|
MayaRatsHerselfOut
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Maya
Gender: Female
Expertise: Less and less the more I know
Occupation: Professional Student
Industry: Post-industrial, post modern
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/2/2007
|
|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| I tried to be good and go to church last week. I am away from my normal awesome alternative format couch church and was subjected to picking from standard methodist, catholic, pentecostal, or baptist. Since I am most familar w/ the latter I went like a good church goer. I have to say I won't make that mistake again. I USED to be baptist for a reason. The standard delivered sermon left me with many questions, mostly how the preacher managed to jump to the conclusions he did about the basic passages he was using. There was no opportunity for questions. Also I once again found myself asking why christians feel the need to be so ignorant about science. In this case the pastor was saying that in Genesis where the bible talks about "the seed of the woman" was an interesting choice of words because we usually think about eggs coming from females and seeds coming from males. At which point I restrained my plant biology self from raising its hand and pointing out that seeds are actually the plant analogous "ova" part and that pollen would be more analogous to what a male would produce. So the bible is correct in calling the seed a woman's contribution. I think that this line from the bible was a weak line to base a sermon on. And I was so caught up in the fallacy of the assumption that I forget what the point was. In conclusion I have decided that I strive to be a good christian even if I am a bad church goer. | | |
| After two weekends of backpacking/hiking I am going to admit I only say that I like it so that I can be cool. It is cool to say "I like the outdoors, I like hiking and backpacking and camping." It is not cool to say "I like to watch TV and lay on the couch". So I like the idea of camping, the idea of self sufficience, the idea of nature. But in reality the hiking is hard work, the sleeping outdoors is uncomfortable and nature is buggy, hot or wet. But I still say and do the outdoors thing so that I can be cool. | | |
| I am skeptical of easter. The pomp and circumstance, the joy. Being all happy on Palm Sunday because the Messiah is coming to town. Being all happy on Good Friday, because Jesus is sacrificing his perfect life for a bunch of sinner like us. Being all happy that we are sinners, forgiven, but sinners. Being all happy on easter sunday because everything worked out and Jesus rose from the dead conquering death and we get a pancake breakfast out of it. Should we really be happy at easter? Should we be celebratory? I just don't feel it. Thankful, grateful, yes, contemplative, yes, reflective, yes. But not happy. Now this is when people start explaining that Jesus has risen and yes, he is risen indeed, but that doesn't change the nature of the crucifixion, its still ugly, bloody, violent and traumatic. The wounds were still there, remember Thomas. Even the sermons where the pastor goes on describing the crucifixion in detail always end with making it all better because the world was forgiven through the injustice and Christ rose from the dead anyway. He got out of the ultimate sacrifice with his life. But I have never bought into the idea that two wrongs make a right. That the oppression of a few is atoned by the good of the whole. The unrational anger of the mob, the fear of the disciples, the cruelty of the Romans, the still remaining sin in the world. The forgiven but still sinful world. Possibly the best, nicest, honestest, wisest, most connected to God, most compassionate person ever to live is still driven from the world for no real good reason. So I never understood why we are so celebratory at Easter. I guess its just because the eggs are pretty and the bunny is cute.
Because of all this I really appreciated the easter I had this year. It was composed of a telling of the events in light of modern and historical events. Connecting the easter story to the story of the world through the public history of the world and our communities private history. Not dictating the meaning but telling the story through images, art, music, readings. It was a contemplative and reflective. Each participant probably got something different out of it. I felt like I finally got a more complete look at the collective easter experience. It was okay to mourn the death of our savior. It was okay to be angered by the injustice. And you weren't forced to forget those feelings on Easter Sunday just because Jesus rose from the dead. It gave me a renewed appreciation of easter and a new look at the impact of it. Not just in the admission of believers into heaven but its place in the living world. There is joy in Easter, just a more somber joy, and inner joy. | | |
| OKay I have a bad thing to confess. Ready? ... I don't like nice people. Just in general. I have friends that are nice, but their very niceness really annoys me. Some might think that its a subliminal guilty conscience on my part. But I think that nice-ness in excess is inherrently repulsing. It might be something to do with our evolutionary training in survival of the fittest. Some of the nice people I know would never survive the dog eat dog world of Darwin. What is so bad about their niceness you might ask? Well let me list my current grievences: 1. They are hard to plan things with. Sure you can dictate to them, but if you want them to give a solid opinion, idea, or decision better have a lawn chair ready. They're so set on pleasing others that its impossible for them to express their own desires. 2. When you tease them they get their feelings hurt. 3. When you rant about something, they think you're really really mad, when really you're just venting and once its out everything is fine. Meanwhile two weeks later they tell you they've fixed some problem, to which you dumbly reply "what problem?" 4. They won't enjoy a little gossip with you. 5. They won't hash through things with you. Its too confrontational. 6. Everyone else likes them. | | |
| Here's my first post. I think it should be a rant about the evilness of blogs. Since the purpose of this blog is for me to put my foot in my mouth as often as possible I will start with the thesis of "Blogs are selfish and a manifestation of all that is wrong with my generation". (BTW I embrace my generation). The point of a blog is to tell the world (who doesn't care) what I am doing and why I am cool, and begs people to read about ME ME ME. I think that it would be better for people to think about others. Let someone else make the absurd inflammatory comments. Which is why I like message boards/forums better. They seem to facilitate conversation and exchange of ideas between people. There are still the annoying blockheads (like me) that dominate the conversation until everyone else gives up and goes away but its more interactive than a blog. At least everyone can roll their eyes at eachother before they leave. OKay I'm done for my first entry, and reading it I have decided that I am a lot more boring than I first thought. I'll have to be more attentive to better stupid stuff I do so that I can write about it. But ultimately I am not an exciting writer thus taking the wind out of many exciting things. | | |
|
