Hansaphatically

Well, NiHowdy seems too preoccupied with the wicked Canadian encroachment of sacred Danish territory to cover the important events of last weekend, so I'll pick up. Bread left on Saturday, and Friday night there was a get-together of all who know Bread to say goodbye. It was at the (name unknown) seafood restaurant down the street from FM. About twenty people were there throughout the night, and the shindig lasted long after the restaurant closed.

Sometime during that evening, I had a remarkable conversation with Elliot. Words like "fideism"*, "apophatically" and "cataphatically" were employed, and not by me (since I didn't know what any of those words meant). G.K. Chesterton was quoted (and not by me, since I didn't know who he was): "

If each man could live a thousand years, he would be either an atheist or a Catholic."

Now those of you in other countries may find this difficult to believe, but that is not the kind of late night pub conversation that usually occurs among drunk expats in this fair city. I was very interested in what Eliot had to say, but I was also very drunk, a state which often lends me to be interested in things like the sky, that guy's attitude, and the toilet. But when I woke up the next day and wasn't drunk any more, Eliot's ideas still seemed pretty interesting. Of course that could just be because that Chesterton quote indicates that I have a metaphysical headstart over a bunch of people. Anyway, upon a quick inventory of my knowledge of Catholic theology, I discovered that I know less about that than I do about most things. And I know very little about most things. Elliot was kind enough to follow up with an E-mail I had asked for, so I've got all kinds of stuff to look up this week.

* Doesn't have anything to do with FIDE. I checked.