Ales and Ailments

Last night I shared an ale with some new young(ish) acquaintances, expecting some insightful discussion on the day's brain molding, based around Othello and T.S. Eliot. Instead I received an insight into the ailments of today's youth culture.

Conversation flowed with stories of rural and urban heroics (mostly based around urban myth and their believability needing to be ascertained through the filter of accepted hyperbole).

To understand how unfulfilled my conservative Christian choice of adolescent behaviour was, the following catalogue demonstrates an acknowledgement of what I already new about modern secular attitudes, but in my everyday world am able to insulate myself from:

1. Acceptance of teenage sexual activity as a matter of course, with no moral context or need for remorse or ashamedness.

2. The prominence of alcohol abuse and the need for drunkenness in a bored teenagers life.

3. Drug use as an accepted diversion from the realities of this world.

4. Run ins with the police due to poor timing, stupidity or boundary pushing - usually with no premeditation.

The following are activities, with the same caveat of believability that I really feel I missed out on, but now I have a number of stories that can begin with - I knew someone once who...

1. ....kidnapped 60 garden gnomes in one night - and his mother made him return them to the police station. After 3 months no one had claimed them and they have been in his families back yard for 10 years, as an army of witnesses to teenage folly.

2. ... nearly drowned in a sheep dipping race when falling (due to drunkenness) backwards off the rail at a paddock party

3. ...had a house demolition party with a $20 sedan and a rental house that was to be pulled down the next day

etc

Miss Bennet and Mr Darcy await.

m<><

Puritan Thought and Practical Theology

In reading about the period of Puritan settlement and 'sense of community' in America up to the end of the 18th C, the challenge of ensuring that the 21st C equivalent of legalism is not given a hold in attitude and actions is reinforced.

Arthur Miller reinforces the issue in "The Crucible" - when was the last "witch hunt" conducted in our worship community. The scars of illogical theological argument and constriction last a long time when teenage years are influenced in such a manner.

Like Proctor, I too have ploughed on a Sunday, but I am no witch. Fortunately our Mr Hale breathes life and light, denying the establishment of an attitude of piety based on medieval superstition.

I'm Back (intermittent input)

Back on the air
Would anybody care!

For those who care to me,
they know why.
For those who don't care,
well - it hardly matters, does it?

A day traveling to the University of New England (the Aus version) in the New South Wales Tablelands. Once again planes, trains and automobiles have taken me into new dimensions of human experience. Some questions from today's conversations (with strangers):

Why do people just assume evolution is a given?

What possesses a man(?) to spend hours on a bus putting on makeup?

Why do retro play lists on Video Hits bring back such powerful memories? Is it a sad/bad thing that our reminiscent subconscious is triggered by cultural flags and not milestones from a Christian walk. Is this symptomatic of the blurring of insulation and isolation from the world?

My constant companions are the authors who provide the cultural measure of modern literary development. They demand my time and make me a servant; my time is beholding to them. I think K is getting suspicious of my new friends and wants to claim her position of number one love back. I must stall her until my relationship is complete. Oh that a man's helpmate would be so understanding in all issues.

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Winter delays her arrival as the grass stays brown, the trees shed their perennial litter and the level in the water tank drops lower. Positives abound: the longer it takes to start using the fire, the longer the wood will last; the chickens have warmer weather to settle into their new environment; K will not have to "boost" the leckie B in my absence.

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Shall miss worship tomorrow - what will the kids do without their number one monkey to lead them?

Enough vague ramblings from a miscreant muser.

m<><