degas

Tänzerinnen an der Stange (ca. 1888) 

some great literature!

I'm reading a book. Don't you EVER interrupt me---or ELSE! (Think violent, gruesome and nasty death, accomplished without my eyes leaving the page)


Then, I'd like to review some books I've recently read. Particularly, Alice Adams, Seventeen, and The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, as well as Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Tarkington was a G.A.W. (Great American Writer) but sadly has been all but forgotten these post-modern times due to the occasional word in his books considered racist by the hyper-sensitive, self-proclaimed politically correct "censors" of our age. Mr. Tarkington had a style of his own, and incorporated many interestin' little-used words for the vocabulary sharks (I just coined this descriptive word!) like myself.






Alice Adams featured the saga of a manipulative, conniving and selfish 1920's era girl of plebeian position who strives to be accepted by the patrician upper-class families in a midwest town. Her attempts to do this are at times sad, at times funny, and you get a sense of her maturing throughout the book. The rest of the Adams family are all different, with different faults which lead to the demise of the family fortune. Alice eventually entangles Arthur Russel into thinking she is different than she actually is, however after his disillusionment  at the end of the book, he shuns her, and she has to move on. NOTE: this is NOT a romance, and I did a bad job reviewing it. See this for a too-wordy but more descriptive synopsis.The end of this book was sad, yet beautiful. Four stars.


The Magnificent Ambersons was a slightly dramatic epic which to quote an reviewer on Amazon.com was "an Horatio Alger story backwards." It tells of the demise of the awesomely rich Amberson family as the world changes around them.  Basically, it is about "being things" as opposed to "doing things". I won't attempt a synopsis, but let you read it for yourselves. The beginning chapters are slow, and overall it is a sad book, but very interesting historically.


Seventeen is a hilarious story. It is about...young love, which is very funny to me, despite my being a youth myself, rather than a wizened geriatric. 


And guess what??? All of the above books are FREE on Kindle or the Kindle app. 
  <---- Perhaps uncalled-for smiley face, again to appease the populace, and to make me appear extra enthusiastic.   Whee.


Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery


                     ........Nice cover!


EONM contained Montgomery's usual failings: over flowery descriptions (which seems to be a failing especially of female authors, but Lucy Maud takes the cake for them. Some are quite beautiful.), unrealistic characters, "kindred spirits", fairies (and I don't mean Artemis Fowl fairies. Pu-leez!!!) and similar plot lines. But I liked Emily better than Anne (in some ways) because she was less Pollyanna-ishly happy, and Emily's aunt was MEAN to her, as was her teacher and some others. Emily seems to be sort of psychic too, but this was minimum. The plot was similar to Anne, but with much darker themes, and a neat mystery thing going on. Oh, and Emily can bake a cake. She's less dreamy than Anne, and must have been party-autobiographical for L.M. Montgomery who wanted to be a writer as did Emily. 
Three point five stars.


Somewhat randomly, I would like to mention briefly that I want this shirt. 


..Farewell, readers. And as this is Sunday, don't forget to spend time reading the greatest book, and indeed the only one we need for life, the Bible. 






 A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb


There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.  ~G.K. Chesterton


Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.  ~ Attributed to Groucho Marx

musical tidbits

Maria Callas--Casta Diva from Norma by Bellini. Magnificent.

Memory, which for some reason is stuck in my head. Def. less spiritually uplifting and dramatic than opera, but I like it. Please note the musical from which this song is from, "Cats", doesn't seem to make any sense, but ANYWAY.


Will write more later, readers. :-) 
(I indulged in a juvenile smiley face to keep the populace distracted)

longum verborum

Hmm. So they actually didn't find the longest word in the English language?

"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."

                                                              ~ Shakespeare, Love's Labor Lost

*Brownie points if you can pronounce it. 

For those wishing to improve their non-academic vocabulary with *usable* (even if no one else knows what the heck you mean--join the club) try reading some O. Henry short stories. Or a Booth Tarkington novel. Or any classic book, or well-written poetry, really. Finding new extensive words in a good, well-written book is like chocolate chips in a cookie for me. 

*****************************************

My mom wishes the earthquake which struck D.C., Virginia and New York today had taken some politicians with it! Can't say I blame her, as the politicians do a lot of damage down there.....

the usual insanity

"Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever; my righteousness will never fail."


~ Isaiah 51:6


Earth, as photographed from outer space. Even in outer space, on Mars, or at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench (35, 840 feet down), God is still there. Right with us. A frightening thought, yet extremely comforting.





 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~






"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." 


"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
                                             ~Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities




Random digressions:


1. I dyed a streak of my hair blue. Actually, it came out sort of a steel gray-blue, but it is still very interesting, if not extremely noticeable against my dark hair.


2. A rainy day is mysterious thing, full of soggy possibilities. I like rain. Very interesting. 



3. C'est la vie.


4. Topology is fascinating; also see this mind-boggling creation of an deranged other-dimensional mathematician. In Origami?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!!


5. How about in knitting? What an interesting subject, if in little relation to daily life.


6. ...ANYWAY, I wish you all an absolutely entrancing week ahead. Please say a prayer for my younger brother, who is away at an hockey camp this week.

...._-*update*-_......

Salutations-and-hello, das Leser, for the delinquent blogger hath returned! 

I didn't really write anything significant yesterday; I had spent the morning thinking about Julius Caesar for no particular reason, so I decided to share with you Shakespeare's speech by Mark Antony. (For a good biography of J.C., I must refer you to the honorable Plutarch's succinct writings.)  

I was shopping today with die Mutter and der Bruder in preparation for my birthday on Thursday (!) and am now the proud possessor of an absolutely lovely pair of jade earrings, a beaded pair, also lovely, and a new pair of extremely-expensive-but-superior Apple earphones for my borrowed iPod touch (long story you don't need to know) amongst other less exciting and more useful items. \

Tomorrow my dear childhood friend, known to the world as Sarah, is coming up for a much belated visit. So, yay, as any modern teenager in this day and age might remark, following the simple statement with a string of exclamation points:  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving on, I would like to inform you of two facts:

a) The known physical universe is (currently~) estimated to have only about 10 to the seventy-ninth exponent number of atoms in it. Wow. I really needed to know that!

b) I have been working on some truly fascinating craft projects lately: wire initials bent out of aluminum fencing wire with which to decorate my bedroom walls (haven't put them up yet though) and some felt rings from a kit which came with an impulse buy (financed by my D.M., yet again. I spent my money on hay.) of the latest issue of Mollie Makes magazine. An inspiring British crafting magazine, if preposterously overpriced. 

I can hear a rabid crowd of people screaming "What?!? No photos?!" Sadly, I have none at this time.

...So, I depart, but not without imparting to you another completely useless bit of information: fish cough. 

Will post on more serious topics after my birthday. Auf weidersehn! ! !

              

food for thought

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest -
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men -
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me."

~William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

boredom

Except for the very hard-working and industrious, most of us have felt boredom at one time or another. I would define boredom as an absence of purpose; or else as unfocused energy.  Much of it, now that I stop to think, probably stems from thinking about ourselves too much. Everyone does it: it is a natural by-product of sin in our hearts, the capital of which is ugly, ubiquitous pride. By that sin fell the angels. Yet it is the root and center of all other sins. How can we stop it?!?! Maybe we should make more of an effort to help, actually listen to, and really try to know other people. This would cure the BOREDOM effectually, replacing it with mental stretching. 

(This is one of my problems.  I tend to ignore other people.Truthfully, many of them bore me. I shall have to make more of an effort to help others and think less about myself.)

Another function of this might be to try to cheer people up and entertain them on a completely boring day. This mat not sound like as much mental work as listening to people, but it certainly CAN be.

We can't accomplish this. Heck, we can hardly do anything. But God can. Everything we can ever accomplish is through Him. [Notice I capitalized the Him. *snarky voice* So there!]

[Hmm. I am trying to cure my own boredom by writing a short piece about boredom. Interesting redundancy there.]

Anyway, if you are still bored after reading this somewhat boring post, you may want to watch Drip along Daffy, a nice violent and classic Looney Tunes spoofing cowboys.

~~~~~

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble."
- Agatha Christie

~~~~~

Expect a nice long and comprehensive post about the American school system and how it is failing us within the next couple weeks or so....right now I am looking forward to my birthday, which will fall on next Thursday. At this moment I am suffering from a small amount of depression combined with exhaustion, so I will get back to ya. Being a human being can be difficult at times....we straddle two worlds, the unseen and the physical. 

Auf weidersehn.

~ Diana

our need for music

Been busy here, fellow carbon-based life forms. Will try to post one *good* post a week during the school year.
So many things I could post about: my upcoming birthday, the ban on DDT and malaria, the decay of popular culture, music, what love really is, or I could post a recipe for chocolate milk which will make you die. (In a good way, that is, not a bad way!)
Well, I think I shall have to pick......music.


                                               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
(being rather a perfectionist, I HAD to make the divider another color!)


Music: It can feed your soul or kill it. It can change hearts or harden them. It can get your adrenaline pumping, or bore you half to death.*


Why does the human mind seem to need music? It isn't essential for life, and neither can we eat it. The answer may lie in the fact that men (and here I mean the entire race of man, not only the male portion of it) do not consist of merely their physical bodies. We are the (proud) possessors of immortal souls as well, created by a higher being as was the body.  And this soul needs food as much as our bodies do. No, we can't feed our brains cheeseburgers. In fact, the brain exercising and soul growing is in fact the hardest part of being human. It is much easier to change our physical bodies then to change our hearts. Thus, it would stand to reason that feeding our souls nourishing meat and drink would also require more mental work than not feeding it, and staying the way you are now for eternity.


But I digress...to return the subject at hand (and not wander off into a theological and metaphysical** quandary), my hypothesis of why we need (and, to assuage that need, create and perform) music, is that "real" music feeds our souls. And by "real" music, I mean hard music. Classical music,*** generally, or any true or beautiful music which may not appeal to you at first, depending on your level of education, peers, or family.


Forgive me for using a cliched example, but this could be compared to....food.**** You could think of classical (or difficult) music as the meat, or in a vegan's case, soy protein, of the diet. And the more vapid, less deep music, or "music" as the case may be, as dessert, candy bar, marshmallow, poison, or everything else.


Or think of it this way: If you can train your ears to enjoy deeper things: good literature (as opposed to light-n-fluffy reading, Dick and Jane, or romance novels*****), great music (hey, there has to be a reason it has survived so long!), healthier food (your body needs to eat sometimes too) or harder things in general, you can still enjoy the less fluffy stuff (sometimes).
 But if you are only trained to the fluffy (sometimes in the complimentary sense)) stuff, you will have a hard time understanding the deeper stuff. 


Which will you choose?


And as a final note, your soul's worth lies in your own hands. It is your own choice what you make of yourself; whether you feed your soul with the good stuff, the meat and drink, the soy protein****** which will enlarge you mind, or keep on stuffing the junk food into your mind, the effects of which may not be visible right away, but will eventually accumulate in something far worse than a sick body: moral and mental decay!


Finis.


FOOTNOTES:


*For instance, country or pop music.
**What a fun word to say: metaphysical! I <3 long words.
***Classical music hasn't actually been proven to make  you smarter, but it can't hurt IMHO. And it doesn't distract you from your work with silly lyrics.
****.....Always a good thing. Especially with chocolate or frosting. 


***** "Oh George, marry me, darling, or I shall throw myself off this cliff!"
******Yuck. Save soybeans, eat more cow. ;-) 


(These footnotes were fun to write!)


OKAY. Now that I have attempted to convince you of the importance of "real" music in the grand scheme of things, I feel liberated to jabber on about my personal music preferences.


Never having been much exposed to more popular and recent music as a young child, I grew up thankfully old-fashioned in my music tastes. Now that I am older, the more I see of popular music  today (2011) the less I am impressed with few exceptions. Some of it seems to be a sort of opiate of the masses, keeping them distracted from bigger issues, and some of it is just obscene, and some of it is just dumb, at least to me.

For classical composers, my two hands-down favorites are Beethoven, and Mozart. (NO, I did NOT forge their signatures. I got them off Wikipedia)





For me, Beethoven portrays the most timeless passion, strong beauty and mystery in his music. His themes are always fresh and new sounding, never dated. My particular favorite of all of his works I have listened to thus far is his Piano Concerto #4. It reminds me of the power and inscrutability of the ocean. His pieces are rendered even more amazing by the fact that he was deaf when he wrote some of them! Personally, Ludwig Beethoven was said to be a strange and turbulent character, proof that God can work through all of us! 
I'm planning on listening to every single one of his symphonies. No, stupid, not all at once.





And Mozart's music is just....beautiful. His music with its often incredibly melodies reminds me of a dancer, light and airy on her feet, skipping through high soprano pieces and darker, heavier pieces with perfect ease. His music sounds like his signature looks. And I am a fan of some of his opera music (from, at least those I have listened to!) Being a kind, thoughtful person,I will post links to Voi, Che Sapete (one of my favorite pieces to sing) and L'ho perduta, me meschina (another fun piece to sing). I can't say I've listened to a ton of Mozart; will have to sometimes.


Chopin is nice for something different.


On to singers: I can't say I have a favorite singer. I do enjoy opera, which while not for everyone, is thoroughly dramatic, tragic, romantic, melodramatic (I enjoy amateurly over-acting scenes) and beautiful. 
Favorite pieces at the moment:


Una Voce Poco Fa from the Barber of Seville (Rossini) as sung by Maria Callas.
Casta Diva from Norma can't remember who composed it?!
Nessun Dorma from Turandot 
O Mio Babbino Caro 


Anyway, I also like a select few Broadway musicals: namely, My Fair Lady and Man of La Mancha.  The former because it is hilarious, and the latter because it reminds me of these goofy goats, and I like the music!


I listen to jazz with der Vater sometimes too, which is okay, but puts me to sleep, sadly.


But my absolute overall just plain FUN music HAS to be Gilbert and Sullivan. Hilarious, extremely fun to both sing and act, and witty lyrics and also alliterative agony. 


What music makes you, dear readers, the most happy?


Auf Weidersehn!


~ Diana


"Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing."
Psalm 100:2

sunday musings

"...Wise and good men, are, in my opinion, the strength of the state; much more so than riches or arms..."
~ Benjamin Franklin, 1750


Good point there, Ben!


...I pulled the above bit from an article my mom was reading. I, being unfortunately of a very nosy disposition, took a look at it. BTW, I'm (so is she) and Aristotelian. I haven't read too much of him yet; maybe I'll start with this because I do love animals! 


HEY!!! IT'S SUNDAY!!!! WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT ARISTOTLE???
.....After all, you can be the most learned and Classically educated person in the world, and still be lost eternally.


On to a classic work of non-fiction, a historical document to some, the Word to others: the Bible!


"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 


As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
~ Romans 10:14-17 E.S.V.


The above verse was featured in the sermon today at our Church. Interesting, and humbling thought to us proud mortals.


...Oh, and I was absolutely APPALLED to read that the average 8-18 year old American spends an average of 6.5 hours every day on some sort of electronic device. "Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh." ~ Evelyn (from her blog, Defeating Dragons.)


WHAT??????????? How are those kids EVER going to ACCOMPLISH anything if they're always on some device?!?!  The teenagers who "make a difference" and accomplish big things, (be it simply serving your family quietly, writing a book, getting a real job and performing it faithfully, or anything else REAL that requires dedication, finesse and skill) will always be the ones who spend less time distracting themselves and "goofing off" (as rudely put by my D.M.). 


Facebook, texting, and computer games aren't really the problem, after all. The problem is the kids themselves, their parents, and the society that produced them.   Double GAH!!!! Which even then hardly begins to express my "amazement and surprise, which you may judge from the expression of my eyes." Oops, sorry. Die hard Gilbert and Sullivan fan here. 

....And with that final depressing and sobering thought, I must leave you, dear readers.
Have a nice and at least reasonably happy Sabbath day. BTW, I find the word Sabbath to be infinitely more beautiful and musical a word than than Sunday, so I shall use it.


~ Diana 


Less depressing paintings:


Children in the Sea 1909 by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

I really like summer-y, beachy paintings. They instantly transport me to the ocean shore.......

Or to the rocks of "Rocky Point at Port-Goulphor".....by Claude Monet.

God's creation is indeed varied! 

ab absurdo, and let's move!!!

Ut ut velit adipiscing in mundum, et ego post haec et latine. Lingua Latina estGRAVIS primo dictum est a Romanis, quia multi doctissimi viri. Multa sunt eiusradicem multis in Latin, Gallica, et Hispanica. Unus pluma in oculis meis, utnemo possit redimere CLAMOR at, si male Latinis pronouce nemo scitRomanos non profertur?

(Not in primis esse virum doctum, immo vel a viro, usus sum valde benevolensquod dico Google Translate to vertere hic quod non possum loqui vel Latinetantum scribere. Proin pati, carissimi lectorem.)

Plus ego studium antiquata frui attrahenti history. Ut natoque id quod Graeci etRomani sub te quae non habet effectum, sed errant. Sed adipiscing mi servatoreliqua fragmenta SANITAS faciam illum dolore historiae libri bona non a C. ad hoc.

Translation: 

So, in order to be unique in the blogging world, I shall post this in Latin. Latin is an estimable language, first spoken by the Romans, and by many learned men since. Many of its words are the root of many words in English, Italian, French, and Spanish. One redeeming feature in my eyes is that no one can yell at you if you pronouce Latin words wrong as no one knows how the Romans pronounced it!

( Not being a particularly learned man, or indeed even a man at all, I used the extremely helpful Google Translate to translate what I say here, as I am not able to speak or write much Latin. Thank you for bearing with me, dear reader.)

Plus, I enjoy the fascinating study of antiquated history. You may be under the impression that what the Greeks and Romans did has no effect on you whatever, but you are wrong. However, in order to preserve the remaining fragments of my limited sanity, I shall refer you to a good history book NOT a textbook to show this.

~~~~~~~

 

Whew! I return to my lingua mater. So, anyway.........I completely forgot what to write, hence the above.

Something to be proud of! <<<<

...NEXT, here are three things on the same subject--Namely, A Call to Action. Put off your Apathy! MOVEIT!!!! Shake off the sluggardness! Just do It. [In the style of John Adams, who as was the fashion in those Times, capitalized many Words in his Writings.]

A Psalm to Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;--

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. ~

The Aunt and the Sluggard  by P. G. Wodehouse

"About once a month he would take three days writing a few poems; the other three hundred and twenty-nine days of the year he rested." 

A hilarious short story featuring Jeeves and Bertie concerning a hypocritical poet.

~ ` ~ ` ~ ` ~

"Is this a time for airy persiflage?" [My answer: NO.]

 ~ W.S. Gilbert 

"Just do it."

~ Nike slogan 

[Note #1: Nike was a minor Greek goddess, representing Victory]

And speaking of victory: here is Churchill, from the second World War, making the victory sign. 

[Note #2: W.S. Gilbert's full name was actually William Schwenk Gilbert. Now you know!]

[Note #3: per-si-flage

1. Light good-natured talk; banter.

2. Light or frivolous manner of discussing a subject.]

.......And with that eccentric mix, I must depart. 

Valete, lectores.

[BTW, the reason for my posts starting out on one subject and ending on one completely different is this: for me, inspiration comes WHILE I'm writing]

~ Diana  

the ignored sin

Sometimes I really hate the computer.
It can be such a distraction, evil in its very insidiousness. Suddenly you realize you just spent an hour on it when you "just went on" to check your email.
It can steal your time, and take your time away from the REAL physical world, and its people and needs. I just feel like I'm wasting my life, sometimes, when I go on the computer without an aim to accomplish.


The birds sing. Evil men plot. The chicken coop needs to be cleaned. A whole host of heathen nations need to hear the Word of God. There are real mountains to climb. Whole worlds to discover! And yet...
Here you are. Sitting on your computer aimlessly browsing your favorite sites/forums/games waiting for the screen to refresh. Playing a game. Cyber-giggling with your friends on Facebook. While time passes.....on and on....


This, my friends, is a serious sin. Wasting time. I'm not going to blatantly say we should NEVER play games, never go on the computer, or chat on Facebook, but I would like to point out that much of the things we do in our lives might simply be "filler": taking up our time while we never get anything back from it.


I'm not going into the content of what you might be doing on the computer; I'm going to focus on the time-wasting aspect. 


The computer, like much of technology, is completely neutral. Its content can be evil or good, and anything in between. The decision lies with us--and how we use it. The internet and the computer were developed to be tools, and extremely helpful ones at that. 


(Also, I'm not decrying people who play games or chat on Facebook or a forum to relax from their stressful, hardworking lives, or it helps them to get away from difficult times.)


It is about us. Are we living our lives in focused way? Are we skillfully sailing our ships through the rough ocean of life or are we aimlessing skidding along on every wave with our sails down? 


After all, America may have many problems that need to be dealt with if our country is to survive, but if our own lives and hearts aren't right, how can we set a good example? And being focused, and having a purpose in life, will certainly help. 
It is something I certainly struggle with! But sail on: their HAS to be a purpose in all of this. A bunch of small good decisions, the decision I can make today to not waste time, or to not commit a sin, will add up to something BIG tomorrow.


Finis.


Two Summery sailboat paintings:

Colorful Regatta by Lisa Lorenz.

The Greatest Race by Montague Dawson.


Auf Weidersehn.


~ Diana