http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html

In spite of..which..Again,
in spite/of that,..we-call..his\Friday..good.

we..like..to think..That..we/are..sound,
substantial flesh..and blood-gristle/bone

V

So..here..says/HE..am,I..the\middle-way,
having had..twenty-four/years-..Twenty years..largely wasted,

the/years of..l'entre.deux guerres-
Trying..to use/FAINTLY-words,heard..

and every attempt
Is..a wholy..new start,..and..a different/kind-of\failure
Because/one\has only learnt..to..get/THE SENSE/emoting\the better/essence-of words..

UTTERED/better..For\the..thing
one..no longer..has-to say,

or/TASTE/..the way..in which
One..is..no longer disposed..to say it...And/so
each venture..Is..a\new beginning,..a raid..on..the inarticulate,
With..shabby equipment/always deteriorating/In the general mess..of imprecision..of..inner-feeling,

Undisciplined\squads/of..emotion...And\what/there is..
IS..that/what..here now is..to conquer..By\strength
WHEN/submission,..has..already been discovered
Once..or twice,..or several times,..before.

FOUND/by men..whom..one\cannot hope/To emulate
-but..there is/..no competition..we/hearD/by..Deferense/not diffidence
here..is only/the fight..to recover\..\what/..has-been..lost
Andfound..and/lost..again and again],,

we:,each/generation..and now,..under conditions
That seem..unpropitious...But..perhaps/neither..BY ODIOUS-\gain nor UNSEEMLY-loss.[THIS/time.

For\us,..there-is..only..the trying.
The rest..is/not..our business.

Home..is where..one/starts..from...[As]..we grow older
the world/becomes..estranged,..the pattern's..more complicated
MORBID\/BURDENS/Of\..death and living...but/Not\the intense moment
Isolated,..with/no before..and after,....JUST..OMNIPRESEN

Merely/But..a life-time/burning..PASSION-inTO..every moment
And..not..the lifetime..of..one/life\only.

But..WHAT-of/old\stones..that..cannot be deciphered.
There..iS/time..for..the/evening\under starlight,
A time..for the..evening/under lamplight

(The evening/with\the photograph album).
when/Love..is most/nearly..to\being..itself
When here..and\now/WHAT..[OR..IF]..cease to matter.
Old men..ought to be..exploring...\NEW/THINGS.

for/youth\Here..or there/does\not matter
We must be still..and..YET..still moving
Into/worthier/passions\another intensity
For a further union,..a deeper communion

Through..the dark cold..and the empty desolation,
The waveS cry,..the windS cry,..the vast waters..lie
Of..the petrel/and\the porpoise...In my end..lies my new-beginning.

(The..Dry Salvages]
Groaner:..a whistling-buoy.)

those/WHo\do not know-much..about gods;..but..I think/that the river
Is..LIKE..a strong\brown god..strong/silent\STEADY..THEN sullen, untamed..and intractable,..then/LIKE..A POLE-SHIFT..inversion.

Patient..to some degree,..and..at first recognition..as a frontier;
Useful,..BUT/BY\nature..untrustworthy,..as a conveyor/of commerce;LAw.

Then/in\TIME..only a problem..confronting\the builder/of bridges.
The problem..once \solved,.the brown god..is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities -ever,..however,..implacable.

Keeping/to\his seasons,..and..rages,
HEALER/destroyer,..AND reminder
Of what\men choose to forget.

Unhonoured,..unpropitiated..bound../then un-resTrained
HArvest captured/By worshippers..of the..energy-machine,..but waiting,..watching..and..only on the surface,..waiting...ALL THE WHILE..RE-UNITING,,into an infinite/sea.

thy breath breaths/droplets/that mix..with the mist
fall-down..AS RAIN..TO EVENTUally/see the sea..YET AGAin.

His..Vaporous/rhythm..was present..in the nursery bedroom,
In/the rank ailanthus..of the..warming-April..dooryard,
presence/In the smell..of grapes on the autumn table,
And..the Leven/LIGHT\circle..in the winter gaslight.

The river..IS THE SEE/seething\within us,..the sea..is all about us;
The sea..is the land's edge..see/also,..the granite SEA,
Into..which it reaches,..the beaches where it tosses
Its hints..of earlier/and\..other creation.

The sea..has many voices,
Many gods..and..many choices

.
 
Dear George,
 
.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_Medical_Bureau .

Thanks for that.

The Lourdes Medical Bureau seems to operate pretty much as I expected though I remain somewhat dubious of the possibility of clearly establishing the first (and, perhaps, the most formidable) “fact” on the “list of requisites for a cure to be recognized as medically inexplicable” :

“ 1. The original diagnosis must be verified and confirmed beyond doubt”.

I can understand the logic behind such a demand but just how the Medical Bureau goes about verifying the “original” diagnosis after the cure has been completed and there are no longer any signs of the illness (the 5th requisite) leaves me pensive to say the least.

As I noted previously on this thread, all that any medical expert could do would be to conclude that whatever illness the person may have had no longer existed. The person’s medical history could possibly attest to various symptoms having been observed by X or Y at some point or other prior to healing, but none of this would be scientifically falsifiable, long after the event, by the Medical Bureau.

It just comes down to a question of confidence (or should I say “faith”) the Medical Bureau may or may not have in the “original” diagnosis. The Medical Bureau would be entirely dependent on the “original” diagnosis, unable to make a complete independent analysis itself with its own medical experts and laboratories after the “miracle” has occurred, and the person is “completely and permanently healed” (requisites 5 and 6).

That, of course, does not mean that a “miracle” has not occurred. Even though the confidence (or “faith”) of the Medical Bureau in the “original” diagnosis may be totally unfounded, the person may, nevertheless, have had a non-identified or wrongly identified “incurable” illness of which he has “miraculously” recovered due to spontaneous remission.

In this case, perhaps some of the Vatican’s declared “miracles” at Lourdes are founded on the popular adage that “two wrongs make a right”.

Happily, it is impossible to know – which is all that matters.


.

AN INTERESTING/LINK-age..
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

* The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still...

* ..Whatever is known to us by consciousness,..is known beyond possibility of question...What one sees or feels,.whether bodily or mentally, .one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels.

No science is required..for the purpose of establishing such truths; no rules of art..can render our knowledge of them more certain than it is in itself...There is no logic..for this portion of our knowledge.

*..[W]e may fancy..that we see
or feel..what we in reality..infer

Common types..of deception to be/=on..the lookout for include:

*.."Forgetting"..-to tell the whole truth...This may include leaving out important information, facts, or details..that would change the way others would view the situation.

*..Misusing or misrepresenting statistics...[EDIT]..but they are also very easily manipulated.

*.."Fogging" the issue with unrelated information,..*bureaucratic nonsense,..or just incomprehensible gibberish...An example of fogging the issue would be the politician who claims, "The papers misquoted me!"..More than likely,/what she means is,.."I really wish I hadn't said that publicly!"

Fogging can also occur..when you are given a long -winded answer complete/with so much technical jargon and gobbledygook..that you have no idea what.(if anything) has been said, or when your opposition brings up a totally unrelated issue, and tries to steer the conversation onto different,.safer..(for them) ground.

* Telling half-truths. With a half-truth, your opposition takes something that has occurred or a fact that they have uncovered and discusses only the parts that hurt you and help them.

* Telling flat-out lies. People don't play fair a lot of the time, and for our organizations to survive, we have to be ready to defend ourselves. If you have any doubt in the truth of what your opposition is saying, insist that they back up what they said with facts.

Dear Banjo,

>>The person’s medical history could … but none of this would be scientifically falsifiable, long after the event<<

As I said this is not my cup of tea, however common sense would tell me that there are many things that history depends on from written documents, and we accepts them as facts. Official diagnosis from reliable specialists would be one of them, and this reliability is what the Vatican investigations are apparently about. Historical events, including those studied by evolution theories, biological or not, by their very nature are not scientifically falsifiable as are things that can be reproduced in a laboratory, hence falsifiable.

.

Dear George,

.

I think we are basically saying the same thing. Your common sense is something I can safely say we have in common.

I guess it's just the wording of requisite N° 1 which poses problem. In my view, it is illusory to think that the "original" diagnosis could be "verified and confirmed beyond doubt" by the Medical Bureau after the symptoms of the “incurable” illness have disappeared.

More realistically, the Medical Bureau should be required to certify and provide documentary evidence that the original diagnosis of illness was carried out by qualified medical experts, and verified and confirmed by other, qualified, independent experts, prior to the healing.

.

Dear Banjo,

>>verified and confirmed by other, qualified, independent experts, prior to the healing<<

Do you mean to say that a “miraculous healing” should be carefully planned beforehand? I presume that the 7000 minus 69 cases investigated were dismissed exactly because the original diagnosis was not provided by what a posteriori could be seen as "qualified independent experts" (doctors).