Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

Monday, January 9, 2012

the truth will set you free.


WE ALL SPEND SO MUCH TIME NOT SAYING WHAT WE WANT, BECAUSE WE KNOW WE CAN’T HAVE IT. AND BECAUSE IT SOUNDS UNGRACIOUS, OR UNGRATEFUL, OR DISLOYAL, OR CHILDISH, OR BANAL. OR BECAUSE WE’RE SO DESPERATE TO PRETEND THAT THINGS ARE OK, REALLY, THAT CONFESSING TO OURSELVES THEY’RE NOT LOOKS LIKE A BAD MOVE. GO ON, SAY WHAT YOU WANT. … WHATEVER IT IS, SAY IT TO YOURSELF. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. EITHER THAT OR IT’LL GET YOU A PUNCH IN THE NOSE. SURVIVING IN WHATEVER LIFE YOU’RE LIVING MEANS LYING, AND LYING CORRODES THE SOUL, SO TAKE A BREAK FROM THE LIES FOR JUST ONE MINUTE.
A LONG WAY DOWN BY NICK HORNBY
via FYE

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

too many resolutions.

I've decided to list ten things I'd like to work on in 2012.  It might be interesting to reflect back next December and see if I actually managed to implement most of them.  I've already started on 1, 4, 5, and 7!  Not a bad way to kick off the new year, if I do say so myself.

1) Read 50 books, 5 of which are in Spanish
2) Develop a portfolio, begin doing something with my money
3) Improve my Spanish language skills
4) Learn how to shoot, purchase my first handgun
5) Challenge myself at the gym with a more varied routine
6) Push harder at work and take on more projects
7) Cook often and try new recipes
8) Go out frequently and give myself the opportunity to meet people
9) Start writing again
10) Plan travel now and go places in 2012!

Cheers and best wishes to you & yours in the new year.

xoxo
c.

comment.

I was reading an article on recent changes to the Catholic mass, maybe it was over at NPR, and I pulled one of the comments to save.  It rang especially true for me as someone who was raised Catholic, but now puts little stake in the faith.  The "myth" itself is extraordinary and fascinating, but ultimately it is only that - a myth.

"As a non-believer brought up a pre-Vatican II Catholic one can attest to a very interesting fact. All over the world, no matter ones native language, any Catholic could walk into any Catholic church and follow along, in Latin with just as much or little understanding as the rest of the congregation. The idea was a shared (and hopefully uplifting) experience and this is how the word "catholic" in the broad sense is understood. There was a sense of belonging to a world-wide family where everybody was on the same page, politics aside. 

So far as understanding, believing in or not believing in god, Christ etc., of course it's all irrational. To try to make rational sense out of a myth is pointless. Just as watching or reading good science-fiction sometimes requires suspension of belief, space and time so does religion. It's all experiential not rational. That's the power of Myth and if one benefits from it, then all the better. The emphasis is on the "if". 

Language always carries cultural and emotional baggage. That's where the advantage of using a dead language came in handy, it had less "baggage" but everybody got the basic idea."