11/1/2003 - 11/30/2003

Thursday, November 20, 2003
This week was spent at work. I do not remember home, I only slept there. Christmas is in full swing in the retail world. While the community decides what to buy, I have been pondering the future of religion.Religion evolves. Nothing stays the same; not our mores, ideals, science, or world view. As in nature, one is either growing or dying. Religion is no different. Our community expands beyond twenty miles. We live with other cultures, other beliefs. When we say we respect other's beliefs, do we mean we consider their beliefs equal to our own, or do we mean we respect their right to express their wrongness? I wonder.More to ponder before I can put my thoughts into words. They are darting about and refuse to connect right now. Our first snow arrived on Wednesday. I can enjoy the snow in Seattle, it rarely stays long enough to wear out its welcome. I watched the wonder of each snowflake drift onto the windshield. The quiet blanketing of the countryside. I am ready to start the Christmas season. I am early this year; the peacefulness of snow brings a quiet anticipation to mind. Brad just informed me snow is falling in West Seattle. We will be home together tomorrow. Maybe the snow and bunny slippers will help me ponder the universe. And do the laundry.
Posted by: CJ / 11:36 PM
Monday, November 17, 2003
My buddy Ben recommended the movie, Luther, to me. I rarely watch movies, and even rarer to watch them in a theatre. He mentioned it more than once which piqued my interest. This is the last week the movie plays in Seattle, so I twisted Brad's arm to go. We spent Thursday discovering the new toys Dr. Ben Frankenstein added to our computer and setting up our electronic filing cabinets. Ben is a remarkable man. A renaissance man. One of his many talents is taking a computer, adding and subtracting parts, rearranging bits and pieces, and handing you back a new machine. What that man can do with dead and decaying matter is amazing. I digress.Friday, we pried ourselves away from home (bunny slippers are hard to part with) and headed for the Broadway district on Capital Hill. We had lunch at a little Thai restaurant and walked to the Harvard Exit Theatre. This is an old community theatre, complete with a lobby filled with antique furniture and a fireplace. We walked up two flights of stairs to reach the second stage with a screen. The movie portrays Martin Luther's journey from dedicated priest to radical reformer. I resist historical portrayals as Hollywood, more times than not, plays footsie with historical facts. This movie was able to share the sense of confusion, disappointment, anger, betrayal that Luther experienced. The movie brought to mind how history repeats itself over and over again. Jesus tried to reform the Jewish faith and his followers started a new religion. The early Catholic Church splintered into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths.After Martin Luther started the protestant faith, more splinters occurred. We are not a people that agree well.I left the theatre with two impressions.One. Organized Religions have trouble heeding the call of prophets and reforming themselves. Prophets rarely want to start something new. They usually just want to improve and purify what already exists. Two. People tend to believe their religion is the only way to heaven. Why do we have trouble accepting that we are children to God? He does not expect us to know everything. We do not expect a child to have a degree in chemistry to bake cookies, yet somehow we think we should know everything where God is concerned. A good parent just wants their children to love, share their toys, and be grateful. The rest we will all find out soon enough.
Posted by: CJ / 12:13 AM