Links of Note

I've been collecting links.

Salon fixes the Bible's Liberal Bias -- Salon:

"Who, after all, would suspect England's King James I, who ruled in the 17th century, of leaving the version of the Bible that he commissioned open to subversion by Marxists? The folks at Conservapedia, that's who. The Web site founded by Phyllis Schlafly's son Andrew as an alternative to Wikipedia, which bills itself as the only "encyclopedic resource on the internet [that] is free of corruption by liberal untruths.

"Now, you may think this is an absurd idea. But here at Salon, we think it's an important project, and that you're all heathens, or worse, Unitarians.

"Conservapedia is, after all, scrupulously fair and objective. You can tell from its article on President Obama, which discusses the mind control techniques he used during the presidential campaign, includes a lengthy -- and credulous -- discussion of Birther theories and sums up his political beliefs by saying, "Obama's positions have been described as that of a 'Marxist leftist'."

Oregon's Governor's Earth-based Religion -- USA Today:

"I believe if there is a God, this is where he lives. He's on the river, he's in the mountains -- this is what it's all about."

Demonic Halloween Candy -- The Huffington Post:

[Quoting a CBN article]"...most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches."

And some from my friends:

Barry on Choices:

"How can someone choose what they believe? As Tim Milligan (who I discovered by random during my blog-browsing today) says: 'I can't control what I believe is true. If you walked up to me and paid me a large sum of money to believe that the sky is red, I might say "Okay, the sky is red", but inside I would be believing the sky is blue and lying to you for the money.' The whole idea of "don't question, just believe" (or "God said it, I believe it, that settles it") makes no sense. I can't just believe something without having some sort of evidence for it that can change my mind from my current beliefs on the subject."

Mike on the Pledge:

"The Pledge of Allegiance was originally written in 1892 and has been changed four times since then. The original pledge was penned by Francis Bellamy and read; 'I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands — One nation indivisible — with liberty and justice for all'. Notice that the original pledge did not say anything at all about God?"

Sue on Toast:

"Why do people keep seeing Jesus in their pieces of toast? Why does it always have to be Jesus? Is he the only one allowed to appear on pieces of toast? This so does not look like Jesus to me. It looks like Frank Zappa."

Writing

I'm taking a writing class. It's not a creative writing class, it's a form and technique class...which I'm struggling with because my writing is generally, well, fluffy. I don't follow a lot of rules because it seems to squelch my creativity. Some people do fine with form; I could list writers whom I respect because they can dish out art and good mechanics of writing in the same post or article. I'm good with grammar, spelling, the details. It's making it all fit, writing a thesis that makes sense and then sticking to it, especially in an essay that is longer than two paragraphs. I tend to wander...there is so much information I want to transmit that I struggle to put it all together in a meaningful way, and struggle even more with knowing what to edit to make it work. It has to fit into a certain box, and you know how well I like boxes. :)

I did a Google search of my name today...do you ever do that? Today, i's not out of some sense of ego, but simply to see what's out there. However, I used to do it to help find the links of people who had linked to my posts, and to make me feel good. But I hadn't done a search in probably over a year, because frankly I'm just not writing that much anymore, and I don't really care how many people link to me (I haven't even logged in to sitemeter or statcounter for close to a year, I just realized). So today when I searched I found some things that I never knew. And it surprised me, and reminded me that I used to be a good blogger...I used to write thought provoking, interesting or meaningful posts on a regular basis...posts that people LIKED. Wow.

I hope you see the sarcasm there...one ought not think too highly of herself, you know? And I do still think I can be a good writer and I do still think some people still like my posts. That's fine. There is no doubt that my life has taken many turns in the last year, and those turns had led me away from writing.

Then again, I miss those days when I had something profound to say...because today, my spiritual life is so integrated, so common, so ordinary, that there scarcely seems to be anything to say about it. I'm OK with that.

One of my closest friends is going through something really difficult right now. It puts many things in perspective, and causes me to think more carefully about what is really important. I love her and want to be supportive in so many ways, and because of that I can't help but be more aware of what I value in my own life.

One of those things is writing.

I think I got big-headed....thinking I had to write well or profoundly for it to be worth it. This blog didn't used to be that way...it's an evolution I underwent as I began to find my name in Google searches. Frankly, the way I got there was by writing what was on my mind in the moment, always with the caveat that I reserved the right to change my mind at any time. I started small...many many posts with nary a commenter except Cindy (thanks for being there for so long) and I was fine with that. One day I realized I was having some 50 or even 100 comments on a post...and then I was like 'big time". Somewhere along the way my values became skewed to thinking that if a post didn't generate comments, it wasn't good. And I wrote for that. When did I decide that people should care about me, should care about what I write, and therefore it ought to be good? I shouldn't expect anyone to care...I just am who I am and I write because I am.

So here I am writing about anything just to write. Someone said you should never use an emoticon in a blog post, it's unprofessional. Who cares? ;)

Black White Gray

Sigh. I wish you could hear me sigh. I'm tired of rehashing the same old stuff. Religion is always going to be there, and nothing I say will change that, and people are going to remain in their narrow-minded boxes if they want to. As well, I'm not longer a slave to religion, nor do I think I have anything new to say about it. I found myself saying to a friend that "I just don't believe any of that anymore", but I'm so tired of trying to explain it. The immediate response is "You don't believe in GOD anymore?!"...no, no, that's not what I was saying...

That doesn't change the fact that I need to write and I always love to have the chance to interact with my friends. School has been a season of adapting for me. I'm learning to use my time more wisely, which means my ability to read and interact on each of your blogs is greatly reduced. I am here, I'm not going away, but please don't be offended if I don't get to your places very often. I'm going to try to stop making that apology, but the thing is, I MISS it. I miss knowing what's going on with you and reading your experiences and insights. But I have to do what I'm doing right now.

I have a question. Do you think love is black and white or shades of gray? In other words, do you think you either love someone or you don't, or is it more like your feelings for a person fall somewhere on the spectrum? Do you think it is something that you have to think about, to consider if where you fall on that spectrum is more towards love or more, well, not? Likewise, IS love a choice? Can you choose to love someone, or does it jut have to be there.

I'm not only interested in answers stemming from the perspective of, say, a new love relationship. I'm wondering also about long-term marriages, friendships, within the Church or the church, and even our feelings for other people in general.

Often, we are made to feel as though if we don't belong to the church, we don't love it or it's people. It's not that I don't love them, I just don't love them enough to subject myself to abusive environments; which unfortunately many of them are. Yet, somehow, in some people's minds, that "not enough" love translates to hate. How is that?

I'm so beyond arguing about this. My level of apathy scares me. I don't really care anymore what anyone else thinks about my faith, it is what it is, and either God is OK with it or he's not, but if not, I'm not capable of more than I'm giving right now. Otherwise, people just need to lay off. It makes no difference to me whether or not you believe I'm going to heaven. You don't get to decide.

Anyhow, that's not where this post was going, initially. My relationship with God is many shades of gray, just like love. I believe, but my beliefs all fall somewhere on the continuum between conservative and liberal, between belief and disbelief, between love and not love.

Do you think spectrums are acceptable when it comes to spiritual matters? To love? Or does everything just have to be one thing or the other?