after hearing this bland song, I strongly suggest that you listen to:
1.)Whiskey and Wine by Matt Costa
2.)Rodney Dangerfield’s stand up act
3.)She’s Only Happy in the Sun by Ben Harper

now that that’s that, I am Job (accordingly, as you have appropriately aforementioned, and I alliterate/appropriate anecdotally). I get fucked around in life, as does eveyone.

a medical term, symptomatic bradycardia/tachycardia/ any condition implies that symptoms such as headache, fever, malaise are resultant from the underlying condition.
still with me?
cool. I just felt like throwing that out there and sounding smart.

anyways, back to Job.

So this guy is tested by God. first of all, let’s stop thinking about God as Santa Claus. He is, by nature and virtue, completely powerful and has no need of us nor our contributions (See JOB when he [or Elihu, can't recall] says “look at the sky. if a man is good, how does that effect god? if he is evil, how does it effect god? no, it only effects a man such as himself.”
wow, shit me that’s brilliant.
so god doesn’t need us.)

go figure.

So what is his role as it pertains to us?
according to the torah, he is THE morally excellent creator of us all, with super high standards and the sole power to judge right and wrong. he also sees himself (rightfully so) as the King (a concept foreign and malignant to us since the advent of “democracy”). he runs a reward system for helping the poor (“lending to god” – see proverbs), looking out for one another (see Deuteronomy about building walls around your roofs and the most important commandments), and honoring the King. the thing that PISSES HIM OFF the most is people dissing the king (see Genesis and what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, or what he wanted done to the amalekites)…
so if he wants to test his subjects for loyalty and show off in front of his enemy, I would assume that this would be HIS prerogative (ass = you me).
accordingly so, kings have done this for millenia in the form of “champions” and “heroes” and more or less recently, “olympians”. the difference in this form and god’s is between physical and moral competitions.
so, God just whips around his subjects?
only to show their inside parts off and piss off his enemies.
AND, if I remember correctly, Job got back twice as much as he had before.

from a philosophical standpoint, taking the moral highroad and playing the devil’s advocate’s antagonist,

-C. M.

Madison is tight. College campus, small city trying to be big, liberal as fuck (I overlook that at all times), a good combo as far as I’m concerned.