With god...

With god anything is possible because fiction can do anything.

Insomnia

I have never really understood how I can be so completely exhausted, but so completely unable to sleep. I don't mind waking up at four a.m. or even3:30 if I can fall asleep at a decent hour, but laying in bed for hours tossing around (or trying to remain stil) is quite annoying. Days upon days of this is really becoming too much for me. This is when my mind begins wandering into dark places. This is when I begin to worry myself.

Grading

I just walked into the bathroom to take a break from grading, and I let out a sigh that hauntingly sounded like my Mother's final and be labored breaths. That sound made me realize that I would rather be here, grading endless papers than not be here at all. How simple it is to realize that this life, even the toils some parts, are preferable to no life at all.

Fathers and Sons

If Jesus is the son of god, but is simultaneously also god, then does that mean that all of our sons are also us, ourselves? If so, then when we talk to our sons, are we also talking to ourselves? And what happens when our sons don't listen to us, am I just not listening to myself? Why would I not listen to myself, especially I I said, "Hey son, can you please get me a beer?" and he replies, "No". I wouldn't ever say that to myself.
And one more thing, what are the implications of your son is adopted? Is he really me, or just kinda sorta?

Social Darwinism?

It's not survival of the fittest, it's the flourishing of the most deceptive.

This Amazing World

I am not so ridiculously egocentric as to believe that some grand deity created this immense universe simply to put me on a planet in the inner part of Cygnus Orion arm of the Milly Way galaxy so that I could be shepherded through life, prolesletize about the greatness of this absent creator, and finally go to a paradise afterlife based on my very human constructs and desires. No, to me that is nothing short of absurd. Instead, I prefer learning about the wonders of this amazing place. I prefer to make our home more hospitable. I prefer to teach our fellow humans about the good and bad of our civilization, about how to communicate well, and how and why it is important to experience this life in as many ways possible. I prefer to bring joy and happiness and understanding to the human race instead of placating the masses through mystical babble that even a kindergartner should realize is nothing more than wishful thinking. Instead, we should place the same amount of faith in ourselves and others as we place in those mysterious invisible beings we call gods. Imagine what we, as a species, could accomplish then. That would be something worth celebrating and paying homage to.

If I Was Blessed (but I'm not)

If I was religious, I would say that I am truly blessed. But I don't subscribe to the conquerer's religion, and they made sure that I would never know the religion of my ancestors, so I am left with little more than the beautiful knowledge that we are nothing more than the desires of the conquerors. I am nothing more than the desires of some band of men who swept across Europe after Constantine converted and sent his hoard forth to prolesthetize and murder for a newly made god. But that is too grim. I am more than that. I am the strange concoction of almost 14 billion years ( or maybe more) of an evolving universe. Still, at this moment, I am the father of two beautiful children and husband to a wonderfully beautiful wife. Hoy, solo soy el papi lleno de mi graciosa vida.

Sky

When I look up at the sky or across the canyon, I seldom give it a second thought. But when I do consider the beauty of the world, it is just that. When someone says something about god blessing us with this glorious day I can't help but think about the 14 billion years that our universe has been in existence, about the four billion years our solar system has been around, about the billions of years of creation and destruction that made everything come together so well that I can look up at a clear blue sky or across at a green caynon teeming with life. I am reminded that the atoms in my body come from the relentless process of stars being formed and eventually dying in violent ways, spewing their cosmic fertilizer across the cosmos. When I look out at the grandure of our world, I don't see the work of mystical beings; I see the amazing mysteries waiting to be unlocked. There, in that act of learning about our world for what it really is, we learn more about beauty than any form of mysticism can ever produce.

One Shot

One of the best thing about this life is that regardless of what we do at any given moment, we have the opportunity to change with the next breath. Without a doubt, all of our trespasses, all of our misgivings, all of those things we never should have said exist in the lives we affect; however, in the next instant we can begin to change and improve. Some people believe in an afterlife if we are good enough in this one. Some believe in paying penance before reaching paradise. Others believe that we will come back in a different form to try it all over again. I don't believe in any of that. I believe we have one shot with this one life, so we can choose to wait for for some mystical second chance or we can right our wrongs with what we have at our disposal. When we do something well, do it again. When we do something poorly, learn to improve. When we really screw up, learn from our mistake. That is but one small aspect of living that can make us all a little better.