Daily Office: Wednesday
Morning
¶ Shrine: Okuninushi no Mikoto, the principal deity in residence at the Izumo Taisha shrine in Japan, has vacated the premises in order to facilitate periodic renovations.
Noon
¶ Delanoë: Bertrand Delanoë, the gay mayor of Paris, will seek to lead his country’s Socialist Party. A breath of fresh air after the narcissism of the Hollande-Royal team that was. (via JMG)
Night
¶ Elsewhere: Starting out in New York, right out of school and with no special resources to fall back on. I can’t imagine it! Yet a fresh crop of hopefuls arrives every year, and, right about now, the ones who are still here are celebrating a tentative first anniversary. Cara Buckley reports.
Oremus…
Morning, cont’d
§ Shrine. The customary observances at the shrine, normally closed to all but a small clutch of priests and members of the Imperial Family, are so secretive that it is not known whether the chief priest can look at the god.
Japan’s modernization, in the Nineteenth Century, was so abrupt that many archaic, not to say aboriginal aspects of life were actually preserved by the shock, frozen in place as it were. That’s why Senge Kunimaro, the heir apparent to the chief priest-ship, is so interesting to listen to: he’s a thirty-four year-old Japanese man who embodies a nearly prehistoric tradition.
“Every human being has an inquiring mind, but I believe there are things that human beings should not inquire into,†Mr. Senge said.
Noon, cont’d
§ Delanoë. How nice it would be if the Mayorlty of New York were the stepping-stone to the top office that its French counterpart is.
Night, cont’d
§ Elsewhere. But what I do remember is this: “a common strain of existential New York City angst: the sense that no matter where one is, something better is happening — the real New York is in full swing — somewhere else.”