1. Feed him, clothe him, comfort him.
2. Show him where he can get food, clothes, and warmth. Take him there if necessary.
3. Teach him to create food, clothes, and warmth for himself.
4. Organise people and build a distribution centre for food, clothes, and warmth so that people trying to do (2) will know where to go.
5. Create so much food, clothes, and warmth yourself that you can donate a lot of it to the people trying to do (4).
6. Build and run a school to facilitate (3).
Feel free to add to the list.
Inspired by despair at students' lack of displayed ability.
You can only do (3) for some people and then get a few of them to go on and do (5). Also limited are people who can do (4).
So that leaves (1) and (2) for the majority of people in this world.
Alternative title for this post:
What is expected of those to whom much is given.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
WASSUP
So, taking a break from marking, thoughts turn to my disused blog, and all the thoughts that ought to have gone on it but haven't.
Here's today's first.
I've been running away from Organised Religion since my last major involvement with it - an acting part in an outreach musical. There's something that feels wrong about the whole thing - like a closed-minded community similar to the one GWB lives in.
Then it struck me today. It's the whole self-righteous "we are good people" vibes I get from some of them.
We're _not_ good people. We're screwed up people. That's why we got religion in the first place - to unscrew ourselves. Trouble is, some people get so uptight you'd think religion was actually screwing them up some more.
So I'm thinking the Church should go on a new outreach campaign titled WASSUP, for We Are Such Screwed Up People. That will definitely help it to empathise with all the sinners it's trying to reach, and then some.
The old idea of sinners just excludes too many people from the net. Sinners go whoring, do drugs, steal, cheat, rob, bully, and put naked pictures of themselves on the net. There are tons of people who don't do any of those things and are still screwed up. And they need unscrewing. Which is where religion steps in. Sure it's more expensive than a shrink (try paying your shrink ten percent of your income) but you get a whole network of counsellors and support people in the bargain. And the best part is, they'll so totally understand because they're screwed up people like yourself.
I think my screws are coming looser.
Here's today's first.
I've been running away from Organised Religion since my last major involvement with it - an acting part in an outreach musical. There's something that feels wrong about the whole thing - like a closed-minded community similar to the one GWB lives in.
Then it struck me today. It's the whole self-righteous "we are good people" vibes I get from some of them.
We're _not_ good people. We're screwed up people. That's why we got religion in the first place - to unscrew ourselves. Trouble is, some people get so uptight you'd think religion was actually screwing them up some more.
So I'm thinking the Church should go on a new outreach campaign titled WASSUP, for We Are Such Screwed Up People. That will definitely help it to empathise with all the sinners it's trying to reach, and then some.
The old idea of sinners just excludes too many people from the net. Sinners go whoring, do drugs, steal, cheat, rob, bully, and put naked pictures of themselves on the net. There are tons of people who don't do any of those things and are still screwed up. And they need unscrewing. Which is where religion steps in. Sure it's more expensive than a shrink (try paying your shrink ten percent of your income) but you get a whole network of counsellors and support people in the bargain. And the best part is, they'll so totally understand because they're screwed up people like yourself.
I think my screws are coming looser.
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