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."