Took a walk in the woods and never came back....
I went to a forest preserve for 6 hours today. I did that instead of going with my family to visit with my grandma and to a concert..I woke up to yelling, and that's basically all I heard until they finally left without me because I just didn't feel like going with.
I finished the Escaping the Self book I was reading. It talked about mainly drugs, suicide, binge eating, masochism, and spirituality and how people use them to escape the self. I think it's an idea that makes sense. That's one of those things I've thought about before, how there's such a high suicide rate, drinking rate, etc., and why that is. Obviously it has to have something to do with the way we live. The author proposes that it's because our society is so centered on individuality, which becomes a stressful burden on us to uphold our identity for the world. So we escape into practices which allow us to strip the self down to physical elements, to a narrow mindset. If I were writing on that topic, I would have gone more into t.v./movie/video game escapes too. I did write a paper like that a few years ago.
Actually getting out into nature is an escape for me. It lets me feel more free and more connected to things..not artificial things, but nature, which has always been around on Earth. It can be such an inspiration, rejuvinator, calmer, if I only let it.
Temple Shir Shalom shut down. It seems really hard to believe, since we were members there for years. 7 years, about, and I went to hebrew school, sunday school, and confirmation class there, and Rabbi Levi did my Bat Mitzvah, my uncle's wedding, and my other uncle's funeral. He was the 3rd rabbi we had there, too. Even though we haven't been members since I was in h.s. now. I can't believe they had a different cantor at the end either. He seemed to be the one thing keeping the congregation stable (well, I guess some of the board was still there too, but still). Apparently, it ended on a not-so-good note too, with the Rabbi being dismissed without getting her final pay due to her and without a positive sendoff (or so the article says).
I also got an email from Jen, the former vp of Hillel at Iowa State, letting everyone know she's engaged and plans to get married in Jerusalem in September. There's another engagement of people in my general peer group (even though she is a few years older than me)
I finished the Escaping the Self book I was reading. It talked about mainly drugs, suicide, binge eating, masochism, and spirituality and how people use them to escape the self. I think it's an idea that makes sense. That's one of those things I've thought about before, how there's such a high suicide rate, drinking rate, etc., and why that is. Obviously it has to have something to do with the way we live. The author proposes that it's because our society is so centered on individuality, which becomes a stressful burden on us to uphold our identity for the world. So we escape into practices which allow us to strip the self down to physical elements, to a narrow mindset. If I were writing on that topic, I would have gone more into t.v./movie/video game escapes too. I did write a paper like that a few years ago.
Actually getting out into nature is an escape for me. It lets me feel more free and more connected to things..not artificial things, but nature, which has always been around on Earth. It can be such an inspiration, rejuvinator, calmer, if I only let it.
Temple Shir Shalom shut down. It seems really hard to believe, since we were members there for years. 7 years, about, and I went to hebrew school, sunday school, and confirmation class there, and Rabbi Levi did my Bat Mitzvah, my uncle's wedding, and my other uncle's funeral. He was the 3rd rabbi we had there, too. Even though we haven't been members since I was in h.s. now. I can't believe they had a different cantor at the end either. He seemed to be the one thing keeping the congregation stable (well, I guess some of the board was still there too, but still). Apparently, it ended on a not-so-good note too, with the Rabbi being dismissed without getting her final pay due to her and without a positive sendoff (or so the article says).
I also got an email from Jen, the former vp of Hillel at Iowa State, letting everyone know she's engaged and plans to get married in Jerusalem in September. There's another engagement of people in my general peer group (even though she is a few years older than me)