly!’ replied the wife.  ‘Chilon of Sparta was a Greek elegiac poet, meaning he wrote pessimistic laments for the dead, who is responsible for the gist of the saying you just quoted.106  He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece.107  He helped militarize Sparta and helped to overthrow the tyranny of Sicyon.108  Tyrants are bastards of Satan seeking to darken rays of light by removing freedoms contingent on potentiality with their finite sovereign acts, absent the benevolent prerequisite of omniscience or omnipotence.  They enact ius positum, which is often contradictory.  That positive law is independent of ius naturale.  Lex naturalis, like two plus two equaling four, is from God and can not be contradictory.  Its truth demands respect because violations lead to confusion and destruction.  Diogenes Laërtius of Sinope was asked his skill, he replied, ‘Ruling over man, spread the word in case anyone wants to buy himself a master.’109  Even tyrants are a cause of fear for their opposing forces of evil, so their power may not always be a cause of fear for good behavior.110  Roman Caesars did murder unarmed peaceful Pauline Christians, but they also arrested and executed thieves and rebellious murderers who were also threats to the Christian minority.  Ayn Rand explained how individualism is superior to collectivism.  People that claim to support the masses are concealing their actual motive to lord power over others.  Especially, those that rise from ghettos.111  They are like a sweeping rain that leave no food for the poor.112  Their sins are written with a pen of iron having a diamond point that engraves the tablet of their hearts113 for judgement.’  Friedrich Hayek would point out the nature of true socio-economic movements are ground-up.  The bottom-up approach pieces together systems to give rise to more complex systems.  That makes the original systems subsystems of the emergent system.  Unbending cooperation lets a bully know the outcome for both sides will be zero, unless there is some sort of compromise.”114

“The funeral was a blur.  Intense grief for her mother and her father was confronted by social formalities.  Poiéma did not know most of the guests.  She recognized some were fellow students from school with adults she assumed were their parents.  The choir sang her mother’s favorite tenzi.115   The sifa and kuabudu116 lyrics of How Great Thou Art117 in Swahili lifted everyone’s hearts: ‘When thro’ the woods and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze; Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!’118  When they returned to the teacher’s house, Poiéma methodically plowed through their library for days, reading vociferously the eclectic collection of a very wise couple, feeding on them like a ravenous caterpillar devouring a tree, during the times when the electrical lighting worked.”

“One morning, Poiéma remembered her mother’s gold earrings sowed into the legs of her pants tucked away in the closet for weeks.  She removed her mother’s stiches and the teacher’s wife noticed Poiéma holding them up to her ear in the mirror.  ‘I think you may be of age to wear those,’ she said.  ‘Your mother’s I bet.’  Poiéma commented, ‘She rarely took them off.’  ‘Let me see what I can do,’ the wife added rushing into the kitchen.  The wife returned with a small pin hastily sterilized in alcohol and a piece of ice.  ‘I need to make a hole in each ear; it did not hurt me when I was around your age,’ she assured.  The wife was correct.  In what seemed like a moment, the ears numbed with the ice were ready for the gold earrings.  The wife put them in and proudly asked, ‘What do you think?’  Poiéma was pleased with what she saw reflected in the mirror.  ‘Can we do my nails?’ she asked spontaneously.  The wife was almost giddy, ‘I’ll be right back.’  She returned with a bottle of blue pearl nail polish.  ‘I thought of you right away when I saw this at the market,’ the wife said.  When the satiny cobalt finish was applied, Poiéma looked, felt, and began acting like a different person.  ‘This was a time for in depth chrysalis’ reflecting,’ she thought, ‘A new phase even—wakati wa amani, a time of peace.119  The Lord was to be praised for delivering a soul of the poor out of the hand of evildoers!’”120

4.  Watu Wazima121

The butterfly’s old skin will be released and the pupa will take its final shape.  Only moths make cocoons with extra layers of silk around themselves before pupating.  The butterfly becomes a chrysalis, from the Greek word for gold due its usual metallic-like markings.  It has a hard exterior that takes on the color and shape of its surroundings.  Some are poisonous from having eaten poisonous plants and others mimic berry-like fruit.  Humans may choose to prayerfully submit to God controlling their boat’s journey.122  Shortly before emergence, the color of the butterfly will be faintly visible.  The pupa case splits and the butterfly struggles to get out, at this point humans begin to resolve themselves to be taken across the waters to their heavenly home.123  When the adult butterfly, imago, is free, it releases a fluid from its abdomen called meconium.  This is the waste accumulated during the pupa phase.  The butterfly rests as it expands it crumpled wings by pumping blood into wing veins.  It this does not occur before the wings harden, they will be permanently deformed.  Only the caterpillar and the imago breath oxygen.  Adult butterflies begin to interact with plants and flowers created on day three.124  They are only able to feed on fluids from flower nectar and fermenting sap, or the liquids of dung and decaying flesh, carrion.  The butterflies transfer pollen from one plant to another as they feed with their long hollow tubes, proboscis, that remain coiled beneath their heads as a long tongue.  At a prescribed point, the butterflies will mate and the female will lay her eggs, beginning another life cycle.  All stages of the butterfly are preserved in alcohol except the last stage, which is frozen and mounted with a pin for display under glass in gallery framed cases.      

Mrs. K. continues, “The weeks were passing quickly.  English was the only language used at home and school so Poiéma was predictably becoming fluent, having read through the English dictionary many times.  Poiéma, the teacher, and his wife fell into a routine of church, school, eating, reading, and tending to the garden.  She began using moisturizing lotion when her skin dried out from daily bathing.  She liked being covered with the faint smell of coconut oil, as was the common scent of European tourists.  Poiéma spoke little more than in polite exchanges, as she was always preoccupied by assessing her life, a trait common to all smart children.  She began to see the new triangulated dynamics of her life with the teacher as side A, his wife as side B and herself, again, as the hypotenuse.”

“One weekend morning Poiéma went into the garden.  It was her own open-air conservatory, a lepidopterarium to educate her with nature’s storybook—with no human editing from frailties or biases.  It was a micro-world, an horologium florae of sorts, as Andrew Marvell wrote of in his poem The Garden.125  Flowers opened and closed at specific times according to their programmed schedule.  That dynamic programming was evident in butterfly metamorphosis remaining unchanged as the fossil records show.  On this day, Poiéma spied a butterfly as large as her hand.  She recognized it as the Giant African Swallowtail.  The papilio antimachus126 caterpillar eats leaves off the highly toxic strophanthus gratu high in the jungle’s canopy.  The tree has cardiac glycoside used by hunters to poison their spears.127  The male Giant is very aggressive.  She saw one run off several smaller Blue Mother of Pearl butterflies trying to drink from a mudpuddle.  The salamis temora, 128 of the nymphalidae family named for the Greek nymph, reminded Poiéma of the not so innocent victims of tyrants the teacher’s wife spoke about.  Demonic street children are preyed upon by the predatory Police Nationale Congolaise129 and the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo130 preyed on the opposing militia rebels and vice versa.  In 1969, the communist students of the Catholic University of Lovanium engaged in violent protests to gain more student handouts, violently extorted by the government from the lawful earnings of taxpayers, for the privilege of attending college.  They were rounded up by government authorities and many were executed.  Many fled to the like-minded communist state of Bulgaria to avoid trials.”131                                      

“Poiéma’s active mind began to recall the day’s youth referred to as Millennials and Generation Z etcetera.  The Narcissistic Personality Inventory test132 indicates they are by far the most narcissist age-group in history.  Some females of their ranks have begun to marry themselves in autogamy or solygamy.  Their vows are taken in a mirror with approving witnesses.  That trend of psychopathy can be analyzed with an algorithm of smooth data.  Noise from the data set is removed to reveal unseen patterns so trends can be predicted and planned for with outlier information providing high and low sequences.  Poiéma has found narcissists inflate language using adjectives such as brutal, savage, or ruthless to describe things as trivial as circus rides or an unpleasant dining experience, instead of for the torture of soldiers or other true tests of fortitude.  They are quick to label you as unforgiven if they perceive you have labeled them.”133

“As Poiéma walked in the garden, she thought of how the small dark brown Blue Mother of Pearl caterpillar with an orange back ate brillantaisia and isoglossa woodii or other herbs and shrubs.  They also consumed the Chinese violet asysthasia gangetica.  The yellowish green caterpillar of the invasive White Cabbage, an immigrant to the DRC from Asia, ate brassica oleracea.134  In Sino-Congolese relations,135 the White pieris rapae136 may represent heaven and the Red has represented hell.  Chuang-Tzu, a Daoist, wrote about a butterfly meng,137 a dark confused or dream of chaos.  He was a butterfly fluttering around as he pleased and awoke not knowing if he was dreaming of being a butterfly or was a butterfly dreaming of him.  He concluded there was a difference—a transformation of things.  That transformation is a change in consciousness between reality and illusion.  The constant flux leads the self to change from being unaware of the distinction of things to being aware of the definite distinction between things.  Poiéma contrasted that experience with the migration of the Red Admiral from Europe.  The spiny grayish black or green caterpillar of the vanessa atalanta feeds on stinging nettles138 considered a nuisance by most people.  The African Migrant caterpillar is greenish yellow with small black spots that feeds on sennas, a legume—cassia.”139    

“Poiéma observed the teacher’s citrus trees and saw both the Mocker Swallowtail and the Christmas Butterfly caterpillars consuming their leaves.  The fat green papilio dardanus140 caterpillar with orange scent horns was competing with the mottled green papilio demodocus.141  Caterpillars of the Gaudy Commodore,142 the Pirate,143 and the Grass Jewel144 ate herbs as the Forest Queen145 ate shrubs, and the Chief146 ate climbing vines.  On the other hand, the Common Harvester147 is predacious feeding on cabbage aphids.148  Like the butterfly, the aphid fossil is unchanged and it is capable of metamorphosis.  When it is cold, the aphid can grow wings and escape to find food or escape overcrowding.  The flying ability requires wing muscles, a thicker exoskeleton, better senses from larger eyes and ocelli light detection bumps, and antennae.  The females can clone themselves when they are without males--parthenogenesis.  They have a gelling saliva or salivary flange secreting before their stylet is inserted into plants, which prevents the normal plant occlusion response to injury.  The occlusion is calcium triggered and is prevented by the chemical in the saliva.  Aphids also secrete a sugary honeydew ants eat.  Ants will kill the enemies of aphids.  They may even carry an aphid to a new plant when the host plant is depleted.  However, if the aphids become too prominent, the ants will feed a few aphids to their ant larvae.  It was obvious to Poiéma that that engineered design required an infinite Designer that must have pre-existed the finite design.”

“The diversity of life in the garden stimulated Poiéma’s progressive need to understand how we know, like many thinking hats.149  It was as if wisdom itself was crying out150 in alpha privatus.  When the caterpillar is disintegrated, a negating prefix, it will fulfill the law of its nature revealing its original face before it was born.  The caterpillar’s job is to embrace its butterfly.  The receding past self meets it acceding future.  This duplicity of self is a decisive juncture.  William Blake saw this as the clash of his Vala, The Four Zoas.  Zen proverbs recognize one must let go or be dragged, and a sage will leave no footprints behind.  That teaches non-attachment unnaturally disconnecting relationships.  Aristotle believed cocoons and chrysalises were like tombs and the emerging butterfly was like the anima soul fluttering free of the corpse.  The Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche, is depicted in art as a butterfly, as is Jesus’ resurrection.  In her Vanitas Still Life,151 Maria van Oosterwijick used a red admiral to symbolize a soul.  She used a white cabbage butterfly to symbolize good and heaven, and a red one to symbolize evil and hell.”      

“Epistemology consumed the application of Poiéma’s learning.  She thought good could not be proportional to relative human finite ability.  Transcendently, it must be measured by an immutable infinite standard, which could not be attainable by finite humans.  That would require the infinite Creator’s grace to fill the void of ability.  Standard psychology books imply man is basically good and psychopathy is an abnormal succeeding to stress out of one’s control.152  Meaning, it is a normal trigger common to all humans and is therefore not unnatural nor should be considered abnormal.  This would disqualify the field of psychology, as known today, from academic credibility.  It is a deceptive act to profess good but oppress innocent orphans.  Surely, God has seen it153 and will judge that behavior.  Poiéma could see it was just the language of intellects—simple mathematical logic.  The consequences of the antecedent depicted as if X, then Y.  The conditional premise forms the argument’s hypothetical syllogism.  Charles Dodgson gave his Tweedledee the words, ‘If it was so, it might be…but as it isn’t, it ain’t.’154  Thus, we can see if something is not, a false consequence has been created.  Job was presented with his health being taken, X, with a consequence of cursing God, Y.  Eve was presented with eating the forbidden fruit, X, and becoming a God, Y.155  In both cases, Y did not occur.156  Jesus was presented with worshiping Satan, X, and the consequence of being given all earthy kingdoms, Y.  X nor Y occurred.157  Superhuman intelligence exceeds human ability to anticipate interactions and the extent of its superior abilities.  So it can not be contained by humans.  This means, the infinite self-existent good Creator God should be sought, and created demons must be resisted with Divine strength and His Scriptures.”

“Poiéma remembered Mikhail Bulgakov wrote of the devil, the master, visiting the atheistic former USSR to challenge religious beliefs in his The Master and Margarita.  It was a rebuke of aggressive godless people even though it denied Jesus’ historical existence and divinity.158  Josephus and many other historians have verified the reality of Jesus.  Abductive science acknowledges the record of history with the understanding it can not be repeated as a scientific proof.  Murders can not be repeated, but forensic science recognizes there are logical inferences that may be reasonably made.  Inductive reasoning uses empirical data to observe facts, generalize axioms, and gather new data and use axioms to make new axioms.  That scientific method is the Baconian method, which replaced Aristotle’s Organon.  It addresses false mental images of idola mentis:159 idola tribus tendencies to perceive more order in a system than exists,160 idola specus weakness from likes and dislikes,161 idola fori problems in the communication process,162 and idola theatri of following academic dogma without raising reasonable questions.163

“Poiéma’s experience was teaching her the more knowledge is increased the more problems are realized.164  David Hume addressed cause and effect connections.  He thought there is no reason to draw an inference concerning any object beyond those that are experienced.  Yet human nature indicates finite intellect’s default position is to reasonably connect A to B.  That connectiveness allows necessary reason to anticipate.  Bulgakov satirically wrote of a surgeon who grafted a human pituitary gland and testicles onto a stray dog causing it to turn from an animal into a human.  It did not behave as the surgeon intended; ignoring personal hygiene and getting a job with the communist party.  The story mocked the communist idea of manipulating the nature of man by ignoring individual interests and becoming a new species of homo societicus who worked robotically for the government’s collective interests and so fails.165  Communism is a paradise for parasites.166  The traditionalist polytheist Catholic, Julius Nyerere, caterpillar, learned forcing successful Tanzanian farmers to his ujamaa communes is a concept that will fail.167  

“Richard Dedekind’s number168 counts monotone Boolean function and its antichain, or Sperner family of sets.169  The function input n variable is considered true or false: a binary possibility of either 0 or 1.  The modern truth tree was introduced as semantic tableau by Dodgson.170  Math is not preconditional on people and their experience, as evolutionists must believe to distract from The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.171  Epistemologically, human intellect has a singular position on an absolute scale and should consider other intellects may also attain that ability.”172

“It may be concluded, epistemology has two categories; knowledge by theory, as one plus one equals two and knowledge by experience, confirming one plus one equals two.  By extension it is reasonable to extrapolate two minus one equals one is true and two minus one is not other than one.  This affirms there is objective truth attainable by finite humans which transcends beliefs.  A subjective rejection of that reality can be made but can never make it a reality—atheistic beliefs can not affect the reality of God by necessity.  There is an innate human equation of justice affirming the Creator as Holy Judge of an eternal heaven for His redeemed and an eternal hell for the unredeemed.  This Unmoved Mover was Aristotle’s god.  His belief contained part of the descriptive set of the true God.  The Bible’s set of a Holy infinite God is more complete.  Plato discussed a Greek anti-theistic possibility of epistemology.  Augustine of Hippo’s neoPlatonian epistemology verified there is truth and it is accessible by human reason.  It is a subjective doctrine of illumination, meaning in spite of the fact God is external to humans, human minds are aware of Him by His direct action on them and by His revelation.  Cornelius Van Til173 applied the doctrine of total depravity from the ultimate authority of God, rejecting any neutrality of biblical authority.  The Titlian view is a neoCalvinist presuppositionalist position that there is no set of neutral assumptions to reason with nonChristians.  God’s knowledge is propositional knowledge: He knows the good and evil of all things and people,174 He knows the hearts of man and its abominations,175 and He knows the thoughts of the earthly wisdom is futile.176  Called Doctor Communis and Doctor Angelicus, Thomas Aquinas used logical proof for God and His Scriptures.  He reasoned, ‘Christians can not consistently declare the necessity of God’s existence and His Scripture, and also declare God may not exist and scripture may not be true.’”

“Pilate famously asked, ‘What is truth?’177  Some people define truth circularly reasoning it is being in accordance with reality which requires reality be defined as true.  Modus ponens178 logic can not be proven without using it.  So you can not learn without having known it.  Humans know ponens modus and so were created already knowing it.  This affirms the antecedent, a deductive argument form of principle Q, P is true so Q must also be true.  Bible epistemology begins with fear of the Lord but fools despise this wisdom and instruction.179  Truth is defined biblically as Jesus,180 as God’s Word,181 the Logos.182  Poiéma reasoned the Word was God and the Word was with God, which must have been revealed.  His thoughts are true and determine truth.  Finite man is created in His image, revealing Himself in Scripture and nature.183  Who He foreknew He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.184  God created man with sensory organs to receive information and believe.  Man can distinguish chronological order, when something was, and logical order, when something must have been.  Poiéma thought we can see the walls and roof of a building and know the building logically required the foundation came first, then the walls were constructed, and lastly, the roof was put on.  This means we are aware of our self and our sensory experiences long before Bible knowledge.  Yet, the Bible logically came before our chronological experiencing it with our senses.  Then knowledge can not begin with self but with God.”185

“God is first known theologically,186 and then His reality is experienced by redemption by faith.187  The attribution process is dating from chronological analysis, preexistent Creator for everything created, stylistically evaluated, beautiful interconnectedness from omniscience, and is technically evaluated, has omnipotent ability.  Psychological attribution is the theory behaviors are caused simultaneously from external factors or dispositionally caused from internal characteristics.  It is believed there is a human tendency to falsely attribute behavioral causes to the internal and ignore external variables.  An example for students is if they do well on a test it is attributed to their studying hard but if they do poorly it is because the test was tricky.  They believe all people are motivated to analyze behavioral events, as either the result of effort or by luck, to determine their causes so future events can be influenced.  Cognitive structures for relationships are revised.  People can become more optimistic or hopeful or less hopeful, pessimistic, depending on the perception of being able to adjust.  Interpersonal attribution is a tendency to tell a story likely to place the storyteller in the best light.  Many biblical records do not put its heroic characters in good light, such as David the adulterous murder or the apostles’ fear after Jesus’ crucifixion.”

“Karl Popper explained falsifiability is a knowable provision, at least for the present.  To be scientific, something must be testable to be true or false.  Catholics imply infallibility of its human leaders with ex cathedra.188  Their followers have implicit beliefs that the pope and priests know true doctrine and although they do not know it themselves, they believe their leaders surely have true doctrine.  A biblical relationship with God requires individual study to show one’s self approved.189  An omniscient God would give His people immutable Scripture so that people can individually determine its doctrine.  Calvinist biblical theology includes total depravity of man in sin, unconditional election of God’s sovereign choice, limited atonement because not all people will choose God’s redemption, irresistible grace can not be resisted by His willing slaves, and perseverance of the saints who must always be saved after redemption.  Evidence is undisputable proof to any rational being of creation’s sole attribution to the God of the Bible.  Poiéma had balanced theory and experience.  She knew that she knew that her Redeemer lives and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”190

“Poiéma would soon be informed by the teacher and his wife that due to her having the highest grades at school, she would be the youngest Congolese student to ever receive a full scholarship to the Calvinist Moody Bible Institute in America.  She will be excited to join other butterflies in a kaleidoscope191 systematically studying theology, the queen of science, as God is King, the King of the butterflies—Mfalme wa kipepeo.192 She will be determined to return to her homeland, and, as Kama Sywor Kamanda summarized in a poem, she will be allowed to give back to God all that He has lent her.193  Poiéma, butterfly bleu,194 will be a bridge between the indigo tourmaline sky above and the azurite ground below.  Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other;195 elliptic curves and modular forms were bridged with proof of the modularity conjecture.196  Good theology will lead to good doxology.”197

After a deep therapeutic sigh, Mrs. K. concludes, “Thus ends my story of how we can know that we know.”

Paul and the whole class burst out in enthusiastic applause except, of course, for Pius, Zhuangzi, and Patrice who sat in solemn solidarity.

(Thanks is extended to Congolese pastor P. N. and former Kinshasa Christian school principal K. W. for their email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. during May, 2023.)

1 Common Swahili for The Butterfly King or The King of Butterflies.  Common Swahili, generally used in this writing for more widespread clarity, is around 40% Arabic and means “of the coast” in Arabic.  Congolese Swahili also mixes in French tonal and is the most used of the Bantu languages.

2 Swahili for eggs.

3 From Hope’s poem The Invaders. He was an Australian poet and son of a Presbyterian minister.  His first collection of poems, The Wandering Islands, was published in 1955.

4 The arrow of time phrase is from Arthur Eddington’s 1927 The Nature of the Physical World.  Omar Khayyam’s 1859 Rubaiyat explained “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on.”  Negentropy (negative entropy) is a measure of distance to normality discussed by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 What is Life.

5 Christian names are commonly given to augment their given Congolese pagan names (nom païen) when the person becomes a Christian (nom chrêtien as a first name, prênom, or surname, nom, or post surname, postnom).  Some names are contractions of phrases, e.g. Plamedi (Plan Merveilleux de Dieu, God’s Marvelous Plan) etc.

6 Swahili for elephant is tembo or ndovu.

7 The lymantria dispar discovered by Carl Linnaeus (1758, Systema Naturae see endnote 43) is used here as a metaphor.

8 An American federal policy that excludes testable merit from educational and job placement considerations for those that identify as Negro, regarding them incapable of competing with the objective abilities of Orientals and Caucasians.  After many decades of government sanctioned discrimination against Orientals and Caucasians, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the policy unconstitutional in 2023.  That manmade law (positive law) was recognized as being in opposition to immutable natural law, as was earlier applied to the unconstitutionality of the decades long murder of babies under abortion laws.

9 Prov. 21:25-26, 29.

10 The American cockroach was introduced to America from Africa largely during the 17th century cursed slave trade.  Of common cockroaches (German, oriental, and American), they are the largest (over 2 inches), have the longest lifespan (up to 700 days), the nymphal period of their metamorphosis is the longest (up to 360 days), and are the only ones that can fly.  The females can reproduce asexually.  A historian, Erik Calonius wrote the last ship, Wanderer, was alive with cockroaches.  See an article by Lindsay Garcia in Arcadia, Autumn 2017, no. 29.  Cockroaches spread diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever, leprosy, plague, and poliomyelitis (WebMD, 11 Apr., 2022 etc.).  Their feces has E. coli, salmonella, and streptococcus etc. pathogens and combined with their cast off skins contain asthma triggering allergens.    

11 Swahili for a blue mother...

12 In linguistics, this is a loan translation of a word or phrase borrowed from another language with literal word-for-word creation of a lexeme in the target language.  Lexeme is a basic lexical unit of language.

13 In 1997, the government of Joseph Mobutu, the Republic of Zaire supported by Christianized countries and opposed to communism, changed to Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s Cuban-style atheistic communist government, as his forces marched into its capital Kinshasa and reverted to the name today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC.  Kabila, as communist generally are, was a corrupt, lazy, drunk, and whore monger with fake Ph.D. credentials who was assassinated in 2001.

14 An old photo method (mostly antiquated by 1860) using iodine sensitive silvered plates and mercury vapor.

15 See the 1528 pamphlet by Jeremy Barlowe and William Roy (endnote 16).

16 For the usage of this phrase see John Whitley’s 1830 The Scheme and Completion of Prophecy, the former Catholic friars Jerome Barlowe and William Roy’s (William Tyndale’s assistant in the New Testament translation) 1528 pre-Reformation satire exposing Catholic fallacies Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe For I Save No Thynge But Trothe, and William Shakespeare’s 1616 Anthony and Cleopatra etc.

17 See his Summa Theologiae 1, q. 14.

18 Gen. 20:12.  As Sarah was the wife of Abraham, Isaac’s father, she was also Abraham’s (half) sister making Isaac her nephew, as well as her son.  Jesus was known as the Son of Mary (John 19:26-27), the Son of Man (Matt. 17:9), and the Son of God (Luke 2:49).

19 Ha scritto in Italian is wrote or has written.  Bohr’s 1949 essay “Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics.”

20 For an analysis of ethical nihilism see   https://SystematicPoliticalScience.com/mistabra.html

21 This line of thought is the atheistic logic of Buddhist Madhyamika.

22 This line of thought is from Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi.

23 I John 4:7-8.

24 Nzango, meaning foot game in Lingala, is a Congolese street dancing sport with opposing teams.

25 Leonardo da Vinci wrote in Codex 1502 Atlanticus of a natural pin hole camera, camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber).

26 This passage is taken from George Gordon’s, (aka Lord Byron), (1812-1818) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Canto IV, CVIII).  It is the story of a young nobleman (childe) disillusioned with a life of pleasure.  Gordon was exiled from England in 1816 for confessing to his wife he was an incestuous sodomite pedophile (sexually raping both boys and girls).

27 Painted from 1833-1836, the series reflected Cole’s pessimism with the U.S. Democrat party, especially President Andrew Jackson.  In The Consummation of Empire, there is a military hero, thought to be Jackson, crossing the river (see endnote 33).  A Democrat U.S. Supreme Court justice responded by saying the U.S. would not destruct.  Cole quoted Byron’s lines in a newspaper advertisement for his The Course of Empire series.  For the systematic stages of individuals and societies see the many website pages at   https://SystematicPoliticalScience.com

28 Matt. 13:34.

29 Luke 15:11-32.

30 Work completed around 1496.

31 Work completed around 1669.

32 Written by Sholem Aleichem.

33 Swahili for board (wood), the Bao boardgame is mancala, Arabic for to move, and has varying oral rules from region to region.  The seeds may be represented by small stones or beans.  The discovery of a Bao board provides evidence of the 3rd century game being played by African slaves in America at the Hermitage Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee, owned by the slave holder, adulterer, betrayer of the Cherokee people, and murderer U.S. General and President Andrew Jackson.

34 Meaning house.

35 Five to ten percent of populations are estimated to have a fear of butterflies.

36 Swahili for larvae, caterpillar.

37 Etymology in Old English and French means butter-fly.

38 German for butter-fly or butter-bird.

39 Hebrew for butterfly.

40 God Hadn’t Shown Me, 1911.

41 From the Latinized Carolus Linnaeus.

42 Job 4:19 (Heb. ash); Matt. 6:19 (Gr. ses) etc.

43 Greek.  Of the 180,000 known species of Lepidoptera, only 10% are butterflies, the rest are moths.  See Linnaeus’ (1758) book Systema Naturae (The System of Nature), 10th ed.

44 European Journal of Entomology, 2016, 113, pp. 423-428.

45 Insects, butterflies etc., do not have a blood life, nephesh, and are non-nephesh as with creatures in Genesis 1; only recorded are creatures created on day 5 (Gen. 1:20-23) and day 6 (Gen. 1:24-31) as nephesh.

46 This is the theme of the first of four 1840 paintings (Childhood) by Thomas Cole titled The Voyage of Life.  It is a didactic, an allegory of Christian beliefs representing the four stages of human life and the four climate seasons.  He was a friend of the Unitarian poet William Cullen Bryant.

47 Hebrew for works (of God, Ps. 92:4 etc.).

48 Greek for a work (God’s workmanship, Eph. 2:10 etc.).

49 Planck was known for his physics constant, H.

50 The psychologist, Edward de Bono’s book The Use of Lateral Thinking addressed solving problems with lateral thinking (1967).

51 I Kings 3:16-28.

52 Established 1952.

53 Pythagoras’ famous theorem.

54 I Thess. 4:16-17.  The only biblical archangel named is Michael (Jude 9).  The paradox presented has been incorrectly called Gabriel’s horn, for the biblical angel (messenger) by that name.  It is also called Torricelli’s trumpet after Evangelista Torricelli, a catholic student of Galileo Galilei who invented the barometer in 1644, advanced optics, and worked on indivisibles.  The Torr, named for him, is a unit of pressure based on an absolute scale.  He influenced Robert Boyle and Blaise Pascal.

55 Prov. 28:6.

56 Prov. 18:3.

57 Jere. 10:2.

58 Prov. 18:15.

59 Is. 33:6.

60 Written in 1646-1647 by English and Scottish theologians.

61 Biblical teaching supports burial (Gen. 23:19; Matt. 27:60-66 etc.) whereas the Philistines burned bodies, especially their enemies (I Sam:11-13 etc.).  Pagans have a long tradition of burning bodies, such as Indians, Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Teutons, Druids, Celts, and Polynesians.  The DRC and its rebels burn murdered enemies as did the Church of England.  

62 Prov. 29:11.

63 Matt. 21:27.  See endnote 18 for truth data sets.

64 Judges 3:15-30.

65 Also called Mount Stanley for the explorer Sir Henry Stanley.  It is the third highest in the DRC.

66 Translated the Marble Palace.

67 Colonel Tshatshi Military Compound.

68 The American School of Kinshasa is a K-12 facility started by Baptists.

69 40% of the protein in the DRC diet is from caterpillars.  70% of Kinshasa residents eat caterpillars.  See G. Mabossy-Mobouna’s (Enseignant de Physiologie Animale et Nutrition, Université) et al. 07, 12, 2022 paper, which includes DRC data, “Diversity of edible caterpillars and their host plants in the Republic of Congo,” African Journal of Tropical Entomology Research, Vol 1, No. 1.

70 Yuca root.

71 In Kinshasa 25.8% are girls and 74.59% are boys.

72 Pygmy chimpanzees (pan paniscus) having a promiscuous female hierarchy (gynecocracy), as with apes capable of self-recognition in mirrors.

73 Groups of butterfly larva, caterpillars, are called armies.

74 A euphemism for lying to everyone, as used by intelligence operatives.  See Thomas Baker’s 2022 book The Fall of the FBI, Bombardier Books.  

75 Shiquê, meaning single.

76 German and Latin legal terms respectively.  German bedinger vorsatz literally means conditional intent.

77 II Peter 2:7-8.

78 These comments were widely reported on 7 July, 2023, when Church of England Rev. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, addressed the General Synod (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4).  

79 Began by Catholic priest Don Bosco.

80 DRC Swahili for wanderer (plural is basungu) meaning white people.  Other Swahili for white people (wanderer) is mzungu (plural is wazungu).

81 Approximately 14 million Bantu speakers; established 5th century A.D.

82 The 1945 published book, Placide Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy, exposed this foolishness and many traditions were changed or hidden.  See Tshilemalema Mukenge’s (former professor of African Studies at Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia; the first private Methodist black college in Georgia exclusively operated by blacks), published interviews and his 2002 Culture and Customs of the Congo, Bloomsbury Academic, New York or 2001 Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn.  

83 For a snapshot of world countries demographic statistics from the recent past see   https://SystematicPoliticalScience.com/flatfile.html

84 Greek for python.

85 Greek for slaves or bond-servants, describing all believers (terminology of the demon possessed girl toward Christian believers in Acts 16:16-34).

86 Gen. 14:18-22; Ps. 78:35; Dan. 5:18.

87 See World Health Organization statistics etc.

88 French for in good hands.

89 The name for a group of butterfly eggs.

90 Greek for pupae.  There is not a common Swahili word for pupae.

91 This is the theme of Cole’s second painting (Youth) in The Voyage of Life series.

92 Ps. 86:17.

93 II Cor. 1:9.

94 German literary world-pain, describing the feeling experienced by someone who believes reality can not meet expectations resulting in sadness at evil and suffering.  The term was used by Jean Paul Richter in his 1827 novel, Selina, to describe the discontentment of Lord Byron in his Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (see endnote 26).

95 Goat (meat).

96 Grasshoppers, also makelele.

97 See the paper by Simon Munthali, Ph.D. in ichthyology, and Daniel Mughogho’s, employees of national park services, 1992 paper, Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol. 1, pp. 143-154.

98 In the measurement of the three human somatotypes in anthropometry, mesomorph derives its average/symmetrical shape from the mesoderm, whereas ectomorph derives its thin shape from the ectoderm, and the endomorph derives its thick shape from the endoderm.

99 See the graduate of a protestant university, Christine Kalonji’s (French Edition) Dermiére Genése (Miroir Oblique), and the graduate of a Catholic university, Clémentine Faïk-Nzuji’s tracing memories and African arts writings.

100 Book of poems published in 1970.

101 A 1986 play – Grand Prix 1982.

102 A 1973 book, The Burnt Marais.

103 An 1861 Danish fantasy story.

104 The works of J. Edwards, Vol. 1, Part IV, Section 1, Spiritual Pride, 399.

105 Heb. 12:12.

106 Childon wrote brevity is the soul of wit, adjusted by Peter Behrens, an industrial designer and mentor of architects, to less is more.

107 In 6th century B.C.

108 An ancient Greek state in northern Peloponnesus, between Corinth and Achaea.

109 Of 4th century B.C., see his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

110 Rom. 13:3.

111 See Rand’s 1943 The Fountainhead, especially the characters of Gail Wynand, wealthy newspaper mogul that rose from the ghetto, and Ellsworth Toohey, the evil socialist pretending to care for the masses.

112 Prov. 28:3.

113 Jere. 17:1.

114 See the recent Dartmouth College paper on zero-determinant strategies in game theory by Xingru Chen (Ph.D. in mathematics now professor at Beijing University) et al., PNAS Nexus.  She determined that unbending players must resist cooperation to have hope of gaining concessions from bullies.  Christian Hilbe, mathematician and leader of the Dynamics of Social Behavior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany says this expansion of the theory outlines how undersized players can put oversized bullies in check, especially in situations with military asymmetry.  He had long since pointed out that a significant portion of most people’s day involves interactions with bullies seeking their own highest payout, meaning all people are bullying and are being bullied, and it is human nature for the bullied to resist cooperating even at the expense of losing everything (see Hilbe’s 2014 paper in Nature Communications and his 2016 paper in PLOS ONE).

115 Swahili for hymn.

116 Swahili for praise and worship.

117 Written by Carl Boberg in 1886.

118 Lyrics in Swahili: Nikitembea pote duniani, Ndege huimba nawasikia, Milima hupendeza macho sana, Upepo nao nafurahia; Roho yangu na ikuimbie, Jinsi wewe ulivyo mkuu!

119 Amani is peace in Swahili.

120 Jere. 22:13.

121 Swahili for adults.  Latin is imagoes, meaning image, implying the mature stage of development.

122 This is the theme of Cole’s third painting (Manhood) in his The Voyage of Life series.

123 This is the theme of Cole’s final and fourth painting (Old Age) in his The Voyage of Life series.

124 Gen. 1 the dry ground and plants are created.  On day 3 before the sun is created on day 4, light was created on day 1.

125 A flower clock, developed in 1748, in Marvell’s, the son a clergyman, 1678 poem.

126 Discovered in 1782 by Dru Drury, a British entomologist and author of the book Illustrations of Natural History who was maternal grandfather of the chaplain to Queen Anne.

127 Discovered by Miriam Rothschild.

128 The blue Mother of Pearl was discovered in 1867 by Cajetan Felder, an Austrian lawyer and father of the co-discoverer, Rudoff Felder; the white Mother of Pearl is salmis parhassus.

129 In Kinshasa, the PNC rounded up and executed many street children in 2019.

130 The FARDC is often attacked along with U.N. forces and beheaded by militia groups.

131 See the 1979 edition of the book Ziare: A country Study, (Zaire was the former name of the DRC), American University, p. 63 etc.

132 NPI; Robert Raskin and Calvin Hall (1979) made definitions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM-III); Joshua Foster et al. 2015 Grandiose Narcissist Scale (GNS); Joshua Grubs et al. 2019 PLOS One etc.

133 Taken from the song lyrics of The Unforgiven by James Hetfield et al., of the group Metallica on their 1991 album titled, The Black Album.

134 Cabbage.

135 The Qing Dynasty treaty, of average Chinese IQ of 105, with the Congo Free State, average IQ of 64, was made in 1898.  There were relations since 1887, and exploitation of Congolese resources (cobalt, copper, and hard woods etc.) increased since 1961 (see endnote 83 for the flatfile statistics site).

136 Discovered by Linnaeus.

137 Zhuangzi was written 3rd century B.C.  In the Book of Songs, a line reads, When I see you so mengmeng, my heart is full of pain.

138 Urtica.  The possible migration of the Red Admiral, discovered by Linnaeus, and the Cabbage Butterfly to the DRC was considered a possibility in an 2023 email exchange between Dallas F. Bell Jr. and an anonymous scientist at an American quarantine facility.  Also see Silvano Benvenuti’s et al. conclusion they fly 3,000 miles and are in Africa in the “Migration Patterns of the Red Admiral, Vanessa Atalanta,” 1994, Italian Journal of Zoology, 61:4, pp. 343-351.

139 Discovered in 1775 by Johan Fabricius, a student of Linnaeus.

140 The Mocker Swallowtail was discovered by Peter Brown in 1776.

141 The Citrus Swallowtail, called the Christmas Butterfly, was discovered by Esper.

142 The precis octavia discovered by Pieter Cramer in 1777.

143 The catacroptera cloanthe was discovered by Caspar Stoll in 1781.

144 The freyeria trochilus was discovered by Christian Freyer in 1845.

145 The euxanthe wokefieldi was discovered by Ward.

146 The amauris echerio was discovered by Stoll in 1790.  (Compare vines in Judges 9:12-13 to bramble, thornbush, leaders in verses 14-15.)

147 The megalopalpus zymna was discovered by John Westwood in 1851.

148 The brevicoryne brassicae is gray-green.  The aphid was named by Linnaeus in 1758.  The Oxford English dictionary indicates the name was taken from Greek apheides, meaning unsparing, lavishly, or borrowed.

149 Taken from “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward de Bono (see endnote 50).  Each colored hat represents a position to look at while solving a problem; blue (big picture), white (facts), red (emotions), black (negative), yellow (positive), and green (new ideas).

150 Prov. 8:1.

151 Painted in 1668.

152 The Ph.D. psychologist and co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Israel Charny March, 2018, “The Nature of Man,” Psychology Today.

153 Jere. 7:4-11.

154 An Oxford math professor, known as Lewis Carroll.  See his 1871 Through the Looking Glass.  Platonically, he saw the young female form as a perfect example of innocence to be cherished.

155 Gen. 3:5.

156 Job 1:10-11, 2:4-5.

157 Matt. 4:9.

158 Bulgakov’s grandfathers were Russian Orthodox clergy, but wrote the story with Jewish demonology and anti-Christ Christology.

159 See Francis Bacon’s 1620 Novum Organum (New Method).  Idols of the mind.

160 Tribe idols.

161 Cave idols.

162 Marketplace idols.

163 Theatre idols.

164 Eccl. 1:18.

165 Human socialist.  See his 1925 Heart of a Dog.  

166 Joshua Muravchik, 2002, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism, San Francisco, California, Encounter Books, p. 333.

167 Nyerere is caterpillar in Zanaki.  Ujamaa is fraternity meaning socialism/communism in Swahili.  Zaki Ergas, 1980, “Why did the ujamaa village policy fail? Towards a global analysis,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, 18 (3), pp. 387-410.

168 M(n).

169 Named for Emanuel Sperner.

170 Symbolic Logic Part II.

171 A Jew converted to Lutheranism and 1963 Nobel Prize winner for physics, Eugene Wigner’s 1960 article.

172 See Wigner’s paper, p. 12, footnote 11.

173 An orthodox reformed presbyterian.  Influenced by Benjamin Warfield, a Calvinist theological professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, who said the Bible is inerrant.  Warfield fought segregation and allowed blacks to live in the white university hall.

174 Gen. 3:5.

175 Luke 16:15.

176 I Cor. 3:20.

177 John 18:37-38.

178 Method of putting by placing.

179 Prov. 1:7.

180 John 14:6.

181 John 17:17.

182 John 1:1, 14.

183 Rom. 2:14-15.

184 Rom. 8:29.

185 Prov. 1:7.

186 Job 42:5.

187 Rom. 10:17.

188 Latin from the chair.

189 II Tim. 2:15.

190 Job 19:25.

191 The name for a group of butterflies.

192 God is King (Ps. 103:19), is King overall (Ps. 11:4, 47:1-7; Zech. 14:9), is King over creeping things (Ps. 148:8-13), is creator King (II Kings 19:15), and is King over Jerusalem (Matt. 5:35).

193 See his 2008 anthology of poems, the last line of The Asexual Soul, published by Lausanne in Switzerland.

194 The 1970 album Metamorphosis by the group Iron Butterfly had a song by band members Douglas Ingle, Lee Dorman, and Ron Bushy titled “Butterfly Bleu” with lyrics, I found me a little butterfly as blue as the sky…

195 Ps. 85:10.

196

xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ with n being larger than 2 extending to what is considered to be very large numbers.

197 Godly truth leads to Godly praise (Eph. 3:14-21 etc.).