Buy anyway, there are only two more weeks of this semester. Then Christmas break, Honduras, and second semester of my senior year. I'm hoping that the teachers realize that seniors do not want to do any work second semester and will cooperate in giving us less work. This first semester has been somewhat stressful, so I hope that gets better. But back to Christmas. I'm very proud of my family. We have decided to not put up a tree because it is too much work for too little enjoyment. So this'll take away some of the commercilization of this holy day. My extended family has also decided not to get everyone presents. We will all bring one small gift with which we will play a game to exchange, and we can also donate to charities in each others names. But other than for my brother, we will not be buying stuff and giving it to each other! Apparently they did this before my brother and I came along, and now that I've grown up (don't want presents anymore) we are returning to this blissful method of celebrating. Take that capitalism.
Speaking of capitalism, I want to express clearly things I alluded to in my last post. Basically, I do not like money. Actually, I also happen to not like time much either. I do not like human constructs that impose control/oppression on other humans, measuring the value of humans when they are of infinite value and subjugating humans to its system with their power. I'm talking about anyone who hates their job but does it anyway, only to make money. I am thankful that my parents did not force me to get a job when I turned 16 because it allowed me to grow up without having the pursuit of money dominate my life. I realize they have been supporting me this whole time with the money they are making. I'm now trying to limit the monetary expense of my living with them. In our civilization, we have to have jobs and make money because of said capitalism. For myself, I propose a communal lifestyle in which a community chooses to cooperate with each other to support the community. Democratic socialism on a neighborhood level. As for time, I do not wear a watch because time is not relevant to my well being. It is used to regulate how I spend my energy and is used by companies as just another commodity (in the form of amounts of human labor). While work by itself is good, work driven by the pursuit of money and the pressures of time is not.
I read a joke in Reader's Digest recently: What's the difference between the government and the mafia? One of them is organized. That said, I don't appreciate our government very much, being a major perpetrator of monetary oppression. I don't appreciate any of the governments throughout the world actually (although I do like parts of the way Europe governs itself), borders and nationalism and the wars that follow. I am a citizen of the world that happens to reside in the United States of America (much like I'm a Christian that happens to be Catholic). One might accuse me of arrogance by enjoying all of the benefits of living in this country with its foundation in freedom and then work against the system that I benefit from. But with the freedom that this country provides me, I want to try to make it better. America is so wasteful and so proud. As a country we think we are the best and are therefore deserving to push everyone and everything around according to our pleasure. As a "developed" country, we are using our natural resources so quickly without any thought to the consequences. Most of the consequences are felt in third world countries anyway. People are starving in India, yet we pay farmers here not to grow crops on their fields. When I said that I am eliminating unnecessary showers, it is for this reason. Drinking water is a precious resource as well, and some wells in America are already going dry (bad for small communities, not to mention the environment). So I don't shower every day. I try to shower for no more than five minutes and with cold water. I'm working on those last two points. Americans are the only ones that seem to require a daily (or twice a day) shower. Such is not the case even throughout much of Europe and especially throughout the "developing" world. Also when I mentioned dumpster diving, that would be in response to the waste of Americans (who also produce the most trash) throwing away usable items when others could still benefit from them. I have yet to dumpster dive, but it is not beyond me to do in the future.
I will admit at this point that these opinions I've formed are strongly influenced by a friend of mind from my school, Pat. He is rather radical in everything he does. He does not believe in a God and is by no means a pacifist, so there are definitely things that I do not agree with him on. But there are many more times when what he says makes sense. He is vegan (and was a partial influence on my becoming vegetarian). Actually, I could go through most of what I have talked about in this post, and it would have originated from observing how and why Pat lives his life. The conflict I have come to is one between relativism and natural law. Between subjectivity and objectivity. To be subjective is to judge every action without any preconceived standard of what is good and bad, rather by what is best for each individual person. To be objective is to ignore all personal considerations and context and judge every action based solely on law. I would like to balance these two rather antipodal positions. As an example of this, I'll take homosexuality. The Church says that homosexuals should never act on how they truely feel with regards to their sexuality because that is a sin. Someone who holds relativistic views says that homosexuals may do as they please because sex is whatever one wants to make of it. I do not hold either view, but what I would perceive to be the middle, as I discussed two posts ago. I'm struggling to find that balance in other ethical situations, though.
On a lighter note, I watched The Wizard of Oz to the music of Dark Side of the Moon the other day at school. It's the Dark Side of the Rainbow, if you will. This is a worthwhile experience because parts of the album (lyrics, beat, mood) synchronize with parts of the movie. It was very entertaining and interesting. I also found out that I like Pink Floyd and am requesting the CD from the library. I've also experienced They Might Be Giants thanks to the library, which I now enjoy. I also get books from the library (imagine that). Recently these have included Meeting Jesus again for the first time (which I've mentioned before) and Stephen Hawking's Universe, which describes how the universe works in layman's terms. Quite interesting. Just thinking about the idea of space, especially thinking about reaching the edge of the universe and what is beyond that, the nothingness of it. They talk about the Big Bang and how they can trace back the universe to a fraction of a second after that happened, but before that, the laws of physics stop applying (and they don't know what caused the Big Bang itself to happen), and theist that I am, I think, "there's God at work! Can't you guys see it?" I guess that's another happy medium I've reached between the atheist scientists and the Creationists. I also got a movie from the library, called FernGulley, the last rainforest. It's a children's movie about rainforest faries saving the rainforest from humans. Another environmentally aware friend at school said it was his favorite movie, so I was curious. I really like the library. That is one place I would be happy to work. I've only ridden my bike to the library twice, but this wednesday when I drove there (in the snow), the librarian asked if I rode my bike today. I was surprised that she recognized me and remembered me as a bike rider. I may be reading too much in to it, but it may be further evidence that more intelligent/educated people are also generally more liberal (or just that librarians are observant and friendly).
Speaking of, I recently saw a poster about how to be more observant and friendly (at Karen House, actually). I wanted to share it with you. If you click on it, you can see it larger, and 'twill hopefully be readable for you.
I also read an article for my theology class about masculine spirituality which I thought was interesting and would like to share with you. Enjoy!
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