O' the day - 2.28.07

Money is such an odd thing to make such a gigantic fuss over. Yes, I lost money yesterday when the Dow dropped, but that money wasn't going to buy groceries (at least not at this point -- in 40 years I may be stuck eating ramen noodles). I feel that you should take care of what money you have in a reasonable manner, but always remember that it's just money -- it's not going with you to the afterlife, and it doesn't determine your true worth.

O' the day - 2.27.07

It's great to hear about the success stories of those who have been freed after years of wrongful imprisonment, exonerated through years of tireless work and stubborn hope. However, that must be contrasted with the liberal left that believes no one should be put to death for criminal acts, less we mistakenly execute the wrong man. Doing nothing for fear of a mistake, although one with very large consequences, is not a decision, but rather a frozen inability to act.

O' the day - 2.26.07

If "one" represents the whole, as we are taught politically and religiously, then one man's suffering infects the world at large, an ever-expanding rippling circle of pain and loss. If we all feel the joy of the one, the world would explode with the small-felt joy that spills over to fill our silences, our surroundings, our spaces. If we control the thoughts and feelings of the one, we could reshape our world.

O' the day - 2.23.07

Life in a minor key is not necessarily a bad thing; the deeper, darker nuances might be lost on someone living the bright, bubbly life on-surface. We instead see the underlying depth behind the facade, the deep underpinnings on which society is built, and do not shy away from the not-so-pretty, nastier emotions that everyone has, but not all admit.

O' the day - 2.22.07

Watching the presidential hopefuls start their process of one-upmanship is prime comedy. Stage writers couldn't ask for better material to work with; the only thing separating the campaign road from Broadway is the fact that this is a deadly serious issue: the actor we choose from the pack will be the one representing our futures for the next several years, and has the potential to change the course of history.

O' the day - 2.21.07

Catholics have the perfect religion for Mardi Gras. What other denomination would forgive a week of sexual, alcoholic, and gratuitous excess for only a few trips around the rosary? Given, Lent follows, but it often takes that long to recover from a particularly memorable Fat Tuesday.

O' the day - 2.16.07

Somewhere between unaware and dead lies --- ?

We are what we're made, and what we make of ourselves, depending on others for input but knowing truly, we create ourselves anew each day, discarding the unusable and immersing our self in what we feel to benefit ongoing life.

O' the day - 2.15.07

One of those days when gathering my thoughts into any coherent string of words is like the proverbial herding of cats; I'll start to organize a particular group and send them marching out onto paper and several stragglers escape to grab my attention, so that not only do I lose focus on the original group, but I also lose track of the strays.

O' the day - 2.14.07

I'm glad to see that a distinguished, established scientist like the director of McWane Center is able -- and willing -- to hold rational discussions on evolution as seen in conjunction with the idea of God, instead of an out-of-hand dismissal of one or the other. The idea that there could be both an entity behind creation and laws in place to govern continuing existence should not be mutually exclusive, but instead used each to give credence to the other.

O' the day - 2.13.07

Thinking this morning about the past and its weight on our lives -- the past is much like Shrek's onion with the many layers we've built up over the years, both of memory and of insulation. We pile on more and more strata of what we've done and said and seen, with cushions between not of air, but of sadness or hurt, designed to hold those memories at bay, as far from our inner selves as possible.

O' the day - 2.8.07

I'm not sure why the emphasis is put so heavily on religious affiliation in a presidential candidate; shouldn't the focus on a personal life be not on religion, but on values? As I understand it, the job of the president is not to proselytize, but to lead the country based on law and personal mores. As long as the mores match with society at large, an individual view of salvation is not relevant to the work at hand.

O' the day - 2.7.07

Are our memories true remembrances, or just wistful thinking?
Do we truly have an accurate idea of things past, or simply a created version, 2.0?
Have all these things I've done become part of some cosmic registry of acts, or do they fizzle into lost, gray matter?

O' the day - 2.6.07

If it wasn't that this will all affect us financially in very real ways, it would almost be laughable to hear our lawmakers fight over the federal budget. We hear the same arguments every time -- too large, too much money going for this, not enough money going for that -- no one is ever happy with the spending of this unfathomable amount of money. It's like watching a group of three year-olds squabbling -- lots of screaming and crying but no real resolutions.

O' the day - 2.5.07

Why is it that so often, people are so afraid to let go -- of an idea, of a project, of a portion of their life that did no good to them anyway? Maybe the human spirit needs to hoard, to feel as if through collecting an amalgam of physical and mental stuff, one has gathered an amount of worth to oneself, and is afraid that letting go might mean lessening one's self-value.

O' the day - 2.2.07

Maybe there's more to the story that wasn't reported, but the idea of knowing federal subsidies will be cut off -- six years in advance -- and doing nothing to make up for this shortfall, except hope that your congressmen will take care of you at the last minute, smacks of one of the largest problems in America today -- expecting someone else to take care of you. Whatever happened to our founding fathers' independence, pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps, and so on?

O' the day - 2.1.07

Watching American Idol last night and listening to Polyphonic Spree this morning reminds me just how wide the gap is between making music for money and making music for the sheer love of sound. There is so much joy, so much a feeling of living in the moment, in the Spree's music, that it makes one smile simply to listen, to vicariously live the group dynamic and participate in this particular creation.