Cartographers of Truth We Are All

What I am about to say may seem basic and obvious to some people, but some people may benefit from hearing it. I think the failure to understand the principle below leads to a great many needless divisions and conflicts – particularly in religion and philosophy.

What is knowledge? It is a collection of mental maps expressed in words and pictures that describe reality. These maps are not the realities themselves, but only the mental representations of it. Even the very idea I’m putting forward to you now – that knowledge is a collection of maps – is itself only one of many imperfect maps attempting to describe the reality of knowledge experienced by us all.

Reality is multidimensional. Maps are two-dimensional. What happens when you try to make a 2D map of a 3D object? You get distortion and erroneous information. Certain parts of the map are more accurate than other parts. Usually there is the most distortion around the edges. This does NOT make the map useless or invalid. Certain parts of it are more useful than other parts. Sometimes it helps to compare different kinds of maps of the same thing in order to get a more complete understanding. Each of us has our own “worldview” or paradigm or belief system built around our accumulated knowledge – our maps. Our maps have distortions and imperfections. They are usually the most distorted when we approach the edges – the boundaries of our understanding. Since our mental maps make up our “worldview” let’s use some maps of the world as an example.

Mercator Projection

The mercator projection is accurate at small scales, and near the equator but great distortions are apparent at the top and bottom of large scale maps of the earth. For example, Greenland appears to be larger than Africa, but in reality, Africa covers an area 14 times larger. Anyone who did not know the earth is a sphere might erroneously assume the Earth has four corners and edges over which one might fall. It wouldn’t be obvious that if you traveled in one direction long enough that you’d wind up where you started. It wouldn’t be obvious that the shortest distance between New York and London is an arc, not a line.

Goode Homolosine Projection

The Goode Homolosine Projection attempts to reconcile some of the distortions of the Mercator, but obviously it also fails to accurately represent the 3D spherical planet Earth. Someone who had only seen this kind of map and had no concept of a spherical earth might erroneously assume that travel from Australia to Argentina requires a couple of dips above the equator to avoid falling off the edge.

Mollweide Projection

The Mollweide projection is an ellipsoidal projection that presents some things more accurately than the previous two projections, but again, it is still far from perfect. I have shown only three projections here, but there are over 50 different map projections listed on the wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections

When we begin to see our own knowledge as a collection of maps of reality rather than the reality itself, we begin to become more open minded and more tolerant of the worldviews of others. Perhaps by comparing many different “2D” worldviews we can begin to approach a more accurate understanding of the higher dimensional reality in which we live. We are all voyagers and explorers in a fantastic magical realm deep within the infinite mind of God.  We are all cartographers trying to map it out and share our maps with each other. This is good as long as our goal is to help one another and to seek a clearer understanding of the absolute reality that lies beyond maps and words and knowledge. But when we fail to recognize that our maps are not the realities themselves, and when we become overly attached to our maps and fail to recognize the boundaries and distortions inherent in them, and when we insist that all others throw away their maps and use ours instead, then we are arrogant and create needless division. This is not to say that some maps aren’t better than other maps. Your map may be better than mine or mine may be better than yours. Or your map might describe certain things more accurately than mine and mine may describe certain things better than yours. You may have ventured places I’ve never been or vice versa.

Many arguments over words and dogmas and definitions could be avoided if we recognized that we are trying to press higher dimensional truths into 2D words. Take for example the endless arguments over free will, Calvinism, Armenianism, materialism, ghosts in the machine, etc. A completely sovereign God who rules the hearts of men is one kind of map. Human free will is another map. Non-duality is another map. Randomness is another map. All of these maps are valid, but each in its own way and each has its own particular distortions and errors when taken too far. When we look at them as 2D truths it is impossible to see how they can meet anywhere in our higher dimensional consensual reality. They seem mutually exclusive. They seem nonsensical. But at one time it seemed like nonsense to believe you could sail far enough west of Spain and end up in India because common knowledge lacked a higher dimensional understanding of the spherical nature of the Earth.

I believe that there are many things like this. Sometimes fear of the unknown keeps us from exploring and plotting out our own maps. Sometimes fear of rejection by our peers and the need for group identity keeps us firmly secured to one particularly common kind of map to the exclusion of all others. How do we test the validity and accuracy of various maps? We compare them against one another using various reference points. I believe the most important reference point is Love. God is Love and the Source of reality, and every valid map will teach us about Love. Love is what we all need and desire. Love elevates our souls and unveils reality in ways that nothing else can. What kind of maps compose your worldview? What can they teach us about love and life and this fantastic magical realm we inhabit?

Religion is Jello

 

A thought popped into mind a few days ago: Religion is Jello. If Truth is like Living Water, flowing, moving, impossible to grasp, clear, refreshing, cleansing, and refusing to hold any particular form, then religion seeks to take this living truth and capture it with gelatin, form it into a particular shape, take away it’s clarity and add a particular color, perhaps to add a few nuts, make it fruity, or mix in some distilled spirits, cube it up with well-defined edges, sweeten it, and serve it up in tolerably small jiggling portions. Once the truth has been sufficiently chilled and set-up in gelatinous dogma, it does not like to be reformed. Any attempt to re-shape it will invariably result in schisms and a degradation of structure. Arguments over words and semantics and doctrines are forks trying to pin down the imprisoned truth. The ultimate result is a goopy ugly lumpy puddle that must be loudly sucked down through a straw. After all is said and done, the dish and fork and spoon must be washed and cleaned and prepared again for use… with flowing cleansing life-giving water.

 

 

Sketchbook of Ideas

Over the next few weeks and months, I hope to have time to crystalize some thoughts that have been brewing for many years – thoughts that deviate from what is considered mainstream Christian doctrine. I have refrained from discussing these ideas too much with other Christians for several reasons. First of all, I don’t want to deceive anyone or lead anyone astray, and knowing my own potential to be deceived or be incorrect about things, I continually question my own beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. Secondly, even if I am right in my thinking, I don’t believe it is kind or wise to perturb a person’s paradigm prematurely. We are each on our own spiritual journey as led by God and many of us are on shaky ground and can’t handle a lot of uncertainty. Introducing too much doubt or too many questions all at once can send a person into a tailspin. Now these reasons for failing to discuss my controversial thoughts apply to peers, but they are no excuse for not talking to older mature Christians about my ideas. I guess in that case, I have been both fearful and pessimistic about the fruitfulness of that. Some arguments just aren’t worth having. When I fully understand a person’s unyielding viewpoint on certain issues because I have heard it preached and explained a thousand times and because I used to have the very same unyielding viewpoint, and because I know that it has taken a journey of some years for me to traverse this difficult path, I wonder how much can be accomplished by a half hour discussion in which I will stumble over my words as I attempt to convey a book’s worth of thought all while being hindered by the trepidation of premature judgment. My thoughts are like an artist’s sketchbook. They are practice. They are incomplete. They look funny. They are continually being reshaped, refined, and improved. Most artists don’t like for you to look at their sketchbook and see all of their imperfect attempts. Nor do they want anyone to see or read their work until it is complete, lest it be judged prematurely. That is also how I feel about these thoughts. But some of these thoughts have been in my sketchbook for many years now, so I guess its about time I threw them on a canvas and presented them for review. Despite my pessimism at how my work will be generally received by other Christians, perhaps there will be some good to come of it. If nothing else, this will help me to articulate these thoughts better in future discussions which I will surely have.

Definitions

Definitions. Aren’t they the atoms of knowledge? If we have in mind a concept or idea, that incorporeal thing residing in our minds takes on a body when we try to put it into words – when we “flesh it out.” The cells of this body are sentences, the atoms of which are the definitions of the words of those sentences. But definitions, once again, are concepts, the parts of which, have their own definitions. And not unlike the subatomic world with all of its uncertainty, the realm of words is full of uncertainty. We might have an idea existing in our minds in pure conceptual form, surfing on the immeasurable wave, but when we try to put it into words, it decoheres into something measurable and transmittable yet only a shadow of the reality of the original concept.

The inherent flaw of definitions is that they introduce separateness. In fact, one definition of “define” is to set the boundaries or extents of something. Take for example a whirlpool in a stream and a tree. What is a whirlpool? Water flows around a rock and due to the physical fluid mechanical properties of the water, it forms an organized structure of spinning water that we call a whirlpool. In one sentence I have defined whirlpool, and in doing so have given whirlpool a separateness. You might see in your mind a tiny portion of a stream behind a rock. But the reality is that a whirlpool is not a separate thing. It is part of the stream, and the stream part of the landscape, and the landscape part of the world and so on… We could also unpack it the other direction and say the whirlpool is made of the same water as the rest of the stream, and the water is made of molecules which are made of hydrogen and oxygen which are made of energy. So the separateness given to the whirlpool is an illusion. What about a tree? Is it any different? It differs only in complexity of its organization and structure, but separateness of the tree from its greater universal context is also an illusion. This is not to say that definitions aren’t useful or important. They obviously are, but only to generate or transmit the concept.

So if the separateness of a whirlpool is an illusion generated by the analytic hardware of our brain which requires information to be parsed up, and the reality is that a whirlpool has no existence separate from its context, and if the same holds true even as complexity increases as in the tree, then what about us? We are a little more complex, but are we separate? Isn’t our separateness also an illusion? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.. death is a reminder to us all that we are not separate. In a few short years, our bodies will return to the earth from which they came. And what of a soul?

How do we define a soul? That immortal part of us that is the sum of all our thoughts, words, and actions. The “I am” that confines itself to this body. Like our physical body, like the tree, like the whirlpool in the stream, how can we be so sure our soul has a separateness to it? Perhaps it is the firmly implanted delusion that we are separate that is the basis for all other human delusions and follies. God breathed into Man’s nostril’s His own breath, and the man became a living soul. And when he dies, the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Gen 2:7, Ecc 12:7) To die to self is to let go of the delusion that we are separate. It is to stop spinning around aimlessly behind an obstruction and dissolve back into the flow of God where more adventures await downstream.

 

The Engineer – The Singularity

This past weekend I did a painting on Chapter 8, The Engineer, for The 5 Dragon Daughter performance this coming Friday. An explanation of the symbolism is below.

The engineer represents man’s obsession to satisfy his emptiness with material things and to achieve immortality through his own efforts via technology. This began with the Tower of Babel as men sought to reach the heavens becoming as gods and continues today with the Transhumanism and Singularitarianism movements which promise unlimited joy and immortality through merging with machine intelligence and self-guided evolution or genetic manipulation. The Tower of Babel prompted God to say that if men were allowed to continue building, then nothing would be impossible for them. A singularity is a point after which a growth function essentially goes vertical and has come to represent the point of transformation of humanity when literally “nothing shall be impossible for them” via the exponential growth in technology. This painting combines all elements: a cyborg (the engineer) in a dystopic post-apocalyptic landscape, the Tower of Babel which rises in the shape of an exponential function to a singularity in the heavens (black hole). The engineer (cyborg) beckons the power of the singularity, but it is not yet clear whether he will be destroyed by it. Just as no one knows exactly what lies beyond the event horizon of a black hole – is it a worm hole to a new world or is it complete utter destruction at the subatomic level?– likewise no one knows what lies beyond the technological singularity. It is an object of fear, awe, and curiosity. The cyborg is physically delicate and hunchbacked resembling the body of someone who spends too much time behind a desk or in cyber-space. The sky is scorched and the atmosphere thin – possibly the result of nuclear war. The Tower of Babel and surrounding buildings are gold and silver representing power and money. A couple of pyramids are thrown in to tie the scene to antiquity and represent the illuminati interests which seek to turn the world into a scientific dictatorship in order to secure humanity’s transhuman destiny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, Hell.

It’s not my favorite subject, but October 31^st seems like as good a day as any to talk about hell. Hell has always been somewhat of a controversial subject for many reasons. Of late, Rob Bell’s book, “Love Wins”, has got evangelical Christianity all riled up in defense of hell. I have avoided the subject mainly because I don’t like to talk about things I don’t fully understand, but it might not surprise you to hear that I don’t think either the Bell crowd nor the hell crowd has it totally right. Now to be fair, I haven’t read Bell’s book, so maybe I should take his name out of it and just say the Universalist crowd. At any rate, I want to give my thoughts on the controversy over hell.

A depiction of hell painted on the dome of the basilica in Florence.

I can fully understand why so many non-believers and Christians alike balk at the doctrine of hell, or at least the way it has historically been presented by establishment Christianity, because the way it is presented just seems unfair, unjust, arbitrary, too severe, and incompatible with a loving God. The doctrine of hell is often presented as such:

1. Hell is the default destination for every person who hasn’t believed in Jesus Christ.
2. Hell is basically the same kind of punishment for everyone in hell: burning, sulfur, demons terrorizing you.
3. Hell is for eternity: endless days of torture.

Now, it is fundamental to the notion of justice that the punishment fit the crime: the more severe the crime, the more severe the punishment. The symbol of justice is a set of balancing scales. In our justice system a lot of effort goes into determining the severity of the crime: who was the victim(s), was there intent or was it an accident, what was the age/mental capacity of the perpetrator? All of these things determine the severity of the crime and therefore the severity of punishment. However, according to the pervasive doctrine of hell, there is no distinction in severity of either crime or punishment, and so the non-believer says, “If this is your God’s ‘justice’, I reject your God and his so-called justice!” and honestly, I can’t blame him because this strikes against the very notions of justice that God has built into us, and it is contrary to what the Bible teaches about God’s justice.

The teachings of the Bible make it amply clear that there is a complete spectrum of punishment and blessing to be appropriated for the complete spectrum of human behavior from total depravity to ignorant bliss to righteous perfection. Just as in a human court a variety of factors determine the severity of the crime, the same is true in God’s court.

When our actions are judged, how much we knew and what we did with what we were given is taken into account. Those of us who have had the privilege of hearing the truth have a great opportunity, but if we turn from it and refuse to repent, our crime is greater because we know our sin and can no longer continue it in ignorance; therefore, we will be judged much more severely. Those who were not privileged to explicitly hear the truth will be judged on what they heard from their own conscience or from the knowledge of God gained from nature or from whatever remnants of God’s truth is still pervasive in their culture. Most Christians accept the idea of an “age of accountability.” Why? Because we intuitively understand that a child is innocent because a child does not KNOW ANY BETTER. So what we are really saying is that there is not a certain age, but a certain level of knowledge and action required to stand judgment. I believe we are all born ignorant and innocent and therefore not defaulted to hell, but we all have a tendency to sin. Throughout our lives, God’s truth comes to us in various ways. It comes to some in a greater measure than to others, and we all have various levels of opportunity to receive it and do right by it or reject it and do evil. I think Genesis 3 gets replayed over and over again with every life born into this world: we are all born innocent, but we all invariably eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil as we grow up.  Here are some scriptures relating to these ideas:

 

1. Jesus used a contemporary cultural analogy to slavery in Luke 12:47-48 saying that the servant who knew his master’s will, but didn’t do it will be beaten severely, but the servant who didn’t know, will not be beaten as severely.
2. In the same passage, Jesus says to whomever is given much, much more will be required.
3. Jesus said in John 9:41, 15:22-24 that those who don’t know of their sin, have no sin, but those who have seen and heard the truth about the way of righteousness, but refuse to repent have no excuse for their sin.
4. Those who are teachers will be judged more strictly. Why? Because they know more. Jam 3:1
5. It would be better for someone at the judgment to be ignorant of the way of Righteousness than to know it and forsake it. 2 Pet 2:21
6. God “overlooked” the idolatry of the pagans because they were ignorant. Acts 17:30
7. Everyone whether they have heard the Gospel or not is judged by their own conscience and what they learn of the laws of God naturally. Rom 2:15
8. In the parable of the Rich man and Poor Lazarus, material inequalities and suffering will be balanced by God’s justice. Luke 16:20
9. God judges not by actions alone, but also by the motives of our hearts. 2 Ch 6:30, Psa 24:4
10. Those who are wise and lead others to righteousness will be resurrected in glory, but others will be abhorrent and appear shamefully. Dan 12:2-3
11. As a man sows, so he will reap. Prov 22:8, Gal 6:7-8
12. Everyone will be judged by his works. Rom 2:6, Psa 15, Rev 2:23

 

I am not against teaching about hell. There is a just punishment meted out to those who do evil, and we should fear the consequences if we reject righteousness and allow our souls to be blackened through wickedness. But I think the way hell is often presented is not an accurate representation of God’s justice according to scripture, and that drives some away from God or at the very least gives some the excuse they are looking for to reject God. God’s justice is not arbitrary nor is it unfair. Our God, the Creator, is a God of laws. All creation is composed of laws. The laws by which we are judged are no more arbitrary than the law of gravity that dictates your acceleration as you trip and fall on your face, or the laws of electromagnetism and thermodynamics that dictate the beautiful colors of a rainbow or sunset, or the laws of molecular chemistry that arrange the pleasant smells of flowers or the unpleasant smells of poop. The laws of nature have produced a vast variety of features and experiences; likewise, the laws of justice and righteousness are producing a vast variety of eternal beings that to a greater or lesser degree stink or shine. What you will become after you die, pleasant or unpleasant, is a function of your thoughts/actions/motives/accountability in this life. God’s justice meting out rewards and punishments is more like an equation found in nature than a grumpy old judge arbitrarily sending some to eternal bliss and most to a uniform endless torment.

 

Am I saying we are judged by our works? Yes! Where then is grace and the saving power of the Gospel? It is God’s grace and the knowledge of truth that works within and through the laws of God’s justice to transform our eternal nature from something that stinks and should be burned up to something that smells good and is beautiful and worth keeping around. Everything God does, he does through the laws and processes which he has created. He causes the rain to fall to earth through the laws of thermodynamics and he causes a person to be saved through the laws of grace and righteousness. God showed us through the sacrifice of Jesus that our sins are covered by his grace, so it is not about our sins and imperfections separating us from God, it is the condition of our heart in response to God’s spirit and truth. Rain cannot fall unless certain conditions are met and likewise neither can a person be saved. Depending on the conditions it may flood, it may sprinkle, or the sun my scorch a parched earth for months. Likewise, as a function of the conditions of a person’s heart, a person may receive great reward, hardly any reward, a little punishment or terrible punishment. Hypocrites in the church will receive far worse punishment than “heathens” who have never heard there is a God or even atheists who have never met a “real” Christian. Why? Because they knew more and were given more, yet their hearts became more evil.

 

Am I saying hell really isn’t that bad and most won’t go there? No. Broad is the road to destruction and narrow the road to life – only a few find it. Many go down the road to destruction, but they don’t all receive the same thing at the end of the road. Am I saying there is no hell in the traditional sense: fire and brimstone? No, I’m not saying that. As to what hell really is, I don’t know any more than I know of what heaven really is. I think it is pretty unlikely that heaven or hell are precisely what the stereotypes depict. Is hell eternal? Yes, but what exactly that means, I don’t know. It is impossible to comprehend eternity. Our present bodies are composed of elements governed by laws composed of equations that have time as a variable; therefore, we experience time in a particular way. After we leave these bodies, I have no idea what equations will govern our eternal substance, so I have no idea how we will perceive time in “eternity”.

 

Another thing that puzzles me about the eternal nature of hell is the “2^nd death” spoken of in Revelation 20 which is “the lake of fire”. It is said that all the dead who did not have life will be thrown into the lake of fire along with “death” and “hell”. Now what does that mean to say that death and hell both die along with all those found in them? Does that mean they cease to exist – eternally? I hope so, because this would be a convenient rebuttal to those who argue, “I would never be able to enjoy heaven knowing that somewhere there are billions of people suffering terribly.” All I know about “death” is that it is an end, so the only way I know how to interpret the “2^nd death” is to say that hell “ends”. But how does that jive with the verses immediately preceding (20:10)? I don’t know. And that’s why I don’t like to talk about all this – I just don’t know.

 

I simply take comfort in knowing God is a God of law and order. He is not arbitrary. He is just and every single person’s eternal status is a result of the laws of righteousness in operation – a function of many factors – not merely an arbitrary sentencing by a pissed off old man in the sky. Unfortunately most people merely look at others and judge themselves in comparison to others and think, “I’m not that bad.” But such thoughts show their hearts are not right before God and they need the transforming power of the Good News from Jesus Christ to save them. The righteousness of God is not found in comparing one’s self to others. It is found in forgetting one’s self altogether and walking with a thankful heart in communion with our Creator. It is found in following in the footsteps of Jesus who gave his life for many. We, likewise living selflessly in love will know his fellowship. And as we walk with him, we will be transformed into creatures of glory that endure forever and ever.

A Year of Status

Most of my Facebook statuses from the last year excluding a few dumb ones and quotes by others:

Life is like solving a Rubik’s Cube: with proper instruction and a little practice, anyone can master it, but few put in the effort and most remain baffled and bewildered by it, and they stand in awe at anyone else who can solve its mysteries.

Even though it is the greatest risk and an act of God, as far as I can tell, no one has figured out how to sell insurance for love.

When life seems unfair, remember no two people may have the same lot and it is the stoutest horse that is made to carry the heaviest load. Sorrows in this life can be traded for spiritual reward, and earthly pleasure, while a temporal blessing, may be a lost opportunity for eternal reward.

“Behold, I am just like you before God; I too have been molded from clay.” ~Job 33:6 I bet Job had a belly button…

<sniff,sniff> what’s that smell? Smells like burning… Oh, don’t worry, it’s only Texas…

Does anyone else have these random epiphanies about how completely absurd it all is..life, the universe, and everything?? I do..usually when I’m in a public restroom.

Most of the time we overestimate our own importance, but when it counts we tend to underestimate it.

Making a pot of coffee is the most important first step to a productive day not only because of the caffeine high, but also because the sense of accomplishment in having gotten SOMETHING done provides momentum from which other things may be successfully accomplished.

Does anyone else get greeted with an uncanny sense of familiarity by people u barely know yet are Facebook friended? You struggle to remember their name and you’re wondering how they seem to know you so well until they make reference to an obscure FB status. Then it clicks. There’s that look in their eye and that slight grin that says, “I really do know u. I’ve been reading up on u.”

I need a more interesting life. I’m thinking about applying at Pixar. I hear they have a position open in the floor sweeping dept.

Biennial clothes shopping complete. 5 stores in 1.5 hours. 17 items purchased. That’s 5.29 minutes per item. #efficiency

The soul’s a sea, the Holy Spirit a gentle breeze, and the lusts of the flesh a tempest. You cannot discern the ripples of the Spirit amongst the crashing white caps of the tempest. It is only when your waters are placid, calm, still, smooth as glass, that the stirrings of the gentle breeze can clearly be observed.

My heart’s a Halogen; too easily it binds.

Parents of teenage sons: one of the worst things you can do to them is to fail to trust them with responsibility – even if they are not worthy of it, even if they are likely to fail. If you don’t believe in them, they will never learn to believe in themselves.

Romantic love could be described as a vice designed to engender a greater virtue, a destruction and recreation, a collision of two stars from the dust of which worlds are born. What begins as a lust of the ego to possess another results in the obliteration of self when the two celestial bodies collide.

Forget that you exist and others cannot offend you, for who is there to offend? Forget that you exist and when others praise you it will be a pleasant shock to remember who you are and Whose you are, but to be worthy of such praise you must quickly forget yourself again.

I just want to heal people. That’s all.

A good man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.

I was gonna clean my room until I got on Facebook. I was gonna get up and find the broom but then I got on Facebook. My room is still messed up and I know why (why man?) yea heyy, - cause I got on Facebook…

If Casey Anthony’s little girl was killed in the womb, no one would care.

Your genetic code can be represented by about 4 MB of data – roughly the same as one moderate quality JPEG digital image or one 3 minute MP3 song.

I thought of two wise sayings on my way home from work today… Now I can’t remember what they were. :-/

#Leadership: Making a mediocre decision is often better than making no decision. Decisiveness inspires confidence.

‎3 eternal truths eluding #Kurzweil: There’s no birth without pain, no eternal life without death, and singularities often precede collapses.

If u turn off Bluetooth on ur Mac, how do u turn it back on if both ur mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth???

Either pray or be prey. #prowlinglion

It is amazing to me that we live in a nation that tolerates SWAT team raids on farmers selling raw milk – a product consumed by humanity for millennia…

Wow… I’m glad I didn’t blog about the end of the world today… turns out that would have been so cliché… (May 21^st 2011)

Revelation 21:8 says everyone who uses computers is going to hell. …unless you actually have “read and agreed to the terms of service.”

Every time I bite into an oatmeal raisin walnut Cliff Bar, I have flashbacks to Rocky Mountain landscapes from past backpacking trips.

Due to severe weather they told us over the loudspeaker to go to our safe place, so I closed my eyes and imagined an ice cave with a happy penguin.

Well since I didn’t get to go to the lake today, I’m lounging in the sun in my backyard and pretending the periodic “whoosh” of passing cars is the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

I just met a werewolf… Actually it was merely a 19 year old kid high on multiple drugs and full of Twilight demons… He said he sold his soul to the devil, and in hell they have Facebook, but the Internet is REALLY slow and everyone is alone, but in heaven they have high-speed DSL… :-/

Life is better without a self in the way.

I’m not good at patience, but I’m good at contentment: I’m good at convincing myself I don’t want something, but as soon as I decide I want something, I always try to make it happen immediately… :-/

Sitting in BAM, pretending to read while eavesdropping on the guy’s phone conversation sitting next to me… In a Jack Black voice he’s wittily talking in cliches, platitudes, and expletives about the collapse of the dollar and advising his advisee to get into gold silver and oil. He says we’ve got 3 to 30 months until the big collapse happens… (April 1^st, 2011)

People often ask what I do. Two people today. I’ve developed a short summary pausing after each level of detail to determine via body language whether they’re satisfied yet: “I work for J-W {pause} out by the airport, {pause} we package natural gas compressors {pause} I’m an engineer {pause} It’s really pretty boring…”

So two months after finishing the 13-month course of antibiotics, the Lyme disease has returned in full force racking the body with pain, stiffness, etc. Aleve is once again a prerequisite to walking/moving. So… back on the Doxycycline I go for another 6 months… Bleh…

Facebook: the opiate of the lonely.

Looking for a trunk, in which to place my junk… — at Target.

Here at work, each person in each department wants to keep all their own ducks in a row. The problem is that from time to time the salesmen come blasting through with their shotguns. Then everyone gets their ducks all mixed up. Many ducks are slaughtered, and no one is happy.

If I kept a list of little things that make life a lot better, 20-minute power naps would have to be near the top of that list.

I’ve given up hope of ever finding someone. They say true love strikes when u least expect it. I sure hope this works…

I’ve decided it is time to start factoring in the amount of stress a choice will cause when making decisions and planning my schedule. I’ve realized I’m a grown-up now, and I can’t simply do everything I put my mind to without consequences. Stress is taking its toll, and left unchecked can turn one into a curmudgeonly old sourpuss.

A little global warming sure would be nice right now… Perhaps if we all try to increase our carbon footprint by hyperventilating, driving faster, and eating more beef, we can get some relief!

[Brandon Davis] feels another paradigm shift coming on..

After seeing dazzling spectacles of light and sound in movies like Avatar or Tron, driving around looking at the Christmas lights just doesn’t do much for me anymore…

Some men struggle with wine, women, and wealth, but I struggle with speeding. It seems a tragedy that God’s natural laws of physics and friction should be superseded by man’s laws that put arbitrary limitations on the gloriousness of speed…. Nevertheless I’m turning over a new leaf and obeying “the laws of the land” now.

Let go, and let Google.

‎…in search of the hundredth monkey.

I’ve been operating under the premise that time is money, and with today’s 3rd ticket in 3 months it’s time to do a cost/benefit analysis on speeding… I’m afraid I now may actually be losing money on this deal. /

I’ve had the most multicultural Thursday in recent memory: I was taken to Tex-Mex lunch by an Englishman, then off to an Italian caffe for a glass of imported wine while listening to live music with a couple of LeTourneau scholars, followed by an Indian dinner seated next to Muslims, concluded with Celtic techno on the car ride home.

I know I’m supposed to be mature by now, but I don’t think the silly mischievous little boy inside ever fully grows up… I think I may have let him run amuck lately. :-/

Having dinner with some friends talking about hearing their beloved G.W. speak and how all these horrible protestors were passing out pictures of his tortured victims at Guantanamo. I said, “I woulda been one of those protestors.” They react like I just kicked a baby. Later another friend tells them about the TSA atrocities and they are completely outraged. Who created the TSA???

I think I may have a problem with addiction: I was just sitting here at the computer… on Facebook… while staring at my iPhone… on Facebook.

I love drifting in the rain…

VOTE! And remember: Those who vote for the lesser of two evils are still voting for evil. Don’t vote for the lesser evil simply because that candidate has a better chance of winning. A vote based on your principles alone is the only morally defensible choice.

Words: In one way, they are only images of truth, not the realities themselves – sometimes carrying us further from the truth we mean to express with every syllable; but in another way, words, once written, become new realities – thoughts, ideas, feelings long suppressed silently stillborn within one’s own soul suddenly reborn onto a page achieving immortality, molding the eternal soul by their expression.

Let’s never forget: no matter how honest we are, we are not who we are on Facebook.

Voted. …Straight Libertarian where possible.

Green means go and blinking red means stop… What does it mean when the traffic light is green AND blinking red? …a woman must have programmed that light. Why else would it be sending mixed signals?

Maybe the remedy to being misunderstood is to stop caring whether or not other people understand you and simply be content to let them know you understand and care for them. People understand love.

‎…so much wrong with this old world today… So much pain… So much confusion… So much corruption… I hate that I can’t fix it all. I’m tired of seeing people suffer.  Jesus, come back! …..Hurry!

‎9 years ago today, a crime was committed and a myth was born. The crime was real. The victims were real. The terrorists were a myth. All of us suffered on 9/11. All of us continue to suffer the effects of 9/11: a mass paranoia, a rising police state, draconian laws that take away our freedom, needless foreign wars that worsen our debt. For the sake of our future, investigate 9/11. AE911Truth.org