{"id":5831,"date":"2022-04-09T03:06:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T03:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=5831"},"modified":"2023-09-16T20:44:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T20:44:55","slug":"im-not-as-crazy-as-you-think-i-moose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/im-not-as-crazy-as-you-think-i-moose\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Not as Crazy as You Think I Moose!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gustave<\/a>
\n(From Gustave Dore\u0301, via Library of Congress, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll be talking about ADHD, PDD, PTSD, ASD and me; and what that alphabet-soup assortment of acronyms means.<\/p>\n

But first, a spot of poetry.<\/p>\n

“…Eagerly I wished the morrow;\u2014vainly I had tried to borrow
\nFrom my books surcease of sorrow\u2014sorrow for the lost Lenore\u2014….”
\n(“The Raven<\/a>,” Edgar Allen Poe (1884) via Wikipedia)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fast-forward 35 years \u2014<\/p>\n

“…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
\nMere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
\nThe blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
\nThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;
\nThe best lack all conviction, while the worst
\nAre full of passionate intensity.<\/p>\n

“Surely some revelation is at hand;
\nSurely the Second Coming is at hand…..”
\n(“The Second Coming<\/a>,” William Butler Yeats (1919))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"New<\/a>Instead of the Second Coming, we got the Roaring Twenties and Crossword Mania.<\/p>\n

I talked about that a couple weeks back.<\/p>\n

But I haven’t talked about the Second Coming, AKA Final or Last Judgment, for some time.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Looking Forward to Judgment Day?<\/h4>\n

\"Lucas<\/a>
\n(From Lucas Cranach the Elder\/Gem\u00e4ldegalerie, Berlin, via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Judgment is this creation’s closing ceremony. It’s when everything each of us has done, or not done, will go public. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1038-1041)<\/p>\n

But before that, I’m looking forward to my particular judgment. Then, after an interview with our Lord, I’ll live with Jesus for eternity. Or I won’t. (Catechism, 1021-1050)<\/p>\n

I’m “looking forward” to my particular judgment, in the sense that I’m anticipating it.<\/p>\n

But since each of our particular judgments is a performance review, it’s not the sort of anticipation I feel when looking forward to reading a good book. More like “looking forward” to finals week before graduation. Only more so.<\/p>\n

What happens then is up to me: what I do now, how well I love God and neighbor; and what I decide at my particular judgment.<\/p>\n

I can opt out of Heaven. It’d be a daft decision, but it is possible. (Catechism, 1021)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bosch’s “Last Judgment,” a Triptych Tangent<\/h5>\n

\"Hieronymus<\/a>
\n(From Hieronymus Bosch (?)\/Groeningemuseum, via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, about that weird picture: it’s from a “Last Judgment” triptych, a three-panel painting, done by Lucas Cranach the Elder. He’s a bit younger than Hieronymus Bosch, and nowhere near as famous. Not in my country, at any rate.<\/p>\n

If you’re a Bosch buff, you’ll likely think the Cranach painting looks like one of the Bosch “Last Judgment” triptychs. Which it should, since Cranach copied the Bosch original.<\/p>\n

The Bosch original is in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Or it’s in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. On the other hand, maybe there are two identical Bosch triptychs. But that seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure that Cranach’s copy is in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Gem\u00e4ldegalerie.<\/p>\n

The Bosch ‘Vienna’ original, assuming that Bosch painted it, has been ‘restored’ a few times, so odds are that the Cranach copy looks more like the original than the current triptych that’s in Vienna. Or Burges.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why different folks say the Bosch triptych’s in different places. I suspect that it’s at least partly due to a post-World-War-II scramble, sorting out who had looted what from where.<\/p>\n

Looting, souvenir collecting, or whatever, isn’t new. But I like to think that we’re developing respect for the Decalogue’s ‘don’t steal’ instruction. (Exodus 20:15<\/a>; Deuteronomy 5:19<\/a>; Catechism, 2401-2449)<\/p>\n

Art restoration, these days, at least for museums, focuses on restoring artwork to the way it looked when it was new.1<\/a><\/sup> Art restoration’s goals have shifted over the centuries, and that’s another topic. Topics.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Last Judgment’s Go Time, Doomsayers: and Something from Sirach<\/h5>\n

\"Wiley<\/a>I take the Last Judgment, this creation’s closing ceremony, seriously.<\/p>\n

My native culture’s perennial End Times Bible Prophecies, not so much.<\/p>\n

I haven’t run into the COVID-19 pandemic being ‘prophetically revealed’ as a horseman of the apocalypse. (Revelation 6:1<\/a>–8<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Which strikes me as a bit odd.<\/p>\n

Particularly since showing our ongoing supply chain SNAFU as the third horseman’s effect on wheat and barley prices might seem plausible; given flamboyant delivery, a receptive audience and carefully-selected Bible bits.<\/p>\n

Then there’s Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which so far hasn’t gone nuclear. For which I’m duly thankful.<\/p>\n

But with at least three of the four horsemen in daily headlines? Like I said: I’m not sure why someone hasn’t packaged these current events as perilous portents of Armageddon.<\/p>\n

Maybe End Times Bible Prophecy books aren’t potential best sellers when folks are faced with real problems. And that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n

As for why I don’t take ‘Bible-based’ doomsayers seriously, apart from effects they have on their followers \u2014 I read the Bible.<\/p>\n

Our Lord said that only God the Father knows when the Last Judgment will happen. (Matthew 24:36<\/a>–44<\/a>, 25:13,<\/a> Mark 13:32<\/a>\u201333<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sounds to me like go time for Judgement Day is available on a need-to-know basis. And if the Son of God didn’t need to know, I sure don’t.<\/p>\n

Besides, I’m in no hurry for judgment.<\/p>\n

“When mortals finish, they are only beginning, and when they stop they are still bewildered….
\n“…The number of their days seems great if it reaches a hundred years.
\n“Like a drop of water from the sea and a grain of sand, so are these few years among the days of eternity.
\n“That is why the Lord is patient with them and pours out his mercy on them.”
\n(Sirach 18:7<\/a>–11<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>I’m Not Normal: ADHD And All That<\/h4>\n

\"My<\/a><\/p>\n

If I yearned with every fiber of my being to be a nice, normal member humanity’s teeming throng, I’d be a mighty morose man.<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>That’s because I’m not normal.<\/p>\n

My second-oldest daughter said I am eccentric, scholarly and eclectic. She’d been asked to describe me in three words. The second word might have been “academic,” or something of the sort, and I’m drifting off-topic again.<\/p>\n

The point is, she’s right. On all three counts. My interests are varied, I enjoy doing research and sharing what I find; and I don’t do “conventional.”<\/p>\n

Being eccentric accounts for “Cluster A personality disorder” having been among my diagnosed quirks. It’s the DSM’s label for folks who act oddly.<\/p>\n

As I said, I don’t do “conventional.” Not convincingly, at any rate. And small wonder. Here’s a half-dozen items that have appeared at various times in my medical records:<\/p>\n