… it takes a vulgarian genius such as Lucas to create a landscape in which actions can carry vast importance but no discernible meaning, in which style is strangled at birth by design, and in which the intimate and the ironic, not the Sith, are the principal foes to be suppressed.
–Anthony Lane reviews Episode III
So, you’re riding down the highway in Australia and hit a kangaroo. The poor animal is suffering. It’s going to die. What to do? Here’s what Andrew Pollock did:
I decided that the best thing I could do was put it out of its misery, which was not something I was really happy about doing, as if you haven’t already figured out, I’m a bit of an animal lover. I returned to the car to find something to do the deed with, and the only thing I could think of was the steering wheel lock. So I grabbed that and went back to the kangaroo. Problem was, I just couldn’t do it. I raised it a few times to take a swing at the back of the head, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I ended up going back to get the car to try and finish it off with that. I ran over it once, and as I was turning the car around to head back off in the right direction again, I noticed it was still moving, so I ran over it again. I couldn’t bring myself to check again after that. It was the first kangaroo I’ve ever hit, and Sarah and I were both a bit traumatised from the experience.
“I think that the Congress has more important things to discuss,” — Michael Schiavo on government involvement in end-of-life decisions for his wife. “A fork to satisfy an ideology seems… well, there are better things to do, no?” — Louis Suarez-Pottz, OpenOffice.org Community Manager on rms‘s move to fork OpenOffice.org (OOo) because of its dependence on Java. When other people put a high priority on things that we consider important, but surely not that significant, we’re left puzzling over their decisions. Doesn’t Stallman see what a great thing OOo is? Can’t congress see that taking my brain-damaged wife off life-support should be my private decision? Even though most people thought that congress should keep out, even though most people aren’t committed to Free Software (most people still run Microsoft Windows), activists are still successfully bringing their issues to the public by redirecting attention to their cause. Twenty years ago, rms was a lone wacko who lived in MIT office space. Today, he’s a wacko who travels the world talking to free software converts and managing the FSF. He’s made a career of championing “forked” code for ideology. Mr. Suarez-Pottz seems to have missed that. In the same way, Michael Schiavo has pretty obviously missed how much so many people value “life” above all else.
Simon Cozen’s quit working as a programmer to train as a missionary — and he hates going to church! This was one of the things that drove me into Orthodoxy — wanting something more out of every Sunday — but, you know, even the Orthodox church doesn’t make a heck of a lot of difference when, sometimes, you just don’t want to go. Or rather, I always feel compelled to go. But there are periods in my life where I don’t get anything out of it. (Granted, when I’m not “getting anything out of it,” I tend to be feeling extra-rebellious.) So, what keeps you going when you don’t feel like it?
While I was exploring BeliefNet earlier to work on my post about exclusivity, I came across this essay about neognosticism. Then Alan revealed the secret of Christianity. And, to “celebrate” St. Thomas Sunday, +Seraphim put in this bit about the Gospel of St Thomas. Can’t anyone keep a secret?
A quick break for Orthodoxy and exclusivity to say “Look at this!” Google didn’t just correct my spelling. It pointed me to more fertile search criteria.
In response to my post on exclusivity, Rusty from My Orthodox Journey asks, if the claims of Orthodoxy aren’t exclusive, then why be Orthodox as opposed to another Christian sect? Of course, my answer is only that: my answer. I can only tell you why I’m not Protestant, Southern Baptist, non-denominational, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic. I can only tell you why, of all the flavors of Christianity, I’ve chosen to be Orthodox. Your reasons may or may not be the same as mine. And just because I’ve found that Orthodoxy helps me be the best Christian I can be doesn’t mean that someone else can’t find a full Christian life in, say, the Southern Baptist church that they’re a part of. I’m Orthodox because the Orthodox let God be God. Knowing who we worship is important, but I’m uncomfortable with over-dogmatizing. Saying “God always does this” or “God never does this” feels to me like we’re closing ourselves off to God. The Orthodox tradition has celebrated holy fools, mystics, and erudite theologians. God has used glossolia, art, and literature. The church recognizes and celebrates it all. I’m Orthodox because of tradition. “Smells and Bells” as a friend put it. A lot of people want a church that fits their culture like a glove. I want church to transcend culture and transform it. To “be in the world, but not of it”. I’m Orthodox because the church leaves the door open for disagreement. We’ve got tradition — in spades! — but when it comes to the issue of the day (e.g. evolution vs. creation), the church doesn’t rush to take a stance. This doesn’t mean that the church is quiet — my priest gave a homily that, in essence, said the conflict in Dover over “Intelligent Design” was foolish — but there is no official line. You can be Democrat, Republican, Green, or Libertarian and you’ll still be Orthodox. I’m Orthodox because of I don’t like the idea of Original Sin. The Orthodox church holds me responsible for my own actions and only my actions. Sure, Adam made life difficult, but I’m not guilty because of what he did. I’m Orthodox because I respect the history of the church. There’s been a long succession of bishops without one church trying to rule over the others. Churches with a mutual respect for each other. Again, none of this means that my choice is the only correct one. I’ve got a lot of respect for people like Simon Cozens and he has decided Orthodoxy isn’t for him. My brother Mert is other example of a non-Orthodox Christian who has earned my respect. My parents have both (for all there many faults 
lived out Christian love for others that I haven’t seen demonstrated in many other places. In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us that we’ll recognise his followers “by their fruits”. It seems obvious to me that there could, therefore, be fruitful Christians who aren’t Orthodox.
I started poking around Beliefnet’s Orthodoxy section and came across this q&a on homosexuals in the church. My favorite part:
As you consider the welcome prospect of membership in the Orthodox Church, the critical question is whether you are willing to take the church on its own terms, in light of its own mission, or only on your own terms. Think about why you are “powerfully drawn” to the Orthodox Church. Is it perhaps its antiquity, colorful worship, or historical character? Are you, as well, willing to be challenged by its witness in its entirety, including its doctrine, ethical teaching, and spirituality?
Too often, when we try to approach God, we want to do it on our own terms. I do this all the time. “OK, God, I want to be in the church, but then I’m gonna hold onto this and that, and, oh yeah, that there.” When I do that, I’m missing the point. Church isn’t just a place to go to enjoy incense and icons, it is a spiritual hospital where I can be healed. In fact, if I am honest with myself, it is this hospital that I need. My spiritual languor is overwhelming and I long to be back in the spiritual ardour that I felt when reading The Spiritual Life.
When reading My Orthodox Journey, I’m fascinated by the honesty and straight-forward attitude. Or maybe it is just that I see reflections of my own thinking there. Still, when he talks about claims of exclusivity, I find myself disagreeing. It is true that many conservative Orthodox claim that the Eastern church is the “one true church”. But it is just as true that not all orthodox (in fact, probably most) do not believe that. Maybe it is because I was exposed to the the Nicene Creed before I considered orthodoxy seriously, back when I was trying hard to be a Christian in the Reformed tradition. So I already understood “the one holy, catholic and apostolic” church to be the universal church — that is all Christians everywhere. Yes, people in the traditions I came from and people in the tradition I arrived in think that the Orthodox claim exclusivity and that the claim is a dogmatic one. But my teachers have taught me that there is very little Dogma in Orthodoxy. In fact, the dogma that there is consists of two items:
So, when Edward Moore, in “Kerygma and Dogma” writes:
The problem is that Christians all-too-often speak of themselves and for themselves [...] Theocratic bigotry is often the end result.
we see the problem of paying too much attention to small dogma and ignoring the proclamation (kerygma) to live out our response to God. I’m really not interested in deciding who is or is not in “serious error” when I have so many of my own sins to attend to.
Simon Wilson says that playing with spotlight made him aware of the fact of how easy to find old password reminders and such. In fact, this is one reason I’ve been keeping my old email around. When I go to, say, buy.com to buy something, and I’ve forgotten my password. I just search email to fetch the original back. Evolution (did I just plug a Novell product?!?!) is quite handy at searching my email and pulling up only what I want to see. Not quite full text, yet, but I’ll use Beagle for that.