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Well, of course it's about my life and stuff I think about. Just like a quadzillionbazillion other bloggers. I'm obsessed with God. I love beauty, enjoy absurdity, dance with despair, seek silence, and think everyone is goofy. Here's my world and what I think of it....
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March
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- Betrayal
- Choosing
- Waiting and Watching
- The Fig Tree
- Getting From Here to There
- Anniversary
- Precision
- Orthograph #69 - Annunciation and Abortion
- Orthograph #68 - Yummy Feast of Annunciation
- Orthograph #67 - Living in the Present Moment #2
- Pick a God
- Sign Me Up!!
- Curmudgeophan the Recluse - On Fasting
- Orthograph #66 - Lenten Family Outing
- Orthograph #65 - 5th Week of Lent... Again??
- Orthodox Men's Magazine
- Orthograph #64 - Know it all?
- Orthograph #63 - 4th Sunday of Lent, Ascending Mor...
- Orthograph #62 - Life, in general...
- Chanters and Choirs...
- Orthograph #61 - Because I'm Special...
- The Perks of Blogging
- Happy Birthday, Chuck Norris
- Orthograph #60 - Orthoblog Instant Stat Generator
- Curmudgeophan the Recluse - On Vestments
- INTRODUCING....
- The Coolest Dog Food Commercial Ever
- Orthograph #59 - Can You Resist Devouring Them?
- Orthograph #58 - Tradition "Handed Down"
- Orthograph #57 - Yo No Quiero Mas
- Orthgraph #56 - Speaking of "speaking of"
- Orthograph #55 - Lenten Morning Routine
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16 comments:
You mean you know about this money-spinner and you're still hanging gib board?
Okay, S-P. I officially nominate you for "Orthodox Editorial Cartoonist of the Year."
I don't know how you come up with this stuff, but I love it. :)
"It changed my life, but I can't figure out how". LOL. I second Larry's nomination.
At least Delusion Tours aren't offering pilgrims the chance to "experience" St Mary's early life first ... Just so they can then go on to "experience" a Disneyfied simulacrum of repentance (cue dramatic son et lumiere, spotlight falling on an icon, counsellors on hand - "what happens in Alexandria stays in Alexandria" - and the option of a souvenir absolution certificate).
Call me cynical, if you like ;-)
St. Mary of Egypt is my wife's saint. I should have taken her to this in celebration. Well there's always April 1st.
You've been rocking on this theme for a while. I don't mean to sound naive, but are folks really this bad?
I know one guy (in person, not counting the "sort of" knowing online) who is pretty strict on the 'right way' to do things, but only in that he pushes himself and maybe takes himself a bit to seriously.
And he might be fine, I'm just observing.
I love the "private balconies for that isolated feeling" part. LOL
Larry & Tom, If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve. (Yeah right...) How I come up with this stuff? (For NH too)... Honestly, I look in the mirror. Are people "this bad"? Well, maybe not as bad as I was (and still am). What people see of my zeal and goofiness that I put on public display in various media is only the tip of the iceburg of what's going on inside. What passed (and still passes) for "piety" is more often a facade and what I want people to see (but at least I'm trying, so that's not all bad, but it still intersects with ego at some point if I'm honest). I'm not saying everyone is as much of a public poser as I am. Basically I'm trotting out my own inner battle with becoming "unselfconciously Orthodox" and the delusions I've entertained over the years. Todays orthograph struck me during Matins yesterday: I used to think "Oh yeah, I've sinned in similar ways to ST. Mary... 40 years in the desert to repent? Yeah, I could handle that, except I have a wife and kids and a job..." (Though I'd deny that I'd entertained such thoughts that I could actually live like any saint if I was single and had the "chance"). And then for 11 years I've returned from St. Mary Sunday with my delusional thoughts to my comfortable house and life and then break the fast. So the "St. Mary Experience" is more my speed if I'm honest with myself. Sure, its funny and "over the top" but is it? So, no, I'm not accusing anyone anymore than St. Augustine was accusing anyone else of his sins in his "Confessions" but people read them and find themselves there (of course I'd compare Orthographs to "Augustine's Confessions"... LOL!) On the other hand, my struggles seem to resonate with other people for some reason. I'm really just saying the same things you can read in any "sayings of" books on ego, zeal, delusion etc etc. just in a simple illustration rather than a sermon. I hope not everyone else is as goofy as I am... Lord have mercy on the Church if they are.
I think that many Orthodox, especially relatively new converts, have a tendency to take themselves way too seriously. Prelest! Orthographs like this are obviously a comic exaggeration, but they contain a kernel of truth. If we can laugh at some of our more obvious spiritual delusions, defuse some of our pretensions, then this is a type of progress. Am I really such a spiritual hot shot? Of course not! Keep looking in the mirror s-p.
Adrian Plass (Brit writer) pokes the borax at Anglicans and Evangelicals in a kind, inside, and devastatingly funny way. I have been missing the opportunity to laugh at self so really appreciate your Orthographs. Thanks.
a 10% off coupon for Monkabee! Hilarious.
(in relation to s-p and the Augustine's Confessions) OK, next time someone asks me what things I am reading to learn about how to be Orthodox, I should first and foremost recommend the Orthographs?
I mean, obviously I'd also say follow that up with desert Fathers.
:) "blog and tweet your spiritual thoughts" =great stuff.
I'd say by character I will take Orthodoxy too seriously. But that's sort of a silly point because I take everything too seriously. It's good to have a laugh at oneself, however, and thank you.
"I'd say by character I will take Orthodoxy too seriously."
I don't think it's possible to take Orthodoxy (Christianity) too seriously. But it's very easy to take oneself too seriously. And I'm speaking very much about myself and my own experience here too ;-)
I told a "Cradle" priest who didn't "get" converts and their zeal that people don't convert to Orthodoxy because they are nominal Christians. If people don't care about their spiritual life, they certainly aren't going to care whether Orthodoxy is better or truer than what they've got. So, Orthodoxy gets the zealous (and sometimes zealots). That didn't occur to him... So yeah, we tend to take things seriously but assume our zeal is "with knowledge" (as opposed to St. Paul's assessment of some folks). It is after a few years, if we can bear it, that we discover a lot of our piety was fueled by prelest, vainglory and just plain childish glee of playing with a new toy. After the new shine wears off we're still doing the same things we did in the beginning, but with more sobriety, self awareness, charity and maturity.
"It is after a few years, if we can bear it, that we discover a lot of our piety was fueled by prelest, vainglory and just plain childish glee of playing with a new toy."
Yep, indeedy.
"After the new shine wears off we're still doing the same things we did in the beginning, but with more sobriety, self awareness, charity and maturity."
[blink, blink]
[awkward shuffling of feet]
[glancing around furtively]
New shine worn off: check.
Sobriety, self awareness, charity, and maturity: Oh, look at the time! Gotta be going! So sorry!
In other words, that last list of virtues, I don't think they came with my decoder ring.
I've done the Palestine 5-star experience tour. I did it about six months before I first encountered Orthodoxy (at least back home in the States).
I remember standing where the crucifixion had taken place, a bit skeptical that St. Helen had actually figured it out correctly, what with her Ph.D. in archaeology from Yale and all. A man next to me crossed himself and venerated the spot. I recall that I silently prayed for him, asking that the veil of religious superstition would be lifted from him and he would experience conversion, so that he could finally grow in Christ.
If my ears were actually attuned to hearing God, I suspect I would have been able to perceive his amused chuckle.
as I promissed:
Elder Paisios and the Secularization of Monasticism
Enjoy.
Thanks for the orthograph.
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