The Adventures, Petualangan, of Zeitgeist:
When the Serpent Came to Breakfast

By
Dallas F. Bell, Jr.

Just below the equator, between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, lies a chain of around seventeen-thousand and five-hundred islands known as Indonesia.¹ Those isles are ringed with mangroves, called dancing trees, bent from the prevailing winds. Many of the pulau-pulau² are adorned with the crown orchid, tropidia multiflora,³ and the fragrant plumeria, frangipani.⁴ Closer to an apocalyptic vision than utopia, the pulo⁵ are largely only inhabited by small animals, roving on the ground, and birds, perched in the trees above. Their diets consist of nuts and fruits, wherever they can find them. One such islet, among the Sunda Islands in the, Laut Sawu, Sa’va Sea,⁶ has a parrot pecking out of its calcium carbonate shell. High in a tetrameles nudiflora, its mother watches with innate maternal adoration. The father soon lost interest and has long since returned to Flores in the north or to Timor in the east. The hatchling, with green breast feathers and blue tail feathers, blinks its eyes trying to focus on its doting mother, decorated with red breast feathers and blue tail feathers. She follows her instinct to insure he’s getting ten to twelve hours of sleep per day. She soothes his night terrors when strange noises are emitted during the times of their poor vision at night. He grows dependent on her and soon demands that she feed him. And so, she feeds her ungrateful offspring day-by-day, until it is time for him to leave the nest and fend for himself.

Virgil wrote every race on earth of men, and beasts, and swimmers in the sea, and painted birds, rush into the flame: Love is Lord of all. But time is lost, which never will be renewed, while we, survey nature, with too nice a view.⁷ The parrot’s mother seemed to innately understand how time flies, tempusi fugit,⁸ and teaches her precocious progeny at every opportunity.⁹ She warns him to stay in the trees and not fly above them nor eat off the ground. Unless having developed diminished capabilities, such as cataracts from a poor diet or infections, their normal eyesight is enhanced with cones to detect ultraviolet light, UV.¹⁰ The peak ripeness of berries can be readily detected by the reflecting of UV light by the fruit, while it remains on the plant. Even the health of other birds can be detected by the UV reflection of healthy feathers. “Beware of the ashen¹¹ reptiles,” she says. They lay their eggs most anywhere and then abandoned them. There are green saltwater crocodiles¹² lurking in brackish shallow waters, spotted and striped green frogs that are fanged and poisonous,¹³ and the deadly green pit viper¹⁴ crawls, cursed, on its belly.

As the young parrot was becoming a strong flyer, he saw a ripe mango just lying on the ground below one morning. He thought that would make a hardy breakfast. His mother was off foraging and he swooped down to the fruit. Remembering his mother’s lessons, he hesitated to indulge. “Go ahead and eat it,” a voice said. He turned to see it was a serpent encouraging him. In his eyes, in disguise, lied the snake.¹⁵ Always looking for disruptive approaches to loss-resilient generation, detection, and information-encoding of ‘quantum’ correlated states of light,¹⁶ the serpent continued, “Your mother knows when you eat it, you will be able to soar higher than she ever could.” The young parrot ate it. “Look up,” the serpent quickly added, “you can now ride the wind and finally be free.” Looking through an opening in the tree tops, the parrot saw another feathered being flying high in the sky. He thought the serpent was probably correct and decided to join the other bird.

Just as the parrot was enjoying the gentle breeze beneath his wings, a strong wind blew. He had never experienced such a strong wind. No matter how he tried to get back to the safety of his mother’s nest, he was vastly overpowered. He was being blown from his island home far over the sea, to where he did not know. As the wind began to subside after an hour, land came into view. The parrot came to rest in a tree on the northeast of Sumba Island. His zygodactyl feet¹⁷ insure a tight grip. The island has low limestone hills, whereas the surrounding islands have steep hills formed from the lava of volcanoes. In a language of myth, the “Bujangga Manik” tells of actual ancient eruptions on Krakatau; sheltered by bay coves protecting life from Satan’s knife, grow and island in the sun where hell fire belching earth had destructively left none.¹⁸

A Sumba historian claimed the island, with its beautiful Tanggedu waterfall, was once connected to other islands by a limestone bridge and has been occupied for around two-thousand years.¹⁹ The word Sumba was first officially used in the Javanese manuscripts of Pararaton and Sumpah Palapa, the oath, by Gajah Mada, a military leader of the Javanese empire.²⁰ Gajah means elephant in Sanskrit and refers to the Hindu god Ganesha, the elephant-headed god with a human body, and son of Shiva and Parvati. Gajah died in obscurity after the Buhat Incident when the Sumba king’s daughter was taken as a concubine, which caused a Sumba rebellion resulting in many deaths in the royal family.

Indonesia itself has more than seven-hundred languages with Malay, Indonesian, and the most spoken language of Java, with its largest being Austronesian. As part of the Southeast Asian region, the religion of the Indonesian islands of human sacrifice and slavery modeled and promoted incest,²¹ and had no sexual exclusivity in marriage.²² One of the poorest Indonesian islands, Sumba has a population of over eight-hundred thousand people and over two-hundred types of birds. South of the 1942 main Battle of the Java Sea,²³ it is part of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago group in Eastern Indonesia, which is part of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial territory. Sumba, or Humba and Hubba,²⁴ means no interference, original, nature, indigenous and natives call themselves tau Humba and tau Hubba, the original people, as opposed non-Sumba foreigners. In 1522, Sumba was exploited by the Portuguese for sandalwood,²⁵ so they named the island Sandel Island. Dutch Jesuits Christianized the people in 1866. The natives are famous for handwoven ikat textiles. Having an average IQ of 87, the breakdown of religions is mostly Christian and Marapu animists, with some Sunni Muslims. Most of the Christians are Dutch reform Calvinists, with some Catholics.²⁶

Sumba has around three main languages with at least nine dialects.²⁷ East Sumba²⁸ cannot generally communicate with west Sumba, and most people speak two languages where many today are learning Indonesian. The east are aristocrats and were headhunters, until the Christian missionaries ended the habit in the 1920’s. West Sumba has a denser population of inhabitants involved in agricultural pursuits, like growing rice fields.²⁹ They eat rice and fruit consisting of bananas, mangos, and papayas, even pet dogs.³⁰ Indonesia is home to six of the world’s seven sea turtles written of by Melville.³¹ The green turtle³² is the largest and lives off of seagrasses and algae. The endangered herbivore is hunted for its eggs and meat by the Sumbanese, during the hatching season of March to September.

Sumba residents are subject to dengue fever, hepatitis, malaria, and bacterial diarrhea. Mosquitos use their cpA neuron receptors to detect carbon dioxide in breath and human body odor to target and spread diseases to their victims.³³ The Sumbanese often choose tattoos depicting animals, so they can obtain fire in the land of the dead after death. They rarely wear green because of the pre-Hindu and Buddhist belief in the animistic Java sixteenth century Inya Nyale, green mermaid goddess Nyi or Nyai Roro Kidul, Queen of the Southern Sea.³⁴

The parrot did not realize it, but the many strange peaked dwellings were the uma mbatangu, bamboo and thatched villas, of a lavish resort. The high centers are believed by the Marapu to house spirits. At a nearby villa, a man named Kahinu Kinimaka was sitting in meditation on the red-tile terrace. Maybe that poor plumeless ephemeral³⁵ could feed me, the parrot would have thought if he were a comfortless mortal human. He startled the man when he came to rest on a limb beside him. The man jumped to his feet and talked to him. “You are the universe’s sign of good luck. You are the sky’s message to me to ride the waves. Maybe you are a god or even a past relative come to protect me.”³⁶ He continued, “Do not move. I’ll get you something to eat.” The man returned in a few minutes with a tray of berries³⁷ and cut up fruit, with a variety of seeds,³⁸ nuts, and vegetables. The parrot had never imagined such a feast. So, he ate with a hunger rarely seen. The man was happy to see he could help the bird.

“Can you speak?” the man asked.

The parrot had slowed his voracious eating and thought a few moments. Then, he remembered what the serpent had told him. “Eat. Ride the wind. Be free!” he squawked.

The man said “that is the story of my life,” because he was a professional surfer from the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, riding the waves and always on tour to tournaments from place to place. For now, he was fulfilling his obligation to teach surfing to tourists at the resort a few weeks a year in exchange for the owner’s lucrative sponsorship. The surfer’s routine was to get up at mid-morning and do meditation to his many gods, and fly his drone over the sea to check for good waves. In the afternoon, he went to the resort restaurant with his surf board in one hand and his guitar in the other hand. Sizing up his prospective students, he announced lessons would soon begin. Although the lessons were already paid for as part of the villa fees, he rarely had more than a few students. Of course, he evaluated the female students for later on in the evening. The resort had a large fire pit on the shore where he would reverently tell Polynesian stories and play instrumentals on his slack-key guitar³⁹ at dusk. He played like a fallen angel. It never failed that one of the tourist girls would fall for his moonish features. He was the local girl’s bête noire. The next morning the girls would be wearing his puka shell⁴⁰ anklets. They did not know he had a drawer full of them, as he frequently bought them by the dozens from his friend in Hawaii who made them. Neither did the girls know the Hawaiian religion⁴¹ modeled and promoted incest,⁴² that it was a Hawaiian practice to name and chant to their genitals,⁴³ or that surfing was banned by Christian missionaries because they surfed naked because having wet clothes was a crime punishable by death.⁴⁴

It was not long before the parrot grew tired of seeing the surfer’s ‘go green’ Rip Curl⁴⁵ tee shirts and having to adapt to his daily routine. Even the morning feast was becoming boring. Being a god is not much fun when the sky, dolphins, and trees and, well, basically everything else is also a god. It would seem if everything is a god then nothing is a god. The surfer’s pareidolia tendency to perceive patterns where they did not exist was exasperating to onlookers. He could see Hanumān, the monkey deity and offspring of his wind god father Vayu, in the trunks of trees. Sincerity is not a substitute for sapience or sagaciousness. The parrot thought of his mummy dear and pleaded, in his dreams, for her to feed him a special breakfast. He thought he would go west; everyone there is rich. “I’m a winner, I’m a sinner, do you want my autograph,” he rehearsed and schemed, “I’m a loser, what a joker, I will play my jokes on them, while there’s nothing better to do.”⁴⁶

The day finally arrived when the parrot decided to move on, after he devoured his abundant breakfast, of course. Flying west he passed over intricately carved stone tombs of Sumbanese ancestors called liang. Suddenly he spied a creature, like the human surfer he just left, sitting at a table by a pungku house on wood stilts,⁴⁷ eating from many trays of fruit and nuts. “That was for me,” he thought. Without a care in the world, he glided onto the table and began to eat. The man, named Garth Nola, made no attempt to shoo him away. In moments, the parrot had eaten the food he wanted and scattered the rest onto the ground. The man addressed the parrot’s antics as the former college professor he was. “You do not know this but you are an eclectus cornelia, the endangered male Sumba parrot,⁴⁸ or an eclectus roratus.⁴⁹ I am a homo sapient. Your species is likely both polyandrous⁵⁰ and polygynandrous.⁵¹ You surely had a confusing childhood, but probably have a large vocabulary of words. Care to share them with me?” he goaded.

The parrot recognized the homo sapient, as he called himself, was seeking some kind of communication. After thinking a moment, he repeated what he remembered the surfer had said, “Be good luck. Ride the waves. Be a god.”

The professor replied without hesitation as he left the room, “There is no such thing as luck. I only ride the ‘quantum’ advances of science. There is no God.” He returned with a cage and sat it on the table. “Don’t be afraid,” he said with a vivisectionist’s indifferent to the fact wild birds sing better than captive ones.⁵² After he put some fruit and nuts in the cage, the parrot walked in and the professor shut the cage door. The professor added, “Sincerity is not a substitute for science. Sincerity only guarantees its self.⁵³ The Roman Emperor Vespasian’s dying words were he thought he was ‘becoming a god’ and then he died of diarrhea. The legacy of that god is the urinals in France and Italy, today, are named after him, for his urine tax.⁵⁴ Life has no purpose. It is atrophying, wasting away. Life is a ‘terrestrial scheme’⁵⁵ of nonsense. One might just put one’s shoes under the bed, sleep, prepare for life. The last twist of the knife.⁵⁶ Given your relativist-centric theological philosophies, I think I will call you Zeitgeist.”

The professor moved Zeitgeist’s cage indoors alongside another cage. In that cage was a falcon not too happy to have another bird in the room. He stared at Zeitgeist for hours without so much as a blink. The professor was a falconer and went out some days to exercise the falcon’s famous predatory skills. He did not mind risking the possibility of developing a slight cough from developing a ‘bird fancier’s lung’ due to feather dander exposure.⁵⁷ After any cough, he sometimes tended to over analyze his condition for the possibility of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis,⁵⁸ or mycobacterium fortuitum complex leading to irreversible tracheobronchomalacia,⁵⁹ as any educated person might do. But, when the symptoms subsided in a few days, he would always be relieved he was most likely okay.

The professor had been dismissed by the University of Auckland for choosing science over mātauranga, the superstition of the native Māori people of New Zealand. He had been an apparatchik, a cog, an obedient apparát⁶⁰ of the party machine, and felt betrayed. This fueled his plucky verve to publish learned thoughts on the matter. “Aboriginal peoples defend sexual abuse with their absurd religious beliefs.⁶¹ India, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands were inhabited by negrito’s, little black people, or Australoids⁶² today using Indonesian and Javanese languages,” he wrote with an air of superiority typical of people with such knowledge, ignoring as an atheist, he had no transcendent moral authority to judge the behavior of anyone. “They had wide noses, nappy hair, and dark skin with low morals and sexual rituals that including inbreeding. They had low IQs, were tribalist, and were violent to those outside their clan. Sixteenth-century missionaries were the first to catalogue these cultures primary composed of descendants of Ham, with some Japheth and a few Shem ancestors. The Catholic Church determined blacks did not have the moral character to be celibate. Their low IQs caused them to be treated as passive children, which also excluded them from being ordained priests until the 1920’s when the Saint Augustine Seminary began training them in America.⁶³ Advertising executives know to wave a vice in front of blacks, and they will part with their money like children. Black sexuality is a complex subject,” he would add to feign objectivity. “Their sixty percent higher rate of diabetes than Caucasians and Orientals leads to a higher rate of impotence at young ages, and their innate G6PD and sickle cell anemia leads to higher rates of priapism requiring treatment to prevent tissue damage.”⁶⁴

The professor had traveled the world, settling in Sumba, and no longer claimed to be a citizen of any nation. Exhibiting self-imposed alexithymia⁶⁵ from animotophobia,⁶⁶ he was generally grumpy and played no music. He hated people in general. He talked of the earth’s impending level of peak anthropocene. The geological epoch of human domination was over, he hoped. He did not like the theory of gongsheng, organism symbiosis, co-dependent living together, convivialism.⁶⁷ He thought that was a charismatic meta-category that marginalized variables other than man. Homogenocene, increased travel by mankind, was less important, he would say, than capitalocene, blaming world troubles on free enterprise.

The professor said the “Game of Life” creates complex results from an infinite grid of squares, where each square is alive or dead, and the grid evolves into a series with the fate of each square determined by the eight surrounding squares. There are four rules: one, a dead square with exactly three live neighbors becomes alive; two, a live square with two or three live neighbors stays alive; three, a live square with fewer than two live neighbors die; and four, a live square with more than three live neighbors dies.⁶⁸

The furniture in the professor’s entertaining room consisted of a couch and an antique handcrafted jester’s chair. The pumakawan, friends who understand,⁶⁹ chair was his inside joke for which he manipulated his infrequent guests into. He imagined they were one of the four friends, Semar, Gareng, Bagong, or Petruk, making a cameo to provide comedic advice to him, the all-knowing king and god. The Susuhunan, short for Sunan, were Mataram monarchs and next were the hereditary rulers of Surakarta who used jesters to entertain the royal court as late as the 1920’s.⁷⁰

The professor applied Andro Gel⁷¹ in the morning and took his melatonin⁷² supplement at night. He spent much of his time avoiding toxoplasmosis from eating raw meat,⁷³ and products containing gluten proteins, especially from wheat. Beer, pasta, soy sauce, toothpaste, and communion wafers are off limits to him. First diagnosed by the Turkish physician, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, follower of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, his celiac disease comes from the genetics of Shem, where fingernails have vertical ridges that point to the autoimmune condition. Inflamed intestines do not allow the villi to absorb B12, D, and K vitamins. Fatigue and depression are the resultant symptoms of the anemia.⁷⁴

On occasions when the professor had little sleep, his words were like the piercings of a sword.⁷⁵ He would curse the Catholics in the kampong⁷⁶ and argue with the few Muslims that could tolerate his polemics. As The Chorus of Old Men in Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata”⁷⁷ ineptly assaulted the gates of Acropolis, the professor was seeking intellectual intercourse. He relished mocking the works of the pujangga lama,⁷⁸ like those of Hamzah Fansuri,⁷⁹ calling them derivative, demonstrating his having more knowledge of their writings than local Indonesians. All dark Cadmean victories. The professor left the Presbyterian reformed Calvinists, Gereja Kristen Sumba,⁸⁰ alone because they seemed to make logical arguments, which he had more trouble refuting. Considered wong bodho desa,⁸¹ the professor frequently discussed how being consistent was the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers, and the divine.⁸² “Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative,”⁸³ he would repeat. “It is contrary to nature and is kept by the dead.”⁸⁴ But Sylvia Plath thought, as a skeptic, she should first demand consistency.⁸⁵

Plath was on to something. To say consistency is always to be avoided is to be consistent. To change one’s mind on an issue, due to more information and experience, is being consistent to truth. That is a good thing. An interpretive virtue,⁸⁶ at least. Consistency is the absence of variation and lacks contradiction. Virtue implies having the will to choose not to vary, especially from proven historical morals. It becomes a habit to choose a routine without varying. To always be changing, is to be without varying. If a statement is all true or all false, they are consistent or are nothing. If there is no will and nature just is, there is no varying, as a rock is motionless unless is acted on by a force.

The professor discussed Platonism, and why he had switched to Aristotelianism on many subjects. He was quick to tell the parrot he had no soul. It would seem souls were wasted on humans dedicated to animal behavior, as they ignore non-material consciousness. Plutarch explored personal identity, utilizing the analogy of a ship, in the “Life of Theseus.” Buddhist folktales added to this thought vector, as did Hobbes. They saw a paradox when the parts of a ship, or the limbs of a corpse and a live man, are replaced, by humans or by demons, until the object is completely different.⁸⁷ It could be concluded, at some point of identity, the before and after objects physically occupy the same space at the same time, yet the actual identity is eternally manifest, with man’s existent identity being his soul.

Rainy days were the worst, the professor, without fail, circled around to decision-making theories. To lend credence to pseudo-intellectual thoughts, he would make up words, like homo economicus, meaning individual and societal decisions are solely based on maximizing benefits and minimizing cost, a logic of consequences, a rational choice. He countered that position with homo socialogicus, meaning decisions are solely based on norms and identities, a logic of appropriateness. The latter included emotional choice, homo emotionalis, constructivism. He would argue with himself that if people believed facts are society’s constructed beliefs then conspiracies would abound, but if people believed truth required empirical evidence, then there would be less nonsense, as he called it. People do seem to talk about economic convergence between the West and all the ‘Rest.’ Not many writings speak of predicting the shifting of international relations of a postliberal U.S. toward societies with norms common to the Third World, like Sumba specifically, or even the Pacific realm generally. Writings did include so-called liberal values, human rights, humanitarianism, peace, or republicanism, which he was quick to point out, were universal and the West did not have a monopoly on them. The West does not always adhere to them and often breaks them, as does the ‘Rest,’ who often promotes them more than they are given credit for.⁸⁸ After exhausting himself by his self-flagellating, circulus in probando wit, the professor would cocoon himself in his indoor hammock by large decorative potted ferns, gently rock side-to-side, and nap.

Zeitgeist understood little of what the professor talked about, not even the name he bestowed on him, but seemed to listen intently. That was good enough for the professor to keep him fed. But the presence of the high stress dialogues caused Zeitgeist to start exhibiting the self-destructive behavior of failing to thrive. He was wasting away and began plucking his beautiful bright green feathers. The falcon looked on and Zeitgeist knew it just was a matter of time before the falcon would act on his intense dislike for him. Before the opportunity arrived, Zeitgeist knew he must escape. His persistent innate thoughts were instructing him that his adventures should be more than survival, they should be more than a novelty even. They should be leading toward something; tied to a destiny or something.

Zeitgeist had been carefully scrutinizing the professor’s opening and closing the cage when he cleaned it. The latch was the size of a nut and lifted up to open and dropped down to lock. To get the best exchange rate, when the professor made a day trip for supplies, he always took along a mix of green currency consisting of several Indonesian twenty-thousand-rupiah notes, some New Zealand twenty-dollar bills, and an assortment of U.S. dollars. Before leaving, he would rattle the falcon cage door to ensure it was secure. These were signals to Zeitgeist to attempt an escape when the next opportunity arose. When the time came, and he was sure the professor was well on his way to the market, Zeitgeist put his beak through the wires and grabbed the latch. With the flip of his head, the latch lifted up and the door opened. Zeitgeist walked out of the cage and flapped his wings freely for the first time in a long while. The falcon rocked from side-to-side, and flapped his wings angerly. Zeitgeist flew out the open window to again soar above the trees. Again, he headed west.

The quietness of Zeitgeist’s flight became politely infused with the harmonious sounds of a suling, a flute. He did not know what it was, but he knew he liked it. Below him in a field were homo sapiens. The one playing the music was not a man, like the professor. It was a young woman with long hair. His curiosity overcame his appetite, which was growing, and Zeitgeist made his usual abrupt interjection into the circumstance. The people paused for a moment at the interruption, and the man gently motioned for the girl to continue playing her flute. She played the melody and the man and older woman sang “There’s a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar; For the Father waits over the way, To prepare us a dwelling place there.” Their joyous looks intensified when they continued singing, “In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore; In the sweet by and by.” Their words had more entropy, becoming softer and softer, concluding with the lyrics, “We shall meet on that beautiful shore.”⁸⁹ The hymn’s notes were connected to the edges of other notes conveying a surprise, new information, and a mathematical message, unlike an instrumental toccata model with many more note nodes and edges.⁹⁰

“Very good, Maria,” the man said to the girl.

“Yes. That was wonderful,” added the woman.

Zeitgeist was getting hungry, and cared little that he had just assaulted the family solitude of Boaz Sekuritas, his wife, and their daughter, Maria. A beggar who respects his art always takes his own time before he takes anything else.⁹¹ But, he was frustrated they had not brought him something to eat yet. “What were they waiting for?” he thought. Then, he remembered homo sapiens like to hear him speak, so he blurted out something he heard the professor say, “No luck. Ride the sciences. No God.”

They were all astonished at the unexpected chaotic moral attack⁹² from orthodox satanism. A graduate of the Universitas Indonesia,⁹³ Boaz, meaning fleetness,⁹⁴ was a stock broker, specializing in the commodity of wheat, at the Indonesian Stock Exchange, IDX,⁹⁵ one of the oldest in Asia. In fact, he was growing wheat to help with the expensive import from Australia, Ukraine, Canada, and South America that flooded Indonesia.⁹⁶ Begun in Jakarta during the colonial era,⁹⁷ the IDX was first focused on securities and bonds. Chaos ensued after the colonial government was overtaken by the Muslim Republic of Indonesia leadership.⁹⁸ The post-colonial era was interested in bonds.⁹⁹ The following new order saw sluggish growth¹⁰⁰ until the reorganization¹⁰¹ ushered in the reformation era with updated technology capabilities.¹⁰² Boaz regularly flew from west Sumba to Dempasar, Bali, on NAM Air, and then on to the Soekarno-Hatta¹⁰³ International Airport in Jakarta to conduct broker business.

“He must have been trained by an atheist,” Boaz empathetically explained.

“You should have a talk with him,” Boaz’s wife sternly added. As a volunteer for elderly patients at Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah in Waikabubak,¹⁰⁴ she usually spoke obsequiously.

(The 20” x 24” oil and acrylic on canvas painting by Dallas F. Bell Jr. is titled “Boaz’s Harvest.”¹⁰⁵)

Maria peacefully proffered, “I’ll see if I can get him something to eat.”

After Boaz was alone with Zeitgeist, he spoke to him with the wise words of health,¹⁰⁶ as if he could understand completely, a hypermodern Nimzo-Indian chess opening transposing into the Queen’s Gambit, “Your unmistakable outbreak of zeal tells me you are earnest as I am. Let us, therefore, for a time, bypass lateral questions and consider the present canvas.¹⁰⁷ You do not understand the contradiction of the words you have obviously overheard. You see if there is no God, then, there must be luck, or chance, for anything to exist in our universe, as your mentor must have believed. That personal philosophy would materialistically have to be to studiously invest, ride the stocks to great wealth, and be free. For the evolutionist view to be true, our universe would have to had progressed over time by the rare instance of beneficial change. Statistically, the number of advances needed would have to had exceeded, by far, the unbeneficial deterioration over a long period of time. By scientific methods, we know this is not rationally possible and excludes any chance in the creation of the universe, as a closed system of causes and effects. Existence, A, is not an invertible matrix with an internal n x n equivalence; n finite evolution time is not the inverse of m eternity; n ≠ m. In the eyes of God, the alternative is a book of lies.¹⁰⁸ The wisdom of the pretentious disputers of this world is made foolish by the First Causer of all effects.¹⁰⁹ This universe operates with stable laws and forces, moving from order to a state of disorder, demanding the First Causer have purpose from intellect modeled by the conscious self-awareness of humans: operating with justice, mercy, and redemptive love. That Being is God, my feathered friend. That infinite pre-existent Creator acted with perfect knowledge and ability, and so was faithfully consistent to be just, loving and forgiving to the repentant, and so be true and good.¹¹⁰ He would demand His followers hold fast to faithfulness, trust and walk by faith, and do His will,¹¹¹ opposing Satan, who is consistent in his lying, disguising himself, and being an adversary to God and man.¹¹² There is no flaw in the ‘terrestrial scheme.’ What is good for God’s birds is also good for God’s gardeners.¹¹³”

“Here we are,” Maria says as she offers Zeitgeist a plate of fruit and nuts. Zeitgeist immediately eats with his usual animal vigor, as the family watches in amazement.

Boaz observes to Maria, “Having no rule over your own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls;¹¹⁴ subject to invaders. The self-awareness needed for reaching your highest potential will be short-circuited by pride. Egocentricity leads to inadequate strategies for acquiring situational awareness, which retards time-critical decision-making.¹¹⁵ It makes the relationship goals value a win for self and a loss for others, which is inconsistent with developing connections.”

“I see,” Maria says, “blind spots will be formed preventing the recognition of dangers.” Joyful for the shared wisdom, she immediately communes in her heart with God a Magnificat.¹¹⁶ “He touched me and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is Yours,”¹¹⁷ she began offering.

Zeitgeist felt entitled so he did not need to be grateful, or thankful, or even responsible for his own fulfillment by naturally working for the food. That is an unjust equation of societal trust. It is a hateful gesture toward God Himself.¹¹⁸ Jesus removed the cloak of sin for those that hate God.¹¹⁹ Late-stage capitalism, spätkapitalismus,¹²⁰ predictively arrives after the individual survival needs of a society are met, the heyday of capitalism, hochkapitalismus. A state where lower needs are considered to virtually be guaranteed, a Marxist delusion from being disconnected from the laws of nature. The natural system of merit is no longer valued, even despised. Contrived social issues, such as sexual perversion, become the raison d’etre of company brands, not the superior benefits of the products. During this failure to thrive, strangers will rise up over the rebellious rejecters of God, lend to them, and become their head.¹²¹ There are no solutions, only trade-offs.¹²² Regarding both nation and man; when God gives quietness, who can make trouble? And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him?¹²³

Finance and investments make up a system that is non-erodic. The system can be reduced and broken down into components. There are absorbing barriers that prevent escape by people, institutions, or nation-states from the situation, and thus ultimately are destined for ruin. All models will statistically reach this point.¹²⁴ Information erodicity could be broken if materials were created that stay in equilibrium for long periods. Qubits of 0, 1, or 1 and 0 simultaneously flip back and forth naturally until their computer chip is mixed and disorganized. It is believed that atoms could be trapped with lasers or superconductors into arranged qubits where they could not flip. A specific pattern, like a checker-board, would feature a tight assemblage of many thousands of qubits squeezed into squares that represent retained information in a quantum memory.¹²⁵ Memory needs a telomere¹²⁶ region to protect the terminal DNA of truth for repetitive sequencing.

To use a broker’s optimistic term, Boaz was bullish on setting Zeitgeist straight with the rehearsal of his apologetics. He had felt a Christian noblesse oblige to help the poor of his country of stratified castes. The lower class is better at reading expressions than the upper class,¹²⁷ so who knows where the dialogue will end up. Boaz was no paper trader.¹²⁸ He did not dabble in the equities of shares of manufacturing companies or fixed income securities.¹²⁹ He speculated in the up or down direction of the future trading of wheat,¹³⁰ a soft commodity,¹³¹ before a set date, the expiry. He was a hedger of baskets of wheat, prepared for long-term position holding. Boaz combined the technicals, using chart making AI algorithms of all past data, with the fundamentals of examining weather, drought, war, and other unique variables. He had sensed the melting point of an infinite graph with phase transitions. He had pinpointed the percolation of graph vertices, the points, and connected edges, the lines, where the grid above the square has a one-hundred percent chance of a cluster, like tossing a weighted coin.¹³²

Boaz formally begins, “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go therein; narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.”¹³³ Perhaps that biblical quote was too stiff, he thought. “Let me put it this way,” he restated, “there is a story of a man that was injured by falling into a ditch. An atheist came along, and seeing his vulnerability, robbed the man. A Hindu passed by attributing the man’s circumstance to karma. A Buddhist monk instructed the man to walk on the other side of the road without ditches the next time. A rabbi walked pass him altogether ignoring the golem. A Muslim Iman observed it was Allah’s will for some prideful act the man had perpetrated, and too walked past. A catholic priest told the poor man to say three hail Mary’s and come to his confession after Sunday Mass. The Christian felt compassion of him, treated his injuries, and carried him to a doctor paying the hospital bill in advance.¹³⁴ To say it another way, there was a poor man that was being pursued after a violent crime spree. He ducked into the house of a woman, honest in sharing her beliefs, to hide and must rationally decide what to do with his hostage to prevent being discovered. If the hostage is an atheist, who honestly promotes no justice for an afterlife, there is no reason for the man not to kill her. If the hostage is a Hindu, he also kills her because her karma has honestly determined she deserves it. If the hostage is Buddhist, she is killed because she has honestly no transcendent reason to restrain the man. If the hostage is a Jew, she would be killed for alienating the man by honestly saying he has no soul. If the hostage is a Muslim, the man must kill her because her family will honestly avenge his taking her hostage. If the hostage is a Catholic, she will be killed for honestly praying to dead saints that can not help her and the man does not know or care about. Lastly, if the hostage is a Christian, she will honestly pray aloud to God for the man’s soul, feed him, and tell him there is eternal hope because God loves him. Unlike the other examples, where a win for the hostage is a loss for the man, the man will innately recognize the game theory win for the Christian woman is also a win for him, and so he will naturally develop a trusting affinity for her, who is no longer an abject stranger to him. Thus, this provides the hostage the best chance of survival.” With that said, Boaz sat quietly thinking.

Boaz thought, from the beginning to the coming end, history records and will record a continuum of the laws of nature being overruled by Creator God, Elohim, the Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. This reality is accepted by His chiral¹³⁵ elect, praying in the Holy Spirit, waiting for and loving God, having mercy on doubters and saving some—phrónēsis. It is also mocked by the lustful non-elect, devoid of the chirality Spirit, worldly-minded, and causing divisions.¹³⁶ Electrons become fractions of themselves in grapheme.¹³⁷ Fire-green three-dimensional metal crystal lattice, Pcl, pyrochlore’s free-roaming electrons may be channeled into chokepoints, forced to stay in two-dimensional place.¹³⁸

The prophet of the past, present and future, Moses was given the Divine account of the six-day creation of the pristine universe, plants, animals, and humans, and the subsequent direct and indirect laws, such as the cause and effect of the original sin, initiated by the serpent, Satan, and the beginning of death from that willful and disobedient act of sin by the first man, Adam.¹³⁹ After speaking all into existence ex nihilo, the Spirit of God moved over the surface of the waters when the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the deep. He spoke and it was done, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible.¹⁴⁰

The worldwide flood destroyed all land-dwelling and airbreathing animals, except on the ark.¹⁴¹

The descendants of the homosexual Ham were forever cursed. The descendants of Shem were forever blessed, and the descendants of Ham would be their servants forever. The descendants of Japheth would be enlarged and live in the tents of Shem, and the descendants of Ham would also be their servants forever.¹⁴²
Languages were confused at Babel.¹⁴³
Five sodomite cites were destroyed with fire.¹⁴⁴
Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt.¹⁴⁵
The elderly Sarah conceived Isaac.¹⁴⁶
Sarah nursed Isaac.¹⁴⁷
A burning bush was not consumed.¹⁴⁸
Moses’ staff turned into a serpent, and his hand became leprous, then was restored.¹⁴⁹
Aaron’s rod turned into a serpent.¹⁵⁰
Water was turned to blood.¹⁵¹
Egypt was covered with frogs.¹⁵²
The dust of Egypt became lice.¹⁵³
Egypt was covered with flies, except Goshen.¹⁵⁴
Egyptian cattle were killed.¹⁵⁵
Egypt was plagued with boils.¹⁵⁶
Egypt was covered with hail and thunder.¹⁵⁷
Locusts covered Egypt.¹⁵⁸
Egypt was covered with darkness, except Goshen.¹⁵⁹
The first-born animals and children of Egypt were killed, except Israelis with blood on their door posts.¹⁶⁰
A cloud by day and fire by night led the Israelis out of Egypt.¹⁶¹
The Red Sea was divided.¹⁶²
Drinking waters were sweetened.¹⁶³
Manna fell from heaven, except on the Sabbath.¹⁶⁴
Water came out of a rock at Rephidim.¹⁶⁵
Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire.¹⁶⁶
Disgruntled complainers were consumed by fire.¹⁶⁷
The earth opened up and swallowed Korah and his followers.¹⁶⁸
Fire consumed two-hundred and fifty men.¹⁶⁹
There was a plague at Kadesh.¹⁷⁰
Aaron’s rod budded, blossomed, and yielded almonds.¹⁷¹
Water came from a rock at Zin.¹⁷²
Fiery serpents killed many Israelis.¹⁷³
A brass serpent on a pole protected against serpent bites.¹⁷⁴
Balaam’s donkey spoke.¹⁷⁵
The Jordan River was divided.¹⁷⁶
The walls of Jericho fell down.¹⁷⁷
The sun and moon stayed still, until the Israelis won the battle.¹⁷⁸
A hailstorm destroyed the Amorite army fighting Joshua.¹⁷⁹
Gideon’s fleece was wet and dry, when it should not have been.¹⁸⁰
Samson displayed strength.¹⁸¹
Water sprang from the hollow of a jawbone.¹⁸²
The idol, Dagon, fell before the ark of the covenant.¹⁸³
Emerods plagued the Philistines.¹⁸⁴
The men of Beth-shemesh died after looking into the ark of the covenant.¹⁸⁵
A thunderstorm caused panic.¹⁸⁶
Thunder and rain were at the harvest in Gilgal.¹⁸⁷
Sounds in the tops of mulberry trees signaled an Israeli attack at Rephaim.¹⁸⁸
Uzzah was smitten for touching the ark at Perez-uzzah.¹⁸⁹
Jeroboam’s hand withered and was restored.¹⁹⁰
Jeroboam’s pagan altar was destroyed at Bethel.¹⁹¹
A disobedient prophet was killed by a lion, but his donkey was spared.¹⁹²
A Zarephath widow’s meal and oil was increased.¹⁹³
A widow’s son was raised from the dead.¹⁹⁴
A drought was due to Elijah’s prayers.¹⁹⁵
Elijah mocked the Baal god as possibly pissing, and he prayed and called fire down from heaven,

then slew the Baal prophets.¹⁹⁶
Rain fell due to Elijah’s prayers.¹⁹⁷
Elijah was fed by ravens.¹⁹⁸
Ahaziah’s captains were consumed by fire from heaven near Samaria.¹⁹⁹
The Jordan River was divided by Elijah and Elisha near Jericho.²⁰⁰
Elijah was carried up to the Heaven.²⁰¹
The waters of Jericho were healed by Elisha’s casting salt in them.²⁰²
Two bears killed young men mocking Elisha.²⁰³
Water was provided to Jehoshaphat’s army.²⁰⁴
A widow’s cooking oil was multiplied.²⁰⁵
A Shunammite woman was given a son, and he was raised from the dead.²⁰⁶
Deadly pottage was cured with meal at Gilgal.²⁰⁷
A hundred men were fed with twenty barley loaves and corn at Gilgal.²⁰⁸
Naaman was healed of leprosy, and the disobedient Gehazi was afflicted with it.²⁰⁹
An iron ax-head swam in the Jordon River.²¹⁰
Ben Hadad’s secret plans were known through Elijah’s prophesies.²¹¹
Syrian armies were blinded at Dothan.²¹²
The Syrian army’s blindness was healed at Samaria.²¹³
Elisha’s bones revived the dead.²¹⁴
Many members of Sennacherib’s Syrian army were killed near Jerusalem.²¹⁵
The sun-dial of Ahaz went backward ten degrees.²¹⁶
King Uzziah was struck with leprosy.²¹⁷
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were delivered from the fiery furnace in Babylon.²¹⁸
Daniel was saved in the lion’s den, and his enemies were eaten by those same lions.²¹⁹
Jonah was saved after three days in the belly of a giant fish.²²⁰

Water was turned into wine at a wedding in Cana.²²¹
An official’s son was healed at Capernaum.²²²
Jesus escaped a violent multitude from the synagogue.²²³
A large catch of fish was gathered on the Lake of Gennesaret.²²⁴
An evil spirit was driven out in Capernaum.²²⁵
Peter’s feverish mother-in-law was healed.²²⁶
The sick and oppressed are healed in Capernaum.²²⁷
The sick and demon-possessed are healed.²²⁸
A man was cleansed of leprosy.²²⁹
A paralytic was healed.²³⁰
An invalid Bethesda man was healed.²³¹
A man’s withered hand was healed on the Sabbath.²³²
A great multitude was healed.²³³
A centurion’s paralyzed slave was healed in Capernaum.²³⁴
A widow’s son was raised from the dead in Nain.²³⁵
A blind, mute, and demon-possessed man was healed.²³⁶
A crippled woman was healed after eighteen years.²³⁷
The sea was calmed.²³⁸
Demons were cast out of a man into a herd of pigs.²³⁹
A woman was healed from a hemorrhaging issue of blood.²⁴⁰
Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead.²⁴¹
Two blind men are healed.²⁴²
A mute and demon-possessed man was healed.²⁴³
Many people were healed.²⁴⁴
Five-thousand men were fed along with women and children.²⁴⁵
Jesus walked on the water.²⁴⁶
The sick were healed by touching Jesus’ garment.²⁴⁷
The demon-possessed daughter of gentile woman was healed.²⁴⁸
A deaf and mute man was healed.²⁴⁹
The mute, blind, lame, and impaired are healed.²⁵⁰
Over four-thousand men are fed, along with women and children.²⁵¹
A blind man at Bethsaida was healed.²⁵²
Jesus was transfigured on the mount.²⁵³
An epileptic boy was healed of that unclean spirit.²⁵⁴
The tax for the Temple was found in a fish’s mouth.²⁵⁵
A man born blind was healed when Jesus spit in his eyes.²⁵⁶
Ten lepers are cleansed on the way to Jerusalem.²⁵⁷
A man with dropsy was healed on the Sabbath.²⁵⁸
Lazarus was raised from the dead in Bethany.²⁵⁹
Adjacent to Jericho, blind Bartimaeus’ and another man’s sight was restored.²⁶⁰
On the road to Bethany, a barren fig tree was cursed and withered.²⁶¹
A servant’s ear was healed on the occasion of Jesus’ arrest.²⁶²
Christ Jesus was raised from the dead.²⁶³
Since first death came from a man, Adam, resurrection also came from a Man, the God-man, Christ Jesus.²⁶⁴
Confirming Christ Jesus’ resurrected power, a large group of fish was caught at the Sea of Tiberias.²⁶⁵
Jesus instructed His disciples before they witnessed His ascension into the heavens.²⁶⁶
The Holy Spirit empowered the disciples on the day of Pentecost as Jesus had said,²⁶⁷
and thus begun the last day’s prophecy of Joel; God will pour out His Spirit upon servants and handmaids and all flesh, and sons and daughters shall prophesy, old men will dream dreams, young men will see visions, and will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, fire, and pillars of smoke, to the sixth seal, where the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,²⁶⁸ before the great and terrible day the Lord shall come. It will come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.²⁶⁹

(A brief interlude follows.)

(The objet trouvé illustration of linear time by Dallas F. Bell Jr. is titled “Dank, the Shadowing Rhapsody of Time.”²⁷⁰ As the atheist Marcel Duchamp would note, it is not retinal, but is art for the mind. Kipling wrote of Adam’s scratching in Eden’s dirt with a stick, and it was joy to his heart till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, “It is pretty, but is it art?” He concluded that by the favor of God we might know as much as our father Adam knew!²⁷¹ On marble with a carpenter’s square, the assortment of kinetic timepieces from the top left to right signify the following: the first round watch with no band is the beginning point of creation [time; seven minutes to midnight], the line between the second and third timepieces is the worldwide flood [time; five and a half minutes before midnight], the third bandless watch represents the new beginning after the flood, the line after the square fifth timepiece represents the first coming of Christ two-thousand years ago, beginning the Age of the Gentiles or Church [time; two minutes before midnight], the seventh Russian watch signifies the prophesied attack of Gog and Magog on Israel beginning the seven-year tribulation [time; midnight], the last watch represents the thousand-year reign of King Christ Jesus after His Second Coming [time; midnight to one minute after midnight], and the final line signifies the eternal end of righteous humanity’s earthly occupation and the beginning of the last one-thousand year earthy Satanic reign [time; one minute to two minutes after midnight. Moments in time are successive, but moments, having passed, do not melt from eternity, as suggested in Salvador Dali’s 1931 “The Persistence of Memory.” The reality of time is not a mere social construct whose existence or survival is dependent on the mechanisms and memories of finite man. The clocks remain, still, in order, recording history, the movement of objects in space; time in the infinite mind of God. Marc Chagall’s 1912 “Homage to Apollinaire” correctly depicts the clock of a man and a woman’s love as having both eternal, agape love only, and ephemeral, eros and possibly agape love, existence. Equally, then, justice would also have eternal and ephemeral existence. Those observations demand the existence of an Infinite Being of love, agape, to dispense eternal justice, to which created finite beings are subject to His perfect holy standard, requiring His mercy and eternal redemption, from grace alone, from a pristine blood sacrifice, only He could be qualified to voluntarily make. What can wash away our sins? “Nothing but the blood of Jesus;” What can make us whole to Him? “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Oh! Precious is the flow, That makes us white as snow; No other fount we know, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”²⁷²)

(The didaché²⁷³ resumes.)

Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace,²⁷⁴ will begin His Second Coming in the air and remove His elect in a rapturo,²⁷⁵ ending the Last Days of the Church Age called the Time of the Gentiles.²⁷⁶
The following End Times seven-year tribulation period with be an outpouring of God’s wrath.²⁷⁷
The prince of this world, Satan,²⁷⁸ will be allowed to empower the Anti-Christ to make a seven-year treaty of fake peace with Israel.²⁷⁹
God will stop the forces of Gog and Magog from attacking Israel.²⁸⁰
At three and a half years, the beginning of sorrows, the Jews will realize Jesus is Christ the Savior when the Anti-Christ declares himself God in their rebuilt Temple.²⁸¹
At the end of the last three and a half years, Jesus will end the tribulation period with His heavenly army and stop the Battle of Armageddon.²⁸²
Jesus will throw the Anti-Christ and his false prophet into the lake of fire.²⁸³
Jesus will reign²⁸⁴ on earth with a rod of iron from the world capital, Jerusalem, for a millennium of peace and prosperity,²⁸⁵ where swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears will be hammered into pruning hooks, nations will never learn war any more. ²⁸⁶
The elect are loveable, valuable, forgivable, redeemable and will enjoy eternity with Jesus in the New Jerusalem where there will be no tears nor pain.²⁸⁷
The non-elect are abominable, detestable, implacable, condemnable and will be cast into the eternal lake of fire.²⁸⁸

There are many other unwritten signs Jesus performed in the presence of His disciples, but those written were so that we might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life in His name.²⁸⁹ The account of Jesus’ life was biblically complete,²⁹⁰ though the many other things Jesus did, if written in detail, the world itself could not contain the books.²⁹¹ But He, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, whom the Father sent on Jesus’ behalf helps to teach and to remember all things in truth.²⁹²

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.²⁹³

No prophesy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophesy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.²⁹⁴ We have no need for anyone to teach us, but His anointing teaches us about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it is taught us, we abide in Him.²⁹⁵ We have not received the spirit of this world but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.²⁹⁶ The Spirit should not be quenched.²⁹⁷

The Lord has spoken, it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity, and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you, declares the Lord.²⁹⁸ The times of overlooking ignorance have passed, God declares all men must repent because there is a fixed day when He will judge the world in righteousness through Jesus, the God-Man, whom He has appointed, having provided proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.²⁹⁹ God has a complete record of every person’s life.³⁰⁰

(The 16” x 20” acrylic on canvas painting by Dallas F. Bell Jr. is titled “Tidak Ada Kesadaran,³⁰¹ Zeitgeist Watches the Matahari Terbenam³⁰² on the West.”)

Zeitgeist ignored Boaz’s contemplation. Over the next days and weeks, he enjoyed the peaceful playing of the sasando³⁰³ by Boaz’s wife, and the flute by Maria. Their rendition of “Silent Night, Holy Night”³⁰⁴ was so moving, Zeitgeist often chimed in on the chorus. He had come to value his mother’s heeding to not eat on the ground nor fly above the trees, affirming an appreciation of the need to “sleep in heavenly peace.” When he was younger, it seemed life was so wonderful, a miracle, beautiful, magical, and all the other birds in the trees sang so happily, joyfully, playfully, whimsically, as they watched him. But, he went away and learned to be sensible, acceptable, pivotal, practical, finding a world that was rhetorical, clinical, intellectual, cynical. There are times when the world’s asleep; the questions run too deep for such a simple bird. He pondered what he had learned and how absurd it would be to ask who he was; perhaps a radical, liberal, criminal, a vegetable. He felt logical, orbital, digital, geometrical, as life was unbelievable.³⁰⁵ He closed each day content to watch as the sun sat on his last adventure and thought with all his might on what Boaz had said. “Invest. Ride the stocks. Be free.” he would chirp and then fall into a deep sleep.

Zeitgeist’s typical, predictable, fanatical, cauistical utterances echoed in Boaz’s head methodically, analytically, ethically, symmetrically. The parrot was not aware of the cognitive algorithm overshadowing his present confirmation bias; a bubble filter nudged by the serpent’s psychological operation. Sincerity leads the way to heaven,³⁰⁶ but sincerity is not a substitute for salvation.³⁰⁷ This reminded Boaz of the life of a famous science fiction author. The author had been raised as a Christian in America, but spoke of his becoming a relativist Buddhist in his “delicatessen religionist” philosophy with the goal of being a god. Yet, the protagonist in his major work overcame the book-burning tendency encouraged by his dystopian society and memorized the book of Ecclesiastes as the foundation to rebuild society after the war of ideas ended.³⁰⁸ The author stated his career was ‘God given,’ and that he was ‘at play in the fields of the Lord.’³⁰⁹ The cantata in his short story collection reflected a biblically modeled sequence for creation.³¹⁰ Its impressionistic focus on mood and atmosphere was reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Soleil Levant.³¹¹ In his private life, the author had stopped supporting anti-biblical American political candidates and their harmful issues, and began advocating biblical leaning candidates and their absolutist causes.³¹² Boaz realized he and his wife need not worry about Maria’s future. They could rest, as godly parents, in the biblical truth that when children are trained in the way they should go, when they are old, they will not depart from it.³¹³

Our pleasures and our discontents are rounds by which we may ascend.³¹⁴ Murmurs of delight and woe come not from the wings of birds.³¹⁵ They are poetic anyons, in a two-dimensional world, changing wave function when they swap places, circling each other in a braid recording the event; a form of memory. Boaz concluded his nightly prayer, “Now to Him who is able to keep the elect from stumbling, and to make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Christ Jesus our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before time, and now, and forever. Amen.”³¹⁶

(Attention students of systematic political science: Practitioners of this exhaustive analytical method understand its TRICE logical components: Theological truth versus untruth, Rational truth of epistemological good versus evil, Individual behavior proven to be psychiatrically good versus evil, Collective good behavior versus evil behavior, all based on the Eschatology of the beginning theological outcome. The chosen theology of a society dictates the collective behavior and the political system formed.³¹⁷ This specific fictional account of Pacific Islands has intentionally omitted data crucial to analyzing the culture. If you perceived the void in the story of addressing the government’s use of police and military forces to enforce laws and punish violators of common vices [e.g. gambling, sexual perversion, recreational drug use, larceny, and murder etc.], you have passed the test. The next step is to ensure that you believe God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish and have eternal life.³¹⁸ Eternal redemptive salvation is as simple as that.³¹⁹ It is instantaneous³²⁰ and permanent,³²¹ and creates joy in heaven.³²² The final step is to show you continually love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself³²³ by fearing Him and keeping His commandments.³²⁴ This is the Divine purpose of mankind.)

--ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (2024) Dallas F. Bell, Jr.--