Happy New Year

"How much easier if our resolutions were a little more fun.

I will eat more bacon!
I will try that $79 bottle of single malt!"

- Brigid the blogger.....

Depression

"In traditional Christianity, the difficulties of life, the hardships are assumed as part of our fallen existence. Our bodies and our minds suffer the torments, but this is nothing but a temporary stage. The ascetic Fathers considered them as tests on par with the athletic exercises, very useful in practicing and improving the powers of the soul like patience, kindness, hope, faith and so forth. We keep our mind in hell when we consciously assume the pain of living in a fallen world, when we learn from this passing agony to avoid the even greater torture of an eternity without Christ. But there is hope in this suffering because Christ himself has suffered them first and has opened for us a way out of despair, a way out of pain, a way out of death. Christ is the well of life, the bread of eternity, and the only Man we need."

A Cure for Depression from St. Silouan the Athonite

Hurray For Our Side

"Everyone always sees themselves on the side of the angels, no one wants to believe they're the problem instead of the solution. Democrats think they're saving us from evil Republicans, Republicans think they're saving us from idiot Democrats. The truth, unfortunately, is that there is no one to save us from ourselves."
- gearbox123, blog commenter at www.the-american-interest.com

Truth In Love

Truth in love is difficult.

Truth in anger, truth in bitterness, truth in cynicism; all much easier, and lazier.

It is part of a bigger challenge:  being honest, brave, and diligent without being an annoying toxic asshole.

Love hurts.

Faith History and Science

There are many reasons to be skeptical of religion and faith.  Some are better than others.  I profess to be an Orthodox Christian.

The present difficulties and struggles of my life strongly challenge my resolve to remain faithful and participate in the life of The Church and live out my faith in any visible, meaningful manner.  Almost every day I try to talk myself into quiting, leaving, and walking away from it.  Orthodox Christianity is difficult and painful to pursue in any brave, honest and diligent fashion.

Over the years there have been many people who have questioned, ridiculed or insulted my faith.  None of them have presented anything to cause me more than a few seconds of consideration or doubt.  Most of the time they have a very shallow, cursory understanding of my or any form of Christianity, and seem very ignorant of the rich historical record of debates or discussions between the faithful and scoffers over the many centuries of Christian presence in the world.

The recent rage of juvenile references to "jebuz" or "the flying spaghetti monster" case in point.  Then there is the inexhaustible online presence or blogs and comments where the new generation of Internet geniuses present the latest "gotcha" to disprove or critique all or some of what is embraced as Christianity, oblivious to any previous, much more substantial discussion by many people, on both sides of the arguments, much wiser and smarter than them.  Its as if they really think they are some special prophet of doom who has discovered something new and powerful no one else has ever thought of that will finally put the final nail in the coffin.  Good luck with that.

So, I've added Amarium Magnum to the list of dragons. The author, Tim O'Neill describes himself as "Wry, dry, rather sarcastic, eccentric, occasionally arrogant Irish-Australian atheist bastard."  I find his interest in and treatment of these subjects much more substantial and mature than most.  He is more than fair, very thoughtful and informative.

Happy Thanksgiving

Into the world I was born as a weak, helpless child, but Your Angel spread wings of light over me, guarding my crib. Ever since then, Your love lights all my paths, wonderfully guiding me towards the light of eternity. Gloriously, the generous gifts of Your Providence have been manifest from the very first day. I am thankful to You and with all who have come to know You, call out:

Glory to You, Who called me to life, Glory to You, Who have shown me the beauty of the universe, Glory to You, Who have opened before me the sky and the earth as an eternal book of wisdom,
Glory to the eternity of You in the midst of the world of time,
Glory to You for Your hidden and evident goodness,
Glory to You for every sigh of my sadness,
Glory to You for every step of my life, for every moment of joy,
Glory to You, O God, unto ages of ages.

 - Ikos 1 Akathist of Thanskgiving (Russian Orthodox)

Same As It Ever Was

"It seems to be the fate of all nations, that as they grow in wealth so they lose their manly virtues. With wealth comes corruption, indolence, a reluctance to make sacrifices, and a weakening of the feeling of patriotism. Power falls into the hands of the ignorant many. Instead of the destinies of the country being swayed by the wisest and best, a fickle multitude, swayed by interested demagogues, assumes the direction of affairs, and the result is inevitable—wasted powers, gross mismanagement, final ruin." - George A. Henty, The Young Carthaginian, 1887 (posted by blogger "civilServant" in another blog)

I don't like much from civilServant usually, but this quote is good.  Have a nice day.

Life and Death

"Cheng Hao asked about death. Confucius struck him on the head with his cane and said, We do not even know anything about Life, and here you are like an idiot asking about Death!" -- Analects

(I don't know what or where "Analects" is, I pasted from another blog, I like the quote - PK)

Happiness

Happiness suks.  If I was always happy I would never play the blues, and that would suk, cuz' I really like playing the blues.  But if I was always happy, would I like the blues?

These are the deep questions of my life.

Dalai Lama and Fart Jokes

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” - Mark Twain

Mark Twain About Life

“He didn’t even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights. It had to be some silly little communist. It robs his death of any meaning.” - Jackie Kennedy

For a time I may just be posting my favorite quotes from other blogs or their comments. This is not necessarily indicative of more laziness, as my "real" life has been more engaging and busy lately.  Plus I like to hibernate this time of year.

 
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956): "As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron."

More on laziness....

 "The older I get the more boring the world becomes. Casual sex, casual dating, casual this, casual that, casual existence. It's a world without romance, without passion and without substance." - Brother Thomas, blog comment.

Being casual about life is lazy.  Embrace it, love it, hate it, break it, fix it, but don't be casual about it.

There are moments for relaxing, and recharging, but it should be for adding value to life, not hiding from it or despairing of it.....

And yes, I did just post about a quote from another blog.  Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.

I got nothing....

No inspiration to write much today.

Found a few quotes or news stories I could link to, but that's not what I want this blog to become.  Maybe I'll have something later.

Which is kind of strange because I feel relatively great today.  No clouds of doom hovering over me shoulder, aches and pains are tolerable......maybe I need to be miserable to blog........

There Be Dragons

Laziness.
Once again I started something I may end up doing half assed, not finishing or following through. This blog. Here I am, sitting in front of this screen typing again. Why have a blog if you're not going to post something everyday, or at least have that intention?

The link section, to the right (at least it was today, that might change) is titled "There Be Dragons". These are blogs or pages that have inspired, challenged, educated, or entertained me over the last few years. They all helped me discover my pathetic DLC status. All but one are authored or maintained by persons still anonymous to me. The writer I have met in person spent quite a few hours with me, musing, venting, and celebrating our misfit lives over good cigars, drinks, and food.

That is my preferred level of discourse about anything important, anything I really care about. In person, face to face, in the flesh, with all the uncomfortable risk or rewords it brings. Online, the internet, cyber-space, blogosphere, forums, comments.........devoid of facial reaction or eye contact.... I don't navigate or present myself very well, but here I am.

Back to the Dragons.

These are my red pills most days. If you only want to hang out where you're comfortable, in chambers echoing approval and agreement with all you hold dear, then don't go there.

How did I end up with this list? I think I found one blog way back when I read WND, which is no longer on my daily route. They became too much of "Republican conservatives good, Democrat liberals bad", over, and over again. Not really providing any new or useful information or inspiration.

Socially/politically/religiously I lean christian libertarian. The R's label me anarchist or communist when I disagree with them, the D's label me fascist fundamentalist. Whatever. I have little time for the shallow, surface rhetoric that we're spoon fed by corporate media, but apparently a majority of the people who vote and elect our governments do.

One of those blogs had a strongly similar (cl) bent, and became the hub of my blog and news reading when online. From there I found the others, except for a couple which were recommended word of mouth, in person. Now I plan on using this blog as my hub, and that's the most important reason for putting the links there.

This doesn't have much to do with fighting dishonesty, cowardice, or laziness, other than perhaps writing something that might provoke insults or trolling comments by someone, if anyone actually reads my posts. Oh the horror, what a brave little knight I am....

A Kant Do Attitude

What Is Enlightenment?

"Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on--then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me. Those guardians who have kindly taken supervision upon themselves see to it that the overwhelming majority of mankind--among them the entire fair sex--should consider the step to maturity, not only as hard, but as extremely dangerous. First, these guardians make their domestic cattle stupid and carefully prevent the docile creatures from taking a single step without the leading-strings to which they have fastened them. Then they show them the danger that would threaten them if they should try to walk by themselves. Now this danger is really not very great; after stumbling a few times they would, at last, learn to walk. However, examples of such failures intimidate and generally discourage all further attempts."

How to Put the Brakes on Consumers' Debt

Dishonesty, cowardice, and laziness.... the roots of financial irresponsibility and bursting bubbles....

"Parents who don’t want to do this feel that it is grossly unfair that they should have to choose between financial responsibility and their children."

  How to Put the Brakes on Consumers' Debt

Seems to me choosing financial responsibility is best for your children in the long run......but hey, just eat, drink, and be hip, cool and popular with your kids today, and nothing else matters.....

Red Green's a funny guy.

The Red Green Show is one of my all time favorites.   Is that because it celebrates dishonest, lazy cowards?   Gives us a way to laugh at ourselves?  It's almost like another post-modern religion.

Confess and Vent here

I am a dishonest lazy coward.

Maybe not as much as I was yesterday, and hopefully less so tomorrow.

After turning 50 the awareness of my general dissatisfaction and disappointment with my life was very uncomfortable.  Everything seemed to be falling apart, and I had achieved nothing of note or value, and prospects for changing that looked dim.  This drove me to dive deep, painfully deep into a path of discovering and identifying why and how I got to this point.

In A Nutshell:  Dishonesty, cowardice, and laziness.  Those three things are at the core of my sin and the consequences reaped.

So, fighting against them, and changing to defeat them has become the only meaningful purpose in my life..... for now...that is what becoming a better person, a "real" man means to me,  being honest, brave, and diligent.  It is tough, and I fail constantly.

How about you?  Want to confess or vent your own struggle here?

I'm not sure what I expect, if anything, to come of this blog.  Maybe nothing.  I don't have a clue about how to monitor or maintain it.  Just taking a running start, jumping off the cliff, and embracing the impact......