slightly Out of Place

On Ash Wednesday I made a last minute decision to give up blogging (and primarily the reading of blogs) for Lent.  I made this decision because I was feeling super busy at that time, and I thought that blogging was the least valuable thing I did that consumed a lot of time which I could get rid of. 

I find many in our society spend a lot of time entertaining themselves either through fictional stories (primarily movies) or the lives of celebrities.  I generally think that I would rather spend my time getting to know my neighbours and hearing the stories of friends. 

Shortly after Lent began I read two books in a week.  I don’t normally read so much.  Anyhow, it made me realise that reading blogs is really just like reading short stories, or novels one chapter at a time.  Reading really isn’t bad, and blogs are the thoughts of real people, with whom I can have some (if only minimal) interaction.   

So I really don’t think blog reading is a bad thing.  It can take up too much of my time.  That is true, but in moderation it is good.  So, hopefully I can be part of the blogger world in moderation.

to whom will you listen?

The Voice of Justice from The Justice Conference on Vimeo.

"Opinions are good"

That is what my roommate told me the other night as we were chatting, “opinions are good, but society tells us to be so open minded that we lose the ability to form opinions”
I don’t know how I feel about that. I think when she said opinions, she largely meant religious convictions. I have an opinion about what is true. I have an opinion about whether or not that shirt looks good on you. I have an opinion about the meat industry and I have an opinion about God. Is that okay? My opinions might be wrong. If I say your shirt is ugly, I might be wrong, but if I say that I don’t like your shirt, you cannot argue with that. Opinions hurt people, and I don’t like hurting people. I also think that we can be far too set in our opinion that we fail to see where others are coming from, and fail to see the good in their opinion. Their opinion might be wrong, but I can still learn fron it and accept it as their opinion. And I shall try to learn to share my opinion without hurting other. These are just my baby thoughts ont this, I still have much to learn. What are your thoughts?

Unrelated quote for the day:
“Whenever you are in doubt, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and weakest person you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to them.” - Gandhi