Category: Humor

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Deep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part II

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Some Thoughts on the Trinity

(I made the mistake of deciding to check my work before I published. Not that the checking itself was a mistake, far from it, but the notion that I could do it quickly and without a lot of head-scratching and ponderments may have been. This is difficult stuff to grasp, and when I went to the early Church Fathers: Augustine, St. John of the Cross, Origen, Hilary, Ambrose, and others for guidance, although I found a wealth of wisdom and depth of analysis, a lot of it is about as interesting to read as tax code. It’s taken a lot longer than I thought it would, and I’m beginning to wonder if theoretical physics, particle mechanics, and string theory are going to be any easier. Plus, it’s just damn difficult to make this breezy, humorous, and irreverent as is my usual style . Bear with me.)

I’m going to start with some thoughts on the Trinity. I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a long time. It resonates for me. It makes sense to me, although it may not make the same kind of sense to you. I accept this. I already know from whence some of the arguments against what I have to say are going to come.

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Deep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part I

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I Think. Therefore I Might Be.

fractal black hole artI like to think that I think  deep thoughts. They might not be as deep as I imagine them to be, but that realization does not dissuade me from thinking them. Nor should it…I think.

My latest thought project is trying to link string theory with the Christian mystery of the Triune God. (As you can plainly see, I do not lack for ambition.) Continue reading

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Heaven and Hell

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Hell on TV

Contemplating the Stick and the Carrot

One of the problems with trying live a good life is that we don’t really have a clear idea of what Heaven will be like. Heaven after all is supposed to be the reward that motivates good behavior. If we don’t really have a good idea of what it is like to be in Heaven though, we can’t be very motivated.

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Twelve Signs of Depression – Trumping Neurosis

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Depression: The Prison of Our Own Devising

Depression - The Prison of Our Own DevisingI haven’t been very active here of late. Even though I’ve managed two posts over the last several days, it was nearly two months between posts before that. There’s a good reason for my lack of productivity. I thought the reason was Donald Trump, but it turns out that I’m probably just depressed. Continue reading

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Humility and The Book of Job

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Favorite Lines

My favorite passage from A Cup of Pending is this one from Chapter 3:

“… and that’s the third great lesson of Job. There’s no justice in a world where God makes bets with the Devil for his own amusement.”

Irreverent, sarcastic, a little caustic – this is the kind of line that defines my writing and my usual demeanor. My second favorite passage comes a little earlier in the same chapter when Blanche offers to pray for Cliff and makes a mockery of Christian charity in the process:

She still had a grip on Cliff’s hand. A crowd had started to gather around them, circling like sharks sensing blood in the water. Blanche looked up toward the ceiling, suspended acoustic tile punctuated with fluorescent light fixtures. So fervent was her gaze Cliff almost believed God must be on the other side of the tiles, hiding in the conduit and duct work, just waiting for the chance to bless a petitioner. Continue reading

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Six Steps to Perfect Humility – No Effort Required

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Two Approaches to Humility

Old Rusty Car The Hard One

Real humility is a virtuous ideal embraced by most religions and theologies. There are spiritual exercises and practices designed to engender humility in the individual seeking enlightenment and improvement. Humility is a virtue, a first step, a fundamental principle. Humility is the foundation for charity, piety, discernment, justice, and even faith. Continue reading

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Mr. Dancin’ Man

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New Flash Fiction

A new bit of flash fiction in dialect. Enjoy!

antique jukeboxMr. Dancin’ Man

by Jonah Gibson

Vassar was in one a them moods where you don’t give him no shit, no matter what he wants to do, on account of he is gonna do it anyways. So what he does is, he takes all my change offa the bar while I’m sittin there watchin an plugs it in the juke they got over in the corner. He presses buttons an that juke starts to playin every weepy, pedal-steel country song there is—least the ones give country a bad name—an the next thing I know he’s got some ole gal out on the dance floor, pushin her around in a passable two step while he grabs himself a big ole handful of ass. Continue reading

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When Lambs Lie Down with Lions

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Bobcat wearing a fedora and smoking a cigarette

Wildlife: Cool? For sure. Friendly? Not necessarily.

Nature Can Be Cruel

Periodically I run into people who claim to be spiritual rather than religious. They believe in a creator, but they do not believe that creator is to be found in any organized church. In fact most of them seem to believe that any form of organized religion is the antithesis of spirituality, and that adherence to the tenets and precepts of a particular faith is one of the surest ways to remove oneself from god’s presence…or to remove god from one’s own, whichever the case might be.

Although I understand where these people are coming from, and what they mean by that, I must confess that I almost always think that they are just making excuses for their inability to embrace their own essence as beings created by the creator they say they believe in.

Usually these irreligionists point to nature as the place where they feel most at peace and most in awe of the god of their understanding. They are not comfortable in church where too many rules and too much ritual and way too many people get in the way of encountering the divine. They see these things as impediments to experiencing the true creative genius of the god they are able to accept. Continue reading

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Billions and Billions

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Can Finance Ever Be Truly Fascinating?

I’ve been binge-watching Showtime’s in house series, Billions. with Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. For my money it’s the best thing on TV. Of course I’m an accounting and finance geek, so there is probably a lot of stuff in it that appeals to me but leaves people who are easily bored with such matters cold.

I know they’re out there. Econophobics. The kind of people who get a headache when conversation turns to interest rate swaps or in-substance defeasance of advance refunding bond issues. In fact, I’m pretty sure our president is one, but he has people for that stuff. (Not that he would ever listen to them.) I can’t say it’s their fault. I mean, really, that’s pretty arcane territory for anyone but a financial savant. Continue reading