“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
TS Eliot
It's been awhile since I shared anything of any recreational value on my blog, but for some reason, this entry on Tibetans Kicking Ass at High Altitudes really made my day. While the article itself was informative, the author's observation that "The people of Tibet are essentially Fremen of the heights", was precisely the sort of provocation that nerds salivate over. Sifting through the comments will reward the patient reader in dire need of an intellectual riposte to boredom and general gloominess.
It's rare in my vocation to have the opportunity to share the many wonderful experiences I have been blessed with in ministry work. It's even rarer to have the opportunity to share the eternal laughter which accompanies joyful service to a joyful and loving God. Here's a clip from International Week 2009:
My accomplices in the video above were Dr. Benie A. Sy and Roberto F. de Ocampo. They deserve all the credit in the world for refusing to run back down and leave me to be picked apart in my shame. Many thanks!
And since I'm in such a giving mood, here's a video which you may have seen, but definitely deserve to see again. John Hodgman roasts President Barack Obama.
One of my favorite lines from the very entertaining roast:
"Despite his Spockish calm and gangly frame, the president is known to dabble in sports. And not just bowling, but the hard stuff ... basketball."
Many thanks to Henry Abbott for reminding me of the great divide, illustrated in passing above, between actual basketball and NBA Live.
Do you really want proof that there is a God? Then how is it that iconic science fiction and unadulterated cheese can coexist peacefully without ripping the space-time continuum?
Impossible? Unlike the more esoteric points of theology, like the often misunderstood Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas, the proof is but a click away. Enjoy!
One of the reasons why I enjoy revisiting classical literary works on a regular basis is because of how they sound. There are very few poets in any language, for example, who can approximate Shakespeare's mastery of both verse and tone, or Dante Alighieri's lyricism, invention, and depth (even in translation). Magical realism drives my wife nuts, but I absolutely adore the sustained artistry and layers of meaning that Gabriel Garcia Marquez weaves into his kilometric sentences. Even when I don't quite get what Gabo means, the sheer beauty of how it all sounds when read aloud makes me think that I will be rewarded for my patience.
"Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live...Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man's ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small."
I celebrate life. Do you?
