Lent

Okey dokey well what am I doing for Lent? Well I'm not giving up chocolate. I'm not doing a lot of stuff but the list for this year is a bit more self improving and moving closer to G-d than last year.
1. Tithe 5% I'm horrid I just do 1%. My pie in the sky thoughts have been doing 10% but, I don't have a strong enough understanding of where my money goes. I know I should give the first offerings to the Almighty. This is an attempt to get closer to that goal.

2. Don't eat out alone. I like food and my friends are cheap. This relates to the money issue. I do spend a good amount eating out. The problem though is, does carry out count as eating out? I'm going to say no, but I should limit it to once a week carry out, including the cafeteria at work.

3. Feed the homeless at least once a month. I got two churches to choose from and I need to volunteer. I gotta talk to Bruce or the guy at my church about our soup kitchen and volunteering for that. Just one Saturday morning to make sandwiches for the unwashed masses and serving Christ.

4. Take one day cleaning up. I've let the house go a bit and when I cleaned up the house, went off to London and came back it was a wonderful feeling to come back to a clean house. So the idea is to devote one day or evening to cleaning up the house.

5. Dance more. How does this bring me closer to G-d? It doesn't. But I am getting asocial hanging around the house.

6. No home computer on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tech free. Except for the Palm.

Then there are the sorta maybes of Lent, which get broken on Sunday, a feast day anyway so they get broken.
7. Don't buy meat. I'm going to feign some sort of vegitarianism. But I know that's going nowhere.

8. No desserts. Meaning I don't need to end each meal with something sweet, but I'm not going to deny myself of something sweet. Yeah, a lousy rule.

9. Start at 8:30 I know what it means. I'll tell you in person.

Laundry

The bottom of the hamper stinks.
That is what I came up with when finally getting around to laundry. And I realize that I washed the whites without soap. Fabric softner yes, detergent, no.

A parody: TV

From a shiny smiley tv christian:

The TV is my shepherd, I shall not want anything else. It maketh me to lie down on the sofa. It leadeth me away from the Scripture. It destroys my soul. It leadeth me in the paths of sex and violence for the sponsor’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will enjoy the evil, for blood and sex they excite me. It’s cable and remote they comfort me. It prepares a commercial before me in the presence of my children. It anoints my head with humanism, My coveting runneth over.

Surely laziness and ignorance shall follow my family all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house watching TV forever.

London!

Made it to London alive. House being guarded and protected by Mike Henry. And Brett & Ira. Elizabeth alive and well and happy to be in an internet cafe in the basement of a Burger King. Yea!

Difference of thought

I was listening to the Bookcast about Cosmopolitanism and the author was talking and saying that we do not listen to people with other ideas and opinions. Oh, I listen, but I tend not to engage. Debate is not my strong suite, I know my weaknesses. I describe myself as a moderate conservative, but most of my friends are serval flavors of liberal. I've listened to them and I do gain an understanding of where they are coming from. But that understanding does not equal a change in my point of view.
A problem I've noticed is that people tend to hang around people of similar views, as we naturally do. Unfortunately, as the author pointed out, people who hang out with like people don't understand those who think differently and question the sanity of those who think differently and dismiss them.
That dismissing, which feeds into disrespect makes it hard for different thoughts to come together. The news media doesn't help. They tend to set things up for a fight, a respectful Jerry Springer. Also both sides bring up charactures of the other side. Of course, the charactures tend to readily show up.
The author mentioned something else that stuck with me. Universalism is not the answer either. It is okay if at the end of the day we don't agree. And that's okay with me as long as we can peacefully co-exist finding some deal where the yahoos can be yahoos and live among the nimrods.

How does one do it?

Really. And I am not helping.
There are so many books and articles out there. So many publishers and that's just the dead tree stuff. Throw on the blogs (like this and the other one) the electronic copies of journals, papers, and what have you and there is no way on earth that it is humanly possible to keep up with every opinion.
"You should read/ see/ hear this...."
The only answer is to just agree and forget it, because there is no way for you to read the book or see the movie or hear the podcast of every frickin' thing that is recommended to you. I'm trying to finish a book, loaned to me by another parishioner, by the London trip. I won't make it. Duck Soup has been sitting on my table for nearly a month, waiting for me to view it. I have a podcast back up because I left the palm at home. Oh, NPR is for the evening and the wee morning. I am accustomed to simply missing shows on TV.