I like pie
It’s really good to eat
And it kinda tastes like candy!
What do you think? A winner?
Though no where near as good as my all time favorite, "Pork and Beans," by Brak: Click to continue reading “The song in my head”
The song in my head
11.10.05 | Permalink | 4 Comments
How white
11.10.05 | Permalink | 3 Comments
Last week I went to a big church meeting, basically an exit interview for our recently retired minister after the fact. During the meeting, one person asked how the congregational system we’ve created together fosters the overcommitment and burnout that several folks had mentioned. He asked why we allow people to take on five or six committees.
I responded that I wondered how our previous minister’s distaste for administration might have led to there being so many committees in the first place, perhaps new ones being created to make up for an administrative void. I wondered how many of those could dissolve of the coming months, as we transition into new congregational leadership.
Afterwards, he and I talked about how our own upbringings gave us unique views of the congregation—how he sees how "white" the congregation is and how I see how "white collar" it is. When these sorts of things go unobserved and unacknowledged, they tend to become ghosts that haunt a church, scaring people away who don’t already fit the mold. Click to continue reading “How white”
Then try feeling that way all the time
11.07.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on Then try feeling that way all the time
The imcomparable Real Live Preacher reflects on his depression after five months on meds:
Okay, this is the important part. This is why there are no heroes with depression. On the day you snap, you are just a guy who snapped. You get no credit for the weeks or months or years that you were being heroic. No one knew that you were holding all that inside. Sorry buddy, there are no bonus points for being a hero. When you snap and start yelling at your kids for no good reason, you are just a guy who yells at his kids for no good reason.
Of course, you don’t want to be a guy who yells at his kids, so you start avoiding them and everyone else if you can get away with it. You begin to isolate yourself. By the time you get home from a long day of pretending that you care about things, you don’t want to talk to anyone.
Your whole life becomes centered around trying not to feel bad. You will do whatever it takes to get a little relief from despair, anxiety, self-loathing, and all the other horrible things you feel. Hell yes, you’ll do it. You’ll do anything to feel a little better or at least to feel nothing at all.
For me, the only way to stop feeling bad was to lose myself in a movie, or a book, or the computer. So I spent less and less time with my wife and children. I was home, but I really wasn’t home. I knew that they needed me, but I was willing to sacrifice my long-term happiness for short-term relief.
addiction, civ, games, recovery
Nursing my addiction
10.29.05 | Permalink | 2 Comments
A new version of Civilization came out this week, so I may disappear for a while. Fortunately, there is help.
Muhammed depicted; death threats ensue
10.29.05 | Permalink | 4 Comments
A Danish newspaper is receiving death threats for publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed. Local Muslim groups are demanding an apology for the toons. The paper has hired security guards for the first time in response. Sigh.
One Plastic poster put it this way:
In any other religion it is possible to talk openly about the religion, to draw cartoons about it, to write novels about it (it is even more offensive to write a novel about the Prophet Mohammad, as Salman Rushdie discovered), and so forth. Only Islam requires that everyone in the world, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, must treat Islam at all times as being too sacred to be examined or freely discussed in any way.
Is he wrong?
america, davidson-loehr, facism, liberals, recycling, strategy, tactics, trash, victims, vision
Washing liberal trash
10.25.05 | Permalink | 13 Comments
Philocrites’ recent post on the possibility of impending US fascism has got me thinking. Are we headed down that road? Are the Bush Administration’s recent (and coming) stumbles a dead end for that development?
Perhaps so on both accounts. But I don’t think we can stop the rise of “political fundamentalism” just by winning the next election on account of Bush screwing up. Maybe stall, but not stop.
What will we need to do to fully reverse the trend? Without a vision, the people perish. Without a compelling progressive vision for US and the world, liberals can’t expect to make any headway. We need a vision that will entice all the independent swing voters away from the lure of political fundamentalism, not because it’s wrong or bad, but because our vision is that much more alluring.
The primary thing keeping us from crafting a compelling vision is our many, many causisms. Just a quick aside to illustrate: Click to continue reading “Washing liberal trash”
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