Reincident

The next time I decide to click on the "Next Blog" button, could someone smack me on the head? It is letal, I tell you, LETHAL! No matter what your prepare yourself to, it will always, ALWAYS give you a long sequence of blogs that will send you screaming. What the fuck si wrong with Blogger? Why can't they either list completely random things or list things that match to your liking. That's why they gather all that info about us, right? Now, before you ask, no, I wasn't plunged into yet another mom-rampage of evil, as this time Blogger kept me from the obnoxious mom-blogs and proud-mom crap. (I still find it quite weird to be a "proud mom". For once, you are proud a whole human being popped out of your vagina? And second, dude, isn't being a "proud mom" - particularly if being proud of being a mom - kinda like objectifying the child? Parents hardly realize children are people, but let's not go there right now.) This time around Blogger sent me on a whirlpool of Christian blogs. Oh man!!!

These horrid creations have all sorts of names, some even pick a chapter and verse as name "John One 13" and things like that. (Have no idea if there's a John 1:13...) The tone is always the same: the "I'm so blessed and I have overcome so much thanks to the lord/faith/church and is so filled with..." crap. You roll down, because you know, sometimes people have the urge to write about something, but some other day they write about something else. Nope, not these ones! It's like mom-blogs, I swear. Entry after entry it's all the same. Amazing Grace, graceless version. And as you roll down hoping for some goodie, for something of a regular nature, all you read is how blessed they are, and how miserable they were in the past, but now they are so well... and there are things, affirmations that do sound - it really does -  like someone is trying to convince themselves about something. Writing it down makes it so?

Somewhere someone said their family "served the Lord" and the blog was about that. Sometimes I wonder what church-going Christians consider "serving the Lord". Going to church, giving a tenth or a symbolic amount of money to the church, being part of the choir, or the Bible studies, baking cupcakes for charities, teaching children about the bible, about sexual abstinence, dressing in boring pastel colors, long clothes and voting against abortion and gay marriage? Or is it feeding the poor, clothing the naked, taking care of the elderly and frown at the Wiccan neighbour who sings weird songs while watering the plants, and casts demonic rituals according to their "mistaken beliefs". The other day I read through Human Rights in Facebook, that a certain Christian Sheppard said something like "gay marriage was inevitable"  - you know, like chaos after a catastrophe - that Christians had to brace it with the trademark "Christian kindness", and they would support any scientifical project that could detect homosexuality before birth and treat it.

I would smack my head into the desk, except that I want to smack HIS head into the desk. Repeatedly.

He's a Sheppard in a Christian church. Is that bullshit considered "serving the Lord"? Question, and have they asked God what does He think about it? Perhaps I could aid a little bit there. You know, when God says that your fellow gay person is just like you, He means - no pun intended, my interpretation - that gay people are just as people like you, feel the same, suffer the same and deserve the same respectful treatment you do. Well, not you, but any other person. He doesn't mean "make the gay to be exactly like you". Of course, this is me and my primitive interpretation.

The Bible says? Yeah, about that, have you considered that maybe people tampered with it? We all know it was assembled at the First Council of Nicea, and if so, what would keep people from penning a line here, a chapter there, a book over there to fit it to their convenience? So why don't you open your heart and ask the source? Oh, and before you come with the "The Bible is the Word of God" thing, where does it say so? In the  Bible, right? Uhum. Not very scientific there.

Somewhere I read someone being thankful about how their marriage have been "saved" as it was going through a rough time, really, really bad, and now was coming back to normal. Sure, I don't know the person, hell, I didn't even finish reading the entry (it was way too uninteresting for me), but I tried to imagine what would a fucked up relationship feel like and how could that be mended. I mean, scars remain and people will continue picking at them. I believe that what broke once remains broken forever. Glue it all you want, it's not going to ever be the same. So there I kinda felt sad for that person, because they seemed to desperate to believe everything was solved - still leaving a little linger that it might not be so - and I wondered what would it feel if the relationship cracks again. Would they put it on God's tab and say He didn't save their marriage?

Anyway, after some many blogs on this line, I stoped and came back to the normal. There was an entry I read at Childfree about blogging-moms uniting into bitching because in a recent survey it came up that they are considered the most annoying thing on the social networks and blogs. Yes, you know, people hate how they post picks of their dirty children covered in food, because it's "so funny", or breastfeeding because it's "such a love connection", and 24/7 posting about kids and kid stuff and schools and clothes and all that crap... Well, the proud mommies say they are being hated "but they don't give a damn, and if people don't like them they can always unfollow them". Sure, we'll do that, but then don't come asking why we unfollowed you - personally I'll have to problem telling one of these mommies that I'm sick and tired of reading them, that their postings are as uninteresting as and introductory speech to an annual gathering of morons - and furthermore, don't request us to follow your or friend you again. Get the hint! Have dignity!

Anyway I was thinking what did Christians and moms have in common, that makes them so annyoing, and I've got to the conclusion that it was their one sided, monothematic speech. Blogging-moms come up with excuses like "well, I spend all my time with my children, so yes, they are my life". Okay, once upon a time I worked as a teller at a bank. Monday to Saturday, all my waking hours were spent - literally - at the bank. Sure, I had a lot to tell about the bank and the people I worked with, but my talking range was still broad, just like that of all my coworkers. We didn't speak only about the loans paid, the number of clients, the funny things that happened (and some of those are hilarious), but we also talked about a new café, our family, our friends, our hobbies, and though time-tight, we had a life that wasn't all about the job. I simply can't believe that having a children would keep you from reading good books - that have nothing to do with raising kids - watch a good movie, take interest in local politics, express your opinion about the latest raise in taxes and so on.

Christians, on the other hand, say they are entirely dedicated to God, consumed by it, overtaken by the "calling". Yeah, about calling, I've one, my career, and it really, really obssesses me. I'm on the point where I can't imagine my life without it. I love it, love to do it and process the whole universe around me in relationship to my calling - I'm an economist, as you know. I see every relationship as a balance of investments, expenses, externalities, and keeping a good scorecard. I see trust as a credit score card. Do I write about economics all the time? No, I don't. I have other things in my life, and though economics are fundamental, vital and the core of my being, I actually am capable of thinking about other things, and speaking about other things.

What makes someone or something - like a blog - annoying is that onesidedness, that flat topic that yields no richness, no real analysis. Do you know what journals are so fabulous? Because someone can gave a blog about complaining about their job, and yet as their daily life mingles into it, it makes it fantastic. Yes, blogs are outlets to many things, but the good side is that they can tackle a whole lot of topics and perspectives. But when a blog is flat and always the same, it doesn't matter if it's deving into the most exciting topic of all, it becomes boooring!

I've a penpal who's a mom, and she's quite a cool one. She mentions her child here and there, but she speaks about herself, her plans, her dreams... about the person I know and I write to. There was another, quite the opposite, who sent me letters detailing the day of her child. The kid did this, got into that school, got that grade... Where's the thought? Where's the delving into the human impression? Geez, get a life of your own!

Knowing myself, eventually I'll push the "next button" again, it's kinda like a self-destructive impulse, like people picking stories or pictures that gross them, but can't keep looking at them - though not a guilty pleasure, as there is no pleasure, only hoping to find something worth reading. I guess I'll keep going to this until I find a new way to mine for personal journals online.