I Blog, Therefore I Am

Vine & Cheese is one of those stores that does disproportionately well during the holiday season, so blogging doesn't really fit into my schedule at this time.  My strength in school was always research so blogging about wine and cheese here sometimes means doing the spade work first before writing and I don't have that luxury now, therefore what follows are my holiday thoughts at large.

We seem to be living in a world that is vastly different than the one I grew up in in the 1960s and it really is different, except that life itself hasn't changed.  For me life has always been about struggling with adversity.  In school I studied the existentialist philosophers whose ideas seemed to resonate with my reality in that sometimes I felt my reality (existence) superceded that which I was told was essential.  Needless to say, I wasn't the life of the party with that kind of a (bleak?) worldview but I still maintain to this day that life and existence is essentially about struggle. 

The existentialist philosophers I studied were atheists, for the most part, with the exception of Soren Kierkegaard, the Lutheran pastor who obsessed about responding to God's calling (to us) in life.  To be clear, in our estrangement in this world we can still hear the voice of God calling us and now in this current era when we are so consumed by the worldly values of our secular society, the "Other" may still break through our private obsessions to reach us and liberate us.  But it is hard and adjustments need to be made, which means nothing less than acknowledging our human limits, saying "no" to the world and making the acceptance decision for faith in defiance of the world, and then bringing the salvific message back into the world with us.

It is my Christmas wish to all of you that the light of the Lord shines anew upon you and yours this holiday season.