Since I graduated from College, I basically have shut down my brain. Now it's beginning to come back on-line, having recovered from its late exertion, and has been occupied with evil.

That's because I've been reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Doestoyevsky, and it is startling how convincing his portrayal of the brothers are. I'm about 2/5ths of the way through it at the moment (for those of you familiar with the book, this is the part in which the narrarator records Alyosha's recording of the Elder's discourse about himself).

It's amazing how good the Elder is, and how evil someone like, say, Ivan, Dmitry or his father is. And you get the impression that even darling Aleksey has something inside of him that is Karamazovian. I suppose that I, too, am a Karamazov.

It is sure to me that there is no good on earth that cannot be corrupted by man, and that no man on earth can save all the goods on earth by his own power. It is only by the Grace of God that nature is preserved, and the only incorruptible things on this earth are miraculous gifts that he gives us. Because we are just that screwed up.