“3 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pe 3:1–13 ESV)

Headstrong and capable, paper-pusher now meets the typist meets the screen-gazing afterglow on the face of nouveau citizens, soldiers, of the war room as newly invented around new econometric numbers, pings and throughput numbers, pressure zones and a center that will not hold. More, the boots on the ground Readiness of said soldier means skirmishes of a Newfound Variety, the symbiosis between radical Frontline and Radio-Present command and control back home, means New Discoveries of the human condition, of its Frail but beauteous, hive-mind and solo journey, symbiosis. We are of One Mind, because of strange Recognitions around the gathering: this one, him I know! She, I’ve made her acquaintance! Each citizen and soldier and worker present is repping things only of Late grown massive, of Late filled in, of Late interconnected, delicate symbiosis and wondrous gentle dance numbers as choreographed in that bleary-eyed but chipper war room mindset.

The Christians’ owned reality, then, is as to this same Benign declaration of war on Sin and Hades. The Christian has a weird Pacifist Response, no less aware, however, of the shove, the push towards Conflict. The Christian is living in a New Normal, his or her Creed under attack, besieged, New Normal of life in the catacombs or underground: and who Dares declare such a war on civilized life, life under Roman Rule, life—yes, with the presentment of soldiers in fancy dress and in cohorts of Rome’s Power—who Dares claim he, she has a New Awareness that convicts, that explains unto, that is starkly Genius-Level and yet Meek-Level. The gathering is that much stronger for its Experiential Saints, those tried in the trenches, those bleary-eyed from the dull screen’s glow, the Fact of an emotional and spiritual War as well: angst leading to anxiety leading to panicky Caged-In frights. No, we are the calmer for the Resurrection’s Reminder of a life Post-Awfulness, Post-Crucifixion, Post-Flailing humiliating Exhortations or words. We are the stronger for our mutually-embracing side-by-side Line of frontliners. We have Earned and Adopted a Spirit of no-go-zone, thus-and-no-farther, plucky and headstrong we are in this Spirit, not too meek nor too aggressive, just Determined that if its shared with my partner in linked arms by my side, well Together we shall overcome.

Empty the streets as the community goes Ratcheted-Up, Engaged, Put to Work: truly there is a flipside to the addict’s reminder of that Other Presence, of Other Economies, of Socially Degrading, nearly murderous exchanges of stuff that kills. Where and how? Who knows, but that we see Writ Large the Judgment on those who dwell in the underworld. We see urgent Preening and Ambition, Endeavoring and Pushing, to enter the middle classes, to be seen by church and state as largely Good Folk now, middle class and Innocent.

Lancing forth, the Arm of the war room, the At-the-Ready soldiering Cohort, is minted Fresh and Sharp, benign and with stuff that stings, stings the Cabal of Satan, longs in weird curtailed and subtle, inauspicious and selfless Manner, to maddeningly have no greater Purpose than to quell the Extravagant Sins. Not to assert Self in their stead. Not to go equally belligerent in the reverse direction. But to talk down from a ledge, to hold firm the flailing protesting arms. To make some Sense of it all, though each Soldier pours out a libation for those soldiers in a denying Frame, whose masters are holding them down in the name of Sin and Commonality, desiring an illusory Peace via constricting the soldier. No, our vision is that bleary-eyed early dawn ones Awoken, on the city bus, in the commuter lanes, will cease to be robbed and assaulted, by a foreign foe operating Virtually and via the tentacles of monetary Economy; to see it Truth and Forsooth, that storm clouds of panic emerge all of a sudden, and each of us is in hypnotic Trance either to vote with our feet this way, or that way. Then the infantry is sent in, but would that the Locals would have preempted this lawsuit and onslaught. Would that we would Embrace the Calm of a Christian non-repellant rather non-abusive Response. We Respond because wow on some level truly we saw Farther. And to the headship of our Attitudinal Platoon, like a Good Parent, the game is strangely not to concede to an Enemy’s demands for explanation, though to hear her or his demand for an Education: teach me, why the world makes no sense! Teach me, what your years of infamous living did teach you! Teach us, because we have a right to know! Only the framework of War, and all of us return to: a stride, a cadence, a lilt, a manic or sketchy shifting eyes greeting, and we are Pegged as from this Crew or that Crew, of this or that childhood already on a frontline, junior frontline, but like the child of divorce, like the life in corrupted community, we scurry and make do, thriving in the end, but always earning the same—so it seems—half paycheck, and half reprobation. No, today we are more than All Things, for the sake of Him who Chose and Consecrated and Set into Motion. For the sake of being halfway to “cool-dom” and halfway to “who does this guy or gal think he or she is?”.