I just learned the Yiddish word beschert- "meant to be for some purpose ( Read more... )

So I'm preparing for my portion of a presentation on Quakers and Equality tomorrow. I did a text search on my computer for something, and it found me this quote.

Bill Hicks:
""I asked this guy, I said, 'Come on man, Dinosaur fossils. What's the deal?' 'Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith.' 'I think God put you here to test ( Read more... )

I just went to the going-away reception for a colleague of dan's, a man of many talents who is moving west to become a CTO at another University. There were hors d'oeuvre, wine, cheese. And there were many speeches; some entirely professional and largely boring, some more heartfelt messages with personal touches. But you could tell this man will ( Read more... )

Friday night we saw the movie Diabolique, which was one of Hitchcock's style-influences. It was an OK (but merely OK) suspense/horror story ( Read more... )

I finished the audio-book version of Stumbling on Happiness on the drive back from my parents' place.

I wrote about Daniel Gilbert last August when he was interviewed on Tapestry, the CBC radio program on faith and spirituality (and so did d., which I link to from that post). Re-reading my impressions at the time, I conclude his book made a much ( Read more... )

I just watched myself add a new travel routine. I was packing my suitcase, and the last thing I put into it was my travel kit, at the top of the suitcase, and I said to myself, "yes, that's right; it has to go at the top ( Read more... )

( Our house must be bugged. )

A recent conversation has had me thinking about two somewhat complementary and somewhat contradictory life philosophies concerning "quality"- by which I (think I) mean, things that are best-fit for your needs and desires ( Read more... )

Our Quaker Meeting had a discussion after worship this morning, on the subject of "Where am I on my spiritual journey?" There were ten participants, and we spoke for an hour, each person only speaking once, out of the silence as in worship ( Read more... )

melted_snowball was writing about Daniel Gilbert's interview on Tapestry about happiness.

Gilbert says: paraplegics are just as happy as lottery winners. People raising children are less happy than people who do not have children. These may be true in some sense, and Gilbert does have interesting things to say. melted_snowball disagrees with his premise, that by comparing ( Read more... )