reading, processing, etc...

Okay, here's a list of things that people say even thought they know that everyone knows that they are full of crap.

1. It is such a blessing to be a parent.
Thanks to Emma Thompson for having the ovaries to call this one. I shan't try to say it any more eloquently than she.

WHAT ARE THE LIES WE TELL ABOUT PARENTHOOD? That it's so wonderful. There's no question about that. But it's also difficult, tiring and boring.

2. The LORD has been so good to me.

Of course he has. Once, again, I couldn't dare disagree. I just the hell wish he'd tell me how to redeem the voucher in the book of Jeremiah for those plans he has to prosper me and not to harm me. Do I clip that out and send it in, or is there an online form?

3. The church should have always stuck together.

Erica, a wise person whom I knew in high school, makes mention of this. So did a wise friend from work in a recent devotion. I just find it ironic that the things we value most about the church have generally come about due to the reformation. That and Juh-EE-suhs.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Medii Aevii, possibly even in the vaguely creepy, unhealthy way that the guy in the back corner of the library does. But intellectual ferment isn't all bad, is it? I guess what I'm saying is, the unity or disunity of the church hasn't made anyone more or less likely to hunt down and murder the opposition.


4. The political idea of democracy and freedom comes from the ancient (or shall we say classic?) Greeks and Romans.

Of course the Greeks and the Romans had a lot of republican and democratic ideals, but those ideas died hard and stayed dead, even during the Renaissance. Il Principe wasn't exactly a treatise on how to hold a popular referendum. It was the intellectual ferment created by the contact with the "New World" and different ways of life lead by indigenous peoples that inspired people like Locke, Rousseau, et al. Don't take my word for it, they say so themselves. Or you could read 1491. I just finished it. It is a brilliant, if somewhat unresolved, piece of educational literature.

On the same topic, sort of, I've been reading Cicero lately, for my Cicero class. (Don't worry, I haven't up and become a real intellectual yet, "pseudo" with a hyphen suits me just fine.) Anyways, the Romans believed in freedom the way we believe in the interstate system. It's a means to an end. Of course, that end is me going to bed.

Oh, and I've been watching Scrubs. Now, that's some funny stuff. Janna says that it is "the most accurate medical show." Of course, when your competition for accuracy is shows like, Bones, and House, that's not saying too much.