classical music, celibacy, chastity and clowns
.... Will my life, O tyrant master, be the miserable victim of these wretched chains that clasp me; Since in them, I vow to God, I will tear myself to fragments with my hands and with my teeth .... Pedro Calderone de la Barca The origin of the word chastity is the same as the word caste: to cut off. It shares the same meaning as the Hebrew word for holy (kadosh): to set apart. By s eparating oneself in order to be better aligned with a higher power, spiritual consecration involves setting oneself apart from the secular. Unfortunately, this kind of holy often also implies judgement and/or condemnation of the profane, precursor to the holier-than-thou attitude we despise in martyrs who do violence both to their own disavowed parts and to their narcissistic extensions which unfortunately almost always include other human beings. It is noble to aspire to holiness but this can turn rapidly into spiritual bypassing when...