Mac The Badger

Part I: Do they have any, you know, leads?

2007-02-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been so focused on my other blog project (and drinking and sleeping and sometimes going to class, etc.) that I've been neglecting this little corner of the internet. And since this is my little corner of the internet I get to talk about whatever I want, and today I'm going to talk about my own problems for a change rather than those of the rest of the world.

I've spent the last three days trying to jump start my 2006 Toyota Prius. I parked it the other night with a snow bank on the driver's side, so I slid out the passenger side when I got out. When I returned to my car the exterior lights were flashing and it was whimpering with sad little half-hearted honks. It appeared that the car alarm was going off. So, I immediately stared hitting the alarm button on my key. That didn't work. I pulled out the little manual key and quickly realized that it will only open the driver's side door. So I had to wedge myself between the car and the snowbank to unlock the door which would then only open a few inches. I sucked in my gut and shimmied into the driver's seat. I tried again to use my key to deactivate the alarm. I slipped it in and out of the little electronic key nook. I figured out that I could put the car in "IG-ON" mode, but I could not start it and it just kept honking. My first thought was that my key was not working. So, I slid back across to the passenger seat and headed to campus security to use the phone to call my girlfriend to bring the extra key. I got back in the car and started frantically scanning the owners manual looking for ways to deactivate the alarm.

Tune in next week for the next installment...

Do You Know What a Love Letter Is?

2006-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a long, long time. This is because of several factors, one of which is that I'm currently also working on another blog (which I update more frequently than I ever updated this one). It's called "It's a Strange World." Perhaps the reason that I update more regularly over there is because the blog represents an ongoing project. The goal: to cast Canadian sketch-comedy superstars The Kids In The Hall into the cult classic film Blue Velvet by David Lynch. I firmly believe that this movie should be remade with this new cast. I figure almost every other movie made these days is a remake, so why not? Please take a look at the new blog, leave your feedback, and check back often. I update about once or twice a week with either a casting choice or related material. The current post is about other Blue Velvet mashups in which popular cartoon characters speak some of the most aggressive and vulgar lines from the original movie. Haven't you ever wanted to hear Linus call Charlie Brown a "fucker" and threaten to shoot him? Anyway, I just think Blue Velvet and The Kids in the Hall go together like sugar and gasoline.

Thy Songs Were Made For The Pure and Free

2006-08-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang!
It's been a while. So, I was lying (laying?) in bed last night and was thinking about what happens in our country when we catch terrorists doing something naughty. I for one can't believe that no one had tried to shampoo bottle trick before, it seemed like an obvious move to me. Now, once again, our governmental security forces are reacting to the terrorist strategy of the day and slowing up the process of getting through the airport while they hand search peoples bags for tubes and bottles of gels and liquids. It's worse than making everyone take off their shoes, though probably not as stupid as confiscating nail clippers. My initial thought is "of God, it's soo been done!" meaning that it seems unlikely that once a terrorist group has been caught using a certain strategy for getting explosives on a plane it's unlikely that another group will use the same strategy, it obviously didn't work the first time. Ah well, maybe the only reason they won't try it again is because now we are searching all those bags (or making people take off their shoes). I mean, how many more people did they catch with bombs in their shoes after the first guy?
Maybe I'm naive, but I find it ironic that our national anthem calls our country the land of the free and the home of the brave when we are obviously so eager to give up our rights and freedom when we are overcome by the fear of losing our lives and property. Where's the bravery? Where's the freedom? This may be an argument for why America the Beautiful should be the national anthem now, though that song does talk about God (gasp!). Anyway, I meant to keep this short so here's what I have to say: Don't be afraid, life's an adventure, love every minute of it and all that stuff. Live free or die! heh.
cheers,
Mac the Badger

I'm From the United States of Kiss My Ass

2006-05-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Though I hestitate to talk about the political news story du jour, apparently I need to take up my keyboard in the recent debate concerning immigration laws in the U.S.A. I saw two people arguing against illegal immigrants and for all of the harm they do to our society on TV tonight (not my TV, someone else's). One of them was a woman who was claiming that immigrants from Mexico should not be allowed to sing the U.S. national anthem in Spanish. It seems to me that the argument against this is simple: the U.S. has no national language. The woman kept claiming that we are "an English country". Well, we damn well better not be, otherwise why'd we have that whole revolution thing? We are America, the United States of, and we have, historically, wanted the world's tired and poor and whomever striving to be free. Yada yada yada. Eventually this woman simply broke down and asked repeatedly "why do we have immigration laws?" well, I'll ask as well. Why do we? The other person arguing against immigration was claiming that because we have laws that make certain people illegal immigrants we force these people into enclaves that isolate them from the rest of society. As he said, this is not good for them, or for the U.S. in general. So, once again, why do we have immigration laws? It seems the simpler solution to all of these problems is not passing more laws but repealing laws that have only been in place for eighty odd years in favor of one principle on which the country was founded: anyone can come here and try to be successful in whatever sense they desire (i.e. economic freedom for all). I'm sure I'm preaching to the quire, considering who reads my rants, but I'm interested in what others have to say. Once again then, what do you think?
Mac the Badger

Best Play Ever, Man

2006-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

People should not have to pay for art or entertainment until after they have viewed it. This would have two affects. This would ensure that those creating art or entertainment would do the absolute best they could to create something inspiring. Say I'm down in New Orleans, wandering around, I hear a band is playing at a bar I could pay the seven dollar cover charge for the show, but I've never heard of these guys and I don't really want to pay for something I'm not sure I'll like. So, I don't go in, I go drink somewhere else. Maybe I miss a great show (maybe not), the band and bar lose money. Here's what I imagine would happen if I didn't have to pay outright. I go in, along with a large crowd of people eager to drink and listen to music. The band gets a big audience which will most likely improve the quality of the experience for them and the audience. The bar makes money selling drinks. The patrons are enjoying the show and buying drinks and by the time they are ready to leave they are happy, drunk, and eager to hand over seven dollars to the bouncer on the way out. Sounds good to me. Basically, last night I walked into the student run dance show without paying. After the first part of the show two of maybe eight dances had been "good", in my estimation. I was ready to leave, but I was with someone who had a friend she'd promised to see in the second half of the show. The first dance of the second half was great and I thought to myself that I would pay a dollar of the ticket price for each dance group I enjoyed. Well, the whole second act was great, so when I walked out I paid my five dollars. I realize that this is already practiced, in some sense, when a performer plays for tips. This is something that I'd like to think about more. Imagine what this could do for the movie business, if you didn't have to pay your twelve dollars for the movie until you'd seen it and were satisfied.
Another economic idea I've had, maybe I should save it for a different post, is that only people who vote for the winning candidate in an election should have to pay taxes for that politician's area of government during their term. thoughts?
Mac the Badger

But, I'm Gonna Need a Tutor

2006-04-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

In our popular culture, particular in the late 20th century (I believe, or hope, that this has recently shifted), we were frquently shown images of people who were ridiculed for their intelligence by those who were physically more capable. This has had the long-term effect of making us all believe, on some level, that intelligence is not a virtue, but should be avoided at all cost for the sake of popularity (i.e. sexual desirability, the greatest of virtues in our culture).
I believe that the goal of education should be to teach people how to think for themselves, not what to think because someone tells them it is right. With the increased emphasis on standardized testing in our schools we are engaging in the latter. Students are being taught how to take specific tests so that they might pass on to the next grade, and the next test. They are not being taught how to be self-motivated, engaged, or passionate. When school becomes less challenging and completely extinguishes creativity, these things just mentioned, which I believe to be good, will fall to the wayside. And yet, it makes perfect sense that this is the program of "education" that our conservative government would choose to pursue. To produce, through the system of government-run public education, citizens who only know how to regurgitate the information which has been forced down their throats should be the ultimate goal of a regime which wishes to maintain the status quo. Anyone who dares to dream of a world that is different, or dare I say better, is labeled as a terrorist threat to the security of our nation. This group most ironically includes Quakers and other peace activists. But, security comes at quite a cost and the need for it is bred from the vilest of human feelings: fear. Our government is a government of fear, fear of change. Fear is a lack of understanding which breeds hatred and destruction. To break away from fear we must embrace change, be progressive, think for ourselves and encourage others to do so.
We cannot change the world if we cannot change our own minds and the minds of others. Of course, this is the ultimate problem of a progressive interest in freedom of creativity and thought: it must be taught, i.e. forced upon a person. It smacks of brain-washing. Any system that is forced on others, even freedom, is a form of tyranny. But, isn't it better to educate (or force) people to disagree with you rather than to agree? It seems to me that we can all learn from that, and perhaps find unity in it. What do you think?
Mac The Badger

Welcome To The Human Race

2006-04-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of some clever way of relating the titular phrase of this post to the common phrase "the rat race". I think simply juxtaposing them is sufficient, so please take a moment to consider these phrases. Thanks. Maybe we'll come back to this later.
I like walking in the city. I particularly like parking lots. I was walking across a grocery store parking lot the other day and I was wondering what it would be like if all of the people in the parking lot were trees, or squirrels, or insects or any other living thing you might find in the woods. I often think of long walks in the city as a kind of urban hiking. I used to enjoy traversing parked cars and fording small highways when I was younger. I like thinking of the contrast between the city and the wilderness. I believe that when people retreat from society we often think of them going off into a solitary world without the vital systems of support that we take for granted (water and electricity for instance). I always thought of Jesus heading out into the wilderness as a man escaping a world full of life, people, and being isolated in the wilderness that caused so much suffering for his forebears. Wilderness typically evokes an image of a dangerous world empty of life. But, looking across that parking lot I realized that our cities are the places that are devoid of life. The city has become the wilderness in that it is empty of that which nourishes us as humans. I'm not talking about food, I'm talking about some things that are almost inexplicable. For now I'm going to say that our world often deprives us of meaningful relationships and it pampers us, often taking away the possibility for adventure. According to one source I've seen this is what the youth riots in France were about: kids not wanting to grow up and cheifly occupy themselves with ensuring the stability of the economy. They wanted a sense of adventure. I'd say lighting cars on fire is adventuresome. So, does our society (the economy, the political system, social behavioral norms, etc.) exist to support us or do we exist to support it? I think that taking a moment to consider our world within society and cities as the wilderness, of being a place where we are utterly isolated but where we have unlimited possibilities of action, would be a very healthy thing to do. what about you?
Mac the Badger

I Can't Believe the Naked Guy Showed

2006-04-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

I was taking a walk in the woods yesterday and got to talking with a girl I was walking with about some flip flops she was wearing that were probably made in a sweatshop somewhere. She defended herself by saying that they weren't hers, she had borrowed them. We talked about buying sweatshop free clothes and how expensive that is. She said that wasn't really an option for her because that stuff is expensive. I argued that the cost of sweatshop free clothes more accurately represents the true cost of manufacturing them. We started talking about some ways to better buy and use clothing. We asked some people we ran into about their clothes. They said that they had gotten them from thrift stores. I am not convinced that this is better. It might represent an awareness of the suffering of sweatshop workers, but it doesn't really do anything to help them. What it says to me is that people have produced commodities for which they are, once again, not being paid. I think one good solution to the problem of the expense of sweatshop-free, american made, clothes is to own fewer clothes. If you only have five shirts, two pairs of pants, and some socks and underwear, that have all been made in the U.S. and not in sweatshops, that seems like a pretty good way to support our economy, pay people what they deserve, live simply, etc. But, it still doesn't mean that anything is being done to better the lives of children in India. So, I want to ressurect an ancient practice of protest. I'm talking early Quaker/Biblical prophet style. A way of being that shakes things up in the attempt to call people to action to better the lives of many. Besides which it'll save you a lot of money on clothes. Say it with me now: We should all go naked as a sign. I'm serious. I think this and plowing our yards should be our major projects for the Summer. What do you think?
Mac The Badger

The Work of Job

2006-04-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

I started a post about satanism and lawncare, but apparently I'm incapable of being concise. Let's try again, shall we? First I'll just forego any attempt to craft anything clever and/or poetic.
While mowing my lawn I was struck by an image of the 1950's, that is, what I imagine the 1950's to have been like. I thought of all of those people trying to be roughly the same, focused on roughly the same goals of consumerism, carefully maintaining their lawns. I thought of all of these people who are all roughly the same as being very much like their carefully maintained grass. They all want to be basically the same height and basically the same color, though they are all striving to be the most vibrant blade of green grass in the lawn. The uniformity of the lawns is reflected in the uniformity of the culture. Any dandelions or other such plants are labeled as undesirable weeds, pulled up, and thrown away, or more likely sprayed with toxic chemicals.
Indeed, toxic chemicals are a widely accepted method of maintaining a bright green, uniform lawn. My college used to get the company Chemlawn to come in during spring break to make all of the grass nice and green and uniform. They did it during spring break so that the students would be less likely to protest (they were off travelling protesting other things, or getting blitzed). When all of the cute, non-uniform (dandelion-like) students came back and wanted to chuck their frisbees around, they couldn't do it barefoot on the beautiful grass because the Chemlawn chemicals were hazardous to their bio-dynamic (read: filthy) little toes. And, when the students were in classes on Tuesday's and Thursdays they would gaze longingly out the windows at that beautiful green grass while listening to the melodious sound of those uniformity enforcing lawnmowers, which pump lots of lovely green house gasses into the air, all for the sake of our lovely green grasses. That was a little poetic.
College campuses aside, I hate mowing my lawn because I am basically reinforcing this chemically destructive, metaphorical uniformity to which I object. Not only that, but if I don't I can be fined for having an unkempt lawn by the city government. You might say that I enjoy a lot of freedoms that are protected by said city government as well as the state and federal governments, and so I shouldn't complain. You might say the lawns are so pretty when they're well trimmed. But, it seems to me that lawncare does represent some of the real problems that are destroying our world. I would love to hear what you have to say about that.
Mac The Badger

PS I don't really think lawncare constitutes satanic practice, but that's only because it does not specifically involve praying to Satan. It is probably a form of idolatry and pride, however, and if you pray to God for a pretty lawn that might be as bad as praying to Satan for one, according to some people's beliefs anyway.

Hey, I'm back.

2006-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

I was mowing my lawn today and contemplating how lawns and their care really represent everything that is wrong with our society when I realized that everyone at my school is now way into blogging. I figured what better time to get back in the game myself. The fact that I'm still angry as hell, maybe angrier, has something to do with it, too. I mean, look at this damn United 93 movie that's coming out. If that doesn't get you mad, I don't know what will. So, it's been a long time and I think I need to post something new. But, not right now. Here's what you have to look forward to: the incredible minority of women, parking lots as the new wilderness(es?), lawn care as satanic practice, and the fires that must be released. Right now, however, I'm going to drink a beer from New Orleans, eat some Chips Ahoy cookies (tm), and watch the end of a Coen brothers movie. You might think you know which one, but seriously Hisrich, you're a dick.
Mac The Badger

Sham

2005-12-21T07:08:00.000-08:00

humans are the only animals that blush, or need to. Yet we do not feel
shame. In general young american humans have lost the virtue of humility
and do not possess any sense of shame. The only thing that has been denied
them during their development is the rod of disicpline. Without shame,
what kind of animals are humans? They are just like all the rest.

They Say Fear is a Man's Best Friend

2005-11-11T10:32:00.001-08:00

Master Yoda says that fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering, and that is the path of the darkside. Who suffers in that scenario? ¡ used to think of violence as being the inevitable outcome in Yoda’s cycle. I’m talking about violence in the physical, bloody knuckles and black eye sense. This always seemed to indicate to me that the suffering was that of a person at the hands of one who hates them. Now ¡ see that someone’s fear leads to their own suffering, which may affect others, but only if the others are afraid. That is the true root of harmful suffering, not violence or pain.
People ask me if ¡ believe in violence. How can you not? It surrounds most of us through most days of our lives. But ¡ do not think that violence is as harmful to a person as fear. What ¡ mean when ¡ talk about something being harmful is something that keeps us from living well, from growing, learning, gaining character, becoming passionate and compassionate, helping others, being free, enjoying life. A black eye has never stopped me from enjoying life, in fact a black eye often provides a person with an exciting story, a reason for someone to buy them a drink, a reason for someone to give you a hug or a kiss. It can also be a way of understanding some part of the pain and suffering of others so that you might be more compassionate toward them in the future. Your body might be broken, but your spirit flourishes.
¡ want to draw a distinction between physical pain, emotional (mental, spiritual) suffering, and harm. Pain can be harmful, when it limits us through fear. These are the people with whom we should empathize. They are people who are restricted in their ability to live to their fullest capacity because of the harm caused by suffering, though not necessarily by pain. ¡ think suffering caused by fear, that is fear of pain or loss, is ultimately more harmful than any physical harm. Physical harm would be having something physically restrict one’s freedom. But, this does not need to lead to suffering and fear. Therefore it does not restrict one’s life. Take for example the players of Quad-rugby, also known as Murderball. www.murderballmovie.com
Fear which causes suffering can be brought about for many reasons. Usually it has to do with what the Buddhists in the audience will call attachment. We’re attached to material wealth, we’re attached to physical comfort, we’re attached to a tenuous sense of security. When these things are threatened we become afraid. We become angry. We become hateful. We suffer. We cause others to suffer sometimes by attacking people physically or sensationalizing the fear inducing events, trying to make others afraid as well. Attachment, the fear it breeds, and the problems it yields are well described by an artilleryman in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. This man has plans to hide from the martians, to slip between the cracks of martian society on earth where humans will be bred for food. Hang on, the quote is long, but good. He describes the other humans thus:
“...All these— the sort that live in these houses, and all those damn little clerks that used to live down that way— they’d be no good. They haven’t any spirit in them— no proud dreams and no proud lusts; and a man who hasn’t one or the other— Lord! What is he but funk and precautions? They just used to skedaddle off to work— I’ve seen hundreds of ‘em, bit of breakfast in hand, running wild and shining to catch their little season-ticket train for fear they’d get dismissed if they didn’t, working at businesses they were afraid to take the trouble to understand, skedaddling back for fear they wouldn’t be in time for dinner, keeping in doors after dinner for fear of the back streets, and sleeping with the wives they married, not because they wanted them but because they had a bit of money that would make for safety in their one little miserable skedaddle through the world. Lives insured and a bit invested for fear of accidents. And on Sundays—fear of the hereafter. As if hell was built for rabbits!
‘Well the Martians will just be a godsend to these. Nice roomy cages, fattening food, careful breeding, no worry...They’ll wonder what people did before there were Martians to take care of them.” Wells, H.G. The War of the Worlds. Platt & Munk, New York: 1963. p.208-9

I’ll tell you what they did before the Martians came to take care of them (and eat them) they put put themselves in little golden cages. Fear of the world keeps many people from being able to be a part of everything that goes on around them. It is my belief that separation from things is hell, sin, or death. Connection is life and love and it cannot be acheived from inside of one’s cage. We can connect with other people in all of the dimensions of ourselves. In the fullness of our being. ¡ like to think of the aspects of the person as body, emotion, mind, and spirit. Understanding is connection and that is why empathy and compassion are important and why understanding pain is a way of finding love. We can connect with people by hugging them or by hitting them as long as we are not afraid of them and we are not trying to make them afraid of us. In this way we can all grow through our relationships and live our lives more fully.
¡ do not think that fighting is inherently bad because of the physical pain that it causes in another person, but because of the fear, anger, hate and suffering involved for each person. ¡ believe in violence without suffering because ¡ believe we can free ourselves from our fear. In the book A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, a character states that once an enemy is defeated a person should not kill them but release them. This is the only way to show that you are not afraid of your opponent. Of course she does cut off their ears, but she does this so that her fallen opponents might try to win them back. It is to encourage them to live boldly and confidently, without fear of defeat.
Another character in the same conversation claims that he is terrified of all of his enemies and therefore seeks to kill them quickly. In truth we are all afraid, but how we react to that fear is what limits our freedom. We all have to deal with the existential problems of pain and ultimate death, but we do not have to attack others because of that fear. GRRM also says, this time in his book A Game of Thrones, only when we are afraid is it possible to be brave. ¡ do not see bravery as denying fear (that might be foolishness, the cousin of fear) but as facing fear and not allowing ourselves to react to it by becoming angry and hateful and therefore suffering amd causing harm to others. Death is the ultimate harm. The first character is not afraid, and may fight because of it, she does not limit other people’s lives. The second, overcome by fear, copes with it poorly through his desire to kill others. The second destroys lives while the first, though she may be fighting and causing pain, is in some sense nurturing her opponents.
¡ see nurturing relationships even among two people who are fighting physically. To fight someone you do not have to hate them, to hug someone you do not have to love them. There are more layers at work in the human person than are reflected in the actions of our bodies. A black eye is not always filled with tears and tears are not always filled with anger or sadness. If ¡ fight, win or lose, there are lessons to be learned. We can grow beyond the fight. After the few fights ¡’ve been in, ¡’ve gotten up smiling. One problem ¡ see in much of this is that of pride. The artilleryman is championing proud men with proud dreams, but ¡ think that this can become problematic in the nuturing model of fighting, one that is free from fear.
Pride is happiness in victory, it is self-centered, it is threatening to the defeated opponent and others, and therefore produces more fear. One’s own fear is bolstered because one who is voctorious and is attached to those emotions will become deeply afraid of losing. They therefore try to intimidate their opponents and make them afraid, which is more harmful than the fight itself. ¡ believe that the defeated opponent is the one who should be proud if they have faced their pain and fear and smiled through it. The victor should be humbled because they should never assume that the next battle will be easy, they should always reach out to lift up the opponent they have thrown down. In this they demonstrate their lack of fear. In this they offer the opponent a second chance, for another fight or for a new friendship. The fallen foe can always be raised to be a new comrade if the victor can defeat his fear, and not pass it on to the other. Mutual respect, as opposed to simple hatred, must therefore be cultivated in conflict.
The real harm that is done by fear is not phyiscal pain, but a restriction of freedom. Fear caused by attachment causes suffering and is more detrimental to one’s ability to live well — by which ¡ mean in compassionate relationship with everyone else— than physical harm . Reaching out and understanding others, really connecting with them, even if it is through a fight (or perhaps especially) is an opportunity to grow in your level of compassion. Extreme belief in physical peace does not acknowledge the many levels of the human being and the more extreme effects of emotional suffering caused by fear. People who believe in peace are afraid of pain in the sense that they believe everyone should avoid it. But, without understanding and connecting with pain we cannot grow into true compassion. Therefore release your attachment and your fear. Reach out to the world by facing that which you fear. Those things are the things that we need to do, not the things that are easy or comfortable for us. Now, what do you think about all of that?
Cheers,
Mac the Badger

Greetings and Salutations

2005-11-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

¡ do not want to talk about the weather. It irks me when people say it’s a nice day today. ¡ know the weather is nice. You know the weather is nice. That’s beautiful. The weather may be beautiful, but is the day really nice? ¡ have been told that people talk about the weather because it is something we all have in common. Maybe that’s true. It’s easy to talk about because there is obvious truth in a statement about whether the weather is lousy or nice. The phrase “lovely day, isn’t it?” might be a place where two people can express something they have in common, an appreciation for molecules that are not moving too quickly or too slowly, and therefore which don’t make them uncomfortable. But, that same phrase is also a way of keeping people comfortably distant. We are being just friendly enough by reaching out with those conventional words, but we are not talking about anything of substance that might actually create a significant connection between us. It’s like saying to someone (not really asking of them) “what’s up?” which is the equivalent of saying “hey, I see you there.”
Frankly, ¡ like to talk about things we do not have in common and the things that are really meaningful to us. ¡ am in a graduate program in religion. ¡ risk your bias by admitting that, so ¡ hope we can all keep an open mind, but that’s exactly my point: ¡’m taking a small risk in exposing something about myself so that we might be able to have a clear discussion of what really matters to us. In a seminary people are forced to talk about things besides the weather, things that they really care about, topics that yield difficult questions with which to wrestle. That’s what ¡ like about it. Nobody really cares all that much about the weather, unless we’re talking about global warming or questioning whether a natural disaster might be a sign from God. What ¡ hope people really care about is other people, the state of the world, politics, religion, philosophy, ethics, relationships, hard science, soft science, consciousness, perception, psychology, communication, movies, books, ideas, hopes and dreams. These are the things that ¡ think really matter to people. These are the things that ¡ want to talk about and that ¡ want other people to talk about. My hope is that you will talk about them with me, with other acquaintances and friends, with strangers. So that we all begin to explore the interconnected web of facts and ideas that make up our world.
You may have noticed that ¡ sound like an idealist. Well, ¡ am an idealist and we can talk about that too. ¡ think that being an idealist makes me a terrible optimist and a sensitive cynic. ¡ look around at the world with my ideas and ideals and ¡ can’t help but notice that my hope for the world does not coincide with the reality that ¡ experience. That makes me angry, perhaps impassioned would be a more comfortable term for some people, though ¡ think they’re the same, and comfort is not a virtue. ¡ am continually frustrated by the fact that it seems to me that the world is populated by a huge number of beings who are capable of rational thought and the agency to impose their ideas on their world. Yet the majority of people seem to consistently make choices that are not ethical, that are not grounded in passion or compassion, but which simply perpetuate unhealthy and unhelpful, ¡ guess ¡ should just say ‘bad’, habits. ¡ hope we can talk about all of that, rationality, freedom, and ethics. ¡ think that for now that is all that ¡ need to say about myself, ¡’m in seminary, ¡’m an idealist, ¡ want to talk with everyone.
At lunch today a fellow seminarian said that we are in need of a prophetic voice in our time. ¡ have thought carefully about whether ¡ could be a prophet. ¡ ask myself how can a prophet speak out in this world? Where is the wilderness? Where are the city gates? Wisdom has no place to proclaim. ¡ do not claim to be a prophet. The prophets were people who looked around at their world and said “Hey! Look! Listen! We are in trouble! Think about what you are doing!” ¡ wish that someone would do that. ¡ dare to hope, in the face of grave doubt, that a voice like that could change anything, since it never has before. In our society a voice like that seems likely to be quickly silenced any action that it might call for would be easily stopped by those in power. But, ¡ and others long to hear that voice. It could be yours. ¡ am only a finger pointing at the moon. ¡ am a voice crying out in the silicone wilderness which is full of words, but devoid of thought . Many have come before, others will come after. But, right now ¡ want to talk with everyone about everything that matters. Now, what do you think of all that?
Cheers mates,
Mac the Badger