Perfect song for our present days. May Yeshua give you comfort in trials and help in troubling times.

Prayer Song of Trust that God will never abandon us and will always give us Peace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCSa7qBgSl8

Norrie:

Point taken but is this the proper forum light fair as this? this seems like a diary excerpt not a well thought out exploration of metaphysics. This has no historical perspective and seems extremely naricasistic(?) which gives it the bubble headed aire

Doug,

Your point taken as well.

I vaguely recall that my first comment to one of Elizabeth's essays was a fairly strong taking-her-to-task for using what I thought was bad English.

She seems to have survived that quite well.

Best to you.

Norrie, point taken- to an extent. I would like to remind you that Elizabeth is a graduate student in journalism. Hardly a "kid", and definitely someone whose writing should be held to a higher standard than the average "young person" contributor's.

Anyhow, we both seem to have something in common, as I was only trying to "set her straight" with my comments. I find her post to be an exercise in self-absorbtion, whereas I consider spirituality (and, ideally, religion) to be about awareness of self IN RELATION TO the rest of the world. Elizabeth only got the "awareness of self" part correct in this particular post. Hopefully she'll continue to mature and see how spirituality is about connecting and contributing to the bigger picture. Until then, I'm sure that she's big enough to withstand a bit of criticism.

Harry & Doug,

Elizabeth is one of several young people who WaPo has asked to regularly post essays on religious and other themes.

I find their essays to be generally more refreshing and interesting than the usual rehashed essays of established figures in religion, some of whom haven't had a new thought in decades.

The kids are still exploring and trying their verbal wings.

I enjoy reading what they have to say (and trying to set them straight).

I agree with Harry, as I'm not sure why this post is included as a part of the OnFaith offerings. Of course, the OnFaith editors continually publish tripe from a wide variety of weirdos and bad writers. Why draw the line at publishing insipid and self-involved piffle like this?

Elizabeth, I encourage you to expand the scope of your spiritual search. You need to look well beyond your own self if you are ever to have any hope of truly experiencing the presence of the divine. I get the general humorous gist of your post, but it was just flat. The juxtaposition of humor and spiritual insight was awkward. Most of us read that traveling has taught you a great deal about being, and then shrug and ask, So what? What do you intend to do with this new-found knowledge that will be of benefit to other people? Stop worrying about God's smite and the number of Hail Mary's that you can rattle off, and concentrate on being the light that you are called to be. Isn't that the message of the Gospel?

What are you talking about? Why is this post here? This sounds like a script excerpt from "Legally Blonde III"

Sue Fitch,

You're up blogging at an awfully early hour if you're anywhere near where I live - of course you might, like Jihadist, be on the opposite side of the world and living in an entirely foreign arrangement of the hours.

IN RE: CRASH DIVE

IN GENERAL:

Of course the pilot wasn't trying to crash his plane - exactly the opposite.

SPECIFICALLY:

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary says:

"crash dive"

"Main Entry: crash dive
Function: noun
Date: 1918
: a dive made by a submarine in the least possible time
— crash–dive intransitive verb"

Note that while "crash dive" originally referred to what a submarine does in emergency situations, functionally what it describes is exactly what the SW Airlines plane was doing: going precipatately downward in an effort to avoid a disaster.

As you know, when a phrase originates in relation to one particular activity, its usage frequently bleeds over to describe a similar but not identical situation, as is the case here with airplanes.

You and I seem to share an interest: words and their usage.

If you read a lot of these posts, you'll see that I'm frequently described as a pedant who misses the point, a pettifogger, a quibbler, old-fashioned, and anally-retentive, because I sometimes comment on a Panelist's writing as writing, rather than on the substance of what's being written about.

I'm glad to see that there's another such person in this blogworld.

Best wishes to you.

NO MORE MR. & MRS. NICE GUY!

You killed "ALLAH" and now Allah is no-more "AKBAR" (Not Great!)!

We, not American's , but ECLATi-ON(s), of Space-Ship Earth, Will annhilliate your KABBA & your AL AQSA mosque in JERUSALEM !

Pleas, you have 72 Hours from this post , or else!!!!

Islam will be NO MORE! Good bye KABBA! Good bye AL AQSA!

Remember, surrender Mr. Osama Bin Laden , et al, or else! The Destruction of the Kabba, like World trade Center's will be the fault of the Bin Ladin FAMILY!

We will Execute All your 73 Children & ALL of Mr. Osama's Family! et al!

WE win you loose! Ya Ya!

G-D Bless E*C*L*A*Ti-ON's!

'Chara' Islam & 'Gondoo' Islam! [Shiiiiit] Ya Ya!

O.U.R. PEOPLE are in position!

Good bye KABB, good bye Al AQSA!

This is not a game not a Test! You weill see!

Mr. Osama Bin Ladin et al, Last Time, Please

"Surrender" (DEAD or ALIVE), surrender in less than seventy two hours!!!!! Ya Ya!

Attention, Norrie! The pilot did not execute a crash dive. Steep descent, yes. Crash, no. In similar circumstances, I would not be receptive to a member of any religion asking how I would meet her maker. Despite that, I would give her credit for thinking of someone else in a situation most likely to cause personal panic.

BEHOLD!

Att: SAUDi ARABIA at MECCA via KABBA!

Hear ye Hear Ye, The KABBA will be destroyed in 72 Hours, unless Al Quada Surrenders! no Compromise!

Surren Mre. Bin Laden Et al, Dead or alive!!!!!!

We, not American's , but ECLATi-ON(s) Will annhilliate your KABBA & your AL AQSA mosque in JERUSALEM !

Pleas, you have 72 Hours from this post , or else!!!!

Islam will be NO MORE! Good bye KABBA! Good bye AL AQSA!

Remember, surrender Mr. Osama Bin Laden , et al, or else! The Destruction of the Kabba, like World trade Center's will be the fault of the Bin Ladin FAMILY!

We will Execute All your 73 Children Mr. Osama, et al!

Ya Ya!

Oh, leave her alone. Gods are comic book super heroes and villains, all of them are, including yours.

Are you suggesting that we have any more control of our lives when we are outside of a cylindrical aluminum tube?

Dear Elizabeth,

Satire has served a revolutionary role throughout history. The word of "God" is not a message you read during your childhood coma. God is the essence of existence. You can feel free and attribute as many human-type characteristics to it. Jesus Christ was an enlightened man who points to the unity of life force.

You wrote

"God’s presence in the world through the birth of Jesus Christ has provided us a model of human behavior, a triumphant hope in a wild world. We learn that God loved us so much that he became like us and experienced human joy and suffering"

God's presence in the world can be felt by listening to the sound of your breath. If you would put aside your comic book visualization of devil, god, angels, gardens for a moment, you would realize the it is either the life force, or the "absence" of this life force that determines our outward experience. The purpose of life is for the life force to recognize itself by creating the lack of it.

We human beings can either be reactive, God-loving folks who think in terms of reward and penalty, or we can see the light and create our life experience to coincide with this light and ultimately return to it.

Elizabeth,

You might enjoy this account of my older son's flight experience on Southwest Airlines. He was coming home from Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville to the Manchester (NH) International Airport.

Flying high and fast, and well into the flight, there was an explosion and fire in an engine. The oxygen masks came down, the lights went out, and the pilot made an intentional 20,000-foot crash dive to reach breathable air.

Mike was seated next to a Baptist (or otherwise evangelical) 70ish couple from Tennessee. In the midst of the crash dive toward what seem to be the ultimate lights out, the wife turned to Mike and said "If we die will you be able to say to your Maker that you've lived a good Christian life?".

Mike, who has always had an active interest in religions generally, but no religious affiliation, and at the time described himself as "agnostic", made a polite but content-free gurgle in response to her question.

When the dive was over and the other difficulties had been rectified, and it seemed that they might live after all, the nice lady invited Mike to come to their Nashville home to study the Bible with them.

Several years later, he hasn't yet taken them up on their offer.

**************************************************

I look forward to reading your essays, which I enjoy. You're a very astute observer of the world and of your interior self.

WHAT?

WHAT?

WHAT?