A Room Called Remember

The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are and who, for better or worse, we are becoming. But again and again we avoid the long thoughts...we cling to the present out of wariness of the past. And why not, after all? We get confused. We need such escape as we can find. But there is a deeper need yet, I think, and that is the need- not all the time surely, but from time to time- to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as part of the present,

where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember. The room where, with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have

lived. -Frederick Buechner

"I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently."

-Donald Miller

Why I Dread the Job Hunt

"Tell me what dishonesty means to you."

...This was the first question I heard in a job interview last week, and I couldn't help but laugh as soon as I heard it. It exemplifies what I dread about finding a new job. Despite my clean resume, my solid references, and the fact that I showed up fifteen minutes early, the person on the other side of the table is glaring at me like I am someone who will show up to work 2 hours late and promptly steal half the merchandise.

"I will work you for your paycheck."

...I realize it's a bad economy, but shouldn't supervisors at least attempt to put a positive spin on their management skills? I have never been so turned off to a job in my life.

Last Picnic

Before the fall rains come,
Let’s have one more picnic,
Now that the leaves are turning color
And the grass is still green in places.

Bread, cheese and some black grapes
Ought to be enough,
And a bottle of red wine to toast the crows
Puzzled to find us sitting here.

If it gets cold—and it will—I’ll hold you close.
Night will come early.
We’ll watch the sky, hoping for a full moon
To light our way home.

And if there isn’t one, we’ll put all our trust
In your book of matches
And my sense of direction
As we grope our way in the dark.

-Charles Simic

You can find poetry anywhere these days.

-Tim Martin

Wise Words of Johnny Depp

"If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one, because if you really loved the first one you wouldn't have fallen for the second."

Rape: The All American Crime

"According to the male mythology which defines and perpetuates rape, it is an animal instinct inherent in the male. The story goes that sometime in our pre-historical past, the male, more hirsute and burly than today's counterparts, roamed about an uncivilized landscape until he found a desirable female. (Oddly enough, this female is not pictured as more muscular than the modern woman). Her mate does not bother with courtship. He simply grabs her by the hair and drags her to the closest cave. Presumably, one of the major advances of modern civilization for the female has been the civilizing of the male. We call it chivalry.

But women do not get chivalry for free. According to the logic of sexual politics, we have to civilize our behavior. (Enter chastity, enter virginity, enter monogamy). Chivalrous b

ehavior in the male is supposed to protect that chastity from involuntary defilement. The fly in the ointment of this otherwise peaceful system is the fallen woman. She does not behave. And therefore she does not deserve protection. One begins to suspect that it is the behavior of the fallen woman, and not that of the male, that civilization aims to control.

The assumption that a woman who does not respect the double standard deserves whatever she gets operates in the courts today. While in some states a man's previous rape convictions are not considered admissible evidence, the sexual reputation of the rape victim is considered a crucial element of the facts upon which the court must decide innocence or guilt...

One should not assume, however, that a woman can avoid the possibility of rape simply by behaving. Though myth would have it that mainly 'bad girls' are raped, this theory has no basis in fact. Available statistics would leave one to believe that a safer course is promiscuity. In a study of rape done by the District of Columbia, it was found that 82% of rape victims had a 'good reputation.'

Rape is an act of aggression in which the victim is denied her self-determination. It is an act of violence which, if not actually followed by beatings or murder, nevertheless always carries with it the threat of death. And finally, rape is a form of mass terrorism, for the victims of rape are chosen indiscriminately, but the propagandists for male supremacy broadcast that it is women who cause rape by being unchaste or in the wrong place at the wrong time- in essence, by behaving as though they were free...The fear of rape keeps women off the streets at night. It keeps women at home. It keeps women passive and modest for fear that they be thought provocative."

-Susan Griffin (1971)