Nov

9

The Tao of the Mundane

I have always believed that spirituality, in its many forms, has been created to help us cope with the unbearable side of life. How does someone continue living after something devastating has happened to them? How do you make sense of that which is nonsensical? When I think about the delicacy of all of our lives, and of my son’s life specifically, I completely understand the need for something larger, something outside our lives that’s managing all of this, that promises a plan is in place and that peace can be ours, if only we have enough faith.

Who wouldn’t want to believe that death offers a new beginning? That if someone you love dies before you do, you will see them again? I can barely type that, thinking about the unthinkable. If my children left this earth before I did. How could I go on without believing that we would be together again?

Well. I’m not sure, really, what I believe when it comes to the end of our bodies and the endless time that happens afterwards. I think the answer is that I truly don’t know, but I think it’s more about what happens while we’re still here.

I have been thinking lately about the small moments of wonder and joy that elevate the humdrum human existence into something nearly magical, and how they can sometimes be as simple as the short, sincere wave someone gives you in their rearview mirror when you let them merge in front of you on the freeway. Or the way a dog will roll on their back in the grass, grunting and bending from side to side to get that one itchy spot. The smell of fresh bread, the clear night sky away from the city lights, the startle of a ladybug taking flight from your arm, the froggy crook of a baby’s legs, the feeling of using a coveted new beauty product for the first time, the sound of Jeff Probst’s voice saying “Come on in guys”.

If there is a point to life, I think it is to experience those things, those tiny starbursts of happiness. Among the successes, accomplishments, passions, sorrows, jealousies, failures, losses, it is the small moments of transcendental goodness that make me feel like every minute of every day is worth living.

So. Tell me, what do you believe in?

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Nov

8

This and that

Hey, check out the awesome new banner that Ranie O’Dell made me, up there at the top of this website! (You may need to manually reload the page if it’s cached.) How cool is that? I love it so much I may have licked my laptop screen after I got it posted. Mmm, tastes like nematic phase liquid crystals.

I needed an excuse to update just so I could squee about the new header graphic, but I also have a legitimate problem: people, why are really good chocolate chip cookies so hard to make? I seem to be producing the same batch of dry, only-marginally-good-by-virtue-of-being-a-cookie cookies, and I’ve tried several different recipes (mostly variations on the chocolate chip package recipe). I feel like I’m missing some key secret ingredient that’s necessary for creating the chewy, moist cookie I crave. Is it lard? You can tell me if it’s lard, I don’t mind. By god, if that’s what it takes, I will make cookies formed entirely from chunks of clarified pork fat.

Anyway, if you have a recipe that produces amazingly good chocolate chip cookies, please share it with me. My giant expando belly thanks you in advance.

PS. You’ve probably already seen this, but if you haven’t, please take a moment to enjoy this fantastic french beatboxer. I’m not sure why, but watching that video makes me almost deliriously happy.

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