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Saturday, January 27, 2007

An Electric moment

Okay, the purity of the experiment will be tainted, but nevertheless, a short moment on the Mac will be factored into the results. A few of the brothers are attempting a month without electricity, and for Bro. Clarence he is taking the experiment a step further, a month without electricity and without 'anything' produced with the help of electricity. So he is sporting a handwoven robe, his own handmade sandals (of yucca fiber), and is consuming candles at an alarming rate. So far the experiment is producing various reactions, from the early shock of how dependent on electricity we have become, and for Bro. Clarence the realization that modern humans are clothed and fed and transported and entertained and made comfortable, all by electricity, either nearly directly, or by extention. And how did humanity exist without electricity? Amazing that we need only look back a century or so to see, and here we are, today, captive in our newly discovered comfort. So is that what it is all about? Comfort? Well, I must extinguish this Mac before Bro. Clarence discovers my electric addiction!

The hand of God may well be all around us, but it is not, nor can it be, the task of science to dust for fingerprints.
--Biologist Robert Dorit

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
--Alan Watts

God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way.
--Arturo Toscanini

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
--Denis Diderot

Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere.
--Yasunari Kawabata

Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I did my best, and God did the rest.
--Hattie McDaniel

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
--Thomas Jefferson

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.
--St. Francis of Assisi

I am unwilling to accept an existential universe without a God. It doesn't actually make logical sense. I feel that there has to be a higher level of compassion, of understanding, than merely a human one.
--Sting

Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.
--Francis Bacon

Hidden nature is secret God.
--Sri Aurobindo

The best way to know God is to love many things.
--Vincent Van Gogh

ADDENDUM

Bro. Clarence wants to clarify my statement, his experiment will not exclude the use of electricity produced by his body. I should explain, at the break fast table this morning Bro. Juniper, who is not taking part in the electricity-free month, thought himself clever when he questioned my statement that Bro. Clarence has taken the experiment a step further and would not utilize anything produced with the help of electricity with "Does that mean Bro. Clarence will not be thinking this month?" Of course he was referring to the electro-chemical processes of the brain. That produced laughs around the dining table, although my chuckles were quickly silenced when the electrical activity within my skull directed my eyes to Bro. Clarence and even more skull activity determined that his eyes were upon me, and even further sparks of electricity within my head wiped the smile from my face and caused me to utter an apology to the butt of Bro. Juniper's joke.

2 comments:

bokmal said...

I just want to say that I love your blog. It's like fresh air, compared to most religious writing on the web.

Bro. Bartleby said...

Thank you and please spread the "fresh air"! The more that share this fresh air, I think the better life will be for us all. But I must remind you that all air is recycled, and the atoms that dwell for a moment in your lungs, have visited many other lungs, all of our ancestors! ... in fact those very atoms that you now inhale may have visited the lungs of Jesus at one time!
Shalom,
Bro. Bartleby