Beholding the Beauty

Howdy y'all!  It's been a whirlwind since the last post. Since then, I've gone through Holy Week and Pascha, we've had our Telemark Dance Show, I've started tutoring a fellow in Uzbekistan (in English), I've read several books, I've started writing a book (or so it feels like), I've secured cheap-but-awesome vacations for the rest of my life and my children's lives, I'm writing a 5 part (three vocal and two violin) arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner for a friend, and I'm breaking into three different wholesaling businesses in addition to my normal 40-hr/wk job. Not to mention the work required to even barely maintain (let alone improve) the house. Oh, and I got engaged.  (To the aforementioned Clarice.)  :) Now we're doing wedding planning and let me tell you -- it's a blast, and it's also quite stressful and time-consuming.  But it'll be totally worth it. :) Needless to say, I haven't had much time for dan...

Well it's definitely been a while since I posted on here!  Here's a little of what I've been up to. First off, I've already(!) refinanced the house, dropping a half a percentage point off my interest rate, and lowering my payments by $120/mo. Also, I've been busy practicing as part of the Telemark Dance Troupe (I'm in the Tango section).  Our show is in four weeks, so we've been busy getting ready for that. I'm adopting a cat. I got a girlfriend about four weeks ago, and she has (deservedly) been taking what little was left of my free time. :)  (No, this is not an April Fools joke.  Her name is Clarice, and she's awesome!!!! :) ) In addition to all that, I've been attending a few of the extra services during Great Lent, and also having to perform my various duties as a Parish Council member -- specifically, as the Treasurer and IT Director. I need a vacation!

So often, I assume that you (Yes, "you", my dear reader -- I'm not vaguebooking about any particular someone here; I'm talking to YOU, whoever you may be)... But that's a lot of explanation, and I digress. Start again. So often, I assume that you have an agenda. And worse, I assume I know what that agenda is. What makes this so horrible is that sometimes (only sometimes!) I'm actually right. So then I think I'm right the rest of the time, too, when I am more often than not horribly, horribly wrong. As part of "growing up", we have to both learn to set boundaries where they are needed, and also to tear them down where they don't belong. Both tasks have the potential to make quite a mess of things. Too often, I set my boundaries by filtering my horribly flawed, judgmental, and blind assumptions about your character, person, and agenda through the matrix of my broken, limited, and chaotic passions and desires, coupled with my illogical thought p...

Introduction Recently, I got into a discussion of this topic on a Facebook thread, and I brought up Deut. 14:26. The Discussion One of the participants replied that it was almost a dare by God, to keep them from drinking at home during the rest of the year, so they could be consistent in public with who they were at home.  This is an interpretation of the command as one fundamentally based on fear of embarrassment and judgment by their fellows. To this, I simply replied: I think the and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household is sufficient to show that there is no fear intended in the command, no judgment, but a rejoicing, a celebration. This is consistent with…the Psalm that says, You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. One of the people replied that it was an exception to the rule. ...

As a recent (almost 4 years ago now) convert to Orthodoxy, I am not qualified to speak to this topic, but I will do so anyway. Here are a few basic — to my mind incontrovertable — principles to work with: First, canonically, traditionally, and liturgically, the bishopric is over a City. Any “higher levels” of honor (e.g. Archbishop, etc.) are based on any “higher levels” of government (e.g. in the USA: County, State/Possession/Territory, Nation). Any reference to ethnicity or nationality of the parishioners to decide who is in charge of whom is phyletism, a defined and anathematized heresy, plain and simple. And any bishop who remains in this condition is a heretic himself. Each of them needs to realize that. Second, it is against the Christian ethos (if not canon law as well?) to take a brother to the secular courts. Suing each other is NEVER to be an option. Thirdly, no plan needs approval from bishops overseas. Bishops are bishops, and each has full executive power over his di...

I recently asked a girl -- explicitly, not just implied! -- to go on an actual Date (yes, the capital "D" was there, even though it was spoken). She said, "Thank you, but I'm not interested in you that way." Ok, cool!  No harm, no foul, and we're still friends. :) That was SOOOOOO much easier than the "let's hang out and hope we click and if we click I might get the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend but I shouldn't let her explicitly know I'm interested (although hopefully she'll figure it out) because I'm afraid that'll scare her off" approach. No, if being blunt scares her off, then fine.  Y'all know me -- we probably wouldn't have gotten along anyway; none of us has time to dilly-dally around waiting for someone to figure out what they want. So....From here on out, if I'm interested in a you, I'm going to ask you: "I'd like to take you on a Date; are you interested?" Now, for...

Originally posted on my Facebook.  Hope you like the formatting here better. :) This is probably one of the most blatantly "in your face" proselytizing posts I've ever put up on here. You all know that I rarely do that. I post a lot of political stuff, and a lot of religious stuff, but rarely ever, on here or in person, do I just blatantly proselytize. And I don't foresee doing this very much in the future, either. But there is a great coincidence of liturgical calendars between my religion and another, which bears some meditation. That meditation turned into a call to convert. Oops. :P Here goes… This evening begins, in the Jewish religion, Yom Kippur, the yearly Day of Atonement. This is a high holy day, and is observed with strict fasting, almsgiving, prayers of repentance, and other asceticisms, designed to remind us of our fallen condition, and to petition God by these for forgiveness, and I wish my Jewish friends a good repentance and confession, a good Yo...