Fantasy

I embrace fantasy so long as it serves reality.  At the moment it betrays it, it itself is to be betrayed.

-Lumen

Science & Religion

As a believer in God, I've found science to be one the richest sources of awe-inspiring wonder, gratitude-provoking grace, and knee-bending fear that I've ever encountered.  The beauty of the laws, the manifold requirements for life, the uncertainty from the vastness of both the micro- and macroscopic universe... are these not sacramental elements?  I refuse the war between science and religion, and I do so bewildered that either side would be willing to so easily give up such great riches so freely accesible.

-Lumen

An Attempt at Proverbial Lyric

O the trial of setting aside pride!
What labor it is to shorten one's stride!
Humiliation is a mentor mentored
But for a risen student it is rendered

And a fool still has moments of splendor
When the honest cannot let his past hinder
Perhaps a moment shall lead into a streak
And a streak prove quite a systemic leak

What's more, might possibility be steady?
Should our pride's quick dispatch be ever ready?
Can we let the fool rise, this very moment
And pluck stranded truth from raging torrent?

A nasty monster, indeed, lies in waiting
Watching for one who knows no debating
One who discards a whole bunch of apples
Tasted all but the last, but won't be haggled

The one good apple will yet be sweetly boasted
"The truth of my eye!" sings lover devoted
And the old wise man now beholds a young fool
Possibility following all, in rule

Shall the enriched sage now turn into a drone
And let monstrous habit establish a throne?
Shall one prejudgement lead to another
So to decree, "to rule is to smother?"

But both foolish and wise are saved sure oppression
When rare foolish truth is accepted correction
For foolishness is not at all conceded
But rather the pursuit of wisdom seeded

-Lumen

Reading

Reading can develop into an odd habit.  I set page-per-day/session goals and compile lists of books that I should read.  And the temptation arises to read for the sake of simply being able to know and say that I read.  But what does it matter how quickly I read if pages are remembered as a blur-  as a passings-by of that which was only potentially inspiring and merely theoretically informing?  I have been learning to take however much time it takes to truly read.  If I zone out and find that I've scanned the last page, then it is back to the beginning of the page for me.  I am not ashamed of reading slowly, or progressing steadily.  Is there shame in education, in patience, in follow-through?  Ha! how foolish it would be to exert a shallow mentality, to labor my time, for such a thin, useless study- empty credentials and a hollow sense of accomplishment!

And a shame it would be if I were content that this insight should remain only in the realm of reading.  Life, in all of its aspects, is so easily trampled and overlooked.  There are roses to be smelled.

-Lumen

I Feel Understood

Question of science, science and progress

Do not speak as loud as my heart

But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me

Oh and I rush to the start

Running in circles, chasing our tails

Coming back as we are

-The Scientist, Coldplay

-Lumen

Heaven?

Though they say they do, I don't think that most people really want Heaven.  I think people generally want Heaven only in the sense that it is a physical oasis of comfort and pleasure.  See, it seems most people think this paradise will be some kind of isolated retreat for themselves and the few people they care to get along with.  And so, what they are actually longing for is not Heaven at all, but a materialistic and/or selfish mirage that they will never find.  The very foundation of Heaven is peace with God and peace with all other people.  If you move from the foundation, you move from Heaven.  If you do not desire to dance with a redeemed Osama Bin Laden, or dine with a restored Adolph Hitler, or hold hands with a reborn George W. Bush, or share a joke with a forgiven Judas Iscariot (or whatever person with whom you suffer differences), then you don't actually want Heaven (and you can't finish the Lord's Prayer, either).

The funny thing is, many of us will say, "Well, I know that I am certainly willing to live with all other people, so long as God is there and everyone is acting in His character."  But are we open to that now, here on the earth?  Or do we use this bit about "everyone acting in His character" to justify rejecting people, not out of any real character difference but rather because of a mere personality or circumstantial difference?  Do we freely let people into our lives?  Do we freely share our wealth and other blessings with the rest of the world?

The glorious truth is that the real and coming Heaven is a place where everyone is loved by everyone.  There won't be a lack of comfort, but if there were, everyone would give sacrificially to amend the situation.  We ought to desire and seek such a place.

-Lumen

Imbalance?

I wonder if I seek too much intellectual development, in proportion to moral development... not that intellect is bad, just distracting to the morally weak, such as myself...

-Lumen

Hesitations

In New Guinea there are apparently hundreds of people groups that have "never had contact with the outside world."  Obviously, most of them must have been photographed from aircraft, or reported by jungle tribesmen who have contacted them.  Many of them have probably had violent/ warning encounters with outsiders, just no further introduction  Exploration has not yet run its full course in that land, on account of danger.

In Brazil there are similar people groups who have retreated further into virgin jungles, which the government has accordingly designated as havens for these self-determined isolationists.

There are some more pockets of such shy civilizations elsewhere in the world.  Surely there is at least a wandering family or two in the northernmost lands?

What keeps a people at a distance?  Is it just a combination of various fears and a desire for solitude?  To grand degrees I respect these wishes... there is much wisdom there.  Yet, as a spiritualist, I ultimately desire communion with all other people, so I am naturally eager to make contact.  I have much to learn and appreciate concerning these things...

-Lumen

To The North

Why did Inuits, Aleuts, Yupik, Eskimos, etc., settle down in the northernmost lands of the world?  Why endure the bitter cold, the cruel hardships of Greenland, northern Canada & Alaska, Siberia, or northern Scandinavia?  Was it for want of challenge?  Isolation?  Did they simply feel drawn to the Arctic, in their spirits?

I'd like to search them out and find the answers.

-Lumen

About the Name... Pt. 2

Lumen:  a unit of luminous flux, which deals with the amount of light perceived (as opposed to radiant flux which deals with the amount of light that is actually present).

We people are in desperate need for universal truth, yet we are rather hesitant to accept such domination.  We like to know that we are understood before we concede to anything.  You can argue as to whether this is just or not, but the fact remains that we usually have to be worked with, and not simply dealt facts, in order for us to accept the need to change.  Perception is not the fullness of reality, but it is no doubt essential.  Empathy is a virtue that can hardly be overestimated.

-Lumen

About the Name...

The universe, as we know it, is an ever-reaching burst from its original point of singularity. That initial state was one of extreme heat, mass, and light. As it has spread through the plane of space, more heat, mass, and light have claimed what was once simply the void. That is the natural universe.

Spiritually, we people have charted our path directly into the original point of singularity, that source of all activity and life, as well as off into the outer darkness, where there is nothing but cold and solitude. To know the heat, the weight, the light of all Truth, all Life- to know the very Way of reality, to know He Who Is Reality... that is our calling. I heed it, and I'd like your company.

-Jake

A New Journal

Perhaps it's time to begin blogging again.

-Jake