Becoming something…

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• Aid for Myanmar Mobilizes, Mixed With Criticism

“A powerful cyclone that destroyed a vast swath of coastal Myanmar and left many thousands of people dead prompted the country’s military leaders to allow some foreign aid groups to deliver relief supplies on Tuesday.”

• Photographs From Myanmar
• I.O.C. Rules Will Limit Protests by Athletes

“Athletes who compete in the Beijing Olympics will not be allowed to wave flags, make gestures or alter their external appearance to make a political statement, according to guidelines issued in April by the International Olympic Committee.”

• Global Economic Minute: Immigration’s past and present

• Senator Clinton stays in the race despite lackluster Tuesday, are there Rewards For Dropping Out?
• Iron Man (movie) gets generally favorable reviews
• Poll: Only 2.5 percent of Americans are LGB

“Hunter College released the results of a groundbreaking poll Wednesday that found only 2.9 percent of Americans older than 18 identify as LGB, lower than the 4-5 percent often cited in voter exit polls.”

• The Sustainable City–Ecological Dream or Technocratic Nightmare?

“And while the little boy in me thrills at the science-fiction stylishness of some of the architects’ renderings of these cities of the future (of which the picture above is a sample), another part of me wonders whether the promises now being made about these projects have even a chance of being fulfilled.”

Missed the news?  Follow these leads and hopefully you’ll be back on track.  This is an array of news that caught my eye.

Debating the epidemic of painkiller abuse.

Skip work and make love for your country.

Rethinking the age of sexual consent.

Hounding the Bloggers

The Limits Of Non-Violence In Burma

What Makes a Monk Mad

Radiohead Album Price Tag: ‘It’s Up to You’

Face of the Day

Losing A Generation?

The number of young people who do not consider themselves Christians is growing, as is the hostility toward Christianity expressed by the next generation of non-Christians, claims a new book from David Kinnaman of Barna.org.

The Daily Dish

I think we all have within us particularly strong religious sentiments these days.  The voice in America is a resoundingly religious one.  I know we can’t do much about our founding fathers but, bless their soul, they impacted our nations life-course and therefore ours too. 

You either are or you aren’t.  I’m not even necessarily talking religious or not but more specifically Christian or not.  Even our democratic presidential candidates are fighting over their carefully planned nuances of religious practice.

And yes, I FEEL disdain.

I am Catholic.  It feels odd saying it though.  I was Catholic, then not.  Next I was atheist, then agnostic, then spiritual, Taoist, and now back to Catholic.  Yet, it still feels as confusing as ever.  The main reason why I rejected Catholicism was because of the seemingly strong rejection of homosexuals, at least on the surface.

Did you know that I even find myself really agreeing with The Secret? Have you seen the movie or read the book?

This many times is the innate struggle of our generation.  To broaden, I really feel like this rejection, reception, and reconciliation cycle applies to anyone who is in the process of becoming something.  As a cultural root, unless you have arrived, we are stuck rejecting, embracing, or something-ing our religious feelings.

Can you see the tentacles stemming from everything, especially in our decided search or non-search for spirituality?  I think it’s time to stop sprawling.  Reaching out for the answers might not be what actually makes the most sense.  Look inward, aren’t ALL of these feelings coming from the same place?  Truth isn’t going to feel awkward or uncomfortable but should feel as simple and easy as possible.  The answers are what won’t come easy.  So we need to decouple ourselves from whatever camp we find ourselves in, religious or not.  You will find there might be whole chunks of information to grab instead of picking up years of broken, scattered, over-discussed and analyzed information.

I share in our struggle to find restraint, especially in a world pressuring us to sprawl for answers.