Thoughts evoked by a library Bible

I went to Castroville Public Library today and got a library card.  It was meant to be a ploy to talk to the library people so I could fulfill some of the requirements of a homework assignment I am working on, but that didn't end up happening.  I was looking through the stacks and spotted several titles just sitting there saying "read me!" that are caught up in tremendous holds lists at San Antonio Public Library.  So I also thought that CPL library card would be advantageous if I ever want to read something that I can't get quickly enough through SAPL.

The library is very sweet and cozy.  They don't have all that many books, but they sure do have the charm.  They have pictures and quilts on the walls.  It's all very cute.  Then I noticed that they have a little stand that at my library in SA uses to hold our Oxford English Dictionary.  Their stand was used to hold a big dictionary and a bigger Bible.  I suppose this disturbed me a little, as I have conditioned myself to be suspicious of Christian teachings and even more leery of creepy followers who think it is their duty to preach at me.  I mean...they had the Bible placed at the same level as the Dictionary.  One is a book of Hebrew mythology and the other is a solid listing of linguistic facts.

I suppose this isn't a very charitable thought, but I can't help the workings of my anti-Bible brain.  I had to consciously stop myself from proceeding with the thought and remind myself that Christianity is a valid spiritual expression which keeps many people in the world feeling fulfilled [and restrained].  And that to many people [I have seen evidence of this] the message of the Bible is greater than error-free spelling and correct word usage.  I have to remind myself to respect the trappings of Christianity every day, in fact lately I have been trying to read the Bible in small doses.

My major problem with traditional Christianity is this: I don't believe in Hell or Satan because I don't think that a loving God would punish feeble humans for an eternity for minor wrongdoings that they committed in a mere 70-or-so years on Earth.  I don't like portrayals which give God a human sprinkling of emotions and pettiness.  I don't think that any form of worship is the One Truth, I think they are all valid.  Because I think all religions are valid I don't see any need for proselytizing. 

I've found it difficult in the past to be a person who believes in God but rejects major principles of the most widespread religion in my area.  It's isolating and a bit disheartening.  I did the whole Wiccan thing as a teenager, but largely gave that up because it required a lot of rituals that I was too embarrassed to perform.  Then I labeled myself plainly Pagan, but was still too lazy and embarrassed to do any rituals.  Then I thought of myself as more of a Deist, but thought there's no point in trying to know a god who creates the world and then unconcernedly steps away.  So then I thought I was mostly a Nothing who believes in Something.  It's just odd.  But then just because so far I'm a Nothing doesn't mean I have to give up Everything. 

I have lately found that reading in the Bible about the life of Jesus is very inspiring; I love the lessons about treating others kindly and doing good works that benefit others without expecting returns.  I like the thought of lived religion.  Living your beliefs.  The Bible was written by men, but may have been inspired by God.  I don't know.  I don't take it literally, and maybe I interpret it in a way that is unorthodox...but I suppose everyone takes it the way that inspires the most good in them.  I'm also reading the Bhagavad Gita at the moment which I find significantly more intriguing.

The speaker in the Bhagavad Gita is the Hindu Krishna, the incarnate son of God.  Many of his teachings are similar to the teachings of Jesus.  My favorite verse thus far:

 "However men try to reach me,

 I return their love with my love;

whatever path they may travel,

it leads to me in the end."

Bhagavad Gita 4.11

What I'm trying to say with all of this philosophizing, is that I like to take my inspiration from different sources.  And I must learn not to discount any source due to a personal prejudice, however just or unjust.  Or discount a source just because it doesn't line up with ideas about what I should or should not be reading.  Just take things as they come, and enjoy what they have to offer.

Overdue for a post...

Facebook makes me not want children.  Yeah.  Here's why:

1. Posts about being headbutted by a two year old.

2. Posts about cleaning up vomit.

3. Potty training foibles.

4. Posts about staying up all night with two sick kids.

5. Posts about nursing ALL NIGHT.

I seem to be one of the last in my graduating class that is still unburdened, which I find sad because we are only 25/26.  Yes, I respect your choice (or accident) to have a child.  It doesn't make you any more worthy than someone else.  And your posting scary things about your children on Facebook make me less likely to join you in the 'hood.  Motherhood.

Alright, that takes care of commentary on this morning's assault.  Holy shit.

So I don't want to join the mother cult any time soon.  I love having time for hobbies and soul searching.  I think I'm going to join the Quakers, but have never been to a meeting yet.  Been working every Sunday.  I did a drive-by scope-out of the meeting house yesterday just as a lot of people were arriving for some unknown event which was not advertised on their out-of-date website.  Anyway....I WILL be going to meeting when I have a Sunday off.  I would love to feel a sense of community and belonging again, so I hope it works out.

Agent Smith at Amy's Ice Cream?

1.  Ready for autumn, tired of sweating all the time.  Air conditioners are dying from exhaustion.  I like to have blankets strewn over me while I sleep (I like my neck covered to guard against vampires), and lately I have been sleeping with either sheet or nothing at all over me.  And we have the A/C on--am I going menopausal already?  Sheesh.

2.  I've been smelling my sweaty ass self all day.  It's mostly frustrating because I know the smell actually comes from the failure of my homemade laundry detergent coupled with that pungent mildew smell that comes when your husband turns off the dryer when the clothes are still wet and leaves them to sit in there all night.  A smell that resembles sweat.  I don't mind that sweat smell when I'm actually sweaty.  It's not really my laundry detergent's fault.  It's still better than the time kerosene spilled on my clean laundry and it took about 20 washes over a couple of months to get the smell out.

3.  Tomorrow is my grandma's 80th birthday party (go Gramma!!) and I have not finished the shawl I wanted to make for her.  The nupps are slowing me down, though I am really impressed by them.  But it's okay, because her actual birthday is on September 20 and I can give it to her on the actual day.  My cousin bought my grandma a hardcover copy of Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola which is to be signed by all of the grandchildren.  It is her favorite children's book, and she read it to us dozens of times.  She was an elementary school librarian for a long time.

4. Every time someone comes to my apartment and spots my cat they say, "what's wrong with your cat's tail?!"  It's perfectly fine...he just has some Manx ancestors, that's all.  Gatsby Cabbit.

5. I made some delicious banana nut orange cranberry bread this week after being spurred to industry by the sight of black bananas.

6. Got a handheld GPS for my b-day to facilitate more geocaching.  This will work better when it isn't sweltering outside.  It's soooo hooooooooooot.  Sometimes in the early morning the temperature gets into the upper 70s.  I am sick of summer.  Sick, sick, sick of summer.  Seasons, pleeeeeeeeeaaaaase change!

7. My hair is so sweaty right now.  I'm listening to an audio book in which it is winter in the South.  Unfortunately this does not make cool weather come any faster in real life.

8. I just realized that I drink about 2 quarts of ice tea a day on days when I make ice tea.  I drink so much tea that the pitcher does not last into the second day usually.  Once I went to a restaurant in Minnesota with my mom and the waiter asked what we wanted to drink.  We both said, "tea".  The waiter asked, "hot or iced?"  Dude........really?  Does hot tea even freakin' exist?!  Other Southerners would think me unorthodox in that I don't like "Sweet Tea" (capitalized to denote proper respect) in that I like my tea sweetened, but I don't want to drink straight sugar.  I have to ask for unsweetened at restaurants, or half sweet and half unsweet.

9. I haven't made any tea in a couple of days.  I'm turning into a hummingbird.  It's been nothing but diet Big Red. I have a friend who drinks a Big Red every day...I guess for years.  Now that's loyalty. 

10.  My brother delivered and assembled exercise equipment for George Strait a few months ago.  He did not give him a tip.  Oh George.  We used to lease some land from some of his extended family when I was younger, and I used to think that maybe one day we would see George Strait driving around on his uncle's land in a battered pickup truck.  It never happened.  And now I know he doesn't tip.  I still like your music, George.  But I am disillusioned. 

11.  The absolute best ice cream ever gifted by God to mere mortals is Amy's Ice Cream.  There is one location in San Antonio, which is about 30 miles away from my apartment.  I rarely go to the Quarry.  It's too far, and it's where rich people shop on the weekends, and apparently there are a lot of rich people because there is never any parking upon a Saturday.  So anyway, I went to the Quarry on Wednesday because it's usually deserted on Wednesday and there is a Borders that had a book I needed.  After the book store I tried to go to Amy's Ice Cream.  I determinedly tried to walk right past about 4 men in suits that looked like that guy that says "Mr. Anderson" on the Matrix.  They stopped me from going in.  There were more secret agents inside.  So then I thought, "screw this" and left.  Later that night it occurred to me that when I was in Borders I walked past about 10 suit guys just standing around for no particular reason.  I think I missed out on some kind of celebrity sighting, or at least something that should have been recorded and placed on Youtube.  And I didn't get any ice cream.  Pfft.

Need some acrylic

Yes, need.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out on November 19 and I need a Gryffindor scarf.  I can use the same skeins to start my Jayne Cobb hat.  Need.