The Spider's Trap

My wife and I just returned from the theater.  We took in the play named "Daddy Long Legs". It was an adaptation of a book written in 1912.  I would not have know that fact except for the need I felt to look it up because of my curiosity driven by all the messaging in the play.  If the messaging had been a little less obvious in its attempts at hiding horrible ideas inside of a passable love story, perhaps I would remain blissfully ignorant about when the story was written.  But alas.

The main character is a girl aging out of an orphanage who gets an anonymous benefactor who she names "Daddy Long Legs" because all she saw of him was his height.  Because of an essay that she wrote that sparked an interest from her benefactor, her benefactor organized and paid for her full education at university.  She writes him, he purposely does not write her to keep the anonymity as complete as possible.  She assumes he is old.  He is young and ends up falling in love with her from her letters and his in-person interactions with her. Yes, he wanted to keep it anonymous, but her incessant requests to meet and her captivating writing caused him to break his rule and go meet her as his young self, thereby perpetuating the alter ego of an aged benefactor.  The usual hi-jinx ensues.  No spoilers.

So what could possibly cause any concern from such a lovely love story?  I was put on high alert when toward the very beginning of the play as the girl first was introduced to formal, higher education, she concluded immediately that there was no god, and she was so relieved at not being so unintelligent as to believe.  As a believer, immediately I became disenchanted with her.  Although, to be frank, her voice was a nasally, high pitched Snow-White child's voice that grated on my nerves upon first hearing it, so she started at a deficit anyway.  But her blithe dismissal of a higher power clinched it.

Sadly, I am very accustomed to stomaching the derision that people have for a higher power, so I let that little barb in the script fall out and wither.  But when she sang so joyfully -- and piercingly -- about all the wonders of the universe, my reaction was one of derision.  She can dismiss a god, yet marvel at the wonders and beauties that even now many scientists are coming around to think would not exist without some kind of intelligence behind them.

Fine.  Just because we perceive something as beautiful and awe-inspiring its source does not necessarily have be a deity, or so the argument goes.  Fine.  I let this one slide, too.

Then musically she began gushing and stabbing my ears with gratitude at her benefactor's generosity.  How could she be so fortunate?  How could a stranger show so much love for a fellow being?  Oh, the gratitude she felt!  Without once even hinting at considering the source of kindness and charity and love.  She, as so many others of us, never think that such actions come from a spiritual -- or at least metaphysical -- place, and it behooves us to acknowledge and be grateful for it.  And if came from no god, but from society, there is no consideration of where society got it!

Alright, so there is no self-awareness, no depth of thought, a complete lack of higher reasoning.  It is just a play.  Let it go.

The girl's voice rings out, causing me to check for blood.  She sings about how she has discovered the secret of happiness!  And here I will spoil the play to impart such incredible wisdom.  Happiness is living in the now, with nary a thought to the future or the past; happiness is being with the person you love; happiness is doing whatever you want in life, whenever you want to do it.  It is obvious that one feels happy doing those things.  It is perhaps not as obvious that that is precisely how animals live.

As humans we were meant for more than evanescent happiness.  As all other things in the universe, we were created with a telos -- a reason for being -- and we discover happiness and hopefully inflict happiness on others as we fulfill our telos.  We have a higher consciousness than the animals, and we therefore should aspire to higher states than the happiness that acting like all the other animals in the world do.  But this presumes that we are something different from animals, which follows that there must be something different from us.  As we are higher than the animals, so too there is something higher than we.  And since that is obviously just dumb, it follows that we should focus on the temporary happiness that various things afford.  No thanks.

Writes the girl to her phantom philanthropist, "...I wonder what kind of Socialist I am."  Also, it turns out that the boy she is in love with (the philanthropist's secret identity) is a Socialist too.  How sweet.  Socialists in love.  After all the rest, my reaction was the very opposite of shocked.  Now it all makes sense.

Are Mormons Mormons?

Let's set aside the question of whether or not Mormons are Christians, considering the question is ridiculous from the perspective of the Mormon and anti-Christ from the Christian's perspective. The question posed here is whether or not a Mormon is a Mormon. Perhaps we should first identify what a Mormon is. According to good ol' Merriam-Webster, a Mormon (by way of defining a Latter-Day Saint) is a "member of any of several religious bodies tracing their origin to Joseph Smith in 1830 and accepting the Book of Mormon as divine revelation." Going through a bit of an exercise in logic, if a Mormon accepts the Book of Mormon as divine revelation, he must accept Joseph Smith as a true Prophet of God. If he is a Prophet of God, he had some pretty reliable information. If he had reliable information, that information should be used as a foundation or information filter through which new information should be passed. Should that filtered information not pass through the filter, it's garbage and should not be countenanced. I.e. if the new information controverts the information he supplied us with, that new information is garbage. If we accept that new information, we admit that Joseph Smith didn't know what he was talking about. This, of course, obviates the whole "divine revelation" idea. So no more reason to believe the Book of Mormon. "But we believe in modern day revelation!" Excellent! You should! Information doesn't stop coming down the pipe. But the belief is in "modern day revelation," not in "modern day revelation, no matter what it controverts or distorts." Or am I wrong here?

With only the slightest paraphrasing, I've heard the following: "Thank God for modern day revelation because it makes the scriptures and some of the questions they raise less pressing."  This is disturbing at the deepest levels of what makes a spiritual, even religious person tick.  It purposely and purposefully denigrates or ignores the traditions and teachings of prophets much further back than just Joseph Smith.

Perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the old and original in favor of the shiny and new.  And we most certainly should n't dismiss foundational principles and teachings in favor of the convenient and expedient.

Search within yourself.  If you accept and embrace the newest teachings because they make you feel good without making you feel good because they fit nicely within foundational principles, perhaps not only the teachings are wrong, but so too is the recipient of the new teachings.

On Death and Dying and Other Contradictions

Dad had another stroke and I'm angry at...well, everything. Okay, not everything, but an awful lot.

I'm not angry at anyone in particular, except maybe God for not taking Dad despite how long he has wanted to go join his wife, my mom, in the Hereafter. Maybe some annoyance at my mom for not coming to pick up my dad. But really, it is what it is.

The majority of my anger is around the rules of death, dying, killing, and preparedness.

My Judeo-Christian upbringing considers death a horribly sad event, yet laced with hope in the peace and tranquility of another life. It lauds the giving up of one's life for another as second to none in the symbols of love and sacrifice, but condemns the taking of one's life to prevent further pain for others as a one way ticket to Hell. It also condemns the killer of the innocent to Hell, but is quite clear about ganking the guilty to prevent the spread of his cancer in society. And lastly it attempts to prepare us for the inevitable end of all life in this realm with promises of a better existence, commensurate with our level of endured suffering.

Is death a horribly sad event?  Not if you believe in a Hereafter - I mean really believe.  Otherwise, it's a bitter-sweet event that happens to every living thing, with the inevitable outcome of some kind of reunion a little bit later.  Tears are shed when a loved one moves to another state, but it's not devastating.  So, it's understandable that tears are shed when a loved moves to another "state".  But if you're devastated, you might want to reevaluate the firmness of your belief in the Hereafter.  As for me, while I'm often saddened by Mom's death, they are just the occasional, random waves of missing her.  Rather like one might feel about missing a loved one in another state.  I'll see her later.  And if I don't - if I'm wrong in my beliefs - I won't care anyway.

What about the heroism of dying?  If I throw myself on a grenade to save my brothers in arms pain and injury, is that suicide?  Am I going the Hell?  Of course not.  Yet if I take another action to purposely end my life with full intention of helping and saving others injury or death in any other form, I'm going to Hell on a hand-truck.  I find this contradictory and a bit offensive.  We all choose how we die.  And we all die badly.  But dying with purposeful intent - THAT is heroism.  How can that be worthy of hell-fire?  I believe it is not.  We choose how we live, and so long as we live with the welfare of others in mind, we are practically sainted - and we should be.  When we choose how we die, so long as we die with the welfare of others in mind, we should be as sainted as when we choose to live the same way.

I have a problem with the concept of suffering as a way to purify our lives so we are more worthy of Christ's sacrifice.  I believe that the more suffering we endure, the more we are ignoring the Gift Christ gave.  If we are suffering, we should endure it until the bitter end.  Why?  I have been told that it's because it helps us understand His Sacrifice a little better.  You know, the Sacrifice that He made so we didn't have to suffer.  And I'll just leave it at that.

In short, we are on this planet to experience this life, to make choices as best we can until the bitter end.  As it should be.  Not as it is, but as it should be.

"The Whore" or "The Beast"?

Many people consider the Internet "The Beast" spoken of in the Book of Revelation. I think it's "The Whore". Consider what a whore is for. Now consider how the 'Net is used. Women have their needs met by Facebook, instant messaging, text messaging, etc. Men have their needs met by all the free porn. No need for women to connect with their men, nor men with their women. Sad, isn't it?

Lent Lessons Learned

This last Lent I decided on a sugar fast. (No, I'm not a member of a religious organization that observes Lent, but I think it's a good idea, so...what the heck.)

In my extremely limited knowledge of the observations and practices of other religions, I presumed that fasting for Lent is analogous to the fast that Jesus is recording as having gone on. If Jesus could go on a complete fast for 40 days, I could easily give up something as insignificant as sugar for 40 days. Besides, I was going to give up sugar around that time, anyway, so why not call it a Lent observation?

So sugar became a thing of the past for a little while. As time passed, the most difficult thing to overcome was the automatic reaching for sweet things as I passed them. I was quite proud of how I was doing until one day I realized in the late afternoon that I totally unconsciously grabbed a handful of mints from the restaurant I went to and crunched them down without a thought. I was quite annoyed with myself. But now, in hindsight, I realize it was in perfect similitude of reality. No matter how good I think I'll do, no matter how much effort I put into being like Him, I will always fall short. No, this isn't an excuse for not trying - quite the opposite. It's a measure of the level of condescension He and His Father underwent and undergoes for us. Lowly, lowly us. Good for us. VERY good for us.

Guilt Is for Mean Sheep

I wish I could express how tired I am of people requiring guilt to be part of repentance. Guilt is good for one thing and one thing only: a way to identify what it is you're doing wrong. Repentance is simply turning away from sin...i.e. changing your behavior to something more conducive to one's goals.

When you repeatedly stub the same toe on the same coffee table leg when you go through the living room, do you really have to feel guilty to stop doing it? No? You identify a problem with what you're doing and you choose to stop doing it because it doesn't serve you!

We are required to feel guilty by social organizations who find it necessary to punish the wrong-doers. But who are we to want to punish? Who are we to punish? Who are we to punish ourselves? We simply adapt our actions to what will get us what we want and need.

Yes, it is that simple. Painless? No. Repentance is change. Change is often painful. So do we really need to induce more pain before we remove its source?

Happy Boy Scout

I remembered the things I thought of when reading Matthew yesterday! I'm glad, too, since it gives me the opportunity to record them for future amusement.

First, let me start by recording an hypothesis I got from listening to one of 311's songs. The lyrics went something like, "Six electrons, six protons, six neutrons are encoded on this plane we live on." It got me thinking. That is the atomic structure of carbon, the building block of everything in this life. It followed that if the dread Mark of the Beast was indeed 666 and it is to be branded on some people's foreheads, perhaps it really meant that anyone whose primary focus was this world and all things therein with no thought given to things of another, more spiritual world, they have branded themselves with the building blocks of this world alone: 666.

Some people take the Mark to be literal, that we will be forced to have a tattoo or a chip or something that causes our enslavement to the Beast. While my hypothesis does not contradict this, it does take into consideration Jesus' intent of fulfilling the law, transforming it into something spiritual. He turned our minds from exclusively living and considering the laws as a physical act only and introduced the idea of spirituality regarding it. Perhaps we are not meant to worry so much about getting a tattoo so much as being concerned about losing focus of what is more important: our immortal souls--something just outside--and not trapped by--six electrons, six protons and six neutrons.

So, with all that in mind, let us consider what our current obsession is during these trying times: food storage and preparedness. Let me first just state that I am a rabid enthusiast of being prepared. But when it consumes our every thought, are we not focusing just a bit too much on things of this world? Worse (or "also") are we not ignoring what our Savior said in Matthew about the flowers and birds and how God takes care of them? Remember when he said we should relax and let God do His holy job of taking care of us? (I'm paraphrasing, of course.)  I think we should let Him.

Please understand I believe we should always do everything we can before we bother Him with our Wish Lists--I mean "prayers." Yet I wonder if we are spending so much time and money to the detriment of our families and loved ones; if we are making ourselves unhappy in the pursuit of all things survival, are we then forgetting yet another ideal: "man is that he might have joy?"

I know what you're thinking. But you would be wrong. The measurements of doughnuts in space really are not fleeting monkeys. But that aside, I am not advocating "eat drink and be merry" (though sometimes that sure sounds appealing!). I am advocating a healthy respect for the Love of God (His Love for us) and our trust in Him. In short, do everything you can do within the constraints of His commandments. And remember that most of His commandments are about love and happiness, not obsession with survival when the Big One hits.