I think I may have used that sweet little maxim as a blog title once before, which implies just how strongly I disfavor it. It falls along the lines of , "And your point is . . ." Yesterday was the last day of the previous part of your life. If you die today, today is both the first day of the rest of your life and the last day of your life, period. It's an inane saying of the sort that was printed on T-shirts along with those obnoxious yellow happy faces under which sometimes was written, "Have a nice day!" or, as in the most extreme of cases, "Smile! god loves you!" in the late 60's and early 70's. Literary pollution best describes it. Seemingly it is intended to improve the collective mood of society. Seldom does it have such an effect.
The maxims that best exemplify my personal philosophy (beyond the more serious Desiderata, which is too long to be a proverb, yet in which i find serious solace, are two succinct yet telling statements -- two truisms, I would call them -- and you may have seen them on bumper stickers. That's where I first learned them. While I possess a hatred of bumper stickers with a passion not even close to rational, I still cling to my favorite truisms.
Truism #1: What if Jesus really doesn't want you for a sunbeam? It's a possibility. Just think about it.
Truism #2: Jesus loves you. Everyone else thinks you're an asshole.
Note: Since the blog in which I discussed very nearly having been named Aubrey and I described the name "Aubrey" as a tiny heart shape that is neither too narrow nor too plump, and I described "Alexis" as all sharp, spiky, and poky like the pound sign on a telephone, I have adopted # as my personal symbol. It's kind of like "the artist formerly known as Prince" except that my name still has a pronunciation, which is Alexis.
#
The maxims that best exemplify my personal philosophy (beyond the more serious Desiderata, which is too long to be a proverb, yet in which i find serious solace, are two succinct yet telling statements -- two truisms, I would call them -- and you may have seen them on bumper stickers. That's where I first learned them. While I possess a hatred of bumper stickers with a passion not even close to rational, I still cling to my favorite truisms.
Truism #1: What if Jesus really doesn't want you for a sunbeam? It's a possibility. Just think about it.
Truism #2: Jesus loves you. Everyone else thinks you're an asshole.
Note: Since the blog in which I discussed very nearly having been named Aubrey and I described the name "Aubrey" as a tiny heart shape that is neither too narrow nor too plump, and I described "Alexis" as all sharp, spiky, and poky like the pound sign on a telephone, I have adopted # as my personal symbol. It's kind of like "the artist formerly known as Prince" except that my name still has a pronunciation, which is Alexis.
#
Here ya go...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbvrRct-TXc
Happiness and positivity are not good psychology.
ReplyDeleteTheoretically, if God loves everyone, then how does that make someone specifically special?
Knotty,that is one hell of a great song. If I still had a regular church music gig, and if I were working it tomorrow, which I would not be as I'm still on disability leave, I would use that song tomorrow at some point in mass.
ReplyDeleteBecca, I'm not turning into an atheist, but I'm beginning to feel less and less as though we're chess pieces god moves around at will, based on intensity and/or sheer numbers of prayers, or anything of the sort.
od took a baby back because he loved that aby so dearly that he could not bear to leave it on the Earth for another hour. another baby who had been lying in the very next isolette orincubator in the NICU was spared because so many people prayed for the baby to be spared. why should those prayers matter so much to God? Did he really love the first bbaby any more than the second one? Or did the fact that the second baby had a large family who stood in the hospital waiting room and held hands while praying really influence his decision? why would he favor one baby over another, and if he did,which baby did her really favor?
I now view God as a creator who also created free will in the hearts and ,inds of people. I think if you pray for strength to get through something, you may very well receive it, even if it's really mostly the power of suggestion that provided you with the strength. If you pray for wisdom, again, there's a very good chance you may receive the wisdom for which you asked, although in some cases the wisdom may come from within (just as The Wizard of Oz told Dorothy that the answer as to how to get home was something she had known all along, not that I'm quoting Frank Baum as a prophet or creator of scripture).
Bad things will still happen, both to good and to bad people, and to innocent children and babies as well, because freedom of choice for all of us exists. All we can do after a person has exercised his free agency to do evil is to pray for strength and wisdom, and to use our own intelligence with which we have been blessed to enact as many changes as we can to keep the unthinkable from happening over and over again, whether it's a legislation to discourage themassacre of children at a school or the knowledge we can use to prevent the drowning of a baby who fell head-first into a pail of water and was unable to upright himself.
I'm not turning our late and sometimes hyper-sexed president into a prophet or a saint, especially since a speechwriter (Ted Sorenson?)probably came up with the line, but the late President John F. Kennedy may have hit the nail squarely on the head with one blow when,in his inaugural speech, he spoke the words, "God's work on Earth must truly be our own."
I agree, completely with everything you just said. When I pray for people I don't pray that they're miraculously healed of their troubles. I pray that they find peace in whatever situation they are facing. Sometimes I think prayer just passes the blame off to God if the situation doesn't go the way someone wants it to go. Religion messes everything up, quite honestly.
DeleteOn an opposite note, Jason is getting confirmed on Wednesday. It's seriously the biggest deal in the entire world. Rachel is his sponsor and my Aunt April is having a cow that he's not being confirmed in a Vatican I church. My mother is driving me insane about it, too, complaining about how they're complaining about it. And let's not even talk about my Aunt Tracy who is even worse than Vatican II, she's Protestant *insert gasps, boo's, and hisses here, from my zealot Vatican I relatives*. I could care less, but it's been heating up for a long time and with wine involved you know it's going to be an interesting time.
Anyways, I was wondering what confirmation name you chose? Jason picked Christopher (well, I suggested Christopher and since his level of caring about this is less than 0 he picked it), and I chose Catherine of Alexandria, mostly because of her assertive nature and because she possessed wisdom and wit and was amazingly intelligent. I remember you mentioning that your brother chose Fr. Damien, so I was wondering who you picked?
I chose Camille, and acceptable variant of camilla, because I liked the name. i wanted Bernadette, but my mom had a really mean teacher in sixth grade named Sister bernadette. My brother's is Damien beccause he really liked the movie :Father Damien: the leper priest" My parents tried hard to talk him out of it, but he loved it so much.
ReplyDeleteAre any of your vatican I relatives Opus Dei-affiliated?