atoms into suns

I was wandering around the Internet today and ran across a link for GodBlogCon. Cool idea, I thought. It'd be nifty to get a bunch of bloggers together to talk about their faith and how they present it, how the development of ideas is different in blogs than it is in other formats, and how blogging has helped their personal faith evolve.

Unfortunately, turns out GodBlogCon is reserved for Christians only. "And so the Convention will not include individuals from other religions or Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and other cultic aberration groups." (from the SIXTH section)

"Cultic aberration groups"? Suppose they meant that in the original senses of those words, or in the way it comes off?

They're welcome to have a con and invite whomever they'd like, of course, but the name GodBlogCon and the language they use to disinvite others is what's grating on me. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, since they do say right after that that "It is not [their] intention to offend anyone," but it sorta reminds me of the guy who tried to tell me once how Muslims worship that false god Allah, while Christians worship God. (Whereas Arabic-speaking Christians worship, uh, well...)

This seemed fitting, based on what I just posted.

O God, my God! Thou seest how black darkness is enshrouding all regions, how all countries are burning with the flame of dissension, and the fire of war and carnage is blazing throughout the East and the West. Blood is flowing, corpses bestrew the ground, and severed heads are fallen on the dust of the battlefield.

O Lord! Have pity on these ignorant ones, and look upon them with the eye of forgiveness and pardon. Extinguish this fire, so that these dense clouds which obscure the horizon may be scattered, the Sun of Reality shine forth with the rays of conciliation, this intense gloom be dispelled and the resplendent light of peace shed its radiance upon all countries.

O Lord! Draw up the people from the abyss of the ocean of hatred and enmity, and deliver them from this impenetrable darkness. Unite their hearts, and brighten their eyes with the light of peace and reconciliation. Deliver them from the depths of war and bloodshed, and free them from the darkness of error. Remove the veil from their eyes, and enlighten their hearts with the light of guidance. Treat them with Thy tender mercy and compassion, and deal not with them according to Thy justice and wrath which cause the limbs of the mighty to quake.

O Lord! Wars have persisted. Distress and anxiety have waxed great, and every flourishing region is laid waste.

O Lord! Hearts are heavy, and souls are in anguish. Have mercy on these poor souls, and do not leave them to the excesses of their own desires.

O Lord! Make manifest in Thy lands humble and submissive souls, their faces illumined with the rays of guidance, severed from the world, extolling Thy Name, uttering Thy praise, and diffusing the fragrance of Thy holiness amongst mankind.

O Lord! Strengthen their backs, gird up their loins, and enrapture their hearts with the most mighty signs of Thy love.

O Lord! Verily, they are weak, and Thou art the Powerful and the Mighty; they are impotent, and Thou art the Helper and the Merciful.

O Lord! The ocean of rebellion is surging, and these tempests will not be stilled save through Thy boundless grace which hath embraced all regions.

O Lord! Verily, the people are in the abyss of passion, and naught can save them but Thine infinite bounties.

O Lord! Dispel the darkness of these corrupt desires, and illumine the hearts with the lamp of Thy love through which all countries will erelong be enlightened. Confirm, moreover, Thy loved ones, those who, leaving their homelands, their families and their children, have, for the love of Thy Beauty, traveled to foreign countries to diffuse Thy fragrances and promulgate Thy Teachings. Be Thou their companion in their loneliness, their helper in a strange land, the remover of their sorrows, their comforter in calamity. Be Thou a refreshing draught for their thirst, a healing medicine for their ills and a balm for the burning ardor of their hearts.

Verily, Thou art the Most Generous, the Lord of grace abounding, and, verily, Thou art the Compassionate and the Merciful.

`Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i Prayers, pgs. 181-184

I'm tired of divisive politics, I'm tired of bad news, I'm tired of lies, I'm tired of complete lack of trust and faith in others, I'm tired of people being killed and maimed and giving away their freedoms and growing more desperate. People can't even buy crappy furniture without mortal peril. The good things are overshadowed by the offensive, inane, and awful.

As a Baha'i, I know that things will get better. I also know things have to get worse first, but I keep wondering if we're ever going to hit bottom. Every time I think we must be about there, the bottom drops again. We're down the rabbit hole, and frankly, it scares the crap out of me.

We have but to turn our gaze to humanity's blood-stained history to realize that nothing short of intense mental as well as physical agony has been able to precipitate those epoch-making changes that constitute the greatest landmarks in the history of human civilization.

Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Baha'u'llah, pg. 45

The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which the human race had to pass, have receded into the background. Humanity is now experiencing the commotions invariably associated with the most turbulent stage of its evolution, the stage of adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its vehemence reach their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the calmness, the wisdom, and the maturity that characterize the stage of manhood. Then will the human race reach that stature of ripeness which will enable it to acquire all the powers and capacities upon which its ultimate development must depend.

Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Baha'u'llah, pgs. 201-202

I've decided to go on a news fast. I'm becoming more and more negative and cynical, and I don't like it.

(For the record, I'm not depressed. I don't do depressed well, but I am very good at being grumpy.)

My hope is that by avoiding the bad stuff for a while I can get my shiny happy outlook back, but either way, I know I need to do something. I've been trying to figure out what kind of service I can do with my small children in tow. I haven't figured it out yet, but I think it's time to work harder on coming up with an answer. Ideas are welcome.

Fortunately, immediately after deciding on the news fast, I found My Little Golden Book about Zogg (via Making Light). Tears of laughter streaming down your cheeks is a good way to start a news fast.

Don't you just hate it when your husband does a major upgrade and switches from Gentoo to Fedora, and you lose your .bashrc file (and all your aliases), the scroll wheel on the mouse now pulls up menus and acts as a middle-click (paste) instead of scrolling, Mozilla won't let you have your email or resize fonts, you can't print or access the CD drive or even the sound card, all your preferences for everything have gone away, and your husband falls asleep before you can complain?

Yeah, me too.

Fortunately, said husband is awesome and had almost all of it fixed before leaving for work the next day. The web stuff didn't get fixed until today.

not posted by Sarah 13 December 2004 0124 because the local copy of the webpage was gone, too.

Yay Red Sox

Why couldn't you have been good when I lived in Boston? I suppose I should be thankful for the fact that you won every game I went to see, except when you played the Twins, but since I'm from North Dakota, where everyone cheers for the Twins, that's okay. You taught me that seeing a baseball game live is far cooler than watching one on TV and that Fenway Park is the best place on the planet to watch a baseball game. And I never paid more than $14 to do it (nine years ago). Now, if you could explain to me why anyone would pay $14,000 for one baseball game, I'd appreciate it.

Politics

It's probably a good thing that I took a break from posting in the month before the election. I found myself getting very caught up in politics. This is a) something I've never done before -- I normally avoid politics because I find it pointless, obnoxious, and frustrating; b) maddening due to its inherent divisiveness; and c) specifically forbidden in the Baha'i Faith. The overriding theme in the Baha'i Faith is unity -- the recognition that God created us all equal -- and politics as practiced today is divisive and contentious and therefore against the teachings of the Faith. This doesn't mean we're supposed to ignore politics. We're expected to vote for the best candidate for the office, regardless of party.

I found it rather stunning just how divisive it got; even our food choices were politicized. (You want Heinz ketchup on those freedom fries?) I'm glad it's all over, and even more glad that there weren't challenges that would cause the result to be dragged out even longer than last time.

GIMP

See that picture in the previous post? I cropped that all by myself, using The GIMP. I'm quite proud of myself, since my previous attempts at using gimp have resulted in stupendously horrendous results. And lest you think I'm simply technically incompetent, I present my proudest geekly achievement: Learning LaTeX and vi simultaneously in roughly a 24-hour period in order to post Polymer Physics problem set solutions online. Gimp just hates me.

Where'd Everybody Go?

In the space of a few weeks, several of the blogs on my sidebar have shut down or disappeared.

John Wiegley has quit blogging since a high school student plagiarized one of his entries, which led to him being accused of plagiarizing her paper. I'm too annoyed to even comment.

Sina Mossayeb's blog has disappeared.

HijabMan is still around, but has put out the (mostly-)blank white facade while undergoing a major renovation.

And most surprising and troubling of all, Laura has put up a "Closed" sign. I really hope this is only temporary, since her blog has become one of my favorites (and I'm not just saying that because she linked to the big news in my last post). Some of her posts in the past month or two have really gotten me thinking, even keeping me up at night. She has a way of writing simple posts that act as Pop Rocks in my brain, causing flashes here and there, leading to little epiphanies... and big ones. If you're really done, Laura, I figure you have a really good reason, but know that you'll be missed. I hope you come back soon.