The Beatitudes as they could be translated

First of all, yes I have stuck to my plan of extricating myself from the systemic internet (for lack of a better term), if it is published on Substack or X or Reddit or Facebook or anything similarly networked I have ignored it, this is highly recommended by the way, I cannot recommend it enough, stay away from anything that is incentivized to capture you, plus I still get to read independent blogs like Slime Mold Time Mold.

Which is currently in the middle of a series about cybernetics.

(No, not the L. Ron Hubbard kind.)

The most recent SMTM post posited that the emotion we call happiness is nothing more – and nothing less – than the experience of going from disintegration to integration.

If you are thirsty, happiness is the experience of drinking a glass of water.

If you are cold, happiness is the experience of warming yourself by the fire.

If you are lonely, happiness is the experience of making a friend.

(If you're Charlie Brown, happiness is the experience of finding a chewed-up pencil that belongs to the little red-haired girl you have a crush on and allowing yourself to believe that her potential anxiety could keep company with yours, but Charlie Brown is never precisely happy.)

You might remember, if you've been reading my journicole long enough, that I've argued that happiness retains as long as one remains integrated. It isn't necessarily a transient state, as SMTM may be implying; happiness could in fact be an ongoing positive signal.

But we'll leave that to whatever's coming next in their series and turn our attention to the Beatitudes.

Last Sunday we had a hospice chaplain speak at the Unitarian church, and one of the most interesting parts of her presentation was the idea that the operative word in the Beatitudes is not in fact blessed, but happy.

And, when you look at the original Hebrew, you notice that there is no verb connecting the adjective to a specific point in time.

It's almost as if the Beatitudes are not these figurative promises about what might await us in the future, but literal prescriptions for how to solve current problems.

In other words (the original Hebrew), blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted may actually mean those who mourn become happy when they receive comfort.

And, if the original text was using the same definition of happiness as Slime Mold Time Mold, they're telling us that the process of comforting those who mourn generates a positive signal.

It integrates the disintegrated.

Which, great, most of us would agree with the idea that one should comfort those who are grieving, but what about the rest of the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven might mean those who are mentally disconnected become happy when they interact with the physical universe, depending on whether you want to read malkuth and shamayim as natural or supernatural. Many of the other verses have similarly logical meanings, especially when you understand the concept of justice the way Socrates does. Those who hunger and thirst for integration (righteousness, justice, charity, tzedakah) become happy when they achieve it, those who love (who are merciful, rachamim) become happy because they love, and so on.

And –

you know –

the one about the meek?

and how they'll get everything, in the end ("nanny nanny boo boo," sayeth god), which means we don't really need to do anything for them right now?

Well –

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth astoundingly translates into those who know their place in the world become happy when they occupy it.

This isn't, like, the pejorative sense of the phrase know your place, nor is it the pejorative of meek or humble or any of the other synonyms that could be applied to the Hebrew anavim.

This is what Larry keeps talking about, every evening –

You have to know where you are so you can know what to do next.

And if you don't know where you are, or who you are, or what to do with who and where you are right now, you're going to be disintegrated.

Which means you're not going to be happy.

p.s. if you know actual Hebrew and not just dictionary-lookup Hebrew, please tell me whether or not you agree with any of this, email nicole@nicolediekerfinley.com, BE WRONG FAST SO YOU CAN BE RIGHT EVEN FASTER as I always say

p.p.s. you might as well tell me whether you agree with this even if you don't know Hebrew