[matvore]

  > - I don't get lisp's (lisp-2) dynamic scoping (a big reason I haven't switched from vim to emacs). I'm much more comfortable with the lexical scoping of scheme (lisp-1).

Lisp-1/2 has to do with functions and other identifiers living in separate namespaces. So in a Lisp 2 requires special functions that live in the function namespace to call functions that exist as a local variable, (i.e. funcall or apply in Common Lisp)

If you're having a hard time coming to terms with dynamic scoping (and I think most Lispers don't like it) and you're interested in metaprogramming, try writing a macro in a dynamically-scoped lisp that lets you use lexical scoping. This is kind of a fun exercise and you can do it in Elisp.

I used to be interested in Lisp - in particular Clojure - for metaprogramming and mini-kanren mostly - so you're mindset reminds me of my own. But I realized I could get much the same thing as metaprogramming with data-oriented programming, or making an interpreted language to do what I needed. The performance of raw native code is comparable in some cases. Where that fails, you could theoretically use Perl or Python to generate C code that just has to be performant but is very repetitive. The benefit of that is that mere mortals will understand what you're doing better, and you're not forced to bear the burden of a garbage collected runtime.