No, I don't believe that they can. Existence without purpose leads to ennui. This is why the rich never seem to be happy and why suicide is so attractive to so many.

Though most people think they would be quite content to do nothing forever, they soon learn that with no purpose, they have no will to do much of anything else either... like get out of bed, bathe, or eat. We need something to occupy our time, whether it is a task we decide upon (what do you want to be when you grow up?) or which someone else assigns to us which we accept for expediency's sake (do you want fries with that?). Personal preference would be for a self-designated task, but not everyone has a good handle on what they'd like to do and fewer still have any idea of how to get paid for it. They settle for what others tell them to do in order to get the things to which society assigns importance.

An animal at the zoo with all its needs met still restlessly paces back and forth in its cage. It would choose to be free like any other being if it could. When a human being cages the mind in an inactive body, it races back and forth like an animal in a cage... longing for new stimuli despite the fact that it "gets everything it needs to survive." When no new stimuli is forthcoming, it becomes bored and depressed and even a little mad. A person without purpose cannot be happy for long. The mind will inevitably turn on itself when left to its own devices.

In the year 1692, the persecution of "witches" began in Salem, Massachusetts with the hanging of Bridget Bishop. She was the first of nineteen men and women accused of witchcraft and murdered.

five questions for this week +1
(unfeatured questions stolen from the featured question chatboard, dated from September of 2007)

Answer any one or all of these questions in the coming
week. I try to mix the whimsical with the serious here, so hopefully
there is at least one question here for everyone.

In a ceremony called the Famadihana, "turning over the dead," the Malagasy highlanders of Madagascar visit the tombs of their dead to exhume the bodies of those who have been buried three to five years. The dead are reverently wrapped in silk shrouds and paraded through the streets before being returned to their resting places. After this first visit, their dead with be visited at five, seven, or ten year intervals. Because they feel the dead continue to live, the Malagasy will call on them for help in times of need.

Today at the grocery store a middle aged woman rammed my nephew with her cart. He was a few feet in front of us at the center of the store between aisles, and she just rammed right into him with her cart. My mother saw it better than I did and said it was deliberate. I only saw the woman's expression as she didn't even stop and apologize... I think it was deliberate too. After that, he stayed close by us, but when we passed by the woman again at the center of the store,  I made a point of telling him loudly to stay close so Mean people wouldn't hit him with their cart as we passed her again. A few aisle later, we passed her once again, and she started giggling! I wanted to rip the hair right out of her head. You don't go around ramming four year olds with shopping carts; I don't care if he's in your way. I walked ahead and when I found her again, I stood glaring at her until my family caught up and stayed there glaring at her until they passed. She didn't look up until they were almost past and then she saw me glaring at her, she started to walk away. My mother made some comment about a mother lion, and I said loud enough for the woman to hear that Bad things happen to Bad people. There's no excuse for what she did. If it was an accident, you apologize. Any other action shows that it was deliberate. And just the expression on her face after she hit him was suspect.... She looked pleased. I hope that she doesn't have any offspring because I'd hate to think what home life would be like for them. I am still furious. I wanted to go right up to her and ask her if she thought it was alright to hit little children with shopping carts, but I kept myself in check. I find myself hoping she has a horrible car accident, but then I'd feel bad for anyone else involved. Still, I hope someone catches her doing something awful like that again and calls the cops on her. I've no doubt that someone who'd clobber a four year old with a shopping cart does all kinds of nasty things which could get her thrown in a jail cell. If I had seen more than just her expression after she hit my nephew, you can bet I'd have had her arrested. I even considered going to the store office and asking them to remove her... but like I said, I didn't actually see what happened, only her expression afterwards. If I'd seen someone do that to any child, I'd be angry. But she did it to my nephew, and I'm p***ed.

The goddess Mens, consciousness, was honored with a festival designed to make us aware of what makes us human and to act consciously. (Kind of ironic considering what happened in the grocery store....)

Lindisfarne Day commemorates the first Viking Raid in England.

According to folk traditions, rain today meant a wet harvest.

In many Japanese villages, an ancient rice festival is held annually. Women wearing traditional kimonos recite prayers and light rice-straw fires to honor the god of the rice and to bless the crops. In China, the Grain in Ear festival is celebrated at this time. The grain Gods are honored with old rituals to ensure a harvest of plenty.

Chapter 1.1 in which Glory is not mindful of the store
Chapter 1.2 in which Glory is made to do something she would really rather not
Chapter 1.3 in which Glory thinks she might be sick
Chapter 1.4 in which Aaron makes a mistake
Chapter 1.5 in which Glory is made to see the error of her ways
Chapter 1.6 in which the circle remains unbroken

I have no problem writing the "story of my life" here online. I don't have a problem sharing things that have happened to me. I consider this a safe forum, and it's very cathartic to write about things that have hurt me. Kind of catch and release program of pain. Once I actually manage to get it out on "paper," I don't have to dwell on it any more. It won't fester. It helps me work up a tolerance to what has gone before so it can't hurt me any more.

Of course, that said, no... I wouldn't be prepared for everyone to read it, mainly because the people who would need to read it wouldn't benefit from it. My mother in particular gets into a total sulk whenever I bring up my childhood. She starts insisting she was a bad mother and that everything is her fault and how when she came back I was a different, angry little girl. There's no denying the things that happened to me when I was little were pretty awful, but she's not ready to forgive herself and so whenever I make the tiniest allusion to it, she starts beating herself up. I end up reassuring her that she was not a bad mother and that I don't blame her for anything. Which is basically the truth. I don't blame her. I understand completely why she had to go. I don't blame her for our father taking us from our grandmother (where she had left us) and dumping us in a foster home either. He only did it to hurt her and to try to lure her back. She doesn't see it that way. She thinks she was a bad mother because she wasn't there to protect us, even though she probably wouldn't even be here today if she hadn't left. But nothing is accomplished by the discussion. It's an exercise in misery.

When I happen to talk to my sister, about anything family related, she becomes determined to become "the biggest victim." She's a total drama queen even at the best of times. I can't have a normal discussion with her about anything. Facts go flying out the window, and she takes over any conversation and makes it about her. If I wrote the story of my life, she'd read it and instead of considering how I feel, she'd start telling me how her childhood was so much worse, even though we both had the same childhood. I don't want to play that game. I refuse to be a victim. So I end up sitting there and just listening to her explain why she was so much more traumatized than anyone else in the history of child abuse. It's understandable that she and I don't talk much. I am not the most talkative person to begin with so, if and when I try to share something I feel, I don't really appreciate someone, especially family, talking over me and making me feel like I'm a bad person for indulging in a moment of self pity when everyone knows the self-pity crown is hers.

So basically the two people who would be most impacted by my life story would consider my words as either an accusation or a challenge. I post my "life story" here because no one in my family is online and even if they were, they're not the sort to come looking for me. I couldn't tell you how many times I've offered to let my mother read some of my more philosophical posts, and while she says okay, she never does check any of it out. Even going so far as to tell me not to print it out for her because she'll just come over some time and read on my computer, but she never does. My sister also, is not inclined to look me up online, even when she did have the internet. She is too wrapped up in her own world to take a look into mine. She's just too busy, but really, she's not interested in anything that doesn't have something to do with her.

So... it would hardly matter if I posted my entire life story here tomorrow. The only two people who might benefit from my honesty would not be inclined to see my words objectively or at all. To one, I am a burden, and to the other, I am a rival. Neither one of them is ready to heal and nothing I've thought or overcome is going to help them until they want to stop wallowing in their misery and self-pity. I'm just an observer in their lives, but what I see is completely different from what they see.

The Romans honored Vesta, goddess of the hearth, with the Vestalia or the Vesta Aperit. Her shrine, usually forbidden to all but the Vestal virgins, was opened to married women for eight days. Walking the temple bare foot, they would offer food to the goddess who guarded their homes and hearths. Curtained off from the rest of the building was the Penus of the Temple of Vesta. For some days at the Vestalia, it was opened, and the building was cleaned. The penus contained various mysterious sacred objects. No one but the Vestals were allowed entry, so the nature of the items was never known.

SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOES

THE PARAMETERS

Do your best to "become" this other person....what is
their perception of you?  Do they love you?  Hate you?  Do you irritate
them or are they wild about you?  Become this other person as much as
possible and give us the details. . .who they are, what they are to you
and how they perceive you or feel about you.  Remember, you can use
poetry, write a letter, use pictures, draw, whatever is easiest for you
to do!

Lost entry from a burned journal.....      .....my dad's.

The Yoruba people of Nigeria honor their ancestors with a week long festival. Known as the Egungun, these entities control the fates of the living and so must be venerated. Some villagers offer food and gifts, while impersonators of the Egungun dance through the street. The living dancers may even be possessed by the Egungun.

The answer to this question ties back into the concept of freedom in a way and also my previous post on normalcy. If you choose to do as everyone else does, just because it is what everyone does, are you being true to yourself? For some people it is enough to blend into the population without making ripples. They are content enough to exist as an extension of societal expectation. If society says hate, they hate. If it says kill, they kill.... without thought or regret. This is what makes change so difficult. Some people crave acceptance so very much that any sacrifice is acceptable in pursuit of this goal.

Don't all jump on me at once. Hear me out.

I don't think that people who pursue a reward for their good works are going into it with the right frame of mind. You're not doing something because it is the right thing to do. You're doing it because you expect to be rewarded, and that's selfish. When you do something for others because you expect and intend to ultimately benefit from the act yourself, can your actions really be considered "good?" The same thing goes for doing things out of fear of punishment. If the only reason you behave yourself and do good things is because you're afraid of being punished in the afterlife, you're a hypocrite in your heart if not in deed.

No, the only reason to do good in an immoral society is because it makes you feel good. They say goodness is its own reward. This is very accurate for those with a healthy self esteem. If you are not trying to prove anything to anyone (or any higher power), then doing good for goodness sake is potentially more rewarding than any external validation. This is especially true for people who do anonymous good deeds for others.  Where there is no expectation of reward, the only reason to do good in the face of evil is because you can.

Traditional corn dances are performed by the Pueblo people during the Spring and Summer months to honor the Rain People and the Earth Mothers. The dance ensures a good harvest and blesses the earth. Rattles are shaken, and women dress in white and feathers.

What is normal?

Normalcy is a statistical anomaly,
a bell curve illusion of what every conformist should strive to be
no thank you sir... that's not for me

Wake up and be, just be, not for anyone else
wake up and see, just see, you're like no one else

Normal... I hate that word. There is nothing normal about me.... and I'm proud of that. Calling someone normal assumes that they are a square peg fit into its proper hole. Somewhere along the road that led to the person I am today, I lost the desire to fit in. It was probably when I started to build my self esteem based on the things that I liked about myself (as opposed to the things I had in common with others) that I grew proud of my oddities. I stopped worrying about "fitting in" and became more concerned with standing out. Which is not to say that I am outwardly a very assuming person, but inwardly, those who get to know me are never under any illusion as to how much of a nonconformist I am.

People who strive to be normal are really only latching on to an average... and I strive never to be average or mediocre in any way. There is no fun or challenge in trying to be like everyone else. It is infinitely more satisfying to explore the farthest reaches of who I am and redefine myself according to my interests, not the dictates of society.

I have been called insane. I have been told I need therapy. I've been shunned and avoided by people who find me disturbing.

I have also been admired for speaking my mind, for telling the truth. People come to me when they want honesty or a fresh outlook. I make people happy with my unorthodox perceptions and unusual commentaries.

---

June 4th

Socrates was born in 470 BC.

---

So far, MManhoff1's question has been the most popular of the five featured questions this week, with NightlyDreams, Jemstone05, and Lord_Wu answering at their sites. Lord_Wu actually answered all five questions.BoureeMusique and  BADBOYDOOMDADDY
answered in the previous post.

I'm going to go with the first question for now, only because I have to go to bed soon... I hate early days at work. Bleh.

 
I'm afraid my definition of freedom is not the commonly held notion... freedom to most people means to be without responsibility... to not be held responsible for one's choices. Criminals think this way. Criminals do not want to take responsibility for their actions. They inflict harm on others and expect that they will not be caught and punished. Freedom to a criminal is only a temporary thing.

In Cyprus, Cataclysmo, a pagan celebration in remembrance of the flood sent by Zeus to destroy wicked humanity, is observed. The locals pray for the dead and make a special trip to the sea, sprinkling each other with the sea water which is especially blessed this day. Traditional water games are played and a dance in which six glasses of water are balanced on the head is performed.

five questions for this week
(unfeatured questions stolen from the featured question chatboard, dated from September of 2007)

Answer any one or all of these questions in the coming
week. I try to mix the whimsical with the serious here, so hopefully
there is at least one question here for everyone.

Gawai Dayak is a yearly festival held by the Iban people of Malaysia on the 1st and 2nd day of June to celebrate the gathering of the harvest. Families gather at midnight to offer thanks to the gods and invoke their blessing. A lavish feast is eaten and a man and a woman are selected as the embodiment of the year's harvest spirit.

June is the sixth month of the current Gregorian calendar and the first month of summer. It is the "door of the year," the gateway to the inner realms. The original name for this month was Junonius. It was named for the Roman goddess Juno, patron of the female sex, and so this month was considered an excellent month for marriages. As Juno Moneta, whose temple was located on the Capitoline hill in Rome, she was guardian of money and wealth. June is sacred to Juno and all gods and goddesses who preside over love, passion, and beauty.

Cancer becomes dominant on June 21st as the sun passes from the constellation of Gemini. Roses are for those born this month. June plays host to many stones claiming to be its birthstone. Of them all, emerald is listed most, followed by agate, chalcedony, turquoise, pearl, cat's eye, or alexandrite, in that order. Pearl and moss agate are also birthstones of Gemini, and moonstone or pearl is the birthstone of Cancer. Chrysoprase, sapphire, and topaz are also connected to Gemini, while albite, chrysoprase, emerald, green tourmaline, opal, pink tourmaline, and rhodochrosite are associated with Cancer.

The first Sunday of this month is date of the Bulgarian Rose Harvest Festival.

Chu Yuan, the divine poet, lived in the third century BCE, serving the King of Chu during the Warring States period. He enjoyed the full confidence and respect of his sovereign at first, but eventually he was falsely discredited by rivals and found himself in disfavor. During that time, he composed his immortal poem, "Encountering Sorrow", an allegorical description of his search for a prince who would listen to good counsel in government. Never able to regain his emperor's favor, on the fifth day of the fifth moon in the year 295 BCE at the age of 37, Chu Yuan held a stone to his chest and leaped into the Milo River in the Hunan Province. Respect for the minister caused the people living in the area to jump into their boats in a vain attempt to find him while other villagers threw rice dumplings in the river to distract dragons and evil spirits lurking in the water. This unsuccessful rescue attempt is a part of what the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates in its annual races. The annual Dragon Boat Festival was at one time a Pagan Summer Solstice ritual designed to appease the dragon gods of the rivers.

The festival of Carna honors the Roman goddess of doors and locks equivalent to the Norse goddess Syn, the includer and excluder. Carna (Carne) acted as guardian of the larger organs of the body (heart, lungs, and liver), of domestic life, and the life of man. She warded off all the influences of evil spirits. She "opens what is closed, and closes what is open." Doors and windows should be repaired on this day especially considering Tempestas, goddess of storms, also lays claim to this day.