K'vitsh

But then again, if God wants to be irrational, that’s his business. Rationality is a human concept. Consistency and being reasonable, those are all human concepts, and we can’t impose those on the creator. He can be as irrational and inconsistent and whimsical as he damn well pleases. He wants to destroy us in a moment with a snap of his fingers, that’s his business. We can’t say, “God, you shouldn’t do that.” We’ve broken his heart. It’s like having a kid and the kid turns out bad. What are you going to do?

My issue is completely with the whole concept of introducing “purity” into the abstinence debate. I am no longer a virgin, but I have recently chosen to become abstinent for religious reasons (I am in the process of converting). I don’t regret the sexual experiences I have had, but I also don’t regret giving up The Sex. For me, this was a decision and a commitment I made to myself and to God (note: not to my future “knight on a white horse” of a husband or on my “fortress of virture defending” father. Ah! Those purity balls freak me out.) When young girls are encouraged to see themselves as defined by their purity, its the same thing as encouraging them to see themselves as defined by their bodies. I agree with so much of the message that this book sends out, but by treating sexual “purity” as a character definition and litmus test for self worth, we teach girls that responsibility, truthfulness, love and kindness, and the way they treat others are not the most important part of their selves—its the clothes the wear and the sexual behavior they engage in.

The love affair had knocked Keats sideways.

Therein, for me, lies the problem: we’re never with the characters, exactly - we’re coming from the place of enlightenment. We’re all winking and nudging each other all the time, feeling like we’re understanding a past which is really just our modern conception of it.

In my ideal version of Halloween, we wouldn’t scare ourselves with images of ghoulish skeletons, eyeballs floating in cauldrons, and hissing, three-headed snakes. Rather, we’d confront more realistic fears, like the possibility that the effects we have on the world are different from our intentions … or that we have not yet reached our potential … or that people we like might completely misread and misunderstand us. Then Halloween would serve a more spiritually useful purpose. It would bring us face-to-face with actual dangers to our psychic integrity, whereupon we could summon our brilliant courage and exorcize the hell out of them. Costume suggestion: exorcist. (Begin by exorcising yourself.)

There are some people who eat an orange but don’t really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future.” - Thich Nhat Hanh