tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2835063886876365150.post4837512576149466387..comments2023-05-16T10:50:33.775-04:00Comments on The Electoral College Student: Embracing DesperationAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428295174262920096noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2835063886876365150.post-3637242412417735072009-09-13T01:43:34.590-04:002009-09-13T01:43:34.590-04:00Thanks for your comments. I appreciate your though...Thanks for your comments. I appreciate your thoughts. I hope you don't mind my lengthy replies - I tend to ramble until I hit something. (So I suppose it would be better if I wrote something first somewhere, then revised it, but if I did that, what would be the point of having a blog? Who else will read my vague thoughts?)<br /><br />I also enjoyed your poem. Here is one that I composed a long time ago that you may like:<br /><br />“Creation”<br /><br />Blow the ember, build the fire, --<br />Feeling, heat and warmth inspire –<br />Catch the spark if it be split -<br />Fuel the fire if it be lit - <br />Flames of orange-blue; yellow and red<br />Leaping tongues of fire spit when fed<br />With the essence of our lives:<br />By the air we breathe, the fire revives.<br />The smoldering coals, though tossed aside,<br />Still burn as brightly deep inside -<br />Though untended, left to die,<br />The glowing embers multiply<br />Beneath and yet beyond the smoke -<br />In our devotion, tenderly we stoke<br />The fading remnants of the blaze<br />To watch the burning embers raise<br />From ash to ash, from dust to dust,<br />As all it touches will combust,<br />A fire renews and then destroys its vigor<br />To please its maker, the gazing gravediggerAlexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01428295174262920096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2835063886876365150.post-77197568910310701332009-09-13T01:10:33.917-04:002009-09-13T01:10:33.917-04:00Our spirit soars on wings of hope,
above terrains ...Our spirit soars on wings of hope,<br />above terrains of mortal clamor,<br />in search of spots with gentle slope<br />where our passions flit and stammer.<br /><br />Guided by dreams of peace and love<br />against the gusts of circumstance--<br />our visions poor so far above<br />these lands of happenstance.<br /><br />The cost of each ascent is high,<br />from those places we have landed.<br />And with each leap we give a sigh--<br />as a part of us lies stranded.<br /><br />In just this way we spread our whims<br />across the life that we inhabit<br />as melodies of a single hymn<br />that our soul has made it's habit.<br /><br />Some struggle hard to find their place,<br />other's look for god's direction,<br />but no matter how we dissect space<br />there's no changing our trajection.<br /><br />For the places that we choose to land<br />are determined not by vision,<br />for what we see is not first hand<br />but is colored by volition.<br /><br />So perhaps the best that we can do,<br />in the search for real belonging,<br />is just to look at ourselves true,<br />and let go of what we're longing.ananiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08090478687630964605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2835063886876365150.post-21259344978138092342009-08-11T01:27:50.685-04:002009-08-11T01:27:50.685-04:00When I read the first half of your comment, I knew...When I read the first half of your comment, I knew what the second half would say.<br /><br />I know, right? Crazy. But we're not crazy - just thoughtful.<br /><br />Anyway...I've been thinking about that quote recently. <br /><br />This may shock you, but I'm actually re-reading the book from which that quote is an excerpt.<br /><br />As you may or may not remember, I have read it twice, but I just have a dim remembrance of it, and I discerned that maybe I should read it again.<br /><br />__________________________________<br /><br />When I stare at the stars, I feel a certain sort of transcendence.<br /><br />I, a product of this small planet, should exist to contemplate billions upon billions of galaxies? <br /><br />What experience in this world can prepare us for those sentiments?<br /><br />Maybe we weren't made for another world, but maybe our world, as it is only one small world, cannot prepare us for the magnificence and beauty of all the others?<br /><br />Do I believe that we were made for another world? Do I believe that other worlds were made for us? Or do I believe that we are part of something even larger than our ancestors could have conceived in their Earth-centric imaginations?<br /><br />Perhaps there are desires within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, and we are made for another world. Or, perhaps there are desires within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, because our world is only an insignificant fraction of the entire cosmos?<br /><br />__________________________________<br /><br />But to get at the heart of the question: why are we desperate?<br /><br />Are we desperate because our world is fallen?<br /><br />Are we desperate because our world is what it is?<br /><br />It has been said by Christians, if there is no God, then chaos and destruction will reign upon the world.<br /><br />And when we examine the world, what do we find?<br /><br />I'm sure you'll point out to me that the chaos and destruction in our world is there exactly because we are fallen! <br /><br />It would be rude of me to forget this, so I'm not going to forget it: instead, I'm merely noting a curious coincidence - if humans are responsible for the brokenness and chaos of our world, then why has life on this planet raged and suffered and battered about for more than a billion years, while humans have only been inhabitants of this planet for a tiny fraction of that time?<br /><br />The desperation which I speak of is the engine of life on this planet. Perhaps no desire can satisfy it because it is the reason for our desire in the first place? <br /><br />Abolish existence, and you've abolished desperation. But how else should anyone untangle the two?<br /><br />Where is the evidence that we were made for another world? Perhaps it is true, but only as an addition to the evidence that we were also made for this one.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01428295174262920096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2835063886876365150.post-91719001149419896882009-08-11T01:07:01.499-04:002009-08-11T01:07:01.499-04:00I believe the desperation you speak of comes from ...I believe the desperation you speak of comes from a desire we cannot meet.<br /><br />"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."<br /><br />-CS LewisMatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08378406503942396165noreply@blogger.com