Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Okay, well here I am back blogging, only it is not the next day, but rather, my goodness it is the 3rd of October. Thanksgiving in a few days. We are invited for Thanksgiving, but I'm really not sure I'm up to it. I think, that I would really rather like to take some serious quiet time, instead of always working on this endless project of a house. ooops, way too tired to finish , off to bed now, wow tired.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The first day
Okay, so this could be described as the first day of the rest of my blog. I have wanted to blog for a long time, but didn't really know how to, or where. Well, okay, I was too lazy or didn't have the time, or,,, was intimidated by the concept. Of course, there is some kind of assumption here that I will blog for more than a day, or more that a week or two.
Here we are, February 14th, the day of St Valentine. Sandy, my loving partner, bought me a pot of hyacinths and a couple of chokky bars to celebrate the day. I, um, told her that I love her. The hyacinths are a thoughtful and practical gift; they promise to smell lovely (once they bloom) and I can plant them in the garden and hopefully we can enjoy them spring after spring.
Speaking of spring, the weather is decidedly improving - we can feel the warmth of the sun, and my goodness, it's still light outside at 6 pm!
My health has been pretty good the last couple of days, so tomorrow we are planning to fell a large tree. It is a spruce, the biggest tree on our property, and actually the tallest on this side of the lake. However, it died about a year ago, so it is time to take it down. It is right on the shoreline, so our plan is to drop it right on the lake and cut it up right on the ice. But tomorrow, I think we will just drop it - we can cut it another day. " It should only take a few minutes to fell", she said, confidently. We shall see.
I'm totally thrilled about the Egyptians throwing out that pig Mubarak. I so hope that they can indeed enjoy free democratic elections. There's such a lot of fear that this will act as a contagion and destabilize the rest of the middle east, but let's face it, it hasn't been all that smooth anyway. Perhaps it really is time to turf out some of these despots. I guess we just have to stay tuned.
today's topic:
Heaven Okay, so we are told as little kids, be good and you will go to heaven. A lovely, harmless fairy tale. Angels floating on clouds, everything you could possibly desire, no worries, no hassles. Well, first of all, that would totally suck - no challenges, no problems,,,,, sounds nice, but life (or life after death) would be just meaningless. But, more importantly, the concept of heaven can stop us from really living meaningful lives here on earth - it will all be fine when I go to heaven. Yeah, sure, it's great to live a good life, with strong values and all that, but not to get into heaven - to have a great life NOW. Life is heaven! Sometimes life is hell. But life is life, and we get one shot at it. I'm sorry, but I see no evidence to the contrary. Some 2000 year old writings, nuh uh. I mean, I think that Jesus was a really really cool guy, talking about peace, and love, and not getting tied up with money and stuff, but, born again?
I just can't see it. I was really happy to go to church, and sing, and pray and stuff, and I didn't really think about all that resurrection dogma, until..... yeah, that crisis of faith. I was studying to be a teacher, so it made sense that I would teach Sunday school. And, of course, they needed a teacher for the big kids. Teaching little kids can have it's challenges, but wow, those tweens and young teens can give you a run for your money. So here I was, Easter coming, and talking about the resurrection???? "You don't really mean that he came alive again do you Miss? "Miss, if he came to life again, how come no one else ever came back to life"? I couldn't do it. I mean, we talked about symbolism, and the concept of "faith", but I would have had a better chance selling Santa Claus,,, or, in this case, the Easter Bunny.
Now that Buddha guy, he taught some good stuff too, essentially about living a good life, with a promise of really cool living some day when you finally get it right. Yeah, good stuff, but once again, there is that idea that life is sort of a dress rehearsal, rather that a one shot deal. You can see that this stuff would be pretty easy to sell to folks, don't worry, our wordly life doesn't matter all that much.
I've been reading a fair bit of Stephen Hawking's stuff, and while some of it is a little harder to understand than the 2000 year old book, his explanations of the universe seem a little easier to believe than, well, you know, all that other stuff.
We think we are so damned important, but we are so DAMNED insignificant... who knows where "our" atoms are going to be 30 billion years from now. You know, one of the big reasons I am saddened about a lack of immortality is that I won't get to see how things turn out. I mean humans are destined to go extinct anyway, but wow, think of the things yet to come. I mean, the mere fact that I can post this blog is mind-blowing to a child of the 50s.... what magic lies around the corner? Okay, enough of heaven for tonight.
signing off, from my corner of the earth
missy
Here we are, February 14th, the day of St Valentine. Sandy, my loving partner, bought me a pot of hyacinths and a couple of chokky bars to celebrate the day. I, um, told her that I love her. The hyacinths are a thoughtful and practical gift; they promise to smell lovely (once they bloom) and I can plant them in the garden and hopefully we can enjoy them spring after spring.
Speaking of spring, the weather is decidedly improving - we can feel the warmth of the sun, and my goodness, it's still light outside at 6 pm!
My health has been pretty good the last couple of days, so tomorrow we are planning to fell a large tree. It is a spruce, the biggest tree on our property, and actually the tallest on this side of the lake. However, it died about a year ago, so it is time to take it down. It is right on the shoreline, so our plan is to drop it right on the lake and cut it up right on the ice. But tomorrow, I think we will just drop it - we can cut it another day. " It should only take a few minutes to fell", she said, confidently. We shall see.
I'm totally thrilled about the Egyptians throwing out that pig Mubarak. I so hope that they can indeed enjoy free democratic elections. There's such a lot of fear that this will act as a contagion and destabilize the rest of the middle east, but let's face it, it hasn't been all that smooth anyway. Perhaps it really is time to turf out some of these despots. I guess we just have to stay tuned.
today's topic:
Heaven Okay, so we are told as little kids, be good and you will go to heaven. A lovely, harmless fairy tale. Angels floating on clouds, everything you could possibly desire, no worries, no hassles. Well, first of all, that would totally suck - no challenges, no problems,,,,, sounds nice, but life (or life after death) would be just meaningless. But, more importantly, the concept of heaven can stop us from really living meaningful lives here on earth - it will all be fine when I go to heaven. Yeah, sure, it's great to live a good life, with strong values and all that, but not to get into heaven - to have a great life NOW. Life is heaven! Sometimes life is hell. But life is life, and we get one shot at it. I'm sorry, but I see no evidence to the contrary. Some 2000 year old writings, nuh uh. I mean, I think that Jesus was a really really cool guy, talking about peace, and love, and not getting tied up with money and stuff, but, born again?
I just can't see it. I was really happy to go to church, and sing, and pray and stuff, and I didn't really think about all that resurrection dogma, until..... yeah, that crisis of faith. I was studying to be a teacher, so it made sense that I would teach Sunday school. And, of course, they needed a teacher for the big kids. Teaching little kids can have it's challenges, but wow, those tweens and young teens can give you a run for your money. So here I was, Easter coming, and talking about the resurrection???? "You don't really mean that he came alive again do you Miss? "Miss, if he came to life again, how come no one else ever came back to life"? I couldn't do it. I mean, we talked about symbolism, and the concept of "faith", but I would have had a better chance selling Santa Claus,,, or, in this case, the Easter Bunny.
Now that Buddha guy, he taught some good stuff too, essentially about living a good life, with a promise of really cool living some day when you finally get it right. Yeah, good stuff, but once again, there is that idea that life is sort of a dress rehearsal, rather that a one shot deal. You can see that this stuff would be pretty easy to sell to folks, don't worry, our wordly life doesn't matter all that much.
I've been reading a fair bit of Stephen Hawking's stuff, and while some of it is a little harder to understand than the 2000 year old book, his explanations of the universe seem a little easier to believe than, well, you know, all that other stuff.
We think we are so damned important, but we are so DAMNED insignificant... who knows where "our" atoms are going to be 30 billion years from now. You know, one of the big reasons I am saddened about a lack of immortality is that I won't get to see how things turn out. I mean humans are destined to go extinct anyway, but wow, think of the things yet to come. I mean, the mere fact that I can post this blog is mind-blowing to a child of the 50s.... what magic lies around the corner? Okay, enough of heaven for tonight.
signing off, from my corner of the earth
missy
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