Meaning. The thin line which separates a life lived on autopilot–a rote life–and a life worth living. Life is necessarily composed of humdrum, day-in-day-out aspects, but if that is life’s extent, life’s totality, then life can get to feel a bit routine. Ritual represents the effort–the purposeful, sometimes painstaking effort–to insert into or derive meaning [...]
Today I will shower, brush my teeth, drive my car, and sit in traffic. It strikes me that I’ve done each of these things thousands of times. I’ve spent hundreds of hours brushing my teeth and easily thousands of hours sitting on the 5 Freeway wondering if I’ll ever get where I’m going. And during [...]
Thanks for fixing my website, Angelo. I was thinking the same thing as Nathan–My website is broken. I broke it myself (or, Mi website me rompio–broke itself to me, i think–AP Spanish seems so long ago) and I couldn’t fix it. That’s the quintessence of incompetence-being unable to fix one’s simple technological mistakes. I was [...]
Ritual versus Routine: A Distinction Worth Making Keep your browser tuned in for an investigation of the reasons for distinguishing between ritual and routine, and the dangers we run by accepting structure for structure’s own sake. How does what we do stay meaningful? And how can it become meaningless?
It’s Spring Break this week. As you might have guessed, I’ve got a lot planned. I fly out to Miami, FL later today with my sorority sisters for a week of partying. Which means I’ve got only a few hours left to buy that new bikini and get my nails done. Or not. Turns out [...]
Add another memorable event to the list–I’m sick. I actually took a sick day today. I think I took one last some time in the fifth grade, so I’m due. I’ve watched the Cosby Show, M.A.S.H., and various other daytime television programs for two days now. I’m currently waiting for 3pm, which is when Cops [...]
I need a job.
Rare occasions always deserve memorializing, so here’s today’s event: Paul is sick. It doesn’t happen often. So today he’s sick in bed, coughing, eating chicken noodle soup and guzzling cough syrup. He says the syrup is to go with some ‘phlegmcakes’ he’s cooking up in his throat. I’m supposed to be writing a paper. The [...]
I learned tonight that the fifth circle of hell is not so much a burning, sulphurous pit, but rather a Kinko’s copy center. When we finally got a grudging troll of a woman to help us–we wanted 3 sheets of cardstock–she carried it to us as slowly as possible and without a word. Then a [...]
This has probably been my longest blog furlough to date. Don’t worry, I’m back. We watched Walk the Line tonight. It was very good. Oscar nomination good. I sincerely hope both Witherspoon and Phoenix win Best Actor/Actress, but I’m probably not going to watch the Oscars, because I simply refuse to sift through the rubbish [...]