Man! Dude! Session #198

(D)ude: Man! Senator Rand Paul squawks on the Senate Floor! His father was the former representative from Texas who heckled across the floor of the House of Representatives. The only convincing portrayal of today’s GOP is probably Jim Carrey clucking like a convulsive ostrich in the courtroom.

(M)an: Dude! That may be so. But have you come across Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote?

D: Man! To these extravagant conceits he added a world of others, all in imitation, and in the very style of those which the reading of romances had furnished him with; and all this while he rode so softly, and the sun’s heat increased so fast, and was so violent, that it would have been sufficient to have melted his brains had he had any left.

M: Dude! He and Shakespeare died one day apart in April 1616. Cervantes died aged 68 and Shakespeare departed aged 52.

D: Man! Wow! Really?

M: Dude! April 22, 1616 is Cervantes’ official passing, while April 23, 1616 is Shakespeare’s.

D: Man! Don Quixote looking about him in hopes to discover some castle, or at least some shepherd’s cottage, there to repose and refresh himself; at last, near the road which he kept, he espied an inn, as welcome a sight to his longing eyes, as if he had discovered a star directing him to the gate, nay, to the palace of his redemption.

M: Dude! Thereupon hastening towards the inn with all the speed he could, he got thither just at the close of the evening. There stood by chance at the inn-door, two young female adventurers, alias common wenches, who were going to Seville with some other carriers, that happened to take up their lodgings there that very evening;…

D: Man! …and, as whatever our knight-errant saw, thought, or imagined, was all of a romantic cast, and appeared to him altogether after the manner of the books that had perverted his imagination, he no sooner saw the inn, but he fancied it to be a castle fenced with four towers and lofty pinnacles, glittering with silver, together with a moat, drawbridge, and all those other appurtenances peculiar to such kinds of places.  

M: Dude! In the fifth century, according to Nuha Abudabbeh, the first major split in Christianity led to the formation of two distinct natures of Jesus Christ. One school was Monophysitism, claiming Christ was of one nature only and that being divine, while the other school was Duophysitism, claiming Christ was of two natures, one being divine and the other being human.  

D: Man! They don’t mention that at Sunday school, or do they? I bet the direly portent neoconservatives have totally wiped out a curriculum embracing multiculturalism in the public school system. What do you think? I think the neocons are harbingers of decline.

M: Dude! The neoconservatives blow the veins of decency running through all of humanity. They are vile and pungent. Although the Bush Dynasty, Rumsfeld and Cheney did so much irreparable damage to the Iraqi people and Afghanistan, they still have the crudity to promote their perspectives and opinions even as we speak! The world is in critical condition as Assad and his regime are scrambling to respond to the threats from the United States about an impending military strike.

D: Man! Do you think there is something serious being considered behind closed doors?

M: Dude! Why wouldn’t United States Intelligence plot and ponder in private? Have you seen the potential threat to the 2 million Syrian refugees moving into the neighboring countries? And there are 4.5 million displaced people inside Syria!

D: Man! I trust Secretaries Hagel and Kerry and General Dempsey. I seriously think there are bigger, far worse potential scenarios facing our Arab allies and the surrounding region. 

M: Dude! Republican strategists like Mary Matalin, who, by the way, was advisor to Dick Cheney, come on shows like This Week With George Stephanopoulos with a gigantic obstructionist turquoise cross and express a tunnel vision bias against the Arab World based on misinformation like they’re very prejudicial over there!

D: Man! Did you hear her when she quote unquote stated this is a region that hardly goes for nuance. 

They hardly respond to any kind of deterrents. They’re out there bragging that the President has pulled back… the President has changed his mind… But I go- There is a political and moral element and they are not inextricable… if this is immoral, how is the more immoral than raping and killing Christians in Egypt? Like what is our trigger for responding to human atrocities… I think raping young girls and murdering Christians is a pretty- our first principle… if we are standing our principle… is religious freedom… that [red] line is in our Constitution!     

M: Dude! Consider the intellectual wisdom that was required for the coexistence of Monophysites and the Duophysites in the Holy Lands. That there were two schools of thought about Christianity that survived two millenniums side by side and faith to faith is incredible and ought to make US aware of the possibility of plausible future democracies springing up with no prejudicial guidance whatsoever.

D: Man! What do you mean when you say faith to faith?

M: Dude! Islam followed Judaism and Christianity and stressed the singularity of Jesus as divine. I believe that the creation of an intellectual concept that embraced the duality that was the Monophysites and the Duophysites was a result of perhaps the earliest coexistence campaigns in human history. If you think about it, Muslims are Monophysites to a certain extent. Prophet Mohammed was, like the hanif scholars, a scholar of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and Jesus Christ is a Prophet in Islam.

D: Man! We must vote the Republican GOP out and the Democratic Party back into being the majority in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate! I believe the Republican GOP is intellectually challenged due to outright prejudices and greed. At least when wearing the holy cross, we must remember the significance of this precious symbol. Did you know that there are Roman Catholic hospitals in Islamic nations where the local wealthy donors pay for services, but the poor do not have to foot the bill? And, the best part is, the hospitals and professionals are ecumenical.

M: Dude! There are a lot of lessons unlearned but waiting to be learned abroad! Again, as you said, we have to vote for the progressives who comprise of the Democratic Party right now in the United States.