Separation of Religion and Politics?

I saw a news article today on a debate currently raging: the separation of church and state. Should they be separate? What does that phrase mean, anyway? What are the implications in either direction?

Separating religion from politics sounds good to a lot of people in an idealistic sense. Even if we adhere to the religion currently in power, the wheel inevitably turns and we don't want to find ourselves at the mercy of an administration with opposing spiritual views. But how much can we really separate these two ideas? Morality may be hard to pin down, but a sense of it still pervades just about every facet of life. If religion tells us how to live, how can religious lawmakers act separately from their conscience?

These are tough questions, and unfortunately not easily answered. I make no secret of my preference for a more distinct separation than we see today, but I also acknowledge the challenge this poses for many people, both lawmakers and constituents alike. Furthermore, I also recognize that while I think I am "right", so does everyone else. And we all have our own good reasons for believing as we do. It could be due to faith, our personal experiences, or own own reflections, but we all choose our paths because we believe it is best.

Here is one of the reasons for my view... Keeping in mind that everyone in this democratic, free-thinking country has a different opinion on religion, and that we all have an equal say in the direction of our country, I posit that separating religion from politics/lawmaking is the fairest way to deal with the matter. From a logical standpoint, if we all have good reasons for believing as we do, who is unbiased enough to say who is right? (God may be unbiased, but multiple religions claim that he endorses only them, so perhaps that is not the greatest measure, either.) If mere mortals cannot determine correctness, the only fair alternative I see is to remove religion entirely from the laws that govern everyone.

Of course, that still doesn't address the "how". People who make laws and play politics are still people, and I don't have a guide for how they can accomplish this. I can claim that it is necessary, but I haven't gone through this process myself. Perhaps if someone who reads this has ideas, you will be willing to share.

Valentine's Reflections

*Note*: I had this post ready to go on the day itself, but for whatever reason it didn't post.

Valentine's day is such a perfect opportunity for a post, saturated as it is with soppy candy hearts and commercialized expressions of true love. People who have significant others typically plan and scheme and fret over their extra special dates... or they forget altogether and buy some flowers or chocolate from that store down the street that happens to be open today. Those of us without a special someone on this mushiest of holidays sleep late, eat ice cream right out of the carton, and generally do whatever we need to do in order to fight off feelings of lonliness and unworthiness.

You might have noticed that I lumped myself into the second category. Being seemingly doomed to eternal singledom, I am well acquainted with the spectrum of feelings we unattached can experience every February 14th. There are a number of well-worn guests called Lonliness, Despair, and Frustration who tend to visit, and there are infinite ways of handling them. Some years, I go for the approach that such a commercialized holiday has little intrinsic meaning, so it shouldn't matter if I am alone. Other times, I rationalize that being in a relationship is a huge drain on time, energy, and money, so I'm really better off avoiding the whole mess.

This year, my single approach is simply to be. Living in the moment and letting myself experience whatever comes will probably serve me best in the long run, but there is also a sort of comfort in honesty with onesself. Most of this Valentine's day was just another day for me, so I wasn't bothered by its presence. But now in the evening, I feel the weight of all my years alone becoming heavier by one more landmark. One more Valentine's Day can be crossed off the calendar, and I still have not experienced that romantic, magical experience of being in love on this love-centric holiday. There is some hurt in that thought, but this year I acknowledge it instead of pushing it away. The hurt is my clue that, as happy as I am most of the year to be single, part of me wants something different. And maybe if an opportunity comes along, that sting will remind me of the feelings that await next February if I pass it by.

Why should I put stock in the feelings that well up but once a year? After all, I am generally a happy person, and being single has made me strong. The answer is that it's the mystery of this "love" thing that gets to me, because the truth is that I don't have any way to comprehend what I am missing. The obvious answer is to go out and meet someone, but trying to hurry up and fall in love is like trying to fall asleep. It just happens when it happens, and trying to rush the process only makes me frustrated and cranky... and ultimately sleep-deprived.

In my own meandering way, I seem to be reaching out and describing my situation so that others can understand (or empathize, as the case may be). Whichever case is applicable for you, I hope I have given you some insight into what I, as one of many singles, go through each Valentine's Day.

Freedom of Speech

What is "freedom of speech"? Well, I suppose we could go into the right to speak one's mind, the right to protest, and the right to express thoughts and opinions that differ from those held by the ruling class. Those are all well and good, but I think I've found a better example...

The purest form of freedom of speech is expressed when somebody blogs about whatever they want becaue nobody is going to read it anyway.

... ironic, huh?

Well, I suppose that's it for tonight. I'd feel bad about leaving such an intriguing topic so suddenly, but since I'm pretty sure no one is reading there is no reason to apologize. Wait, wasn't that sort of an apology? Drat, I'd better stop before this gets

Taking out the Garbage

I had an interesting experience today at work, and it began with finding I had become a scapegoat. See, it is my custom to answer the phone cheerfully; I do this partly because it tends to make the whole conversation pleasant, and partly because I feel like everyone deserves at least one cheerful greeting a day.. Even my charms, however, were not enough to sweeten the irate customer from this morning.

From the split second that he knew a live, breathing person was listening on the other end, this person began a torrent of complaints, questions, and demands. It was such an intense outpouring of frustration, I had no chance to answer his complaints with a solution. Every idea I had was deemed wrong or stupid (although as it turned out, they were neither). I understand that sometimes a person just has to vent, but this stood out as going beyond the line.

After, I thought: "How often do we all do this?" We get frustrated at something in our lives and take it out on the nearest person. It doesn't all have to be as extreme as my example. It could be as simple as honking the horn to say "go faster or get out of the way", when we know that if we were not late for a meeting we would be content to trundle along behind. Or being curt to a salesperson when our feet hurt, the kids are misbehaving, we're tired and we don't want to hear that without the receipt it's store credit only.

Everyone deals with this kind of thing sooner or later, but the sadder thing is that we probably all deal it out as well. What have we become, such that we would rather make someone join us in misery than feel uplifted by their contentment? And, what have we become such that we would rather label those people jerks than acknowledge their hardships or our own lapses in courtesy?

Sometimes, people think I am too soft and that I make excuses for such behavior. Rather, I like to think that we can still hold people accountable for their actions without losing compassion. Because when it is our turn to step over the line, for whatever reason, the value of that compassion is immeasurable.

At the End of All Things

I find myself becoming maudlin here at the end of the Library 2.0 program... [sniff]...

But hey, life moves on. It was fun while it lasted, and I learned some great stuff! Some of it is more applicable to my personal life, and some I can see being more useful in a library setting, but I'm glad I know about the options. In particular, I found the lessons on the different Google applications useful, and the Flickr/MySpace lessons interesting from a social point of view (that's what comes of having a degree in psychology), but the lessons on YouTube and TravelBlog were downright amusing.

If I could have changed or added anything, I would have liked to learn more about how libraries might network information. Some of that was implied in the lessons (podcasts, blogs, myspace), but sometimes it's also nice to have things spelled out in a comprehensive lesson. To have one which just looks at ways in which institutions can mix and match their areas of expertise would be particularly relevant and useful. But other than that, two thumbs way up for the program!

Adios,
Sarcasm (Un)Lmtd.

Net worth of NetLibrary

... is rather on the low end for me. I like to read and I love to discover new books, but NetLibrary isn't yet broad enough to appeal to my tastes. For one thing, it is still new enough to lack all my favorite titles. That is not its fault, and time should cure that ailment. Another problem is the complete lack of ebooks. I love the silence of reading, and the complete freedom of my imagination to create images and voices for the characters. Audiobooks, then, have never been my favorite because by their natures they dictate the speed at which I "read" and the character's voices. So it was a little disappointing to find that the entire available collection is in e-audiobooks. Again, however, time should remedy the situation.

On the plus side, checkout and downloading is extremely easy. Even a technological neanderthal such as I can manage it without too much pain. I also liked the site's organization, which was pretty intuitive, and the impressive array of language options available (although this one doesn't really benefit me, since I'm not actually fluent in any other language).

When the pros and cons have been weighed, I find NetLibrary to have lots of potential, but it's not particularly useful for me at this time. I'll check back in few years, though, and see what the collection looks like then.

Podcasting. Is that a kind of fishing?

I got extremely confused at first by podcasts. I couldn't seem to find anything that would define them in a way I understood, and things weren't made clearer when I heard a few clips of random podcasts. This was because they all seemed to be random and without purpose, not to mention rather crude and reminiscent of a badly constructed fan fiction. I suppose it was luck of the draw that I managed, in my random sampling, to avoid all the good ones.

Finally, someone took pity on me and gave me some examples of what podcasts are and what they can potentially do. At the basic level, they seem to be an audible-only YouTube video. It's a cheap and easy way to "publish" something that would have otherwise had to compete for space on a radio station.

I couldn't figure out how to embed a podcast, but I've included a link at the bottom of this post which leads to one I found somewhat amusing. I listed to part of the Tues, May 13 broadcast, which was admittedly pretty aimless but which I nevertheless found most tasteful of the podcasts I'd sampled. So enjoy!

http://podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=27383