Sunday, December 27, 2009

Faith?

Hello Everyone,
Its been a interesting few weeks for me, which seems to have culminated tonight with this posting. I want to talk about the church, God and his believers. At this time of year we are bombarded with images and stories of religious 'importance'.
For me the beginning of this season was when his Holiness stood upon his pulpit within the Holy See and condemned the world leaders for not contributing enough money to the downtrodden in the world. This coming from the leader of the wealthiest organization in the world, His home being the greatest trove of treasure's the world has ever seen, and from this lofty height he condemned other without offering up his own treasures to support this noble cause. Vatican city produces absolutely nothing, but rakes in billions every year.
In my community we have a church, it stands upon a hill that is falling into the river and the church will soon follow. We are accorded a minister who will visit once or twice a year give mass and collect the tithe and move on till the next holiday. Many of the people of this community suffered greatly at the hands of church run schools where torture and degradation were the offering of the day. Still the people believe and offer their money to the church freely on the dreams of the images that were drilled into their heads in these "schools". People in this community go without food, without ministered funerals, without spiritual guidance and yet remain rooted to these beliefs. The church contributes (as far as I have seen) nothing to the upkeep, maintenance or repair of the facility in town and yet people continue to send cheques to this same church.
A woman who attempted to touch the Pope will likely spend years in a long term mental facility or will be jailed. The "laying on of hands" is a spiritual power that God grants to his chosen one's, might this woman have simply been seeking healing from the representative of God upon this earth? Might his holiness have been able to heal her of her burdens and wouldn't it have been worth the trouble to simply touch this afflicted woman to see if a Christmas miracle might have been achieved. She was obviously a woman of belief and devotion, this was the second time she risked her own safety in a vain attempt to heal her ill's, neither time was she proven to be a threat to the Holy Father.
A major in the salvation Army (a charitable arm of the catholic church) was shot to death in front of his children while delivering donations to the army headquarters on Christmas eve. I mean really, is this some sort of sick joke to a higher being. If this man's time had come, what was the advantage to his soul being taken in this manner? Will this help his children understand the meaning of faith and God?
Bishops in Ireland are dropping like flies on allegations they covered up for 170 child molesting priests. The Vatican has announced that the church will start enforcing copyright laws on the Papal image without prior consent and remuneration. The pope urges progress and growth from the leaders in Copenhagen while simultaneously trucking a 100 foot Christmas tree from Belgium to the Holy See. The Vatican "invites" conservative Episcopal priests to join the roman Catholic church (since when did have religion have a trading deadline?). The Vatican bank is under investigation for money laundering. The Vatican is making legal attempt to claim the "Staffordshire Hoard" claiming since the gold was a gift from the Pope in 616 it should be returned to the church.
And on and on it goes. I have read the bibles and don't frankly like the message they send about the standards of our moral character, but that aside, the meanings and intent of the bible are a great message. I just find it sad that this message is passed through a bureaucracy that obviously isn't putting the intentions of God before its own interests.
Take care and God Bless,
CG

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christopher's interesting new toy


Hello Everyone,
Despite public criticism I went ahead and got Christopher a educational toy. It is a 300 project home electronics kit. It allows you to easily combine a series or resistors, capacitors, photo cells, motion switches etc. to build 300 easy projects suitable for any child of reading age. It rocks and Christopher likes it, so far we have built a AM radio transmitter, various sound generators, light show items, and various noise makers as well as some fan driven machines. So all those people who kept asking me if I saw the Frasier episode with educational toys given at Christmas... PPPHHHHTTTT!!!!
Take Care,
CG

The circle square

A quiet moment of relfection.

Christopher steps forward for his solo aria, actaully I think he just thought it looked better since he was mouthing the words anyways.

Christopher "jigging" at the Christmas concert.  It looks here like he knows what he's doing, the truth is that this was his only move and he performed it through the song about 100 times... must be due to his untied shoe lace.  Can't risk a long term dancing injury at this time of year.

The reading of the letter, a age old tradition of public schools everywhere.

Trying not to looks like he's about to cause some trouble.

Talking with his co-conspirator.

Saying goodbye to the sun.

School photo.

  Hello everyone,
   Did you know that tires freeze and become flattened in extreme cold.  I thought it was BS until I took the car out this week and it was like driving on 4 squares for about 10 minutes till they regained their normal circular shape.  Go figure.

   Merry Christmas to all.
    Take Care,
   CG

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Time capture of Dec 21... almost.


Hello everyone,
I've been meaning to do this for a few years and I finally got around to it. I took pictures from our balcony every 15 minutes for 48 hours to show people what the "sun never rises" actually looks like here. Unfortunately the movie maker I used has limited abilities and I couldn't get the movie below 5 minutes. As you can see the sun never rises above the horizon but it not like were in total darkness for the whole period. The camera actually lightened the images somewhat so it looks brighter than it actually is. Anyways, kiss goodbye to 5 minutes, 6 and a half if you like Arlo Guthrie, of your life if you press play.
Take Care
CG