The Joys of Being Thoughtless

I am now employed at a job where I get work done and get adequate money. It is nothing amazing, but it is not stressful, the people are helpful, and it's flexible. Not since high school summer breaks have I had a job when I was not also thinking about upcoming assignments, exams, etc.

What I really just want to think as I type is how helpful it sometime is to do a monotonous task without having to really think about it. Having been working less than usual the last few months, I can say that I actually had more energy overall on those days when I had school and work from 9am to 12pm than when I had almost nothing to do. Work is as important for the mind as it is for the body. Without our knowing that we are doing work, we feel useless. The responses to being useless would be to do work; to enjoy being a sloth; or not to enjoy being a sloth, not work and be relatively miserable.

This job is good because it gives me a rest from thinking about things, and this rest will help me to think again more clearly, when need be.

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"Curdie spent many nights in the mine. His father and he had taken Mrs. Peterson into the secret, for they knew mother could hold her tongue, which was more than could be said of all the miners' wives.

But Curdie did not tell her that every night he spent in the mine, part of it went in earning a new red petticoat for her.

Mrs. Peterson was such a nice good mother! All mothers are nice and good more or less, but Mrs. Peterson was nice and good all more and no less. She made and kept a little heaven in that poor cottage on the high hillside for her husband and son to go home to out of the low and rather dreary earth in which they worked. I doubt if the princess was very much happier even in the arms of her huge great-grandmother than Peter and Curdie were in the arms of Mrs. Peterson. True, her hands were hard and chapped and large, but it was with work for them; and therefore, in the sight of the angels, her hands were so much the more beautiful. And if Curdie worked hard to get her a petticoat, she worked hard every day to get him comforts which he would have missed much more than she would a new petticoat even in winter. Not that she and Curdie ever thought of how much they worked for each other: that would have spoiled everything."

- The Princess and the Goblin

Dallas Willard referenced rap music and made a beatbox-esque noise in the sermon I listened to last night.

A quick note on the election.
I hope that Huckabee or Obama win. I hope that Giuliani or Hillary doesn't win. I'd rather McCain or Romney not win. I don't think Edwards will win, though maybe he'll be a vice president. I wish Paul would win, but I think it's pretty obvious that won't happen (though he's been close to Giuliani in both elections).

There is no media conspiracy against Ron Paul or any of the other lesser candidates. While media coverage wasn't always present where it was due, it was there enough. The problem is not the amount of coverage as much as the content of the coverage, which is essentially 10-sec audio tidbits and polls. Television debates are helpful only as an elementary introduction to the candidates. Real information about any of the candidates is probably aimed at a 6th grade level and is not substantial enough for informed decisions.

A quick note on current reading

On a much higher note, I am reading Hearing God by the Good Dr. Willard. The knowledge in that book is essential because it projects an image of what is possible while at the same time being a reminder of the foundational things already innately known to all people (aka the voice we turn away from in order to do what we please). It is simultaneously challenging me in at least three thought arenas, and making me very much want to read Alister McGrath's Christianity's Dangerous Idea (which has a recommendation from Willard on the back of it). If these books are as good and accurate as I hope they are, they will be a strong challenge to much that has been in my head and heart as of late.

I'm also reading I Kings, because lately I've been to far from scripture. Also rereading The Princess and the Goblin, and now I actually understand the spiritual symbolism (harder to spot than Lewis').

And I have at least some sort of job right now, until I find more/better work.

Praise the Lord that no politician will be in office forever, that books are abundantly available and cheap in America, and that I'm so blessed that I can't even decide on how to narrow the choices of praiseworthy things that could be included in this praise.