Remiss...

As in, I have been. Very much.

First, I have not posted since my whiny rant on July 8th. Second, I have been very bad about getting to church--with three opportunities each week, that's pretty bad. Third, I've been neglecting friends and family in favor of crawling into my hole whenever I'm not working. How pointless is that?

This blog is supposed to be about living in Quincy, with its beauties and its follies, and passed somewhat through the prism of trying to strive after the qualities of God, as expressed in Orthodox Christianity.

Not doing too well, am I?

I don't have any sudden deep and meaningful insight to share here. I'm just doing some self-examination and not liking what I see very much.

Many years ago when I was a member of the Episcopal Church in Peoria, I also had a problem rousting myself out to get to church. My pastor, Fr. Gus, had a pretty good way of demonstrating how absurd it was to make excuses and not participate in the functioning of the Christian body. He would call and simply say "Get your ass to mass!"

Seems kind of trite, and yet it pointed up (for me, at least) the fact that even the hind end is part of the body and has a function, and that the body doesn't do as well if even the posterior isn't in attendance. I mean, how do you sit down if your ass isn't there? For that matter how does said tuchus benefit spiritually, socially, and even financially if it's forgoing the pleasures of community worship? In the case of the Orthodox Church, I'm also missing some great ethnic foods at fellowship hour (well, if we're going to be all physical about it, I like food too).

My laziness about church attendance has also become reflected in other "non-required" duties, as I mentioned above. Not writing for the blog, not writing for my own need to create stories, not writing for gaming, not keeping up with the cleaning at home, not keeping up with so many other things (though not work, where we've taken on a lot of extra duties and that doesn't bother me too much--we get it all done).

So what's the solution? One can only ask friends to do so much to deliver a kick to the seat of the pants. There comes a point where you have to motivate yourself. And I'm not feeling motivated.

Not sure what to do...except maybe try going to church more regularly.

(Let's not even talk about making a regular confession, okay? :)

BTW, one sure sign I've not been getting regular and balanced "feeding" in all the ways we need to be "fed", is that I get crotchety, whiny, and gripe about things like...oh, say, stupid people.

I guess I know the remedy.

"Get your ass to Mass."

Stupid People Rant

Okay, in the interests of simple Christian charity, let me say that the vast majority of people are not stupid. We may do stupid things, but we're not stupid.

I will assume the person in this story is not stupid. Fanatic maybe, but not stupid. Lacking in common sense, certainly, but not stupid.

I should probably re-title the blog entry, but I won't.

So here's the story out of Chicago:

Chicago's smoking ban has forced the cast of ``Jersey Boys'' to snuff out their cigarettes.

Smoking was the norm in the 1950s and 60s when the play about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons takes place. But that doesn't matter when it comes to smoking in Chicago theaters. Authorities say an irate theatergoer lodged a complaint.

Just as irate is Alderman Bernard Stone. The former part-time actor told the Chicago Sun-Times smoking must be allowed if the play is going to be true to its time.

The Public Health Department has primary responsibility for enforcing Chicago's smoking ban. But spokesman Tim Hadac says the crackdown on Jersey Boys didn't originate there. He says someone likely flagged down a police officer during a production.

Got that? Someone was so incensed by the actors, PERFORMING THEIR ROLES IN THE PLAY, having the temerity to light up and smoke, that they filed a complaint which led to a ban on SOMETHING THAT IS PART OF THE PLAY.

Frankly if I were the playwright I would sue the city of Chicago for interfering with my freedom of expression.

We can present a painting of Harold Washington in drag; a "sculpture/painting" of the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant feces and surrounded by porn cut from magazines; piles of dirty, smelly underwear artfully strung about a gallery or pink latex wrapped around everything in sight on a California hillside. That's all art. But we dare not allow actors in performance in a theater to light up and smoke, even though they are doing what the script demands.

I can imagine how this person would have had a stroke if they'd seen me lighting up and puffing on a cig when I was in DIARY OF ANNE FRANK at QCT. Heck, I lit up TWICE!!!

I wonder if they wig out when they see a classic movie where people are smoking? I remember a science fiction story where the two protagonists were famous for having come up with an algorithim that could be applied to old movies and would edit out such horrible sins as smoking. Don't remember anything else about the story, just that.

And I laughed that such things would never ever happen. Looks like I'm stupid too.

I believed the Illinois State Police way back in 1983 or so when they said "we've instituted a seatbelt law but we'll never pull you over or ticket you just for not wearing one" too.

Yup. Me and the anti-smoking twit in Chicago...

Stupid people.