To be or to do...

“You do you, and let me do me.” 

Besides being grammatically bad, this little compound sentence is philosophically questionable.

What does it mean to “do me”? I do not “do me” I am myself. What I do is not me, though it may reflect on

 who I am and certainly other people are prone to define people by what they do.

We call someone who steals a thief, unless it was from a family member or friend or from a bad guy. (As 

everybody knows, if it is done to a bad guy, it doesn’t really count. At least--that's what the movies tell us.)

 Now, let’s take a look at this.  Stealing is the thing done. Who is the person, though?  Maybe this is 

someone who lost his job and whose children are hungry.  Maybe this is the one time he has ever stolen. 

Do we say, “Thief! That is who you are”?

I do a lot of things; I have been an amateur actress, artist, poet and writer. I dream and scribble and 

converse within myself. I sing and even lead songs, I teach and I study.  If I do not act, I am still myself. 

If I lost my hands or my voice I would still be “me.” Take away my work, I still exist, for all the doings are 

merely expressions of me. Divide my soul from my body, I still exist, but now beyond this present life on 

earth, I go to judgment and, by God’s grace, to live eternally.

What need will there be in heaven for teachers or scribblers or actors? 

But, there may we lose ourselves in the wonder of God and find ourselves in His embrace.

A list on my thirtieth birthday

Sunsets and skylines,
Purples and greys,
Four on my fork tines,
Drizzly days,
Cheerful and tuneful--
The chirping of birds,
Mournful and wistful--
A song without words,
Leaf fall and snow fall,
Earth, grass, and bark,
Sunlight and rain fall,
Nights clear and dark,
Moonlight and starlight,
Whispering trees,
Ears hearing, eyes sight,
Knowing God sees,
Greens greys and blues,
Tea, blanket, tasty bread,
Fall colours, many hues,
Thoughts inside head,
Confession, Mass, Eucharist--
This itself completes the list.

So, I'm sleepy, nothing new.

I'm sitting here processing the day in a loose sort of way.  Big Sleep and Case Study and Baptism and Info Tech fun-ness.  RFID.  What does that make you think of?  What comes to mind?  Do you have an emotional response?

What about Baptism?  Is it a singular occurrence, or is it something that can be repeated depending on circumstances?  Example: random person, raised Catholic, strayed from faith, decides to commit life to Christ, wants to be baptized.  Does the infant baptism count for something?  Is it a "questionable" practice?  Is a second baptism a good or bad idea?

That's all for this week.

Yes, I am going to make the effort to post once a week.  Oh, the baptism question was inspired by a conversation that I overheard in the library.  It was interesting.

A poem

From back at Bethel

First I just want to say, I really did see on three different days, three dead blackbirds.  The first was kind of peacefully melancholy, the second kind of sad, the third, depressing.  It was weird.  So . . .

Three Dead Crows

The first day, the rain came down and wept great tears over one
                    fallen, alone
The second day came and with it cool winds
                         over two were blown
And on the earth the second lay
  under the blue sky,
and the first not far away
   on the corner lies
The third day, the last lay stiff with no wind or tear
                       in dirt and decay.
The fourth day, I also shall disappear
                           and nothing say.

Ah! You my friends had a song to sing!
And who ever flew the way you flew!
But down to the earth is bound the wing
That once through heavens flew
Down to the earth, you who three
    once through blue sky and grey sky
and in bold despite of gravity
  soared.  But now cold death
has reminded me
how slight is the breath of humanity.

The first day came with a weeping sky
         and tears rolled off your back
The second day came with bitter winds
         that ruffled the dull and black
The third day came with only decay
        and in filth you laid and in dearth
The fourth day I shall fade away
        and never walk this earth.

A few quotes that I like

"So I had this problem -- work or starve. So I thought I'd combine the two and decided to become a writer."
— Robert Bloch

"You do what's right, and let the pieces fall where they may."
--Peter Burke

and about the sea-
"Most fitting symbol of the Infinite, this trackless pathway of a world heaving and stretching to meet the sky it never reaches, like the eager unsatisfied aspirations of the human soul."
--Lydia Maria Francis Child