From Angels and Demons...

Love this movie, and love this passage. It's lengthy, and weighty, but please read it and let it challenge you.

Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: To the Illuminati, and to those of science, let me say this. You have won the war.

The wheels have been in motion for a long time. Your victory has been inevitable. Never before has it been as obvious as it is at this moment. Science is the new god.

Medicine, electronic communications, space travel, genetic manipulation… these are the miracles about which we now tell our children. These are the miracles we herald as proof that science will bring us the answers. The ancient stories of immaculate conceptions, burning bushes, and parting seas are no longer relevant. God has become obsolete. Science has won the battle. We concede.

But science’s victory has cost every one of us. And it has cost us deeply.

Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided an array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but is has left us in a world with out wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Science proclaims that Planet Earth and its inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. A cosmic accident. Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us. Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history? Does science hold anything sacred? Science looks for answers by probing our unborn fetuses. Science even presumes to rearrange our own DNA. It shatters God’s world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning… and all it finds is more questions.

The ancient war between science and religion as over. You have won. But you have not won fairly. You have not won by providing answers. You have won by so radically reorienting our society that the truths we once saw as signposts now seem inapplicable. Religion cannot keep up. Scientific growth is exponential. It feeds on itself like a virus. Every new breakthrough opens doors for new breakthroughs. Mankind took thousands of years to progress from the wheel to the car. Yet only decades from the car into space. Now we measure scientific progress in weeks. We are spinning out of control. The rift between us grows deeper and deeper, and as religion is left behind, people find themselves in a spiritual void. We cry out for meaning. And believe me, we do cry out. WE see UFOs, engage in channeling, spirit contact, out-of-body experiences, mindquests — all these eccentric ideas have a scientific veneer, but they are unashamedly irrational. They are the desperate cry of the modern soul, lonely and tormented, crippled by its own enlightenment and its inability to accept meaning in anything removed from technology.

Science, you say, will save us. Science, I say, has destroyed us. Since the days of Galileo, the church has tried to slow the relentless march of science, sometimes with misguided means, but always with benevolent intention. Even so, the temptations are too great for man to resist. I warn you, look around yourselves. The promises of science have not been kept. Promises of efficiency and simplicity have bred nothing but pollution and chaos. We are a fractured and frantic species… moving down a path of destruction.

Who is this God science? Who is the God who offers his people power but no moral framework to tell you how to use that power? What kind of God gives a child fire but does not warn the child of its dangers? The language of science comes with no signposts about good and bad. Science textbooks tell us how to create a nuclear reaction, and yet they contain no chapter asking us if it is a good or a bad idea.

To science, I say this. The church is tired. We are exhausted from trying to be your sign posts. Our resources are drying up from our campaign to be the voice of balance as you plow blindly on in your quest for smaller chips and larger profits. We ask not why you will not govern yourselves, but how can you? Your world moves so fast that if you stop even for an instant to consider the implications of your actions, someone more efficient will whip past you in a blur. So you move on. You proliferate weapons of mass destruction, but it is the Pope who travels the world beseeching leaders to use restraint. You clone living creatures, but it is the church reminding us to consider the moral implications of our actions. You encourage people to interact on phones, video screens, and computers, but it is the church who opens its doors and reminds us to commune in person as we were meant to do. You even murder unborn babies in the name of research that will save lives. Again, it is the church who points the fallacy of that reasoning.

And all the while, you proclaim the church is ignorant. But who is more ignorant? The man who cannot define lightning, or the man who does not respect its awesome power? This church is reaching out to you. Reaching out to everyone. And yet the more we reach, the more you push us away. Show me proof there is a God, you say. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and tell me how there could not be a God! You ask what does God look like. I say, where does that question come from? The answers are one and the same. Do you not see God in you science? How can you miss Him! You proclaim that even the slightest change in the force of gravity or the weight of an atom would have rendered our universe a lifeless mist rather than our magnificent sea of heavenly bodies, and yet you fail to see God’s hand in this? Is it really so much easier to believe that we simply chose the right card from a deck of billions? Have we become so spiritually bankrupt that we would rather believe in mathematical impossibility than in a power greater than us?

Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this. When we as a species abandon our trust in the power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faith… all faiths… are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable… With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. If the outside world could see this church as I do… looking beyond the ritual of these walls… they would see a modern miracle… a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.

Are we obsolete? Are these men dinosaurs? Am I? Does the world really need a voice for the poor, the weak, the oppressed, the unborn child? Do we really need souls like these who, though imperfect, spend their lives imploring each of us to read the signposts of morality and not lose our way?

Tonight we are perched on a precipice. None of us can afford to be apathetic. Whether you see this evil as Satan, corruption, or immorality, the dark force is alive and growing every day. Do not ignore it. The force, though mighty, is not invincible. Goodness can prevail. Listen to your hearts. Listen to God. Together we can step back from this abyss.

Pray with me.

Fleeting...

This might be a long post, you've been warned...


I'm having one of those "so incredibly aware of my mortality that I'm sick to my stomach" days.

A friend, who's family has been going through a medical crisis with her sister recently wrote a long post one day about what she's learned this far to be important in life. It was one of those posts that you really love reading but that leaves you with this strange unsettling feeling in your stomach afterwards. The crazy awareness that we really don't have much time here and when we're done here, we'll never be human on earth again.

I can't sit with that thought for long because I literally get woozy and feel like I'm going to yak up the contents of my leftover fajitas I had for breakfast. (Little known fact, I'm not a huge sweets for breakfast person. I'm actually a really weird foods for breakfast person. I think my Grandma bred this is me when she used to let me have leftover spaghetti for breakfast. I now crave things like pizza, spaghetti, grilled cheese, and cheeseburgers in the A.M)

Movies that have quotes like this don't help one bit:

Lorna: I mean, we all have our Prince Charming. You just gotta know him when you see him.
Jamie: Mom, it's Prince Charming! You should just know.
Lorna: Well, you're Prince Charming isn't coming to rescue you in a horse and carriage. That's not who you want. I mean, you're looking...you're looking for a man to be your partner. You could take on the world with. You gotta be your fairy-tale baby.

[to Dylan, referring to the long lost love of his life]
Mr. Harper: You know, my friends used to say, that when Dee Dee and I looked at each other, it was electric. And I...I let her go. I just let her go. Because I was too damn proud to tell her how I really felt about her. I'll tell you something, that I wish I knew when I was your age. And I know you've heard it a million times life is short. But let me tell you something. What this...this...
[referring to his Alzheimer's and pointing to his head]
Mr. Harper: ...is teaching me, is that life is God damn short and you can't waste a minute of it!

(from Friends with Benefits)
It's weird how these movies that you think will be totally superficial and just good for a laugh, ending up making you have some heavy-hitting feelings at the end,

And friends who get all cheated on and smashed up by their BUTTFACE boyfriends make you selfishly realize what kind of loving man you have (or want) in your life.

This is a weirdo, I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders kind of day. I can't get these yucky mortality feelings out of my head. I've compiled a few pictures/quotes that keep these thoughts in me to wrestle with, but that help put some sort of framework on them:

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes don't see as well and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. "But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand" The Velveteen Rabbit

“There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.” -Elizabeth Gilbert

“For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. ” -Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 

“Life can only be understood looking backward. It must be lived forward.” -Eric Roth
(actually pretty much the whole Benjamin Button book/movie gives you these feelings...)

 

“Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy.” 

-Elizabeth Gilbert

Kind of heavy for a Tuesday, I'm aware. But it was one of those, "this is bugging me I gotta talk or write about it soon before I faint 'cause I just can't take it any more" things...

Love/Hate Monday

Week Two!!!

Love/Hate:

Spinach Artichoke dip. LOVE that it's creamy gooey, warm, and yummy-licious. HATE its fattening, artery clogging, waist-increasing capabilities.

HATE this friggin' week of classes. I don't have any motivation to start working on all of the crap due next week but I LOVE that I can basically just show up, do my crossword the whole time and not pay attention...oh wait, haven't I been doing that all semester...?

LOVE and HATE that I already know this is going to be what teaching is like. Just being an intern, I'm already catching a drift of this. Those kids can make and break my day in a split second. I know student teaching is going to be a blast but so stressful at the same time.

Just Plain Hate

We spent an entire day talking about a bunch of legal issues that teachers have to be prepared to deal with. Then our professor showed us this site: Bad Bad Teacher. WARNING: (If you read too much, be prepared to feel all nasty and yucky inside) At first I was simply shocked and kind of laughed off at the ridiculousness of this site. It documents and follows all the educators across the nation who have been accused of sexual misconduct. When I actually went home and looked at the site myself I could only look so long before I got sick to my stomach. 

 Winter. Cold blustery stupid winds. Still happening, now getting worse. Still hating, not going to stop hating anytime soon...

Just Plain Love

Watty's new favorite napping spot :)

I'm starting over watching Grey's Anatomy from season one. This is perfect timing, as I'll be at home (Dad's and Mom's) sittin' on my butt cooped up in the cold with nothing to do for 3 weeks (Oh besides that whole Christmas and New Years thing. Whatev)I'm going to have all break to fall in love with my favorite show for like the millionth (trillionth) time.

Oh and a fave line from that show:

Burke is in the bathroom and Christina and Meredith rush in to ask him something...

Burke: Now this is the men's room, so either whip one out, or get moving.

Happy Penultimate Week of the Semester!!

Currently...

Loving me some Cher, Celine and Christina. Cue bed occupation and wine drinking from coffee mug...

Sporting some knee-high boots and feelin' like a badass.

Wanting to watch Elf, cuddle up with my hunk and drink some vino.

TGIFF: Thanking God it's Friggin' Friday.

Feelin' this...

In utter disbelief that I'm nearly done with my on-campus career...

Pissed that Grey's (and most wonderful television shows for that matter) don't come out with any new episodes during the holidays. Haven't the networks figured out yet that by this time of the year all anyone wants to do is sit on their damn couch and watch their fave shows. Geez...

BUSTING UP watching these people make out. Turn it up, then enjoy the most epic tonsil hockey (or mama bird feeding baby bird) session ever.

 

Trying to brainstorm what clever thing-a-ma-jig I'm going to put on the top of my cap when I graduate. I was thinking "to be" in rhinestones. Then I realized most people probably wouldn't get it. Let me know if you do. (It may help to know what my future profession is going to be)

Cannot stop laughing at this website. I literally read them over and over again last night. The one about "oriental lasanya" is by far my favorite.

http://textsfrombennett.tumblr.com/

Resisting the urge to procreate that these picture have ignited in me:

I think I'll have four of these...maybe six...no?

Be still my womb...

Happy Friday All!