A Different Order Entirely

(Why am I naming days?)
7/28/14, Day 13,964: A Different Order Entirely

This day is so named for Flannery O’Connor’s novel which I began reading at our weekend in Vermont, and which I’ve continued to work my way through in odd hours.  This recent passage caught hold of some odd-figured thing swimming deep within me:

“He was not afraid of love in general.  He knew the value of it and how it could be used.  He had seen it transform in cases where nothing else had worked, such as with his poor sister. None of this had the least bearing on his situation.  The love that would overcome him was of a different order entirely.  It was not the kind that could be used for the child’s improvement or his own.  It was love without reason, love for something futureless, love that appeared to exist only to be itself, imperious and all demanding, the kind that would cause him to make a fool of himself in an instant.  And it only began with Bishop.  It began with Bishop and then like an avalanche it covered everything his reason hated…”

“The love that would overcome him was of a different order entirely…like an avalanche it covered everything his reason hated.” I don’t know why this passage struck me so deeply, except to say that this kind of love also comes to me, often through the love of a specific person as above, but also through the beauty of theatre, nature, music…and it is like an avalanche, overwhelming and consuming but never lasting more than a few minutes, and usually, only a few seconds.

What is this kind of love?
And why does O’Connor in the very next sentence compare it to violence and madness?

I suppose I’ll have to keep reading to find out. And I’m pained to think how an author can write about this different order of love and still have held such racist ideas…

Technique never stands still: it only advances or retreats…

Writing: 114 out of 133 days (Faust)
Spanish: 101 out of 133 days
Music: 14 out of 38 days

What small things did I do yesterday to help build the Honeycomb?
(And what does it mean to “Help build the honeycomb?”)

• Asked my Rep Grace Meng to vote No on H.R. 4315, which could put animals at greater risk for poaching;
• Sent another letter to Obama about protecting the refugee children at the border;
• Asked Obama to strengthen protections against tiger trafficking;
• Signed my support to the “150,000 grassroots supporters for Medicare”;
• Asked the Minnesota Vikings to use bird-safe glass in their new stadium;
• Ate vegetarian, and added no additional food-related waste.