People can only anger me if I choose to let them.
People can only irritate me if I choose for such to be.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
the price of a life
June 5-6, 2007
People long to be loved. But truly loved and so they might reject love over and over again in order to try it - see if it is truly love.
People long for meaning. This desire is usually eventually allowed to die from a quiet desperation and sad surrender to "reality" that there's not much to life (without so much as spelling it out, this is oft called part of becoming an adult).
And so then it usually becomes a living for oneself. Or a "good cause." A life is "devoted" (sacrificed/given) to things that are perhaps worthy in themselves, but too much is given to them. Lives, souls, are too high a price to pay for anything but the purest, truest, worthiest ideals and causes.
So what are these?
People long to be loved. But truly loved and so they might reject love over and over again in order to try it - see if it is truly love.
People long for meaning. This desire is usually eventually allowed to die from a quiet desperation and sad surrender to "reality" that there's not much to life (without so much as spelling it out, this is oft called part of becoming an adult).
And so then it usually becomes a living for oneself. Or a "good cause." A life is "devoted" (sacrificed/given) to things that are perhaps worthy in themselves, but too much is given to them. Lives, souls, are too high a price to pay for anything but the purest, truest, worthiest ideals and causes.
So what are these?
Thursday, June 28, 2007
paper
June 5, 2007
On observing the plagued life of a highly fashionable (of the moment) model/actress, pursued and dogged relentlessly by celebrity photographers. She has ceased to become a person and at times she starts to realize this, to her horror. Even though she is popular, sought, liked, it is not her that they seek. It is the $20,000 reward one could get with the "right" picture of her. It is the status she brings. But she herself is no more. She has (almost) ceased to be. And in her place, where once was a person, is a bag of money.
---
A similar awful (but hardly as significant in magnitude) transformation happens when material things become even less than themselves. When they become plain dollar bills. When one hangs a painting or something that passes for art (or perhaps is honest enough to just be called home decorations) not for the beauty, or even appearance, but solely for the monetary value it represents (or facades). And so some are in houses of, dressed in, transported by, and surrounded solely by little drab pieces of paper.
On observing the plagued life of a highly fashionable (of the moment) model/actress, pursued and dogged relentlessly by celebrity photographers. She has ceased to become a person and at times she starts to realize this, to her horror. Even though she is popular, sought, liked, it is not her that they seek. It is the $20,000 reward one could get with the "right" picture of her. It is the status she brings. But she herself is no more. She has (almost) ceased to be. And in her place, where once was a person, is a bag of money.
---
A similar awful (but hardly as significant in magnitude) transformation happens when material things become even less than themselves. When they become plain dollar bills. When one hangs a painting or something that passes for art (or perhaps is honest enough to just be called home decorations) not for the beauty, or even appearance, but solely for the monetary value it represents (or facades). And so some are in houses of, dressed in, transported by, and surrounded solely by little drab pieces of paper.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
love and sin
I'm a people watcher. Porter and I sat at the Powell's Books cafe one day, with books to read and coffee to sip. But as he read, I looked out on the busy downtown street, thinking and looking. So so many people. Longing to be loved. With some of them, this longing was obvious, their lifestyle cried out for it, but others it was well hidden, even from themselves perhaps. Drowned in pursuits, or rather, attempted drownings. Lives passing by, souls. Each one needing love. How can I bring God's love to them, and them to love's God? But this is only part of it...
June 5, 2007
"Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:26
This blessing, to many, is actually a curse. It is up to the individual whether it is a blessing or curse. Although, in truth, it is a blessing, but! A blessing that is not wanted/desired is thus, in a very sadly real sense, a curse.
It is too great a curse to be separated from their intimate sins to be blessed by God's love.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Chains
June 4, 2007
I am only bound by what I choose to be bound by. This is not true, some would cry, but it is. I might consider what I have or stand to lose by unbinding myself too great a cost, but I am the one determining even that. But your life! Aye, sometimes one might give that to break the bonds. Is it worth it? Only one can answer for himself. Does one bind only oneself? No, but only oneself determines whether he will let himself be bound.
I am only bound by what I choose to be bound by. This is not true, some would cry, but it is. I might consider what I have or stand to lose by unbinding myself too great a cost, but I am the one determining even that. But your life! Aye, sometimes one might give that to break the bonds. Is it worth it? Only one can answer for himself. Does one bind only oneself? No, but only oneself determines whether he will let himself be bound.
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