The color purple

My wife might have said, "See the purple feast,
Look how the colors intertwine—
The Calla Lily's white goblet sheath,
Purpled from serving communion wine,
The Astilbe, the bouquet that the priest
Dropped in the vat entering the shrine."

Energy to unload my camera

For my renewed energy I credit the therapy of not trying to use both eyes for computer work (for about 48 hours now). This seems to have made all the difference—or at least that part of the difference that doesn't derive simply from renewed hope, a factor very hard to account for in both introspection and scientific investigation.
    Hope, of course, also plays a role in the matter of religious belief, and might even generally account for the persistence of religious belief. Religious beliefs may not be true, but they do provide hope. Hope that injustice will be righted, that those who died young or horribly will rise again and their oppressors punished appropriately (if not inappropriately by all of them being tortured equally forever and forever), that our old, sagging bodies will be restored to their youthful, sexy (erect) versions, that, alas, we will see our beloved mama and papa again (or that the bastard will have the opportunity to burn in hell),....