Luce, aka the devil, sent me the following note regarding
the recent same sex marriage U.S. Supreme Court decision. It seems the devil
revels in our unhappiness but is never completely happy. He writes:
Dear Deacon Tom:
I am not totally pleased about the same sex marriage
decision by the Supreme Court. I regret
reading the dubiously disagreeable dribble drafted by Justice Anthony Kennedy
in his majority opinion: “No union is
more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love,
fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.” Yuck, people.
Yet I must admit that it was ingenious of me to have
influenced its drafting. This decision will gloriously cause incremental unrest
among believers. That a Catholic drafted the opinion is the pièce de résistance. Of all the
Catholics on this Court, (and there are nine), I’ve been keeping very close
tabs on Justice Kennedy who is the least dramatic of all. While Justice Antonin
Scalia is truly entertaining, I depend more upon “boring” to get the job done.
Kennedy is always the swing vote provocateur. He was
such a vulnerable young Catholic altar boy, "straight-laced" and little
"goody goody.” I once influenced
his lobbyist father to jokingly offer him $100 if he would do something to get
himself picked up by the police. He didn’t bite. During his college years,
Kennedy traveled around Europe one summer in a red Volkswagen; Volkswagen
drivers who graduated from Stanford were prime targets for me in the 60’s.
Kennedy’s dad was a man after my own heart. He once gave the future Supreme
Court Justice a bottle of whiskey to take on the trip, which he used only for
medicinal purposes (purportedly gargling with it when he felt a cold or sore
throat coming on.
Early on I worked behind the scenes to keep Judge Bork
off the high court while Kennedy, President Reagan’s pinch hitter, would have
probably remained in California practicing boring tax law. Boring and
mediocrity can succeed to make your world interesting. Kennedy is trying to be a good guy, attempting
to ensure that: “no one is condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one
of civilizations oldest institutions.” Have a heart people.
On the other hand, I abhor the institution of marriage
in all its forms, including the Las Vegas ones. I think the Court should have
come up with an opinion that marriage between two of anything is bad. Marriage
between a man and woman is as incompatible as between cats and dogs, oil and
water, or eating pizza before riding the Aerosmith roller coaster ride at
Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I would like them all to fail. I have always
thought that the “enduring bonds of marriage” as referenced in the Court’s majority
opinion are anything but enduring. Nothing is enduring, especially human
beings. I love the irony of ambience and context of the decision. While I don’t
like Kennedy’s language, I like how it works to deflower the pious meanings of
marriage held by the Church. Marriage is really a prison. But if by the
crafting of language “marriage” is redefined let’s have marriage between the
dogs and cats. I advocate you not limit such defined happiness to only two
people? The more the “merrier” (pun intended). And as such, this redefinition could
be the elixir from which your species can (in Justice Kennedy’s words), “find
other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy and spirituality,” well damn, it
all makes complete sense. Regarding
those “other freedoms,” – well the sky’s the limit. This is why I love the
libertarian call to anarchy, to unleash those other freedoms. I quote
Shakespeare once more intoning the great Marc Antony: “Blood
and destruction shall be so in use, and dreadful objects so familiar that
mothers shall but smile when they behold their infants quartered with the hands
of war; …Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge, … come hot from hell, shall in
these confines with a monarch's voice cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of
war”.
On the other hand, dear Deacon, “I really am in the
details. I really am in the thin unobtrusive spaces between the lines of the
fine print. If you listen to me, I’ll always shed light where darkness is.
After all, my name is “Luce.” Hope you
are having a nice radiant hot summer. Don’t
forget me!
Sincerely, your BFF,
Luce
And so it continues.
Comments
Post a Comment