| | Friday night I worked out again with MC and then read and watched TV. At least, I think that's what happened. It seems so long ago already. Saturday I helped the Cs fix the flood in their kitchen and helped them with laundry. Then I dressed like a hooker in fishnets and a corset to attend Kat's birthday party. We went to a pizza place that has gluten free options and then to the gay bar downtown to dance. I danced pretty much nonstop for between an hour and an hour and a half and I left sweaty, exhausted, mostly deaf, and smiling. Sunday morning I was up early for church - I set up the sanctuary, played lay leader, put some stuff away, and joined some of the young adults, including two new awesome people, for lunch. The coffee I drank gave me a stomachache, but I worked through it as I figured out the router at home and set up my laptop. Then I took a nap, talked to my boyfriend on the phone, watched TV, did pushups and situps, and made some excellent pea soup. Yesterday I worked out with MC, cooked, overate, watched TV, and read some more. It's not bad. Tonight I'll work out and go out with friends; tomorrow's a board meeting; and Thursday is a preseason football game! Are *you* ready for some football?
Last night's highlightable quotations:
"Blessing involves relationship: one does not bless without investing something of oneself into the receiver of one's blessing" (44).
"The scandal [of biblical and theological distortion] is one of ignoring - and then despising - creation and those who love creation, such as Native American peoples or matriarchal religions"i (46). People have for a long time been overusing their resources. Yes, Native Americans did this, too, and many tribes engaged in war, etc., but the way of life of many of these people revolved/s around honoring creation. And now contemporary Western culture is trying to use it all up.
"[T]he sin behind all sin is seen as dualism. Separation. Subject/object relationships. Fractures and fissures in our relationships. Take any sin: war, burglary, rape, thievery. Every such action is treating another as an object outside oneself. This is dualism. This is behind all sin" (49).
"If we savored more, we would buy less. We would be less compulsive, less unsatisfied. We would also work less and play more, and thus open up work opportunities to the many unemployed and underemployed in our culture. If we savored more we would communicate more deeply, relate more fully, compete less regularly, and celebrate more authentically. We would be relating more deeply to ourselves, to creatin in all its blessedness, to history past and future, to the Now and to God. We would be more in touch with our moral outrage because our love of life would increase so dramatically that we would become less and less tolerant of death forces" (52). This is Matthew Fox directly advocating for enjoying life and not just consuming out of an empty hunger we don't understand. I'm no psychologist, but I'd bet that a lot of addiction - to food, drugs, sex - stems from this compulsive urge to fill a need. I'd like to think that slowing down and honoring creation would help nip this endless urge in the bud.
|
| | Posted 8/16/2011 10:44 AM - 46 Views - 8 eProps - 8 comments
Give eProps or Post a Comment |
