Jumping With Joi

It's the end of NaNoWriMo. Joi has made it.

Check out her novel, A Million Sunsets.

Her novel last year: Sanctus.

Feasting On Thanksgiving

[via slacktivist]

'Why have we feasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?

 Why have we humbled ourselves,

 and you have not noticed?'

 Yet on the day of your feasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

Your feasting ends in quarreling and strife,

 and in striking each other with wicked fists.

 You cannot feast as you do today

 and expect your voice to be heard on high. {continued}

Someone's rut is another's groove. Ruts are broken records; grooves keep moving.

Santa Stranglings...

Wittenburg Door #214

In this issue:

Interviews: Rolf Potts and Phyllis Tickle

Also featuring articles such as:

"They'll Know We are Christians by Our Stuff"
The Exegete: Harmonizing the Gospels for Dummies
Vision Statements You're Not Likely to See
Jesus Weary of Being Lifted Higher
Goin' Straight: Notes from Ted Haggard's Support Group
St. Christopher Relieved from Duty
A James Dobson Emergency Alert: The Newest Threat to American Families
Reading Lolita at Liberty University

and more. The Last Word: Santa, Yule, and Me

You Can't

[the full poem, HT: Emotional Abuse and Your Faith]

You can’t force closeness to the one you have lost
You can’t pressure trust when you can not resolve.
You can’t intimidate into intimacy with someone you love
You can’t have it both ways and think you have won.

The Plague of Friendship

The problem with knowing your friend is that the grace given to one's weaknesses will often outweigh their patience. The friend judged will be underestimated simply by virtue of your claim to understand them. In all our seeking after the understanding of others, it should be realized that misunderstanding is the plague of friendship, and neither party has a monopoly on it regardless of their intellectual and social abilities. Misunderstanding and malice are the foundations of enmity - one or the other or both in equal measure.

[via You saved my life from a colorless one...]

Remembering...Always

To me, remembrance is about learning who we are and who we want to be.

...We can make people/criminals feel guilty for doing wrong in-the-eyes-of-another, but we can’t make people/criminals feel shame. Shame starts from within us. And it’s a means of personal change initiated by oneself. And the change can only be for the better when it’s understood (through increased skills to empathize with our victims) that disappearing will not benefit those we’ve hurt. Nothing can erase the damage done. But the best compensation for our victims is gaining healthier relationships. And the best way for victims to receive justice is to help the wrong-doer find their own true shame.

...Falsifying our personal history by censuring it is a crime. History should reveal the world of the adult along with the world of the child, memories of the good, and bad, in all.

[via daydreamer]

How Stressed...

Consider for a moment the effects that stress (and persecution would certainly qualify) has on the human body. The body functions most effectively under the just the right amount of stress. Too much stress or too little stress leads to pathology (dysfunction). It is true that certain aspects of the body are more active when the body is highly stressed but these same aspects can lead to major problems especially over an extended period of time. In fact one of the common effects of heightened stress is the tendency for the person or animal to give up (this helps to explain stress related depression). So then the question must be asked, "Does the stress of persecution make the individuals more likely to give up in the face of ongoing stress or are things like imprisonment and martyrdom actually an act of resolute determination?" Not only that, what can we say about the convictions themselves? We know that a brain that is under perpetual stress increasingly loses its capacity to reason and make accurate judgements of the stimuli present.

[via D'caffeinated Pickle]

In Those Times...

As we come towards another Rememberance Day this weekend, I am reminded of incredible heroes and sacrifices made when ordinary people rose to face extrodinary circumstances....My days may not present opportunity to storm German MG42 positions, and I might not have thousands of soldiers counting on me to knock out fortified artillery positions (as the soldiers in Band of Brothers did). Yet there are many battles to be fought, the battles for truth, love, and purity, and we all need our brothers (and sisters) in those times.

[via Allan Tan's Blog]

"The 'test of faith' card again?"

From Crackle: Mr. Deity and the Meaning - Season 2, Ep 2

[via Mr. Deity]

"Happy Counterterrorism Day"

The Gunpowder Plot and its trial were the English-speaking world’s first experience with counterterrorism. It demonstrated that some policies are foolish, destroy the confidence of the people in their own government, and may even cause an autocrat or two to loose his head. But some people never learn.

This year, let us again remember the tale of Guy Fawkes. The fifth of November is indeed a day to remember. But with time we have a better reason why.

[via Harpers, HT: grrrlmeetsworld]