I just happened to look up and noticed it was snowing outside.  It is a gentle snow, of big clumps of flakes, that mainly melts when it touches down.  It isn't the first snow of the season - that was Wednesday, I think, or Thursday - but this is the blanketing sort rather than the blowing sort, the quiet kind.  Snow like this makes me sad; I ( Read more... )

    I may be offline for a little bit - my son and I are floating my computer from SuSe Linux 10 to Ubuntu tomorrow ( Read more... )

    I've noticed that topics never stay nice and neat in their boxes - they spread and wander about, other subjects leap into their box and play....what a mental image ( Read more... )

    Here's a thought, considering leadership and organizational structure: has there ever been a 'democratic' religious organization?  Have all spiritual groups always been arranged around a central authority with concentrated control?  A leader may arise through popular acclaim but a 'church' isn't a foxhole: how much blind obedience is 'normal' ( Read more... )

    Yes, I've been thinking about the same old subject again.  I should go back and unlock the posts I put up that were, essentially, essays about the Discussion group topics, the four or five I got to.  Those pieces were thoughtful but occasionally strayed, as one group participant pointed out, into inflammatory analyses and comparisons.  My ( Read more... )

    Fear is an interesting thing, when viewed from afar, when examined rhetorically and theoretically, when dissected, rather than felt.  Fear can be a logical response, as in, you'd be a fool not to feel fear, in specific situations.  Then again, as all you Dune fans know, Fear is the Mindkiller.  You must transcend your fear and be moved to ( Read more... )

    Yes, the answer is 42, but I have the feeling that the questions are much more important and they aren't so obvious ( Read more... )

    Perhaps the inner message to finding this article was that, yes, there are things that some seemingly disparate groups have in common so, here is:

August 22, 2007 Of Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul

By JOAN NATHAN

Howard, S.D.

NEAR a prairie dotted with cattle and green with soy beans, barley, corn and oats, two bearded ( Read more... )

    Well, probably not in the strictest sense, and you do need to consider the definition of 'ritual ( Read more... )

    I was mulling 'purpose' again, and, especially, the last comment by one of my dear correspondents.
    We would all love to be in control of our destinies, at least we say we would (when it is decision-making time other behaviors may be observed).  But what if we aren't?  What if it all is just a giant, complex, four-dimensional chess game ( Read more... )