Oh Sinner!

Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted.  Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence.  It means to live unskillfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering. (from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle)

I first heard that definition of sin from my favorite priest, Father James Lex.  It kinds of stands the definition I first learned on its head.

A Puzzling Question

Here is part of an op-ed in yesterday’s South Bend Tribune, partly in response to the movement to openly carry weapons into restaurants in stores and fight against any and all gun restrictions.

Future historians will be puzzled why what was once one of the most technologically advanced, enlightened societies in history aspired to ascend to such a high level of everyday wariness.

They will marvel at how virtually unlimited access to and display of firearms was pushed upon a reluctant majority by a relatively tiny group of particularly vocal and politically organized zealots.

They will find it particularly ironic that the unlimited-guns advocates so effectively used the concept of "freedom" to justify their cause.

As the future historians will see -- as anyone who lived in one of those other places or times when guns were truly an essential part of daily life could have told us -- no one is less free than a man, woman or child who must live in constant fear of death.

Procrastination, Have You No Limits?

“Sleep Procrastination” is a concept Betsy Morais discusses at the New Yorker site.  I imagine you know what it means.  I suppose there are some people who don’t ever put off going to bed because of trivial distractions.  Mmorais says that studies show that “people who have low self-regulation skills are more likely to keep watching the late night movie, or play yet another computer game despite knowing they might regret it the next morning when waking up tired.”  Okay, that might be me.  But often, I keep reading or working a Sudoku or whatever while I wait for that signal from my body that tells me, “Yes, I can sleep now.”  Sleep procrastination is an interesting concept, maybe even helpful, but sometimes, sleep is just frustratingly illusive.