Mmm. Chinese.

[opabinia]

If X-Mortis were held in another venue, I might go; but I always find that space oppressive for a club night.

Bleh, Dad's health. Tuesday looms.

Um, work is picking up. I'm picking up work, actually. Barring a very dark Tuesday, I should be able to compensate for my period of melancholic sloth quickly.*

Tonight, I feel autosocial**. I'm ordering Chinese for fuel, curling up with a book while I assimilate the beef, and then cycling in the night until my legs say uncle (Day... Nineteen, is it?). I love the calm introspection I get from driving late at night, when the roads are deserted. I'm hoping it feels similar to ride in the wee hours. Hope I don't get drunk-driver-smushed. You know, I'm still afraid of cars, period. I'd ride a lot more, otherwise.



* Where did I read that Sloth, the deadly sin, was originally Depression (and the inactivity it often comes with -- hence the change)?

** Huh! Well, that's a different definition from my invented one. ;P

Comments

[bottleimp.livejournal.com]

Melancholia, yes. You cannot be melancholic when properly appreciative of God's Love. Thus the sin.

What did you do for training tonight?

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

You cannot be melancholic when properly appreciative of God's Love. Thus the sin.

Yep. That's what I figured. Stupid religion.

What did you do for training tonight?

What, you don't think cycling until you feel like an overcooked noodle counts? That's what I intend to do once this delicious take-out settles.

[halo.livejournal.com]

I'm still afraid of cars, period. I'd ride a lot more, otherwise.

it's a reasonable fear. I commute on my bike almost every day, and almost every day have a near-miss with a car. But Chicago drivers are also a little special (read: totally aggro with both bikes and pedestrians).

I'm not very gracious about being nearly turned into a bloody pancake, as it turns out. I flip people off a little more than I probably should.

[mistresshellena.livejournal.com]

I'm with you brotha! Both on the staying home and hiding and being afraid of cars.

[ayun.livejournal.com]

Riding late at night when the roads are clear is one of my favorite things ever. It's even more fun when you sing songs while you're riding. "Uptight" by Stevie Wonder is particularly good.

BABY! EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT! UPTIGHT! CLEAN OUT OF SIGHT!

[jhimm.livejournal.com]

what space is X-Mortis held in?


the sloth vs. depression thing is interesting.
i wonder if the protestant reformation
played any role in the change.
protestants are typically far more worried
about being productive
than they are about being happy.

in (partial) defense of the notion
that "depression" can be a sin,
i think that has a great deal to do
with how that word's meaning has changed.
while we may have a much more complete understanding
of depression as a mental disorder
(and thus are kind of distrubed
at seeing it labeled a "sin"),
the more casual, day to day use of the word,
gets used to describe something
a lot more transitory
than what would have been meant by the Church in the past.
i believd they were trying to address
a far more chronic sense of hopelessness and ennui
which would be at odds with the knowledge
that life is a gift from G-d
and that life is -worth- living actively and with zeal,
rather than suggesting
that having a bad day or a bad week
where you lose sight of the bigger picture.

"sin" as i've been taught to understand it,
is anything which separates us from a relationship with G-d,
or separates us from a relationship with each other.
that kind of deep, chronic hopelessness
will definitely do that.
all the "deadly" sins are things
which become harder to undo the longer they persist.
if they are chronic, they can become terminal

one thing that has always interested and frustrated me
is that the church has always emphasized morality with the parishners
but the monastics are almost always more interested
in personal transformation and the outpouring of love and charity.
its such a consistant, frustrating disconnect.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

I agree that "depression" is dropped a lot more casually now than it used to be, and that a tendency to wallow can be reprehensible. My response to Bottleimp was flip for the sake of humor, and it wasn't my intention to offend. The cynical tone had more to do with the poor understanding many people have had about mental illness than with organized religion. Not that I'm a fan of many aspects of world religions, but that's a whole separate... book, or something.

I think you already knew all that, though. :)

the church has always emphasized morality with the parish[o]ners but the monastics are almost always more interested in personal transformation and the outpouring of love and charity.

Huh! It is a different focus, for sure. Could be a nod to the different environments parishoners and monastics live in, but you'd think outpourings of love and charity would be pretty handy outside the monastery/school/etc., too!

[jhimm.livejournal.com]

but you'd think outpourings of love and charity would be pretty handy outside the monastery/school/etc., too!

that's where i was trying to go with that, yeah :)
i got to thinking about it
because it seems to me
that if the church spent most of its time
teaching its parishoners what its monastics focus on
we might not have 2 millenia of church history
that makes us want to say "stupid religion".

there is a lot about the church i can't and won't defend,
other than to say
the whole point of religion is that people are imperfect,
and the church is made up of and run by people.

in the last few years
i have started to think about the idea
of the "worldly monks" of the East
and how different the West would be
if we had something similar,
and thinking about ways
to try to shape my life in those directions.

long way to go, though.

i need to come see that giant tank all clear and fishy.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

I've been thinkin' about when to invite you up here. I'll have a better idea what my schedule (as in, what I have to do, not what I want to do) will look like in a few days..

[jhimm.livejournal.com]

no rush.

sundays are kind of a "gimme"
as i'm already in town to work on (lisp) with Dave,
but if you wanted to plan a longer, social occasion,
we could make the trip up at some other time, as well.

[(Anonymous)]

If I may be cynical too, I'd like to point out that personal transformation often leads to people that are difficult to control. This is awkward for a very large, heirarchically (sp?) structured Church.

In traditional Catholicism, the rank and file parishoners did not deal with God directly, but through the priests. This is how you keep the sheep in line.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

Identify yourself, anonymous contributor! :)

[talesinsdaughtr.livejournal.com]

Yep. According to old catholic dogma, God doesn't like it when you're sad.

Not quite as simple as that, but yes, sloth was both plain laziness and the lack of desire to do what was expected of you.