Amidst babel, I repeat, speak the truth.

In the face of death, live humanely. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst babel … speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, defend the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.
WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW, An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land

change

I said there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering and that was the fact that it is past - can't be restored.
Mark Twain - Letter to Mr. Burrough

People pretend that the Bible means the same to them at 50 that it did at all former milestones in their journey. I wonder how they can lie so. It comes of practice, no doubt. They would not say that of Dickens' or Scott's books. Nothing remains the same. When a man goes back to look at the house of his childhood, it has always shrunk: there is no instance of such a house being as big as the picture in memory and imagination call for. Shrunk how? Why, to its correct dimensions: the house hasn't altered; this is the first time it has been in focus.

Well, that's loss. To have house and Bible shrink so, under the disillusioning corrected angle, is loss--for a moment. But there are compensations. You tilt the tube skyward and bring planets and comets and corona flames a hundred and fifty thousand miles high into the field. Which I see you have done, and found Tolstoi. I haven't got him in focus yet, but I've got Browning...
- Letter to W. D. Howells, 8/22/1887

Change is the handmaiden Nature requires to do her miracles with.
- Roughing It

Who am I?

"Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God."
-- Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

Madeline Albright

When asked how she became the first female Secretary of state, Madeline Albright said...

I learned how to interrupt men at an early age.

Dream for an Insomniac

Here are a few of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies

Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of your time.

Choices are like connecting highways. They all take you to the same place. Some just take longer to get there.

There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with and love shouldn't be one of them.

I never give up. I either get what I want or I change my mind first.

If you only dream when your asleep, then when your awake, there's still nothing there.

We cheer up occasionally, but we get over it.

Favorite movie lines?

Ok, Ok, so let me know when you are tired of Tom Robbins quotations

I am rereading Still Life With Woodpecker, a fabulous book that I recomend to all. Here are a few of my favorite lines.

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

Equality is not in requarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently.

Something has got to hold it together. I'm saying my prayers to Elmer, the Greek god of glue.

Now tequila may be the favoured beverage of outlaws but that doesn't mean it gives them preferential treatment. In fact, tequila probably has betrayed as many outlaws as has the central nervous system and dissatisfied wives. Tequila, scorpion honey, harsh dew of the doglands, essence of Aztec, crema de cacti; tequila, oily and thermal like the sun in solution; tequila, liquid geometry of passion; Tequila, the buzzard god who copulates in midair with the ascending souls of dying virgins; tequila, firebug in the house of good taste; O tequila, savage water of sorcery, what confusion and mischief your sly, rebellious drops do generate!


This is from his "Ode to Readheads" (http://www.angelfire.com/az/varuna/ode.html)

Red O red were the tresses of the original femme fatale.
Of course, much of the "fatale" associated with redheads is illusory, a stereotypical projection on the part of sexually neurotic men. Plenty of redheads are as demure as rosebuds and as sweet as strawberry pie. However, the mere fact that they are perceived to be stormy, if not malicious, grants them a certain license and a certain power. It's as if bitchiness is their birthright. By virtue of their coloration, they possess an innate permit to be terrible and lascivious, which, even if never exercised, sets them apart from the remainder of womankind, who have traditionally been expected to be mild and pure.

From "Genius Waitress" (http://www.itineratesurfer.com/2006/04/19/tom-robbins-genius-waitress/)

Of the genius waitress, I now sing.

Of hidden knowledge, buried ambition, and secret
sonnets scribbled on cocktail napkins; of aching
arches, ranting cooks, condescending patrons, and eyes
diverted from ancient Greece to ancient grease; of
burns and pinches and savvy and spunk; of a uniquely
American woman living a uniquely American compromise,
I sing. I sing of the genius waitress.

Pearls Before Swine

I have been doing a little background reading on my favorite comic strip, Pearls Before Swine. The name of the strip comes from Matthew 7:6:

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

The comic strip is explained as a "tale of two friends: a megalomaniacal Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn't know any better. Together, this pair offers caustic commentary on humanity's quest for the unattainable. ... In this case, Rat believes that he is an endless source of wisdom, and that it is wasted upon Pig, who is rather slow. In truth, neither of them is very smart, but while Pig is content with his humble status in life, Rat is always on a futile search for fame, riches and immortality.

Check it out at http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20070715.html

Question of the week...
What is your favorite comic strip/cartoon and why?

more fortunes (in case you don't read the comments page)

Never make the mistake of thinking you know everything about anything
You are a dreamer and your thinking is inspirational
You will receive praise for a job well done
Rarely have beauty and virtue existed together as strongly as they do in you (this one is totally appropriate for you Bethany!)

Fortune cookie

My fortune cookie from Saturday night said

Failure is the mother of success.

WTF, what kind of fortune cookie is that? I don't think fortune cookie's should talk about failure. Once I go over my shock I decided it was a good thought. We don't always get it right, and that is ok. We are not made to be perfect, but to learn.