Facebook posting

You know that 25 random things note that's been going around Facebook? I caved to the peer pressure, so here's mine:

just so you know, I posted 100 things several months ago on my blog: http://subsidedgravity.blogspot.com/2008/04/just-in-case-you-want-to-know.html. Some of them are a bit dated, but they're there.

1. I do not understand God's forgiveness of Ted Bundy (http://www.pureintimacy.org/piArticles/A000000433.cfm). Either (a) the characters in this Earth story are not as important as the overriding themes, or (b) I do not understand the story. I am completely incapable of such forgiveness, and that makes me a little worried.

2. My general extremism has spilled over into my online life. Hence, I start blogging, sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Plinky, imeem, etc., then I will just wander away for a few months.

3. In recent thoughts about work/home culture, I have realized that I don't know what most of my friends do for a living. Sure, I might know your brand/title, but I probably don't know what any of you actually do at 10:30 am on a Thursday.

4. I often (like on a daily basis) wonder if Christians worship God or Jesus. I know that they are kinda the same thing, but they really aren't. I wonder if the God-first and Jesus-first groups should get together and discuss. Don't invite the Mary-first group, though, until the second or third meeting. That could get complicated.

5. I am getting much closer to the day when I will admit that I will never actually write the stories in my head. Instead, I fear, I will simply post outlines on my blog (free of any claim to intellectual property) and see if anyone else wants to write them.

6. By looking at my current music playlist, I would appear to be either completely lost in this world or unstable. I prefer the first: http://www.imeem.com/dialogs/standaloneplaylist/?k=zMfkjtqib3.

7. I might have been the Lady of Shalott in a previous life.

8. "Crow's Theology" by Ted Hughes blows my mind.

9. No, Sheryl Crow, I am not strong enough to be your man.

10. I broke my guitar a month ago and am very sad about it. I threw it on the ground after a new string broke; its sad position against my office wall is a reminder at how crummy I can be.

11. During a recent play-date, my 2-year-old daughter ran up to me, pointed at her nose, and said "boogers". For those of you who have kids, you will understand the beauty of that moment. For those that don't, there's another random "daddy-thinking-his-kid-is

-so-cute" moment for you.

12. I only remember really crying three times in my life, and none of them were appropriate.

13. "Intent" is a tricky thing.

14. I have recently rediscovered my love of The Push Stars.

15. I do not invest wisely in people. I have known some of the greatest folks ever to be conceived, yet I spend so little time with any of them.

16. I think we all have our own Book of Nightmares, but I would bet that Galway Kinnell's is better than most.

17. I have always wanted to spend 24 hours out on the open ocean alone without much more than a raft and a notebook. There's something attractive about drifting on the thin line between an insanely deep, active world below and a vast, vacated world above.

18. I spend lots of time thinking about religion, race, politics, and the larger economy (not just money, but the commodity of everything material and immaterial); however, I rarely write about any (save religion).

19. I had a real outline/plan for my hippie rants recently on my blog, but I ran out of steam and veered off track. I guess that happens when you marry first-draft writing with the permanence of the internet.

20. from Swami Prabhavananda/Christopher Isherwood's translation of the Bhagavad Gita:
"In every age I come back / To deliver the holy, / To destroy the sin of the sinner / to establish righteousness. / He who knows the nature / Of my task and my holy birth / Is not reborn / When he leaves this body: / He comes to me."
I find it fascinating that both Hinduism and Christianity speak of rebirth, yet they approach the concept from such different angles. In the former, the goal is to avoid it; in the latter, it is the primary goal. Is any religion indifferent about rebirth?

21. I think my eternal heaven would be: sitting down with a never-ending bag of gummy worms, a bottomless Sprite, and getting to watch the stories of everyone's life (with a fast-forward button, of course).

22. I wish bartering was still around. Apparently, there is a fairly large bartering presence online; perhaps I will check it out during one of my extreme-Web phases.

23. Yes, White Lion, it is very sad when The Children Cry; I will be sure to let them know that we try.

24. I have only beaten one arcade game (in an actual arcade). It was the Simpsons game and I just kept pumping in quarters until it was over. It was a great day.

25. I am currently reading: "The Spiral Road" by Jan de Hartog, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, and "Raising Holy Hell" by Bruce Olds. I just finished reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel and did not enjoy it (though you think I would re: 17). Soon, I plan on rereading "The Food Chain" by Geoff Nicholson and would love to dive back into the Transcendentalists. Remind me again why I ever watch TV?

shanti,
mjh