Zack to the Future

WHOOOOO MELVIN!

In the span of twelve hours I've read an article about whether Google is making us stupid, read another article about whether Facebook is making us lonely, and listened to a radio interview about University educations being provided free on the internet. I sort of feel like crawling under a rock and staying there; I was going to write, "until I can understand the world again," but I fear it's too late for that.

What was that? Did you say something? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sounds of all these paradigms exploding. Could you get me a broom?

Thing To Write About No. 3: "sensory deprivation"

I'd be terrible at sensory deprivation. As long as I can remember, I've always desired MORE sensory input. I couldn't write papers in High School unless I had the radio going. I couldn't fall asleep without listening to a familiar Firesign Theatre record. Both reading and cooking are difficult for me unless I've got the stereo going. If I'm doing a fiddly or repetitive task I like to have some video (or, back in the 20th century, the television) on. When I'm cleaning the house, I listen to a book-on-tape or NPR. I like to bring headphones if I'm going for a walk. Even as I write this I've got music playing in a separate window. This isn't just a temporary effect brought about by living in a too-big house by myself for a few months. This is how I've always opted to use media; less as an entrée, more as a garnish.

I'm not sure quite how to feel about it. I don't think it's necessarily bad, per se, but at the same time, I wonder to myself if I'm not cheating myself out of some fullness of experience or depth of appreciation for both the Sacred Living Moment and whatever it is that I'm hearing or watching. But then again, why not enliven a dull task by listening to something pretty or enjoyable? But then yet again, does this somehow make me less able to sit down and appreciate a movie, play, or live concert? And furthermore, does this make me something of a hypocrite when I get upset at people glued to Blackberry/iPhone screens? Or do I recognize something in that behaviour that I dislike so much about myself?

(More questions than answers on this one. Thoughts, insights, comments, etc. are most welcome.)

Thing To Write About No. 2: "your favorite vegetables to grow"

I like to grow

• TOMATOES because I have had the most success with them, and because the plants smell nice and they are so fecund and wild, and because the various varieties have such great names (e.g. Cosmonaut Volkov);
  
• OKRA because their flowers are so pretty;
  
• ACEPHALOUS BRASSICAS, like kale and collards, because they are such bountiful and reliable producers;
  
• BEETS because they look so pretty growing crowded together in rows;
  
• CUCUMBERS because I love the look of a trellis overgrown with huge leaves; and, newly this year,—
  
• POTATOES, because burying a cut-up dessiccated-looking spudlet and having it turn into a lush, frilly, green nightshade is the closest thing I've ever done to performing magic, I think.

I've been thinking about these words and these images for a week or so; finally figured out the/a right way to put them together.



I was thinking of adding 1 John 4:19-21 as sort of a Coda, but I thought it might come off a little holier-than-thou, and that's not really the goal. What do you think?

If I ever create a Harry Potter-themed Black Metal Band I'm calling it

KRÖÖKSHAYNX

I wonder if I've just crossed over some demographic line-in-the-sand with my last birthday. I just got a browser ad for a disney-sponsored website about toilet training.

I just finished filling out my three tax returns for this year, whoopee! One positive, one negative, one (surprisingly almost precisely) neutral. It evens out in the wash. Now I will write an overdue journal entry to clear my brain of arithmetic before I go back and check my work.

A while ago I requested a list of seven topics to write about from mogwit. Here's the instructions that came with:

"Comment to this post and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself."

So yes, feel free. On to topic one:

(1) how church and religion relate for you

So it's taken me weeks to write a reply to this topic, as I've been trying to put it together in my head since I first read it. Fortunately, it's been Lent/Eastertide, which is as fitting a time to write on the subject as I can think of.

For me, religion depends on church. I experience less "religious feeling" on weeks when I miss church, and on weeks when I go multiple times, I experience more. And "religious feeling" is something that I like and that I believe is good for me; something that makes me feel more alive and more connected with my fellow humans and the world around me. If I miss church too many times in a row, I tend to feel bad. Not that I feel like I'm a bad person, but rather I just feel bad—like when you leave the house without brushing your teeth, or wearing the same pair of socks that you slept in and wore the day before, or something like that (insert your personal sub-prime feeling here). In Massachusetts I'd go to church almost every Sunday (sometimes twice in a day), and as frequently on Wednesdays as my schedule would allow. I have acutely felt the displacement from my church home since moving from Massachusetts, and the process of finding a new place of worship has been difficult and slow, mostly because of how much I still miss the congregation I left.

I don't make an account of my churchgoing regularity as an indication of personal piety. I believe that, while my soul is certainly better-off for having gone to church on any given sunday, certainly the souls of others will be better-off for reflection or participation in other activities that better conform to their own paths of spiritual or moral development, instead of sitting in the pew beside me. Indeed, I've pondered whether or not going to church more often means that I am less endowed with a natural supply of "religious feeling," less spiritually inclined; a contrast with people who lead rich, self-directed spiritual practices and lives of humble service and prayer. Self-starters, I mean.

Maybe the most spiritually developed people don't need to go to church at all; maybe they are the autodidactic religious equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci or William Blake, who seem to have been born with such greatness within that it was already fresh at their fingertips. As for myself, if there is any greatness of character to be found in my soul, it is like a shy wild animal that needs coaxing out; and for that coaxing, and for the company of others who tread a similar path, and for the examples of others who have gone before, and the wisdom that they have left behind—for all these reasons, I go to church.

And that's more than enough from me tonight. 2-7 to follow. Now: back to taxes!

Esoteric Query: any suggestions for something to read on the subject of how to be a good listserv moderator?

I'm going to try to use the two-basin method for doing dishes for a whole week. Just to see. So far I've noticed that the dishes going into the rack seem to be much dryer, so they ought to be air-drying faster. And the prospect of using the greywater to water the outdoor (nonfood) plants with warms the drouth-wary cockles of my heart.