We summarize the Grimm Brothers’ story “The Girl Without Hands,” which has much more of God and the Devil themselves than other stories we’ve read.  A destitute miller unknowingly makes a deal with Satan that enriches him but he ends up mutilating his pious daughter, who sets out, hands bound, to the mercy of the world.  She is taken in by the King whose garden gives her sustenance after she enters it with the help of an angel, but the Evil One is not done with her yet.  She and the king end up suffering and toiling for years, separated by war and malicious trickery, but they are finally reunited in a quasi Heaven.  She is restored in body, her son comes to know his father, they return to the kingdom and are remarried.  We discuss and analyze the story, drawing parallels in Christianity and emphasizing the element of water, the suffering and time involved. Here, there is temporary bounty for the foolish and weak but ultimate prosperity for the good and patient.  Please share your thoughts.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

There is a lot about water here and it reminds us of holy water, a protective; water is also associated with cleanliness spiritually.  In this story it also serves as delineation of borders.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 3/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The princess stays in the cottage refuge for seven years.  The king returns to the castle and finds out what has happened.  It takes him seven years to find his wife, during which he fasted and was provided for by the Lord.  He refuses the food the angel offered and he rests.  The angel brings his queen and their son, who puts a handkerchief on his face, but it’s blown off.  The boy learns this is his father and the family, including the body of the queen, is made whole.  They return to the castle.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 3/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The vindictive Prince of Darkness returns, exchanging both their letters for fakes and causing terrible grief.  The child-strapped princess leaves the castle and comes upon a welcoming cottage with a “snow white” maiden, an angel sent by the Lord.

(Sorry about the technical difficulties and bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For Part 3 of the Summary:

For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 1/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

A destitute miller, chopping wood, laments his situation, and the devil appears in the guise of an old man.  Old Mephistopheles gives him an offer but with a trick. Three years later, the devil returns to get his due, and the pious but wily daughter begins to battle the Evil One.  On the third day, she sacrifices her hands for the life of her father and puts off their adversary.  She leaves the protection of home and begins to depend on the goodwill of the world.  After praying, an angel helps her get a pear.  The farmer, a priest and the king witness the spectral girl; the king marries her.  When he’s off to war, she gives birth but the messenger falls asleep near a stream.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For Part 2 of the Summary:

For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 1/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

We conclude our talk on pleasant happiness and living in the present with our thoughts on treatment of the body after cessation: we’re not big fans. We give our opinions and experiences (indirect!).  Isn’t the chemical processing of the body just a very artificial and somewhat costly preservation of an illusion? In Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, a new kind of son of man, Robert Valentine Smith, raised by Martians, is astounded we waste all that… food. I'd love to hear other opinions though!

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-pxavk-182131e

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

One of the best examples of a way that to me seems to lead away from natural religion and acceptance of death is the first Chinese emperor’s.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-pxavk-182131e

For more in this podcast, please go to:

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https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

How real does religion need to be? People lived full, long lives before you were ever born. I know I will die, and animals seem ok with this fact.  I relate a short story about the last days of my grandfather.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-pxavk-182131e

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Sweep aside the complex reasoning, and live simply in nature.  At least that’s what Rousseau advocates.  What about the power games?  Is happiness difficult? I have faith in the simple and natural and think it rarely fails, when it truly is simple and natural.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

Please comment, like, and subscribe!

For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-pxavk-182131e

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

I read a passage from Rousseau’s Emile about how people complain about the rapidity of time but really don’t want it to go slower because they don’t actually enjoy their lives.  They aren’t happy because they aren’t really there at all – they’re preoccupied with the goals to which they’re always rushing.  There is natural calm and happiness, perhaps even a kind of immortality, in being fully present in this very moment of your life.  A wonderful topic of discussion.  Please share your thoughts. 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.