“The opposite of patriarchy isn’t matriarchy-it’s fraternity.”
-Germaine Greer
The Scariest Thing I Heard This Weekend
A Moment Of Truth
I have spent an awful lot of time in my life trying to reconcile some pretty impossible conflicts.
It all started when I was very young.
I grew up in a religious system which was very fond of emphasizing Just How Bad We All Are. How we are all born into this world as terrible, wretched sinners, and how everything about us is offensive to God and makes God very angry, and how all that we deserve is to be eternally punished by God. But maybe, if we grovel and abase ourselves enough, God will grudgingly agree not to smite us down from the heavens-but only if we agree to remember in every second that we really do deserve the smiting, and never ever dare to think of ourselves as anything better than the sniveling worms we truly are.
(I know that I tend to exaggerate a lot in the interests of humor, but I’m actually not exaggerating this. See: Why I No Longer Participate In Organized Religion)
And at the same time that I was under constant bombardment by this dogma, I was also being told that I was supposed to love God, and do everything for God, and want to spend all of my time with God.
Um, I don’t think so.
It never made sense to me, why I should want to have anything to do with a being that was reported to hate me so much, but because I wanted to be A Good Girl, and I wanted people to like me and approve of me, and I certainly wanted God to like and approve of me, I did my best to follow this convoluted system, which pretty much boiled down to agreeing to lose my mind.
Just Awesome
I Use My Powers For Good
Oh, You Mean It Doesn’t Have To Be Hard?
Searching for the Dharma
You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.
So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.
The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung
make heavy baggage.
Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wildflowers.
Their meaning is the same
but they’re much easier to carry.
~ Xu Yun ~
I Really Do Try
I’ve been a fan of Star Trek ever since my husband introduced me to “The Next Generation” back when we were in college.
Lately we’ve been watching “Deep Space Nine”, and I try very hard to pay attention to all the science and technology on the show, since I do not have a scientific background (or foreground either, for that matter).
I try to impress my engineer husband with my keen attention to scientific detail, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work.
Like tonight.
“Ooh, it’s really dark on that planet,” I observed, proud of my astute observational powers.
“Mmm, yes,” replied my husband. “That’s called ‘night’.”
I’m Not Quite Sure How To Mark This Anniversary
Today is the 9-year anniversary of the day I started working at a bookstore and learned that I am not cut out for retail, due to the fact that working with the general public makes me want to stab myself in the face. Repeatedly.
Normally I have no idea when I started working at any of my ill-fated previous jobs, but this one I will remember for a very long time, because of the special event that marked my first anniversary as a bookseller.
It was not cake, or a party, or a special birthday discount on buying books, but rather the fact that the transsexual with whom I worked finally, after many years, received his long-awaited breast implants.
Things We Are Forced To Say To The Cats With Alarming Frequency
Why I Have Suddenly Become A Strong Proponent Of ESL Classes
