Nice Work, A.J.

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long.  I got distracted, and I’ll try to do better.

Now that I’m done apologizing, let’s move on to more important things.  I just graduated, I’m headed to college in two months, and I don’t have a job for the summer.  Nobody wants to hire a teenager with minimal work experience for only the summer.  While, I didn’t have high hopes for employment this summer, it would be nice to have money in once I start school in the fall.  I’m a little bit broke.  Why did I want to go to a private college again?

Enough of that rant.  Back to summer.  I’m not a big fan of the hot weather this season brings, but I do enjoy all the time I have to read.  I recently (and by that I mean a few weeks ago) finished A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of of Living Biblically.  For those who have never heard of it, the book is an agnostic’s account of a full year of following the Bible as literally as possible.  Well, Jacobs actually had an upbringing in Judaism.  However, he describes himself as being “Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian Restaurant.”  Since he had such a secular background, he wanted to try to fully immerse himself in religion, thus the literalistic lifestyle.

He adhered to rules even as seemingly absurd as refraining from wearing a “garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff” (Leviticus 19:19).  Odd as this all sounds, much of the book was actually pretty serious.  Jacobs was surprisingly open-minded about his quest.  And as someone who isn’t religious, I can relate to a lot of his views.  I enjoyed reading about his eye-opening moments, about his progressions from agnosticism to belief and back again.  One of my favorite parts came from day 126:

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve taken not quite a leap of faith, but a cautious baby step of faith.  I’m not sure why.  I think it’s that the three-times-a-day prayers are working their mojo.

The point is, I don’t see the world as a collection of soulless quarks and neutrinos.  At times–not all the time, but sometimes–the entire world takes on a glow of sacredness, like someone has flipped on an unfathomably huge halogen lamp and made the universe softer, fuller, less menacing.

Anyway, I highly recommend the book to both theists and nontheists alike.  Jacobs’ writing style is easy to read, and there’s some humor in it too.  I’ve added another book of his, The Know-It-All (about his experience reading the encyclopedia), to my list.  But for now, I’m still working on my own biblical undertaking.

 

Plans

As one of many goals for 2011, I’ve decided to read the Bible.  I’ll start out with the Old Testament, however I may eventually choose to jump back and forth between the Old and New Testaments.  We’ll just wait and see what happens.  I’ll post on here any questions and comments I have.  Hopefully we can get some healthy discussion going (ahem, leave comments).

A few people I’ve told about this plan seem confused as to why I want to undertake this reading.  Well, why not?  In a country where more than 80% of the population is of Christian affiliation (and even higher in Missouri), I’m at a disadvantage if I don’t have any biblical knowledge.  It’s difficult for me to engage in an intelligent discussion on morality, theology or anything related to religion.  By reading the Bible, I’ll even out the playing field (not that it’s a competition).  This will, hopefully, open my mind and give me better understanding of many Americans’ views.  Additionally, I’ll be able to better comprehend literature with biblical allusions, which encompasses just about everything.

I’d appreciate anything encouragement you can offer; I don’t want to flake out on this! -M

I found my flash drive.

Camus’ Absurdism and the Myth of Sisyphus

In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus states that “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”  By saying this, Camus suggests that one can attain happiness if he is unaware of futility or misery in his life.

The quote was written by Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, which briefly outlines his philosophy by using Sisyphus as a metaphor.  In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is a creature sentenced to an eternity in Hades, continuously pushing a boulder up a mountain.  However, his attempts are futile, for the boulder only rolls back down the mountain as soon as it reaches the top.  The creature’s constant struggle and defeat represent Camus’ philosophy of absurdism.

Absurdism is based on man’s desire for significance and understanding, despite living a meaningless or miserable life.  Camus’ view is that worthlessness is only tragic when it is realized.  For example, today’s workers are often trapped in valueless lifestyles.  Nevertheless, they do not recognize that their life holds no significance in society.  Thus they have no reason to regret their lives, and they may find merit in their labor.

Similarly, Sisyphus will only be miserable if he sees the futility of his task.  One may assume Sisyphus would feel meaningless during his trudges back down the mountain, however the creature continues to make the ascent again after reaching the bottom each time.  This proves that he finds dignity, rather than vanity, in his endeavor.  Although Sisyphus will never succeed in bringing the boulder to rest at the top of the mountain, he never understands his failure, thus he does not feel miserable.  This is the primary absurdity in the myth.

The aforementioned quote allows an optimistic alternative to the absurdist view concerning Sisyphus’ fate.  One may achieve happiness by simply choosing so, if he is not conscious of misery in his life.  Sisyphus didn’t see the futility, so Camus merely gave the reader the choice of optimism.

Sidewalk Adventures

As the end of summer is nearing (two weeks until school starts – yikes!), I’ve decided I want to start running everyday.  I know I’ve tried for years to get myself to do this, but I’m a little more determined this time.  You see, I have dance team practices twice a week at 6 a.m.  I have to get up early anyway, so I figured I might as well take advantage of that.  And I’ve learned that the best time to run is when it’s still dark out: 4:30 a.m.

It sounds awful at first, but I promise it’s great.  It’s cooler then, and I like that there aren’t people and/or cars out to see me running (for whatever reason, I hate that).  Actually, there are ZERO signs of life at that hour.  Seeing a single bird freaked me out, because everything else is still and quiet.

When I have more adventures, I’ll post them.  I’m sorry my life has been to boring to blog about lately (not the anyone would care to read it anyway…).

Love and stuff.

Top Seven

Seven things I fell in love with (or found interesting) this week (in no particular order):

1. Fake to-do lists of Glenn Beck, Mel Gibson and Bristol Palin.  Pope Benedict’s is my favorite, by far.

2. I still have yet to see Toy Story 3, but apparently there are philosophical and neuroscientific aspects of the movie.  Who knew?!  I definitely want to see the movie more after reading this essay.

3. Because I’m mildly obsessed with the work of Sam Harris, here’s his talk at the Edge conference.

4. Hell, here’s the Edge’s New Science of Morality!

5. Not even a strict law can protect British girls from genital mutilation.

6. Jesus and Mo shifted gears with a grammar joke.

7. And back to the New Science of Morality…