Selaphiel

That sounds like a timely and paradigm-changing read, Sela, and you've described it so beautifully. Yes, I understand what you mean, and it was a priest many years ago who first described for me what Kierkegaard calls a betrayal of love, who said that we must show love to the person who reaches out his hand, and give without judging how the gift will be spent. That it was our call to give, and not to control the outcome of the gift. I never forgot his lesson, it's stayed with me all these years.

:chuckle:

Do you remember how Kmo could barely get the thing to stay in the air and then posted a ridiculously high score in the space of a day?

Btw, I think me, you and Kmo should have another 'copter' rematch...

http://www.coptergame.net/

Remember that?

:eek:

That is an advantage...

Well, that piece HAS to be played loud so maybe not a good idea to play it tonight...

Hmm, may just give that a listen...

Can I just say I'm incredibly jealous? lain:

Try Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds on them...

Good to hear.

I think some of that sewage may have even been cooked...lain: :chuckle:

Doing ok. Start doing a health care course on Monday, focusing on mental health so quite looking forward to it.

Any new music you've heard lately?

:e4e:

lain:

Sorry - my typo, I knew you meant creationism, and that's what I meant too.

Re: Trump and Christians, I distinctly remember Ted Cruz calling him a pathological liar - and then lining right up behind him. Same with Romney, Ryan, and everything else. Political lemmings, and evangelical lemmings too, willing to overlook so much they wouldn't have been willing to overlook in another candidate. Not just here, but elsewhere and in real life I've seen this... it's mind-boggling.

"creation is the flat earth view of biology"

You know, that's a great way to put it. I'm going to remember that.

Yes, there's a lot of insanity out there. I've been/will be following the Trump candidacy/presidency very closely, because it worries me. The instability worries me. And it also fascinates me at the psychology level, and I've gone back through my social psychology texts quite a few times as I recognize various manifestations of human behavior and I go back to check that my memory and my information is accurate. The way groupthink works. The ways people convince themselves to believe what they believe, even when that belief has been shown to be erroneous. ... Which takes us back to that flat earth.

Yes, it's been a year, glad you're still in the place you were hoping to be at. And I hope you're doing well in all aspects.

My theological/religious journey is pretty much as stalled as it has been. Frozen in time, you might say.

I'm sure there's a correlation between doing all right and not being on here much.

Is your assignment still the same?

Hi Sela. Pretty much same as ever. A new normal, I guess.

How are you doing?

All the best for the new year Count!

:e4e:

lain:

Merry Christmas, Sela. :wave2:

Merry Christmas, Sela. May your new year be filled with blessing.

Yes things around here are really......something. lain:

I bet the monastery was very interesting. Hope it's a good busy.
I've been alright. We adopted a new cat a couple weeks ago so it's been nice to have a pet again. We're learning he likes to jump up on things. :chuckle:
I've been reading some lately but not a lot because I've gotten back into chess and that's sort of been monopolizing a lot of my time. I am working my way through Welker's book though. Finding that a lot of it is over my head but picking up pieces here and there and it's been pretty good. And I took a break from the OT book I was reading but I'm about to start that again now that I'm past the Pentateuch in the Jewish OT I'm reading through.

:e4e:

Yeah, hearing you loud and clear on that score...

Hope that's going well?

Aside from the few remaining hairs going grey I'm getting by...

:e4e:

lain:

Hey Sela, how are things going?

:e4e:

lain:

:wave2: Hi. How are you doing?

I can't wait until Wednesday when this election will be over.

What do you make of this verse?
Deu 4:19* And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.*

I know I would have read that verse in the past but I don't remember ever thinking about the potential impact. On the surface it's an explicit approval or acknowledgement that Gentiles can worship other gods. I came across it in the OT book I'm reading.

:e4e:

I did like it, a lot - I already downloaded it to my playlist.

Hope you're doing all right, Sela.

:wave2: Hope you are doing well. Experienced a really good service the other week. They called it East Meets West. A guy was playing a sitar and a woman playing a violin. It was very cool.