Love at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning, 2008.  It’s a foggy, misty morning.  I’m writing early because I might not have time later today, and I might not be inspired. I was planning to write some creative thing about being thankful in reverse…or “Things I’m Thankful I Don’t Have”, but being one of those undiagnosed ADD types, I went wandering around Wordpress instead. In my wanderings, I bumped into a couple of blog posts this morning that I thought were very good.  I thought I’d share them.  I always like it when people tell others about something that I’ve written that they found value in, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to return the favor.

The first is a new blog to me.  She writes about love, a huge, unfathomable topic and she barely scratches the surface as you can expect.  She does make some great thought-provoking points and I like the way she writes.  She also gave me much to think about and possibly blog for myself on the topic.  Her post’s title was fairly creative and I love creative.  You can read this blog post, “Love Shouldn’t Feel Like Getting Run Over By a Train” here. Now that I go back and reread the post, I notice that this particular article was written way back in 2006.  I need to get better at noticing things like that.  Even so, I liked it.  Maybe her comments will spark your thinking about the topic of love and family and your kids, if you have them.  I wonder if she’s still writing or if she’s abandoned her blog?  Hmmmm.  Whatever the case may be with her, I do agree with her title.  Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt.  Wore it out.  That’s why I clicked on her link.

The next post is more recently written by someone who is still writing.  His post’s topic is about doing the things you love and making money (or not) at them.  I’m pointing you to Jim’s blog, because he really is a fabulous writer.  Check out his complete post titled, The Money Will Follow (or Not), here. He also made me think…especially about this writing thing and making money at it.  His points reminded me of one of the reasons, beyond complete fear of rejection, that I haven’t yet published:  if I do what I love for a living, which in this case is writing, am I a.) good enough to make money at it? b.) is there a market for my kind of writing (and I don’t even really know for sure what that is yet, thus this blog) and c.) will it become a duty under deadlines instead of a creative outlet and intellectual passion?  (Jim didn’t so much mention that last point in his blog but the first two points were his.  They made me think of the last one.)

Anyway.  With all the talk about love this almost sounds like it could pass for a Valentine’s Day post.

I hope whatever you are doing today, that it is filled with peace, gratitude, good food, good company and some relaxation.  Anyone out there playing mud football today?

Faith, The Heart, and Futility

Technorati Tags: religion,Christian apologetics,Christianity,faith based belief systems,faith,atheism,religious arguments,apologetics,religious futility,what good is a god,religious perspectives,reasons of the heart,Pascal,quotes

I’ve had recent comments on my post titled, “What Good Is a God?”
in which the idea of “faith” was brought up in the same discussion but as an opposite to atheism.  It reminded me of a very good post I read last August at Steph’s Blog, titled, “Atheism is a Faith Based Belief System“.  The author’s logic is flawless and her premise sound.  It’s an excellent read.  I encourage you to go there and read the post in it’s entirety.  Don’t stop there, read the comments as well as her very clear and logical rebuttals.  Atheism and faith based religions actually do have something in common, much to many an atheist’s chagrin. 

But that is not all I wanted to say about this post on Steph’s blog.  In her post she also quotes Pascal saying, “The heart has its reasons which reason does not know”.  It is this statement that has stuck with me in the months following my first reading of her blog back in August.

In the end, after all the arguing and haranguing about religions, gods, and the validity, intelligence and proof of the same is done, who has moved one step further from their position toward a different view?  I mean, maybe it happens, but I doubt it happens often enough to be considerable and certainly not often enough to make the discussions themselves worth the energy, effort and fury that often accompany them.  In the end, we all make our choices, for our own reasons.  Some of our reasons make sense to us and some of our reasons most definitely do not.  In these instances, “The heart has its reasons which reason does not know” and we can neither deny it or change it, if that is our conviction.  The arguments, while helpful in clarifying our perspectives, are mostly useless in changing them it seems.  

In the end, as much as my religious perspectives make sense to me…and as much as I believe I have valid reasons for believing what I do…the most honest statement I can make about why I believe what I believe is that ““The heart has its reasons which reason does not know”.  I cannot irrefutably prove any of it…and it would be futile to attempt such a foolish feat.  And, I’d be shot down in intellectual circles for even attempting it. I know this, and I am okay with it.  It doesn’t change what I believe about the existence or absence of a God.  I’ve worked through why I believe what I believe ad nauseum in my younger years. I revisit things periodically and so far, nothing’s changed for me in spite of the many arguments and perspectives I’ve heard and considered over the years.

And, what exactly is it that I believe, you may wonder.

Keep wondering…at least for a time. That is the topic of a future post.

Halloween-Kicking Off The Holiday Season

I hate the expensive pre-fab costumes that you spend a million dollars on at Wal-Mart and they disintegrate the minute you pay for them.  So, this year I decided to do something a bit different.  I went to the Goodwill store.  I have not dressed up for Halloween in forever…well since college days…yeah, that was forever.  This year, my school is doing a “Harvest Carnival” the night before Halloween and they want us teachers to dress up.  Great. 

Well, I’m going incognito.  I have this full head mask of an old professor type man.  The hair is scruffy black. The eyes are cutout but the bags under the cutout eyes make me think this mask was an alcoholic in another life.  I went down to the Goodwill to see if I could get a man’s suit that was about 4 sizes too large for me.  Well, I found suit coats but not with matching pants.  I had to go over to the pants section for that.  Found those easily. Picking out the shirt was pretty fun.  There were so many to choose from and many which could have doubled as my own sleep shirts after Halloween.  I chose a light brown one.  The suit by the way is navy blue. 

As I was in the store, I noticed that I was not the only one picking out items for the upcoming weekend events.  One youth, couldn’t have been more than 22, picked out a hot pink ski suit with matching ski boots and a red, white and blue ski hat.  I’m guessing he was going as a ski bunny?  Then there was the girl who picked out a straw farmer’s hat, a green bomber jacket and a flannel checked shirt.  Maybe she was going as a scarecrow? 

Anyway, I was there just having a blast as my wild little mind considered all the possibilities.  I mean, the used bridal gowns, the black lace things, the props!!!!  I also thought how much more fun it would be if there was a special someone in my life and he could have been their with me.  The fun we would have had creating and considering the endless possibilities for the bizarre, silly and weird.  It would have been a wonderful kick-off to the 2008 Holiday Season.  Instead, I contented myself with grabbing up the items my children (who were not with me at the time) told me they wanted for their costumes and enjoyed their squeals of delight when I arrived home with the treasure.  Judging from their responses, I apparently scored.  Now, that doesn’t happen every day.  Pleased and excited children…well, that’s a pretty decent start to the holiday season too.