Saint_Pugnacious

Random housewife.

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

One of the most important (and overlooked) scenes in the Odyssey is the encounter with the Lotus-eaters.

After nine days at sea, Odysseus and his men finally reach dry land. They go ashore to collect water, and Odysseus sends three men to go explore.

When his men don't return, Odysseus begins to worry.

The men had met some of the islanders (the Lotus-eaters), "who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back".

Odysseus ends up having to drag his men back to the ships and quickly sail away.

One must understand the symbolic power of the lotus. Its danger is not in any physical threat. The lotus is so deadly because it overloads you with pleasure, taking away all sense of urgency.

In this state of pleasure and relaxation, you forget your mission and your purpose. The men who ate the lotus flowers completely forgot about everything of value in their lives: their homes, their families, etc.

It's easy to think the monsters and beasts are the most terrifying threats you face. But because they're so obviously dangerous and remind you that death is a real possibility, they alert you to the value of life, and remind you of why you're fighting. But the real danger is a life so comfortable that you forget what you were trying to do in the first place.

Statistically speaking, it's unlikely you'll ever go to war or die of famine. But it is certainly possible that an addiction to your phone will derail you from your mission. Abundance of food and entertainment is far more likely to destroy you than most physical threats.

Yes, you will encounter plenty of Sirens and Cyclopes in life. But the real threat, which you must fend off every single day, is that of the lotus flower: a delicious indulgence that brings you immediate satisfaction, and makes you forget what you were fighting for.

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@japan_nobunaga This is the best thing I have read on the internet in weeks. Thank you!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@ryanhallyall Dang it! Nothing for KC again! It’s been a dull winter here.

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@marilispineiro The pope is a close friend of anyone he has his picture taken with it seems! 😆

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@ScottAdamsSays I’m glad to hear you are doing well. My children love your comics and have been praying for your health every night.

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity When is the smoke going to clear?

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@_Leila I know an American TLM priest who sewed all his own vestments- and did an amazing job! I used to sew them myself, and assumed his vestments had come from one of the high end vestment makers in Europe. And haven’t these people ever heard of tailors???

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity Any chance the smoke will clear? It’s been gloomy for days!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@TheProjectUnity Man, the Winged Hussars really got around!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity NOOOOOOO!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity Yay! Moisture!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Just received this text 20 mins ago.

The level of belligerent government incompetence is staggering!!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity The circular patterns?

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity C’mon RAIN!

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@AUEagle2005 @breeadail Still could be. Upside down might be a slimming angle for him 😄

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@breeadail I didn’t really look at it, just assumed it was the devil. I’m not sure. Man with a wig, obviously wrote a lot, judging by the books St. Ignatius it standing on. Not chubby enough to be Luther. Calvin?

[Eric Sammons @EricRSammons]

I LOVE THE TLM BUT DON'T LOVE TLM-GOERS?

You hear this a lot on social media: "I appreciate the TLM, but I really don't like the people who attend the TLM. They are condescending, rude, and obnoxious." Usually this is said in the context of the crack-down of the TLM as "well, they deserve it."

Is this true? It is fair?

It's definitely true that some people who say they attend the TLM can be condescending, rude, and obnoxious online. I see it, you see it. But there's a serious problem with the overall attitude of tagging TLMers as particularly bad behaving.

First, for most people who say this, their entire interaction with TLMers is online. They don't actually spend time IRL with them. Nor do they know any of them well. When you ask them to prove that TLMers are obnoxious, they'll share a tweet by "Deus Vult King" (who has 79 followers) saying something stupid.

Or perhaps they'll share a tweet by someone more prominent that does say something controversial. But they will interpret it in the worst possible way, refusing to recognize the limitations of social media and the inability to present full arguments there.

Or they will simply be too sensitive. If I tweet that I think the TLM is superior to the NO (and I do think that), then a horde of NO-goers will wail and gnash their teeth that I called them inferior and not really Catholic, and claimed that the NO isn't a valid Mass. Of course, I never said any of that, but now I'm another condescending, rude, and obnoxious TLMer, when really they are just too sensitive.

And of course all the awfulness and heresy you see online from Catholics who attend the NO is conveniently ignored.

Again, the bad experiences are almost entirely online. Yet if you look at any and all communities, there are always obnoxious members online. It's not a TLM problem; it's a online problem and a human problem.

If you actually attend a TLM parish for more than a single Sunday, you'll meet wonderful, caring, Catholic men and women. Most of them aren't on social media much, nor do they follow Church politics. They are just trying to get their families to heaven. This is about 98% of the actual TLM community, not a bunch of online edge lords.

That all being said, even if TLMers are awful online, there's simply no logical process that leads one to think we should thereby abolish the TLM. We don't shut down the NO because Fr. James Martin spouts heresy every other day, nor should we shut down a far more venerable rite because of accusations of bad online behavior by some attendees.

The Vatican is, quite frankly, gaslighting people by making online TLMers a scapegoat for what they want to do for ideological reasons: destroy the TLM. They want to destroy it because it is an affront to their desire to water-down Catholicism, to make it functionally therapeutic moralism and practical atheism. Traditional Catholicism is the greatest enemy of that movement.

Supposedly obnoxious TLMers have nothing to do with the push to abolish the TLM; they are just a convenient excuse. Don't fall for the gaslighting.

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@NWSKansasCity No rain for KC?

[Saint_Pugnacious @SaintPugnacious]

@CatholicFQ Disagree