A poem is never finished, only abandoned

My dad once heard W.H. Auden read the poem "September 1, 1939" and commented on the infamous line "We must love one another or die," remarking that it made no sense, didn't work, and wasn't true. Auden's remark was that it had bothered him since he wrote it. He actually changed the line to "We must love one another AND die," but felt it had lost its "rhetorical punch" as one article said, so he struck the line altogether, only to reinstate it years later at the persuasion of friends.

Ah, the power of words.

I was taught once by Edward Mendelson, Auden's pseudo-protogé and literary executor. Mendelson was a strange man who couldn't handle boys wearing hats or pens clicking and once referred to my friend and me as "watermelon" when I wore a pink shirt and he wore a bright green one. Peculiar, meaningless, and yet somehow unforgettable.

Let me off the damn train

Last night I was riding the T from Downtown Crossing to Davis Square when I saw a guy stuff a candy wrapper in a gap between two ceiling panels. This rather rotund young man had called himself to my attention a few moments earlier when speaking with an equally rotund girl. Rotund Girl had asked Rotund Guy if he knew any of the girls that got off at the previous stop, to which Rotund Guy boorishly replied, "I don't know any of those bitches." At that point Rotund Guy became far more interesting than the Augusten Burroughs novel I was reading, which is no easy task. My interest in Rotund Guy was further rewarded when he spat out the open T doors onto the platform at the MGH stop in what seemed to be an attempt to impress Rotund Girl.

This is a very long way of introducing the idea that one can learn a lot about a person by watching the way he or she acts while on the T. And not just on the T, but also when entering and exiting a T car or station. When a guy opens a door to exit a T station does he look back to see if he should fling it open wide for the person behind him, or better still, does he wait holding the door for an extra beat for a stranger to pass through, or does he lazily open the door just wide enough only for himself to sneak though? Does the woman wait for everyone to exit the T car before she boards, or does she brutishly shove her way on? Does the floppy-haired teen give up his seat for the elderly lady with groceries, or does he look back down and continue texting on his Sidekick? Does Rotund Guy put a candy wrapper in his pocket until he walks by a trashcan, or does he stuff it between two ceiling panels while a man 85 minutes into his commute musters a glare of fatherly disapproval?

TLD joins forces in Boston, hilarity ensues

The amazingly talented and idiosyncratic Lit Department staff has relocated to Boston. Well, that is a half-truth. One half of the amazingly talented and idiosyncratic TLD staff has relocated to Boston, joining the other half that was already here. Remember on Captain Planet when all the kids combined their powers to summon... Captain Planet? Well, that's very similar to what will happen now that all of TLD is in Boston. Except there won't be any eco-friendly superhero summoning. Or hazy plot lines. But we will drink large amounts of Stella Artois.

Also, because Boston is a much busier place than Sacramento, we here at TLD no longer have time to type out The Lit Department anymore, save for purposes of illustration. Henceforth, the acronym shall take its (no apostrophe, children) place when so demanded by lack of time and/or effort. The TLD salutes you, loyal reader.

Be well.

What beet farmers read in their spare time.

Yet another reason to be thankful for the Office and (gasp) Dwight: SoulPancake.

What is SoulPancake, you ask? We will let Rainn Wilson explain:

We want to make discussions about Spirituality, Creativity, and Philosophy cool again. Were they ever cool? I have no idea. But it seems like a good idea. We want to engage the user to “Chew on Life’s Big Questions”™. (I was kidding about the ™ symbol; you can use that phrase however you want. Even to sell frozen taquitos.) Where do you go on the Interwebs if you want an irreverent, fun, and profound take on God and Art and the Soul and Faith and Beauty? Fox.com? Maybe. But maybe also here at SoulPancake.com.

Thanks to Penny for alerting us of this awesome awesomeness.

Obama breaks my heart for the first time

On February 6th, President Obama signed an executive order establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is a mild reinvention of the previous administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The White House press release on the matter describes the new White House program as "a resource for nonprofits and community organizations, both secular and faith based, looking for ways to make a bigger impact in their communities, learn their obligations under the law, cut through red tape, and make the most of what the federal government has to offer." Blah.

Basically, the program doles out federal money to religious and non-religious groups providing various social services. Anyone with even a passing interest in the separation of church and state should be concerned with the mere existence of such a federal program as it gives taxpayer money to religious organizations. Regardless of how religious organizations are intended to use the funds, the action of giving public money to such groups is constitutionally problematic. Futhermore, Obama's new Office of Faith-Baised and Neighborhood Partnership DOES NOT alter the previous administration's decision that faith-based groups receiving public funds are free to discriminate on a religious basis when hiring employees. This is absolutely contrary to a 2008 speech Obama gave, in which he noted the following (my emphases):

Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea – so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

I am more than saddened Obama's deep belief in the separation of church and state has wandered towards the shallow end.