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Yukata
Month: November 2008
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The Catcher in the Rye
I think I missed the meaning of The Catcher in the Rye by about 15 years. While it was not a bad book, at 30 it was not a great book either. The whining, mad at the world, fuck off attitude of Holden would have fit better in my world view when I was a freshman or junior in high school.
How The Catcher in the Rye slipped through my reading list in high school is not something I can comment on. We should have read this book, assuming it was not banned for using naughty words. Maybe the teachers thought it would make us more rebellious.
Anyway, Catcher is a coming of age book, and I think (looking back from closer to mid-life crisis) it is good at being a coming of age book. Too bad I did not read it when I was that age.
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Inspiration
“Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”
President-Elect, Barack Obama
I think it’s nice to have someone heading to the White House that can use words in such a way as to inspire people. The expectations are high, the rhetoric impressive, now we wait with bated breath for the reality.
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What prayer do you want?
Someone asked a friend of mine, via social media, to pray for them, as they were trying to get a new job. This poor unsuspecting person got a very Monty Python-esque response:
Any particular variation of prayer? Buddhist (Jane already has the job, she just has to reach out and take it herself), Hindu (Jane needs to meditate more, she is young), Muslim (as long as she covers her hair Jane can do what she likes), Confucian (there is no Jane, only light), Zoroastrian (Jane has not been to the holy tree in 7 cycles, what hope could she have), Protestant (Jane has as much right to the job as anybody else, but she can mark where she likes as along as she’s not flash with her cash), Catholic (Jane… Ah bless… I’d nail myself ecstatically to a cross where she called for an interview and die of holy happiness where she to be saved from her sins by the lord)…. Like what’s the pitch here?
Besides the mixing up of religions (I think that is Zen not Confucian) it’s brilliant!