Public Opinion

Well, loyal readers, we have now come to the end of the first full month of "Beneath the Curls," and I for one have enjoyed it quite a bit.  I have learned a lot from writing this blog over the last month, also.  Here's a brief look:

• If I don't post anything, I don't get as many visitors.  Imagine that.
• It really ticks ME off when I don't put up a good post.
• Some of the best posts come when I don't actually think about them before I start writing.
• Facebook is easily the best source for traffic to my site.
• There are some really REALLY clever ways that other sites do get traffic to their sites.  For example, a couple of sites have tricked Blogger into thinking that they sent people to my site.  I, being very confused and excited, went to their site to see what was going on.  Spam.  I had to admit, it was absolutely brilliant.
• It takes a lot to offend you people.  Seriously, I've told you Muslims may be going to heaven, the church has corrupted the mission of Christ, and the Resurrection doesn't matter, and I haven't received a single complaint.  What does a guy have to do to get some hate mail around here?

In all seriousness, though, I really do appreciate everyone that takes the time to read my blog, and I would like to gleam some more input from you.

I have decided that I would like to have a "post of the month".  A POM if you will.  With that in mind, on the right side of your screen (that's over there ----->) there should be a poll.  I am going to put up the seven most visited posts from the month of April.  If there is another you think I should add, feel free to nominate it, and I will add it.  Please take a few seconds to cast a vote.

If you think about it, this is really not such an uncommon thing anymore.  It seems like people are always looking to get your opinion about something these days.  Why is that?  What is it about mankind that forces us to seek feedback?  Is it a feeling of inadequacy?  Is it a desire to please people?  Is it simply the fact that evolution has led to a "herd sense" in humanity to help us survive?

Most people (including me less than five minutes ago) will tell you that other people's opinions don't matter.  The only opinions that matter are your own and God's.  I disagree with this basically for one simple reason:  we as people need other people.  Humans are not built to survive on our own.  If we were, we never would have developed language.  Several experiments have shown that babies require human contact to survive.  We need other people.

Sometimes, whether or not people accept your opinion depends almost completely on how your opinion is presented to them and, often moreso, who presents it.  Case in point, my home congregation.

Like I said earlier, it seems to be pretty hard to offend you guys, but the old people in my home congregation are a different story.  I have recently started teaching my little cousin for Sunday School, but before that, I went to Sunday School with the adults.  Through the course of the discussions, I had a tendency to play devil's advocate or to have an opinion that didn't line up with their very traditional values.  I know, I can hear the gasps of shock at the idea that I have opinions that don't line up with traditional beliefs.  While in these discussions, I got some of the best looks of shock (with just a hint of horror) that I have seen in my life.  They definitely aren't used to people with different opinions.  Then came Preach'rman.

Preach'rman is our interim pastor.  He is a Baptist turned Methodist preaching in our Lutheran church.  He is amazazing and, believe it or not, I'm not the only one that thinks so!

I have, however, become somewhat frightened by his sermons.  There's nothing threatening about them, but they have a tendency to leave me frightened.  This is because they lead me to believe that my life have somehow been bugged.  It amazes me how many of his sermons are over things that I have talked about before, whether in Sunday School with the old people or outside of the discussions because I thought the old people might would pass out if they heard them.  Yet when he presents these ideas from the pulpit as an ordained minister recommended by the bishop, he is wonderful and brilliant.

It makes me wonder if they are actually listening to what he's saying.  Do they realize that he is simply rephrasing what they gawked at me for saying not three weeks earlier?  Probably not.  But it's really rather telling of the way the world at large functions.

Prime example:  Adolf Hitler.  In the movie "The King's Speech", on of the main characters little girls asked her dad what Hitler was saying in a video they were watching.  He replied (though not likely verbatim), "I don't know.  But he seems to be saying it rather well."  If you ever take the time to go watch one of Hitler's speeches, even if you can't understand him, he is very captivating.  Whatever he is saying, he is certainly saying it very well.  That may well have been why people were so stricken by him.  It may not have been that people would have actually agreed with him, but just loved the way he said it so much that they went along with it.

So I leave you with this question*:  Do you actually like or dislike what people are telling you or just the way they are presenting it?





*Shout-out to JesusFreak3:1,4  ;)

The Great Miracle

In my speech class this week, we have been doing persuasive speeches.  I was this close [imagine me holding my fingers really close together] to doing my speech over why I should get an A, but I couldn't find my way out of the circular logic involved.

By far, though, the winner of most interesting speech was taken by a guy that did his speech in order to persuade us, his audience, into acknowledging the deeds of a truly influential figure.  This figure was a strong advocate for the rights of transgenders as the first transgender parent, an image of true redemption as his very purpose in life did a complete 180 degree turn around, and an advocate for the dangers of nuclear radiation.

Who was this truly amazing figure?  Godzilla.  The speech was AMAZING!

I can't remember all of his points so I'm not gonna spend all my time talking about that speech.  What really strangely caught my attention was a speech that talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  I think the speech was actually about going Greek, but I never got past the brilliant point they had.

If you don't know anything about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you can read all about it here:  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  Essentially, Maslow's point was that certain needs are more important than others and those closer to the bottom must be fulfilled before you can truly experience the higher levels.  For example, before you can truly experience friendship, you can't be starving to death.  It really kinda makes sense if you think about it.  There point was that according to this hierarchy, which is widely accepted by the psychological community, you must be accepted by others before you can truly accept yourself.  That there is big stuff.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the point.  How can you possibly see any good in yourself when the world is bringing you down?  Sadly, there are people in the world that have never felt truly accepted for who they are.  It's a rough time trying to go through life like that.

Since I know most if not all of my readers, I know that you guys have someone in your life that accepts you for who you are and feeds your self-esteem and ego rather well.  So how on Earth can this affect you?  It's simple.  There are two sides to this issue:  the unaccepted and the unacceptors (yes, I'm claiming that as a word).  People can't feel unaccepted if those in their life are accepting them.  Now doesn't that make sense?

I read someone's Facebook status today, and I LOVED it!

"If embracing all lifestyles will lead me to hell, then I’ll see you all there. It’s going to be one incredibly tolerant and happy inferno."

I don't know if it is an original quote from her or if she got it from somewhere, but since I don't have her permission to put her name, I'm not going to.  If she happens to read this blog I would appreciate a shout-out to clear this up.  ;)

This says a lot about the world's perspective on traditional Christianity.  Whether you realize it or not, I already through out the idea of an exclusive heaven back in another post.  (I'm gonna be rude and make you go find it for yourself.)  The modern view of traditional fundamentalist Christianity is very exclusive and unaccepting.

Don't be one of them.  Being anything less than tolerant of other people is just wrong.

Now to those that feel unaccepted by the world:  however dark and cruel the world is, that is how wonderful and loving Jesus is.  I've said it before (in that post I told you to hunt for), and I'll say it again.  The word of God is not just in the Bible.  Sometimes, the word of God can come from the musical styling of a ten-year-old girl.

Maria Aragon "Born This Way"

I've listened to this song lots of times on the radio, and it never really struck me as anything particularly impressive.  Then, as I was "youtubing" (I'm NOT gonna claim that as a word) today, I came across this little girl singing it (and could actually understand all of the words) and it really hit something with me.  Whether you're a Gaga fan or not, you should listen to Maria sing this song.

While I was working at camp this summer, there was a week with a particularly enthusiastic pastor.  As part of their Bible studies on day, they were asked a question.  Later that week, their pastor spoke at worship and asked us the same question.  I don't remember much else about that week, but the almost frighteningly well rehearsed answer has stuck with me for a long time.

"What is the great miracle?"
"God knows everything about me, and he love me anyway."

It's true!  All those reasons why the world hates you and won't accept you don't really matter to God.  He loves you no matter what!  That is truly the greatest of all miracles.  As Lady Gaga said in "Born This Way":

"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are . . . 'cause he made you perfectly . . . I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes.  I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way.  Don't hide yourself in regret.  Just love yourself and you're set.  I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way."

Whether you're a "little monster" or not, that really is a beautiful sentiment.  However unaccepted the world may make you feel, God loves you, because he makes no mistakes.  Once you can accept that love, you can finally start to truly love yourself.

Anyone who was at camp the week that the pastor I talked about earlier spoke knows that there was more to the message than just the "great miracle".  There was another question with an equally well rehearsed answer that came immediately after and is one of the greatest things I have ever heard from any source in my entire life and it still gives me chills just thinking about a group of kids yelling it out.

"What is the great miracle?"
"God knows everything about me, and he loves me anyway."
"What is our response?"
"Thank you, God.  What can I do for you today?"

God knows everything about me, and he loves me anyway.

Thank you, God.  What can I do for you today?

Breaking the Mold

As we sit here in the midst of finals, I'm sure that many people are working very hard studying for final exams and finishing (or starting) final papers.  I was recently struck by an interesting and somewhat depressing thought.  That paper that you are spending hours and possibly days trying to get just perfect will probably only ever be read by one person.  How sad is that?

But isn't that true of most school assignments, particularly papers?  You spend more time than you would like to admit working hard trying to get it exactly the way you want it to get the grade you want.  Then, after you turn it in, the only person who will ever read your ideas is the person grading it.  Then you have to consider the possibility that they disagree with your conclusions.  Any good English teacher will tell you that all Literature is subjective and open to interpretation.  This means that it is not only possible but likely that you will come to different conclusions that the person that grades your essay.

In all likelihood, your professor will not be willing to share your paper with anyone unless they agree with it.  So basically, chances are your paper will be read by you, whoever you get to proofread it, and will stop with the grader as your brilliant ideas pass into obscurity.

Now isn't that a positive outlook on something that is likely an unhealthily large chunk of your grade?  While I'm on the subject, though, why don't I just bring the whole system down on top of me?

What is the point of writing a paper?

Generally speaking, these end-of-term papers require a certain number of "credible" sources.  If you don't cite any sources, than you most assuredly plagiarized the paper in some way.  A mere student couldn't possibly an actual original idea.  Right?

For the sake of argument, let's say one did.  Let's say that someone came up with a truly brilliant interpretation of a book that no one had ever thought of before.  Chances are that student would fail the assignment do to a lack of sources.  On the other hand, a student that picks a topic that has been hashed and rehashed a hundred times and there are a hundred papers on will have no problem citing sources and can make a wonderful grade.

Something seems wrong with that.

But I'm not stopping with papers.  Like I said, I'm bringing down the whole system!!!

The same thing applies to other things such as speeches.  If someone has a truly great speech but does not meet the "requirements" whether that be meeting a particular time constraint, having a particular number of sources, or using proper formatting on their outline, they can fail that speech.  Depending on that person's emotional state, that could turn them off of public speaking forever.  Suddenly, BOOM!  The world is down one more great orator.

That's essentially how our entire modern education system functions.  People are rewarded for fitting a mold and shut down for being truly original.  In fact . . .

That's how society as a whole functions!!!

We have this way in our society of making sure that everyone is in some kind of mold.  Typically, we do this in the form of professions.  What is one of the first things that someone asks you when you introduce yourself?  "What do you do?"  What a loaded question.

What people are actually looking for is a mold.  They are looking for some category in which to classify you.  They are looking to simplify you by turning you into your profession.  People don't care about your hobbies, your friends, or what you do for fun.  They just want to be able to give you a label so they can feel like they understand you . . . as if your profession has anything to do with who you are.

Before you snap cleverly back at me that you are nothing like that, think about it.  Isn't that what you do?

If by some twist of fate, I have managed to entice the interest of one of the people who is in complete denial about this situation, I propose that you attempt the following experiment:

Start up a conversation with a complete stranger.  During the course of this conversation, you may not ask them their profession, their parents' professions, their major, or what school they go to.  It's harder to do than you think.  If you want to do things even more intensely, you can't ask them their religion or their political affiliation either.  You aren't allowed to ask them anything that would let you put a label on them.  Now what are you left to talk about?  Can you get to know someone without labeling them?

Here's one that will really blow your mind:  are people really anything other than a collection of labels?

Think about it.  What do you do when you "get to know someone"?  You learn things about them.  You learn all those things I specifically told you not to ask in the experiment.  Essentially, the more labels you can give someone, the "better" you know them.  If you can give people labels such as "family lover", "hater of fried okra", "former Pokemon enthusiast", "self-admitted heretic", isn't that someone you know pretty well?

So here's my unanswerable question for today:  Is society's focus on fitting people into molds a symptom of something terribly wrong with the world, or is it merely preparation for truly understanding another person?

Story Telling

Happy Tell A Story Day!!!

A few weeks ago, I looked up several obscure holidays.  Tell A Story Day was one of them.  I wish I could tell you a story about the origin of Tell A Story Day, but I can't find an origin.  However, in honor of this preposterously underappreciated holiday, I am not going to write an elaborate blog today.  Instead I'm simply going to give you some recommendations of stories you should read.

• The Death of Hobii - I wrote this story for an English assignment last semester.  Sadly, it is my attempt at a happy ending.  If the title doesn't give it away, it is bittersweet at best.  You could say its a love story, but with some major twists!
• Belphegor - I'm not sure how to explain this one.  It's full of mystery and intrigue.  I absolutely love it, but I'm extremely biased.  If you like your stories tied up with a nice bow on top, don't bother reading it.  It's just not that kind of story.
• The Fire Builder - This was the first story I wrote with my favorite character I have ever created.  So far, he's survived TWO stories!  That's kind of a big deal for me.  It's also a pivotal story in a series of interconnected tales that have only begun to unravel.
• JP - A truly beautiful story.  Guy meets girl.  Guy falls for girl.  A happy ending.  Sigh.  Every time I read it, it brings a tear to my cheek.  I highly recommend this one!
• Cherubim - This story isn't complete.  It's just a preview of the novel I'm working on.  By the way, if you read it and like it, I'm still looking for some people to proofread the second part.  If you're interested, please email me at veebjamn@yahoo.com.

Sorry, but given the holiday, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity for some plugs.  But, really, what could possibly be a better use of a blog than free advertising?  Really?

If you have a story, you would like to tell me, let me know.  I'd be more than happy to read it.  If I like it enough, I may even put it on my website or promote it here!  I always love a good story . . . and I've occasionally been known to enjoy a bad one.

Good Friday

During what I anticipate will become a regular event I am officially dubbing "Holiday Hiatus", I had a chance to think through many things.  The top of the list was actually relevant to this Holiday Hiatus:  Good Friday.  One of my greatest sadnesses is that many people don't even acknowledge this holdiay.

Many people know about Easter.  People take off school and work for Easter, go to Easter egg hunts, have Easter family traditions, and buy Easter-themed candy.  I would be willing to guess that most people even know what Easter is about unlike so many other popular holidays.  Millions of people across the globe celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter every year.  Oddly enough, thought, an incredible amount of these people completely skip over a crucial part of the story.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead . . . hang on a sec, JESUS DIED?!?

Oddly enough, people tend to glaze over that minor detail, but it is absolutely crucial to the entire basis of the Christian faith . . . I would be willing to say that it is more important than the resurrection.  Yeah, I just went there.

I pose to you this question:  What if Jesus had not died?  To answer that question, you must answer another question:  Why did Jesus have to die?  For that, we must go back to the Garden of Eden.

Just after God created Adam, he gave him a seemingly simple rule:

"And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'"  Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)

Later on, Eve was formed, and, based on what she tells the serpent, the same rule applied to her.  When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, however, they were not killed.  Isn't that interesting?  Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, laws are given that either condemn people to death or, more commonly, demand an animal be sacrificed in place of the person that committed the sin.  If you ever take the time to read about how these sacrifices were to be carried out, they are pretty ridiculously gruesome.  What is with all the death?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 6:23 (NIV)

Oh, that's what all the death's about.  When you sin, the penalty is death.  That's all there is to it.  For centuries, people used animals to take their place for this penalty, but that obviously didn't stick very well, because they would be doing that again not long after.

One of the most important of these sacrifices was at the passover when a lamb would be sacrificed.  As an interesting parallel, Jesus's last supper (the night before he was crucified) was a celebration of the passover.  Did you ever wonder why Jesus is often referred to as a lamb?

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to out own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."  Isaiah 53:6-7 (NIV)

Jesus didn't sin, therefore, he did not warrant death.  He, like the lamb at the passover, took our sins upon himself and paid the penalty for our sins.  He died the horribly graphic and painful death we earned for him.

Why did Jesus have to die?  Jesus died so we wouldn't have to.

What if Jesus had not died?  We would still be separated from God by sin and would be cursed to suffer this separation for all eternity.

Think of it on large-scale cosmic terms.  Just before Jesus died, he pulled all sins that humanity has ever committed all throughout time, and absorbed them into himself.  When he died, he unleashed a wave of redemptive power across all of time, freeing us from the bondage of sin.  This even affected the physical world and this wave was unleashed.

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.  The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people."  Matthew 27:50-53 (NIV)

The redemptive power of Jesus's death caused the temple curtain to rip, and earthquake to happen, and a zombie army to invade Jerusalem.  Yeah!  That happened!  That's some powerful juju!

I saw a poster on campus the other day that was basically set up to facilitate the debate about whether or not Jesus rose from the dead or not and whether or not it matters.  As the true heretic I am, I'm going to have to side with the group claiming that it does not matter.

The resurrection of Christ has been explained away as a hoax for centuries.  I once heard someone very concerned about whether or not it had been a hoax.  What if someone found proof that Jesus had not risen from the dead?  What effects would that have?  If you ask me, it really shouldn't make that much difference.

For the people of Jesus's time, his resurrection was very important.  It proved that he was not a false prophet and that he was the messiah.  However, for us in the modern day, we have very strongly accepted the premise that Jesus is the son of God.  If you accept that premise, the death of Jesus holds the same power no matter what happened afterward.  Some will say that Jesus's resurrection proved his power over death.  Personally, I think the zombie horde charging into Jerusalem is pretty strong proof of that.

Don't get me wrong, Christ's resurrection was a truly wonderful thing.  What I'm telling you is that you shouldn't skip over his death.  THAT was the real victory.

Millions of gods in millions of cultures across all of history have been considered alive.  That's nothing special.  What makes our god different is that he died.  More than that, he died on our behalf.  Can you think of anything more wonderful, more beautiful than that?

Christ's greatest victory was in death.  Truly, the day in memory of this victory should be called good.  Truly, it was a Good Friday.

Multilingual Love

As a teenager (I will claim teenagership as long as I possibly can), and moreover as a human being with no other authority over my creative endeavors, I reserve the right to change my mind about my blog whenever I feel like it.  Since I actually had some creative inspiration today, I have decided to throw my yesterday-mentioned "every other day" guideline out the window!

I was listening to the radio as I was driving home from Maundy Thursday service this evening, and I hit the standard lull in good songs among all my typical stations.  I then found myself on a station with a radio talk show that comes on in the evenings.  This talk show is usually very emotional in nature and the host speaks very softly . . . and . . . talks . . . really . . . slow.     The . . . music . . . that . . . plays . . . is . . . very . . . similar . . . to . . . her . . . speech.

I don't normally listen to this show for that very reason.

Tonight, however, I stopped because what she was talking about was very interesting.  I had actually talked about it before with my family, but she reminded me that I have been meaning to write about it for a while.

The topic of discussion for the brief period that I tolerated the nightmare that is "Delilah" was love languages.

Many people have heard, thanks to the modern education system, that different people learn in different ways whether it be by hearing something, seeing something, or doing something.  However, most people don't realize that this differentiation in nature applies not only to learning, but to many other things.  One of these is the way people share and experience love.

This is all discussed very in-depth in the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  If you're interested, here's the website for it:  Five Love Languages.

The five languages are words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch.  According to Chapman's explanation of these, generally people are drawn to others that "speak a different love language".  That fact right there explains why it is important to know these languages and to be able to identify them in yourself and others.  Things that are important to you may not be important to those you love and vice-versa.  Most are exactly what they sound like, but I'm gonna go through them anyway.

• Words of affirmation is language based, as the name suggests, on actual words.  To people that speak this language, hearing you tell them how much you love them and, more importantly, why you love them is extremely important and one of the best things they can experience.  On the other hand, an insult to this person is not easily brushed off.  A harsh word can stick with these people for a long time and be very detrimental.
• Quality time is based in being with the person.  For these people, it's important to give them your attention.  They need you to be with them without distractions such as television, chores, and work.  On the other hand, ignoring this person, be distracted, or any form of putting off being with them can be very painful.
• Receiving gifts is pretty self explanatory.  For these people, receiving gifts is a big deal.  This doesn't mean they are greedy or, as Chapman says, materialistic.  According to Chapman, the gift is not as important as the thought behind it.  It doesn't have to be something extravagant.  A gift says that you were thinking about the person enough to get them something.  Delilah was saying that for her son, it's something tangible that he can hold and look at while thinking about you.  She used the example of a cool stone that she found and gave to him.  Because the thought behind the gift is so important, a thoughtless gift or a missed birthday or anniversary can be devastating.
• Acts of service is based on doing stuff for the other person.  For people that speak this language, doing their chores for them, or performing some kind of service that benefits them shows thoughtfulness and a concern for their needs and workload.  On the other hand, if you add to their work, you are likely to hurt them and tell them that you don't care about their needs.
• Physical touch is not necessarily what you think it is.  It's not naughty if you know what I mean.  It means that a pat on the back, a hug, or holding hands can be very important to this person.  On the other hand, if they cannot tangibly be with you, it can be very painful for them.

These languages generally do not just apply to the way people receive and interpret love but also to the way they convey love.  For instance, my primary language is physical touch.  Giving people hugs is an important way for me to show people that I love them.  I have received many positive reviews on my hugs and that is because they are important to me.  At the same time, with people I don't know very well, I am not likely to be very touchy-feely with them because I do not love them.

Interestingly enough, for many people, someone's love language can be different for different types of relationships.  For example, receiving gifts may be important to someone in a romantic relationship, but words of affirmation may be important to them in a family-type relationship.

Learning your own love language can be very helpful in making sure that you receive appropriate love, but learning someone else's love language can be even more helpful in interpreting how someone feels about you and communicating your feelings back to them.  If you are interested in learning your love language, here's some nice quizzes on Chapman's website:  Love Language Quiz.  As I said, sometimes people have different love languages for different relationships, so there are multiple quizzes on the site.

When my family was talking about this, my mom mentioned that she and my dad took this quiz a LOOOONG time ago ;) and found what they had in common.  They both had quality time ranking pretty high, so they have made a point of spending time together.  They are both brilliant, so I would recommend this for all relationships that you want to last.

Why There Isn't A Good Post Today

I spent an overabundance of time today making designs for a band that will never exist.  I couldn't resist after discovering the best punny band name ever:  Used Ink.  (If you don't get it, say it over and over until you forget what words you're saying, then listen to it, or get someone else to say the name to you.)  I feel like someone should have come up with this before me, but in case they didn't, I call dibs!

P.S.  After today I'm switching to writing this blog every other day.  If you haven't noticed over the last couple of days, I'm running out of stuff to rant about.  Maybe an extra day to think will help.

Extrablogular Authoric Activity

I've spent the last couple of days focusing on authoric endeavors other than the kind of material that I normally post on this blog.  For instance, yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon finishing the second piece of my novel, and today, I spent a chunk of my evening writing pieces of a couple of songs.

While my songs will likely never be heard or read by most of the world, I do need people to proofread my novel.  If you're interested, email me at veebjamn@yahoo.com.

My little song writing spell was inspired by watching the newest Disney Channel Original Movie (yes, I watch Disney Channel movies) called "Lemonade Mouth".  If you are a fan of the whole High School Musical type movie, it's pretty good.  It's about a group of high school students form a band as a form of expressing themselves to the authority figures in their lives.

Has anyone else noticed that Disney has a long-running theme of rebellion?  Think about some movies and their themes.

• Beauty and the Beast - Rebellion against social norms
• Aladdin - Rebellion against propriety
• High School Musical - Rebellion against the status quo
• Robin Hood - Rebellion against the king
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Rebellion against the governing body
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Rebellion against the trading company
• Pinocchio - Rebellion against a parental figure
• Peter Pan - Rebellion against a parental figure
• Pocahontas - Rebellion against a parental figure
• Ratatouille - Rebellion against a parental figure
• The Sword in the Stone - Rebellion against a parental figure
• The Little Mermaid - Rebellion against a parental figure
• Cinderella - Rebellion against a parental figure

Did you ever get the feeling Walt Disney didn't get along well with his parents?  I'm not going anywhere with this.  I just thought it was an interesting observation.

Due to my extrablogular authoric activities, I have not been able to develop any good topics to write about.  As I mentioned last week, I would appreciate any suggestions on topics.  I would like to know what you would like to hear about.  However, keep the topics broad and somewhat unbiased.  If you try to press your opinion on me, I may play Devil's Advocate and argue for the other side just for the heck of it.

As I said earlier, I need people to proofread the first part of my novel.  Please let me know if you are interested.

The Title Doesn't Match

Sorry about the hiatus this weekend.  I was at an assemblage of some of the most terrifying and powerful beings on Earth better known as the wedding of a family member causing my extended family to gather together.  It was truly a momentous event that likely caused the downfall of a civilization somewhere on Earth.

Interestingly enough, after getting back from this wedding, today in one of my classes we watched the movie "Wedding Crashers".  If you haven't seen it, go find it somewhere.  I'm sure you have a friend that will let you borrow it.  It's hilariously amazing.

The movie, toward the end, exemplifies an idea that has been lurking in the back of the minds of humanity for years.  It plays on the idea that weddings and funerals have this odd antithetic yet somehow parallel relationship.  Look at them.  At both, lots of family gets together.  The family then spends most of their time talking to each other rather than the one/s that they are assembled to honor all the while forcing themselves to portray the appropriate emotion required by the rest of the assemblage.

In my experience, at weddings, people expect you to be happy.  If you aren't happy, you come across as a love-hating cynic.  At funerals, there is an expectant sadness to the event.  While both of these emotions are very apparent at both events, there is a secondary layer of emotion that is often ignored.

At funerals, good funerals at least, despite the overarching sadness to the event, there is this strange sense of joy.  Often times, a death is one of the only things that can truly bring a family together and show the amount of support a person can receive.  As this usually invisible support system becomes apparent, the love between the people involved becomes almost tangible.  And so, as loved ones gather to see someone off on their final voyage from this world, it can end up being less of a sad event and a truly joyous occasion.

Weddings, on the other hand, have a dark undertone that may not be apparent to the general public.  I'm sorry to tell you that seeing other people happy does not necessarily mean one will be happy in reciprocity.  In fact, it can have the opposite effect.

"True happiness is found in the suffering of others."  -Shareshth the Destroyer

While this quote may not always be true, and certainly comes from a truly dark and damaged mind, there is a grain of truth to it.  Often times, schadenfreude rules out in a large chunk of humanity.  (If you don't know what schadenfreude is, "Two and a Half Men" describes it as a German experience where inn America, we just say "Haha!")

A wedding, for some people (particularly single people), is an opportunity for two people to rub in the face of the rest of the world just how happy they are.  Even in those who don't feel this way, they often find themselves critiquing the wedding, looking for flaws in it that they would do better for their wedding.  These two groups of people fuse together to create a secondary emotional layer to weddings that is full of spite and derision.

This means that funerals have a deep seated joy while weddings have a deep seated spite.  And people wonder why I like funerals better than weddings.

Actually, I think one of the main reasons for this is because my home congregation is well known for putting on "good funerals".  At one of the last funerals held at my church, one man said that it was "the best damn funeral I've ever been to!"  This sounds weird, but we really do put on great funerals.  I have long said that the only reason some people don't like spaghetti is because they have never had my mom's.  The same applies to funerals.  The only reason some people don't like them is because they have never been to a good one.  I wish I could explain what makes a funeral "good", but I really don't know.

Ultimately, the way I see it is you can gleam any emotion you want from virtually any event.  If you really want to enjoy a funeral, you can find the joy in it.  If you really want to hate a wedding, you can find something to hate about it.



P.S.  I spent today working on my novel.  Those interested will be happy to know that I am now approximately 8% of the way done with it.  If you haven't read the preview of it yet, please check it out on my website:  Cherubim.

Treating the Symptoms

I'm going to start today off with a set of websites.  You may notice a theme as you check them out.

• teamliquid.net
• jzjokes.tripod.com
• humorsphere.com
• topcultured.com

Did you figure it out?  If you happen to be incredibly dimwitted (e.g. a blonde haha), those jokes tend to elicit one of two reactions from the general population.  Either the reader will find them extremely hilarious or extremely hilarious.  It is very rare that you find people in the dead center between the two.  But however offensive they are, you must admit that some are pretty funny.  If nothing else, the last one is wonderful.

I have taken enough time to listen to several complaints about how insensitive these jokes are.  I have listened to complaints about how incredibly uneducated the people who come up with these jokes are.  I've listened to complaints about how we are all equal.  ACHOO!!!

I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but we are not all equal.  If we were, these kind of jokes would not persist, because they would not be considered funny.  If you need more proof that we aren't all equal, consider this.  When a black person says something offensive about white people, it's funny.  When a white person says something offensive about black people, it's crude.  Need more?  There is a fraternity on my campus of Hispanic engineers here on campus.  Could you safely find a fraternity of white engineers?  Need more?  The thing that set Barack Obama apart in the last election was that he was black.  The thing that set Sarah Palin apart was that she was a woman.  Had they been white men, they would never have gotten as far as they did.

Why do I bring all of this up?

Most of the people who complain about these jokes generally complain on behalf of one of two schools of thought.  The first is that they believe these jokes are simply wrong because "we are all equal".  I'm pretty sure I just killed that argument.  The other is that they believe these jokes are causing stereotypes to persist.  I'm sorry to tell you that this argument is wrong as well.

I have said before that stereotypes exist for a reason.  Stereotypes do not exist because of these jokes.  These jokes exist because of stereotypes.  These jokes are not the cause of prejudice.  Prejudice is the cause for these jokes.

When you have are sick, do you quit having a fever so you'll get better?  If you have allergies, do you quite sneezing so the allergies will go away?  When you have a sunburn, do you get a spray-on tan to reverse the damage to your skin?  If there are people out there that do, I may have a topic for another day.

Prejudice is the same way.  You are not going to cure the disease by fighting the symptoms.

So how can you cure prejudice?

I'm sorry to tell you that you will not live to see the day that any prejudice comes to an end.  At least not any prejudices that you know about.  A prejudice simply cannot persist as long as people know about it.  Prejudice is like a cancer.  You have to eliminate ALL of the infected cells, or it will come back.  That means if you acknowledge any kind of truth to any stereotype, you must die before the prejudice can die.

It's sad, I know.  But it's the truth.

Other than dying, is there anything you can do?  Sure.  You can fight the disease at the source to make sure that there are less "infected" people in the future.  You can eliminate the truth of these stereotypes.  Unfortunately, this won't happen until you quit drawing attention to the problem.  Every time you do something to actively fight a stereotype (e.g. protests, arguing, propaganda), you draw attention to it and show someone the light that is the grain of truth within that stereotype.

So how do you actually fight this disease?  You cannot do it actively or aggressively or you will make it angry and inflamed.  You can, however, fight it passively by not letting stereotypes define you.  It's an anticlimactic solution, but it's the only one that will work.

In summary:  don't draw attention to stereotypes, then die.

Malerology

Malerology (n) - the study of bad relationships.  From Latin "mal" meaning "bad", Greek "eros" meaning "romantic love", and "ology" meaning "the study of".

Relationships are like fat people.  Most of them don't work out.

Men and women alike have griped for years about how the opposite sex is the responsible for the fact that they can't have a relationship.  Women complain that men are all jerks.  Men complain that women only like jerks and "nice guys finish last".  I bring it up, because in the last few minutes I have come across several websites discussing both sides.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

• Sick of Boys
• Unrealistic Expectations

Before people gripe at me (since my readers are obviously the most vocal people on the planet, he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm), yes.  I realize both of those are tearing apart the girl side of it, but that's just because they're funnier.  I did a search to try and find some good ones for the other side of the debate.  All I found were advice websites.  None were funny.

However, several weeks ago, I did find a website that took a different and brilliant approach to the whole debate.  I'll be honest.  I've been waiting to use this link since I started this blog:

• Why I Will Never Have a Girlfriend

I realize it's a long article.  Just skim it.  Most of the text is just him explaining how he got the numbers he did.  For those interested in a boyfriend instead, the theory works in reverse.  The basic summary is that less than one percent of the female population is "dateable" as a girlfriend.  Unfortunately, though, this problem is bigger than numbers, and that article is really just another excuse about why things aren't your fault.

Here's what things come down to folks:

• Stereotypes exist for a reason.
• A stereotype does not suggest an absolute truth.
• Get over yourself!!!

As you go into the dating market, accept that stereotypes exist for a reason.  Generally speaking to at least some degree, girls are crazy and guys are jerks.  That's just a fact of the world.  Before people get offended, the inverse is true as well.  Guys are crazy and girls are jerks.  If you dig far enough, you can find a problem with anyone.  I'm sorry, but that's the truth.

There is hope!

I love the show "How I Met Your Mother".  If you haven't seen it, I'm sorry.  Go watch it.  I can almost guarantee it comes on your television at some point, and if not go online.

In "How I Met Your Mother", Barney embodies the stereotypical jerk.  He uses and abuses women for his own . . . I'm gonna use the word benefit.  He is, however, very charming and very aggressive when chasing women.  Ted, on the other hand, is the "nice guy".  Were it not for the fact that the entire show is based around the premise that this is the story of Ted meeting his wife, you might would get the impression that nice guys really do finish last.  However, if you watch the show, when they are at the bar, Barney is always hitting on someone, while Ted is sitting at their booth often talking about his failed dates.

Ladies, you want advice on finding a guy that's not a jerk?  Don't wait around at a bar for some guy to talk to you!  Go over and talk to the guy sitting alone in the corner booth.  He isn't really creepy looking or anything.  Go talk to him!  There's a good chance he's just too shy to talk to you.  You don't want to be a victim?  Quit waiting around to be used and abused!

Gentlemen, you want advice on getting that girl before some jerk does?  Quit sitting around at the booth!  Go talk to that girl!  She doesn't want to date a jerk anymore than you want her to, so go talk to her.  What do you have to lose?  Your pride?  If you really think about it, do any of us still have that?  Really?

But to every silver lining, there is a cloud . . . or something like that.

Get over yourself!  Ladies, chances are if you have been used and abused repeatedly, there is a reason for that.  Gentlemen, chances are if you have been rejected again and again, there is a reason for that.  Have you ever considered the possibility that you aren't perfect?

Ultimately, you are responsible for your own decisions, both good and bad.  This includes your decisions as to who to date or not date.  Take responsibility for those decisions, and quit blaming the opposite sex.

The real question is, do actually want to change this part of your life?  If you aren't doing anything to change it, maybe you like it the way it is.

Lack of Inspiration

If you haven't noticed, there have been several days that I have missed or that I posted something distinctly uninsightful.  There is a very simple reason for that.  Sometimes, I am simply functioning on little to no inspiration.  Today happens to be one of those days.

I have pondered many ways of remedying this situation.  If you haven't noticed, I haven't settled on one that works, or I would never have posted this.  I have, however, basically determined that I need one of two things.  I either need some kind of gimmick that I can pull off the shelf on uninspired days (such as an ongoing story or some clever thing that most people would base their entire blog on) or a stock list of topics that I can fall back on.

I, however, cannot seem to figure anything out, so I'm asking for your help.  That's right.  I'm talking to YOU!  I need one of three things from you:

• Characters and a setting from which to launch a story
• Topics you would be interested in reading about
• Some other brilliant idea

I would appreciate any input on this.  If you have suggestions for any of the above, please either comment on this post, let me know through Facebook, or email me at veebjamn@yahoo.com.

I once read a conspiracy that people do posts like this simply to see if people are actually reading their blog or to try to sucker people into making their blog more popular.  I would like to formally debunk the first theory as Blogspot is so kind to me as to give me details about people looking at my blog that would frighten you (e.g. the browser you use, your operating system, what link brought you here).  As for the second one, I have no way of debunking that, but wouldn't it be brilliant if I had come up with something like that?

Speaking of conspiracies, look up the movie "Anonymous".  It's coming out soon and it's about the theory that William Shakespeare did not actually write his plays.  It looks really good.  (That was my shameless plug of the week.)

That Which is Caesar's

Hold on to your hats, kiddos.  I'm charging headlong into the very thick of the topics the world specifically tells you not to talk about in public.  I can't find a more public place than the Internet, so here we go.

Because the things I'm talking about today are such extremely controversial issues that have such strong opinions attached to them, I'm going to teach you a remarkable thing That will serve you well not only today, but in all situations whether you agree or disagree.  I call it suspended disbelief.  It's very simple.  You throw your opinions on the subject out the window and start from scratch.  You can then actually listen to what that person is saying and judge their point of view for its actual validity.

Get it?  If not, email me at veebjamn@yahoo.com BEFORE reading the rest of this post.  Otherwise you aren't going to be able to read this thing objectively.  If you have the concept of suspended disbelief down, then let's mount up and charge in full speed.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the following in a letter to Danbury Baptists Association in 1802.

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

Basically, Jefferson didn't want the government interfering with religion or the church interfering with politics.  To set a basis, the King of England has long been the head of the Church of England.  Many people have had problems with this and Jefferson was not the first to suggest the importance of this separation.

Can you blame them?  If the government is controlling the church, it can use the church to promote whatever propaganda it wants.  On the other hand, look at some marvelous examples of when the church controls the government.  Let me throw some highlights out at you:

• The Inquisition
• The Crusades
• The fact that the Sun revolved around the Earth for CENTURIES!!!

There HAS to be a separation.  I'm sorry to tell you that Jesus even agreed (at least to an extent).

"He said to them, 'Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.'"  Luke 20:25 (NIV)

Ok, I'll admit, he was talking about taxes, but there is more evidence than just that.

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God."  Romans 13:1

So I'm not without some biblical basis for my arguments (which I'm sorry to tell you, you still haven't actually gotten to).

The idea of the separation of church and state was one of the founding principles of our government.  So much so, that it was part of the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."  First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Ok, now that I have sufficiently built a platform that puts me as far out of reach as I can possibly get . . . public schools promoting prayer is wrong.

Since public schools are funded by the government, they have no right to impose any sort of religion on the students therein.  Just imagine if there was a prayer to Allah promoted in the school you are sending you kids to.  Imagine if the teachers told your student there is no such thing as God.  You wouldn't much like it, but it is essentially the same thing you are doing to non-Christian students.

This same argument applies to the Pledge of Allegiance.  Many people have fought over whether or not "under God" should be in the Pledge.  My opinions against the Pledge of Allegiance on principle aside (I'll talk about that some other time), the phrase "under God" is not constitutionally sound.

Now, before you throw in the argument that it has always been there and no one has ever had a problem with it before recently, I'm gonna throw some history at you.  The Pledge of Allegiance was first written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy.  It was slowly altered through time.  It did not include the words "under God" until 1954.  Did you hear that?  It did not include the words "under God" until 1954!!!  That means the words have only been there for less than half of the Pledge's existence.  I'm sorry to tell you, it hasn't "always been there".

Now that I've thrown out the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer in schools, I'm gonna go for the big kill.  Gay's should be allowed to marry.

Whatever your view on homosexuality may be, I have never heard an argument against gay marriage that wasn't religiously based.  Since the church should not control the government, that is not a reasonable basis for forbidding gay marriage by the state.

I'm sorry to say, I'm gonna go one step further.  You don't really have a religious basis for arguing against gay marriage either.  Whatever people may tell you, marriage is a human invention.

To illustrate, let me throw some questions out here:

• Were Adam and Eve married?
• If your answer to the above was yes, who performed the ceremony?
• If your answer to the above was God, can't he still do that?
• If your answer to the above was "of course!  God can do anything!", do you have to be married in some schnazzy ceremony?  (e.g. Common-Law Marriage)
• If your answer to the above was no (as it should have been), what is marriage?

Now that I have sufficiently shaken the foundations of the traditional family by throwing out the huge overly promoted wedding ceremony, I'm going to define marriage for you:  two people committing to spend their lives with each other.  With this definition, gays are already getting married.  Why can't they have government benefits for it?

My point is very simple.  You wouldn't like the government imposing on the church, thus the church should not impose on the government lest the two unintentionally merge to become a new deadly supermonster that will ultimately condemn us all to both death AND Hell for one thing or another.

Is THAT what you really want?

Fork in the Road

In honor of the day of the week and the fact that it has been stuck in my head all week, I'm going to HIGHLY recommend that you watch this video.  Someone told me that Rebecca Black did a bad cover of this song, but this one is REALLY great!

Stephen Colbert "Friday"

I realize there have been a lot of video parodying or straight up mocking this song, but I actually kinda like it.

One of the most mocked parts of the song is the singer's crisis at the bus stop:

"Kickin' in the front seat.  Sittin' in the back seat.  Gotta make my mind up.  Which seat will I taaaaaaaake?"

Such difficult decisions this person must go through in their life.  It is truly humbling the difficult decisions that some people must deal with.  I have yet to figure out how anyone could decide between kickin' in the front seat or sittin' in the back seat.  These are the important questions in life.

Robert Frost actually wrote about this very issue:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I don't know about you, but I was required in middle school to memorize this poem because it had an important message of making the right decisions in life.  ACHOO!  (I've mentioned my allergy before, right?)  Read this poem again, but this time, read it with a tone of sarcasm and a hint of spite.

As it turns out, Frost wrote this poem for his indecisive friend to mock him for his inability to make a simple decision.  Yeah, I just blew your mind.  If you read the poem, you'll see that Frost says repeatedly that the two roads are EQUAL.  It doesn't matter which one you pick!

Like kickin' in the front seat versus sittin' in the back seat and choosing between two equal roads in a wood, many decisions in life do not really matter as long as you make a decision:

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"  Yogi Berra

People wonder so often about whether or not they are on the "right path."  Whether or not they are doing what God wants them to do.  I can tell you from experience, if you are not doing what God wants you to do, he'll let you know somehow.  He may lead you to a new job, bust your knee, cause an illness, convince a relative to leave you a large inheritance, or part the clouds and come down from heaven to tell you to your face what you are supposed to do.  However he does it, God will get you back on track.  All you have to do is make a decision.

This idea has been exemplified many times on one of my favorite sitcoms:  How I Met Your Mother.  The entire premise of the show is that this is a LONG story leading up to Ted meeting his future wife.  Several seasons in, he still hasn't met her.  In one episode I recently saw, through the episode we learn that Ted found a penny that led to a bet with Robin that led to the discovery of a sale that led to staying up all night that led to Robin walking in on Marshal preparing for a marathon which led to Marshal breaking his toe which led to Barney entering the marathon which led to Barney's legs not working which led to Ted having to get Barney from the subway which led to Ted being late for his plane which led to him missing his interview for a job which led to someone else getting the job.  Had Ted not found the penny, he would have gotten the job and would never have met the titular mother.

If you think about it, I'm sure you can find these course corrections in your own life.  The lord works in mysterious ways.  It all starts with a decision.

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"  Yogi Berra

Just choose SOMETHING!

Why the Title is Longer Than the Post

My linear algebra professor's evil.

"How You Should Pray"

The pastor that was speaking at church this evening spoke about prayer, particularly the Lord's Prayer.  I, however, being the true heretic that I am, have read the rest of the chapter from which the Lord's Prayer comes.  With that in mind, hold on to your hats, folks.  It's gonna get rough today.  I'm about to tear apart your understanding of the Lord's Prayer.  Yeah, I'm going there.

Many people have this traditional prayer memorized, but in case someone is reading this without ever having actually heard it, here it is:

"This, then, is how you should pray:  'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"  Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

An admirable and, some would say (though probably not me), beautiful prayer.  However, it is also probably one of the most misunderstood passages of scripture that is ever taught specifically because it is virtually ALWAYS taken out of context.  I'm sorry to tell you there is MUCH more to Matthew 6 than the Lord's Prayer.

I'll start with the part that really bugged me today:

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"  Matthew 6:12 (NIV)

Many people have taken this verse and become extremely upset by it.  How dare God require something from us in exchange for forgiveness!?!  From this thinking, people have gone into depths to create loopholes around any requirements for themselves.  Many, many people will tell you that this verse does not mean that God will only forgive us if we forgive others, but that we should forgive others out of gratitude because God has forgiven us.  In fact, this is how I have almost always been taught to interpret this verse.

Here's where things get interesting.  Very rarely, if ever, do people go on and read the verses immediately following the Lord's Prayer:

"For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."  Matthew 6:14-15 (NIV)

I would say that's pretty straight out black and white right there.  "If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."  Yeah.  Jesus just said that!  Kinda blows that whole gratitude thing out of the water, doesn't it?

Making sure you get the whole story goes farther than simply shattering one piece of people's interpretation.  It's always important to read the verses both after AND before what people read to you.  With that in mind:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the street corners to be seen by others.  Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."  Matthew 6:5-8  (NIV)

This passage is right before the Lord's Prayer, and I highly recommend reading it a couple of times before you go on.  There's a lot there.

Nowhere in that passage does Jesus say to stand or kneel in a circle or in a cathedral with a large group of other people and recite some specific words.  In fact, he does the exact opposite.  He says go into your room by yourself.  Also, he never says that there is anything special about the words in the Lord's Prayer.  He says "this, then, is how you should pray," but I don't believe he meant "use these words."  Immediately before, he tells you your words don't really matter!

What, then, did he mean when he said pray like this?

Look back at what he said before.  He said that you won't be heard because of your many words.  With that in mind, reread the Lord's Prayer, and you will find that THAT is what he was exemplifying.  He uses phrases that are short, quick, and to the point.  I wasn't there and am not an expert of the time, but I suspect that he used fairly casual terms in that prayer.

The current general understanding of the Lord's Prayer is that it should be spoken in those words in a large group because Jesus told us to.  That is wrong and goes against his entire purpose when he said "this, then, is how you should pray."  He specifically told us not to pray in front of a large group.  He specifically told us not to use fancy words.  Many churches still use the word trespasses in the prayer.  NOBODY TALKS LIKE THAT ANYMORE!!!

Prayer is simply talking with God.  When Jesus prayed, he used the term Abba which, as I'm sure somebody has probably told you, means Daddy.  Dwell on that word for a minute:

Daddy.

God is not some supreme being that sits on a giant throne and looks down from heaven with an air of superiority.  He is a loving, compassionate Daddy that just wants to hear about your day.  Prayer is not some formal thing that you should do in front of people with fancy words.  Prayer is privately talking to your Daddy about your life, your needs, your joys, and just generally how you feel!

"Pray continually."  1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV)

Continually.  Prayer is not something that you have to do at particular times, in particular settings, or for particular reasons.  Pray continually.  Pray always.  God can here you even if you don't speak out loud, so what reason to you have not to tell him everything throughout the day?

Essentially, the Lord's Prayer in its modern use is completely against everything that Jesus talked about just before.  It is an example of the simplicity of prayer.  Prayer is simply talking to your ever-loving Daddy.

Have you told Daddy how you feel today?







P.S.  In the spirit of making sure you get the whole story, Matthew 6:1-4 talks about giving to the needy and verse 16 starts talking about fasting and stuff.  I would highly recommend reading all of chapter 6.  It's filled with stuff people have completely forgotten about or flat out ignore.  Plus, never take someone's word for what's in the Bible.  It's the most misquoted book in history.

Miles to Go

Today, I was looking through my favorite webcomic, xkcd, and I came across one I had read several times before, and have always loved:

It's funny because it is SO true!  If nothing else, it should let you look at things in a different way.  (Which is really one of my main reasons for writing this blog.)  My personal view on dreaming is a little more focused than that.  For me, dreaming is one of the means by which I measure the quality of my sleep.

Experts say that everyone dreams several times a night, but only remember a few if any.  For me, there tends to be a correlation between the amount of dreams I can remember and the quality of sleep I got that night.  The more dreams I can remember, the worse the sleep was and vice versa.

While experts have not managed to tell us what causes dreams, many people believe that they reveal something about your innermost thoughts and feelings.  Personally, I think it's your brain trying to make sense of the random signals it's dealing with while it reshuffles and attempts to reorganize things.  That sounds all scientific and fancy, so I'm gonna stick with that.

Whatever the cause of dreams may be, I've been having a lot of them lately.  I don't remember them now (as exemplified by another xkcd comic: Every Damn Morning), but they have been prolific.  As I have told you already, this also means that I'm not getting very good sleep.  While scientists have mastered hundreds of possible explanations of this, I hold to a simple one:  too much thinking, not enough doing.

Lately, I have been spending way too much time alone with my thoughts.  This can never end well.  It's times like that that cause me to end up with some of the deeper, more mentally stimulating posts that I have put up here.  It also results in crazy things such as a deep, intricate story surrounding the ancient Greek gods as aliens with all kinds of awesome technology.  I mean, it's quite impressive.  It's full of intrigue and betrayel and will likely never be seen, heard, or read by anyone simply because it all exists in my head, and I don't expect myself to ever really write it down.  Sorry.

My hope is that either some good comes from my lack of sleep, such as a meaningful post or a great story that people can read, or that I will quit remembering my dreams.

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.  But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."  -Robert Frost

I'm starting to think that man just had a thing for woods, but I'll talk about that some other time.  For now, I'm just going to try to sleep.

I hope I don't have miles to go first.

A Mission Corrupted

I missed a day of posting, so I'm gonna come back today firing hard and strong.  Christianity has corrupted the mission of Christ.

Yeah, I just went there.

When Christ was on Earth, many of his actions were done in secret.  He specifically told his disciples not to tell anyone about them.  Obviously, they were not very good at keeping secrets since basically everyone knew about what Jesus did.  Now, I have several times heard that Jesus was just being really smart and told the disciples not to tell people specifically so they would tell people.  Are you kidding me?  That's the epitome of grasping at straws.  Not to mention it's just silly.

So here's the question at hand.  If Jesus did good works and then turned right around and told people that he didn't want anyone to know what he had just done, why did he do them?  This seems contrary to what modern Christians have turned the mission of Christ into.

Modern Christians, generally speaking, have hinged their beliefs on a couple of key verses.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  -John 3:16 (NIV)

Many people have had this verse burned into their skull from a very young age.  It is truly a beautiful verse, but I believe most people focus on the wrong part.  Most people tend to lean on the latter half of the verse, particularly "whoever believes in him."  Focusing on God loving us is a wonderful thing, but instead, the verse has been twisted to turn those that believe in Christ into some kind of elite group of people that will avoid eternal suffering.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  -Matthew 28:19 (NIV)

Often called The Great Commission, this is once again an admirable verse that is avidly ground into people's minds.  However, it was not the main purpose of Christ's mission on Earth.

Some will tell you that the reason Christ did good works was to spread his fame so that more people would believe in him and be saved from eternal damnation.  It is at this point that I sneeze very loudly and inform you that I am allergic to bullshit.

Jesus didn't do good works so people would know about him.  He told his disciples not to tell anyone!

"But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what you right hand is doing."  -Matthew 6:3 (NIV)

Jesus was not a hypocrite.  He didn't tell other people to do stuff and then do the exact opposite.  Jesus did his works in secret just as he commanded us to do.  Why?  Because that's what it's all about!

The point of Christ's message is not to go out indoctrinating people and trying to "win as many as possible" for Christ.  The point of Christ's message to the world was to love people.  Not passively as we often think of love, but an active love that gives without asking anything in return.  Including indoctrination!

We are not called to tell people about Christ as part of some holy crusade to save people from Hell.  We are called to be Christ for those people so that Earth is not Hell for them!

Is The Great Commission important?  Sure.  But not as important as purely and simply loving people.

"Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"  -Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

The greatest commandments man has ever been given have nothing to do with indoctrination, nothing to do with evangelism, and have no hint of condemnation.

The greatest commandments man has ever been given are to love.

It's not as complicated as we try to make it.

Lighten Up

Most years I at least try to pull some kind of April Fools Day prank.  Most years, it fails miserably, and no one falls for it.  This year was different.

I posted on my Facebook page that I was transferring schools.  I honestly did not expect anyone to believe it given that it was posted today, but within two hours of posting it, I had recieved so much feedback, it was almost unbelievable.  So far, at least ten people have fallen for it based on comments, "likes", texts, and IM's.  In addition, I upset one of my friends that lives around here and pissed off one of my friends that lives there.  Two of the people I care about most in this world.

My experiences with this prank have left me with a wide gammot of mixed emotions.

My first reaction was humor.  I thought it was pretty funny that so many people fell for my little prank, especially after all of my past failed pranks.  I must admit that I still find it rather funny that so few people questioned whether or not it was an April Fools joke.

My next reaction was guilt.  I felt bad that I had upset people that I so deeply care about.  However, I must admit, this reaction really didn't last long before giving way to more stronger emotions.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I felt very loved given the reactions that I got.  When people thought that I would be coming to them or would be leaving them, they had strong reactions that made me feel more loved than I have in quite a while.  It seems a little wrong, but the fact that this upset people really made me feel really good.

My strongest emotion now with all of this is simply confusion.  How on Earth did I get away with this?  Have people completely forgotten that April Fools exists?  If so, why am I not taking advantage of that fact?

I finally got a text from my brother that restored my faith in humanity.  He asked me if I was playing an April Fools joke and it completely made me feel better.  At least there was someone out there who questioned it.  I'm still surprised at the people who were upset by it.  Did they really think I would do something this big without having talked to them about it?  Did they really think I would let them find out through Facebook?  REALLY!?!

If that's what they think, there may be more problems here than I thought.

I would love to have spent today's post talking about some of the greatest April Fools jokes I had seen or read about today, but this is one of only two that I've heard about.

The other one happened to my Astronomy professor.  She apparently came to work today and was informed that her students had complained to her to the president of the university.  I found this hillarious, because hers is the last class I would have any reason to complain about.

I remember a time when people would go all out, and April Fools was really one of the biggest holidays of the year.  Ok, granted, I'm probably overexagerating as I often do, but it was a bigger deal than it is now.  It's really a shame too that April Fools is becoming an ever smaller event, because I feel like the world could certainly use the reminder now more than ever that they don't have to take themselves serisously.

Think about it.  How often do people laugh at their mistakes?  On the other hand, how often are people incredibly embarrased by their mistakes?  In my experience, people are more likely to do the latter.

I guess the best I can do is to leave you with one final thought that basically sums up my feelings from today:  Quit taking yourself so seriously.  If you need more motivation, here's one of my favorite comics that puts it into perspective:

xkcd: Dignified

That basically sums it up.