Monday, September 24, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Virginia Tech
Strangely enough, I have an emotional relationship to the Virginia Tech campus.
I spent a week there at a Unitarian Universalist summer retreat with a family I was a nanny for in Asheville, NC. Completely independently from the formal purpose of the retreat, I had an incredibly spiritual experience during that week...a feeling of divine intervention and a mystical relation to space and time that stretched over the course of several days. Describing one particularly intense interaction during that week in my journal, I wrote that my friends and I had "torn open the sky" above us one night.
I wonder if that tear is still there, and if 33 souls moved through it on Monday?
The Economist had some interesting things to say about the April 16th incident and its implications for the gun control debate.
I spent a week there at a Unitarian Universalist summer retreat with a family I was a nanny for in Asheville, NC. Completely independently from the formal purpose of the retreat, I had an incredibly spiritual experience during that week...a feeling of divine intervention and a mystical relation to space and time that stretched over the course of several days. Describing one particularly intense interaction during that week in my journal, I wrote that my friends and I had "torn open the sky" above us one night.
I wonder if that tear is still there, and if 33 souls moved through it on Monday?
The Economist had some interesting things to say about the April 16th incident and its implications for the gun control debate.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
war
A country which proposes to make use of modern war as an instrument of policy must possess a highly centralized, all-powerful executive, hence the absurdity of talking about the defense of democracy by force of arms. A democracy which makes or effectively prepares for modern scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. --Aldous Huxley
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
every time i find myself feeling optimistic about the way things are going in this country, i read something that brings me back down to earth.
consider this quote from an article in Harper's on the fate of our nation...Republic or Empire?
"All forty-two previousU.S.
those numbers HAVE to tell you something about how far gone this "democracy" just might be.
check out the article here. here's to the slow death of optimism. at least we've only got two more years of the current bullshit to go. who's counting? ANYONE WITH A BRAIN AND/OR A SOUL!!!
consider this quote from an article in Harper's on the fate of our nation...Republic or Empire?
"All forty-two previous
those numbers HAVE to tell you something about how far gone this "democracy" just might be.
check out the article here. here's to the slow death of optimism. at least we've only got two more years of the current bullshit to go. who's counting? ANYONE WITH A BRAIN AND/OR A SOUL!!!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Christmas in February
Last night I had the pleasure of receiving the Christmas spirit several weeks late. I discovered I could stream Sufjan Stevens' 5-disc Christmas album online, and I gave it a listen. I'm not really the biggest fan of Christmas music, and I must admit that for the past few years, I haven't really been the biggest fan of Christmas either.
But I am a fan of Sufjan Stevens. His rich, folksy interpretations of what were already some of the loveliest carols absolutely moved me, and they didn't give me that uncomfortable feeling that usually comes with hearing seasonal music in the wrong season. And they are interspersed with some original compositions from this abundantly talented and ridiculously prolific musician and songwriter.
Some highlights are Sufjan's banjo-driven interpretation of Amazing Grace, one called Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and his version (also on banjo) of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
When I was a child, I wholeheartedly embraced the Congregational Protestant faith in which I was raised. I was a certified Jesus-freak, in the most positive sense of the term. I adored and admired the figure of the gentle, bearded, robed man who radiated goodness.
As I began to sink deeper into my teenagerly apathy and rebellion against everything that had come before, I rejected my faith. Learning about evolution in high school biology class sealed the deal. In college, I was drawn back into Christianity by a fascination with the academic study of religion. As I learned about the enigmatic early history of the religion, and the dubious foundations upon which the Catholic Church had been built, I became, in a sense, forever closed to organized religion. But during that same period, I also found myself developing and experiencing life as an intensely spiritual subject.
I have never been able to reconcile my distaste for religion as an institution with my overwhelming sense that we are but specks of dust being blown around by some terrible and beautiful divine wind. But I still get goosebumps when I go to church to hear my mother sing in the choir, and when I hear songs of praise from the lips of those who believe.
But I am a fan of Sufjan Stevens. His rich, folksy interpretations of what were already some of the loveliest carols absolutely moved me, and they didn't give me that uncomfortable feeling that usually comes with hearing seasonal music in the wrong season. And they are interspersed with some original compositions from this abundantly talented and ridiculously prolific musician and songwriter.
Some highlights are Sufjan's banjo-driven interpretation of Amazing Grace, one called Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and his version (also on banjo) of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
When I was a child, I wholeheartedly embraced the Congregational Protestant faith in which I was raised. I was a certified Jesus-freak, in the most positive sense of the term. I adored and admired the figure of the gentle, bearded, robed man who radiated goodness.
As I began to sink deeper into my teenagerly apathy and rebellion against everything that had come before, I rejected my faith. Learning about evolution in high school biology class sealed the deal. In college, I was drawn back into Christianity by a fascination with the academic study of religion. As I learned about the enigmatic early history of the religion, and the dubious foundations upon which the Catholic Church had been built, I became, in a sense, forever closed to organized religion. But during that same period, I also found myself developing and experiencing life as an intensely spiritual subject.
I have never been able to reconcile my distaste for religion as an institution with my overwhelming sense that we are but specks of dust being blown around by some terrible and beautiful divine wind. But I still get goosebumps when I go to church to hear my mother sing in the choir, and when I hear songs of praise from the lips of those who believe.
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