The Desolateness of Absence

by Thomas Traherne

That Man is Poor and Desolate whose Lov
None seeks, no man sollicits, none Doth move,
Whose Brightest Splendors in the Dark do lie
And all his Great affections are thrown by.
Rust covers his Resplendent fancy, Dust
Soyls all his Powers, & his Lov doth rust.
His Wit’s unseen, his Wisdom none admires,
His Souls unsought, his favor none desires.
None vallues his esteem, his sacred tears
No ey doth pitty, Fury no man fears.
His Passions are hung o’er with Cobwebs, and
His greatest virtues idle in Him stand.
His Courage no where is imployd his zeal
No Beauty doth to any Ey reveal.
His Excellencies in a Silent Cave
Are hid; his very Body is his grave.
His faculties are Empty, all his powers
Are Solitary, Withered, Blasted Bowers.
His Wide & great capacity is laid
Aside, his precept is by none Obeyd.
His very Worth’s neglected & Despised,
His very Riches are themselves not prizd.
He is the poor, forlorn and needy man,
That see, do, Prize, Enjoy, Admire at Nothing can;
Whose Goodness cant itself comunicat,
Nor Avarice Enjoy anothers State.
Whose Violent & Endless Lov’s displeased,
Whose Great Ambition is by no man Easd.
Who no Dominion hath, Whom no Mans Ey
Doth Prize, Exalt, Rejoyce in, Magnifie.
Who reigns not always in anothers soul,
Whose Highness nothing can at all Controul.
Who cannot pleas far more the Worlds! & be
A Bliss to others like the Deitie.

Well, as of late I've lost all motivation to blog. So there you have it. Maybe when the school year begins and I have new stuff going in, then I'll be able to get stuff out.

I want to make a shirt

Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Those times when you're like, "hey dude want to go grab some tacos?" - and the next thing you know...MANDATE.

And why yes, those are my amazing MSPaint skills that you're fawning over.

See what's cooking.

Seeing as how I am no longer in Israel, I'm going to turn this blog into a little place to write my thoughts. If you're into that sort of thing then stay tuned.

Several thousand miles later.

Well I'm back in the states now, and very much missing Israel. I'll be going back eventually, of that I'm certain ;D That terrible summer feeling is setting in now though, the feeling of "kay, what now?" Well, this summer will mostly consist of working, reading, the beach, and doing things that are important. Excellent list, right?

Brief update.

So what the heck have I been doing for the past 16 days? More than I can remember right now. I spent one week in Egypt with James, one of the other guys here at IBEX, which was immensely fun. We traveled all around Egypt, hitting Cairo (pyramids, museum), Alexandria (Catacombs, my birthplace, library, etc.), Luxor (Karnak, Valley of the Kings, and such), and Mt. Sinai. Atually, we spent the night on top of Mt. Sinai nestled under a Bedouin blanked that I pilfered.

Since then homework has been kicked into high gear as the end of the semester approaches. Yesterday we hiked all day from Jericho uphill to Jerusalem, along the same path the the good Samaritan story would have occurred and also the road along which Christ made His final journey to Jerusalem before the passion week.

I'm keeping busy studying for finals and working on my paper right now, trying not to think about going home in a little over a week. It will be good to be home though - see everyone and eat non-kosher food. Ahhh, yes.

Galilee, the beginning.

Ooh boy, talkin about Galilee. Well we left the Moshav on the 29th and travelled up to Aphek, one of the cities that Paul would have been escorted through on his way to Caeserea to be shipped off to Rome. There really wasn't much to see there as I recall. On our way to Caeserea we dropped off at the HaAretz Museum which had a lot of displays of really neat archaeological findings, such as clay sarcophagi and big swords. There was also a glass section (some of the earliest glass, as well as pottery, was developed here) in the mueseum, which I would have expected to be filled with ancient glass that they found amongst the Tels (archaelogical treasure-troves). But instead it was filled with all sorts of modern artsy glass things. Jewish people, at least here in Israel, have an odd obsession with strange modern art pieces. Sad to say, most of them are horrendously ugly.

We finished up the day in Caeserea Meritime, which made the whole thing worth it for sure. It was a real roman city, with beautiful architecture and all the luxory Herod the Great could have wanted. Well maybe not. This rather large tourist attraction included a Hippodrome, a Theatre, a temple to Hera (which was no longer standing), and the remains of an ancient man-made bay. Herod stacked large stone blocks in the water in order to create an artificial harbor, since the natural coast afforded none. They had a pretty well-designed presentation. Anyway, that was the first day of our Galilee trip...and there's plenty more to tell and so much homework to do and so little time until Egypt. Scrap! Pray that everything comes together :)

P.N.