WaHOOOOOOOO!!!

[2eclipse]

this is the last day of nonsense.
i am just cleaning up a paper and studying for my LAST FINAL!!!
and i WILL be at game tonight.
and i am mostly packed for MN. although i'm not sure HOW i'm going to fit ross's xmas present in as carry-on.

gotta luv academic stress.
not only have i kept off the weight that i lost this summer - through thanksgiving no less - but i've lost another three lbs.
forgotten to eat a lot. and when i don't sleep much i lose my appetite.

my mom made vegetable beef soup last night and we actually had a family dinner - which has happened....maybe 4 times since i've been home (ie. in the last two years).
and we sang xmas songs and read theology and talked about the role of grace in politics...
yes, my whole family is geeky.

but it was really wonderful.:)
i got introduced to a franciscan blessing in my human rights class that i had never heard before and i LOVE IT.
so ya'll get the opportunity to read it too.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy ansewrs, half-truths, and superficial realtionships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. Amen.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.
And the blessing of God, who creates, redeems and santifies be upon you and all you love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen.

Comments

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

it's my favorite :)
need to get on memorizing it.
i'm told it was actually written by st. francis. a google search would probably yeild more info.

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

I've added it to my collection of quotes and statements and the like... And dropped it into the head of my player with the ex-priest struggling with concept of God vs Gaia vs spirits vs....

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

if you are looking for helpful xian(abbreviation for christian) stuff, you might also look at george herbert's poetry. lovely thoughtful stuff...and milton's sonnet on his blindness.

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

The sonnet I know - But I'll look into George Herbert. Thank you.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

i particularly like "the pulley" and "the collar" and a neat little thing i can't remember the name of where the end of each line is the same word reduced by one letter...he had a really good grasp of form.

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

I should have thought of that.

I think that is actually going to end up being one that I pull out the good paper and calligraphy nibs for and put up somewhere.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

Awesome!!!
are there anything other non-traditional works that you (try to) live by?

for me (other than the bible) it is desiderata and the prophet by kahlil gibran....but i suppose this is up there too. it's right in line with what i want to do with my life; feed the hungry, clothe the naked and get the sober drunk.:)

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

Oi. Hm. My personal codes/precepts/beliefs are such a hodge podge of the things I've come into contact with it is hard to unravel sometimes.
I used to joke that I was going to write a "Good Parts" version of the Bible (no disrespect intended). Never did get around to it, but there are a great many good, wonderful, and true things in that text. Just gets lost amongst the bad geography, bad history, and flawed writers and translators too often. That and the bad habit I've seen to take part of a truism, and only use the bit that supports your view. That's irritating. There are some parts of Ephesians (likely spelled that wrong, been a while since I've seen the word rather than just having it in my head) where --part-- of a sentance within one verse are the only bits that see the light of day.

The Prophet is a big one for me, much of what Gibran wrote resonates strongly.

Some of my belief bits actually come from possibly more outlandish sources... The Heralds of Valdemar had some good codifications, there were things within Glen Cook's Black Company that made sense, the music within the books of Rhapsody... *self-laughter*

Elie Wiesel. That's another influence.

So much more, but this is enough for the moment.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

Glen Cook rocks my socks....it is too bad i lost most of that series when my ex-fiance left me and we split up the books.
mercedes lackey....is a guilty pleasure for me. she's brain popcorn...and unfortunately i don't even enjoy most of her later stuff because it all starts sounding the same and feeling preachy but with no new content. i liked her vanyel series and her stuff and her queens own stuff. my husband is exactly in your camp with that stuff though....i lean more toward tolkein and robin hobb for the philosophies i espouse.

i don't know elie wiesel. who is she?

you really have to watch out with the bible. i guess my perspective is that some of it is specifically for the time period in which it was written...and some of it needs to be heavily interpreted in light of context....but in my opinion, you have to be careful about ditching any of it altogether in order to avoid the very thing you just described - taking only the parts you like. i figure that burning witches and killing your children when they talk back is part of the time period and not something to be followed....but that doesn't mean we can't take messages like, "make sure that any magic you do is for God" or "parents need to take the behavior of their children and their responsibility toward them seriously" away from those passages. the bible HAS to be interpreted in order to be useful and faithful.

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

Yay! Someone else who has read the Black Company. Must say I have not liked the newest additions to the series as much as the old, but it is still the world, still quality, and still (mostly) the characters. I think he might have lost the thread or jumped to an alternate world or something, though.

Lackey is easier and faster to read than most of what I like, but the concepts are good. There was a period where (the owl books among others) where there was a fair abrupt drop in how much I liked them. I think the workshare in the writing team changed or something - the things she's done more recently have been more like what I remember. She did a trilogy with James Mallory recently that ate my brain for a day and a halfish.

Tolkien is lovely - and there are things he is one of the only authors I have read that he did right that I wish to do similarly right. Not an idol or a model to emulate, exactly, but definitely lessons learned and things to aspire to. He's one of the reasons I'm working on the languages of the world my fantasy style tales are written in. (Then again, I'm also just fascinated by languages and language, so I may well have done it anyway, even if I'd never read his books.)

The name Robin Hobb sounds vaguely familiar, although I do not recall if that is someone I tried to read and could not, or if it is in the large file of authors to look into when I have the time.

Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust - child at the time. He's done a lot of peace work, taught for a time at BU (I still wish I could have taken classes with him.) "Night" was the first of his I had read. He has quite a catalog, pieces of it dealing with the nature and effect and interpretation of God.

I do realize the bible has to be interpreted, and my urge to hack at in was motivated by a desire to take out that which does not have a context, or not a direct context in the present times, and to try to ameliorate some of the known translation errors that have become fact over time. Fact due to time read? If that makes any sense.
The passages I was referring to were ones I was beaten to the rhythm of as a child, even though I'd read them, and knew the secondary statements.
"Children obey your parents for this is right." ........ "Parents do not provoke your children...."
"Wives honor and obey your husband..." .... "Husbands, care for your wives, your authority is not to be a foot on their necks."

Paraphrased, yes, but that is the sort of pick and choose that angers me about so many "Christians."

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

i have not only read black company, but i have introduced others to it...including my ex-fiance who ran off with all my books....grrr...however since he did that, i have not kept up.
have you read the stuff lackey did on fairy tales? i liked the gates of sleep and in the serpent's shadow and the phoenix and the ashes...i hated the wizard of london. bloody awful.

robin hobb is amazing and also writes as megan lindholm.
she did the assassin books and is working on the forest mage books right now under robin hobb.
as megan lindholm she writes edgier things, example included. http://www.asimovs.com/Nebulas03/cut.shtml

alien earth is my favorite, but her other stuff is good too. for philosophy though....the mad ship contains most of what i've taken to heart.

i grew up with tolkien, but i only fell in love with him as a person and a model when i was in college and read humphrey carpenter's biography of him. my only beef with him is that he never understood women and never succeeded in writing them well.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

wow, you really got the ass-hatted end of christianity growing up, didn't you?
i probably benefited more than i know from having a minister for a dad. i had friends tell me growing up that my parents were the only "real" christians they knew

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

On so many levels that phrase is so right. There were things I learned from "Christians" that are so far outside the protocols for the religion... Yeach.

I've met more real Christians since I stopped being forced to go to church than I ever did whilst I was.