Blog o’ Gnosis

What? A challenge from another blogger to take a photo of all the books I’m in the middle of reading? That sounds like a lot more fun than all the other things I planned to do this morning. And it comes after a recent purge, where I put back on the shelves all those books (and there were several) that I was in the middle of reading but hadn’t touched in over six months. That’s the rule: I can’t really claim to be reading something if in fact I never actively read it.

Website maintenance is a near-continuous process, something they don’t tell you in those seminars about how easy it is to put up a website. When I first realized that having a website meant I had to figure out how to fix it when it was broken, I was filled with dread. Over the years, though, the process has gotten easier to manage. I chalk it up to my Philosophy of Dreadful Jobs: when faced with any daunting task, if you actually start it at some point, then continue until it eventually is completed, it becomes less daunting. Who knew?

I have always been a big fan of open book tests. That’s when, in high school and college, you are allowed to bring important books with you during a big test to help you answer questions. The theory is that for most subjects, memorizing information is less important than knowing where to look for that information when you actually need it. I think this is an excellent philosophy not just for school but for life itself. It also, conveniently, gives me a clever excuse for collecting probably more books than I actually need. You just never know when you’ll be faced with a pop quiz on any number of subjects, really. It’s best to be prepared.

So what do you call it when you grew up in a tradition, learned a lot from it, owe a lot to it, but have moved away from it in significant ways?
Reclaiming is like a quick-rising bread. If you want to experience the potential of energy and magic, it’s all there at your fingertips without [...]

Okay, I’m sorry, this is it. For those of you who weren’t watching, and even for those who were, we have just witnessed the countdown clock begin to tick. That sound you hear is the imminent end of American Idol’s fifteen minutes of fame.