Learning is fun

          I've noticed that when I'm sitting in front of a blank screen waiting for the next sentence to assemble itself, I type the word "this." Don't know why.
          But I was doing that just now, typing "This" and deleting it, and I'd sit some more, and then my hands would go and do it again. This. It isn't a content thing, it's not about the word itself. But it's a good balance between the hands. Left index finger, right index, right middle, left ring.

          I'm taking a class in mysticism. We're reading the writings of mystics, people who seem to have this deep understanding and connection with divine reality. A lot of times, you find that the mystics were daring; they expressed their thoughts in large and romantic and metaphorical ways, and were often labeled heretics.
          They write about love a lot. It's connected with the idea of God, with seeking the divine in oneself and one's surroundings, but there's this branch of mysticism that gets into the idea that, although there is an element of the infinite and holy in everything, it's the mortality and failings, the finiteness of the thing that should inspire love. It's the ephemeral nature of creation that makes it sacred and precious.
          God and the infinite aside - I've always found that flaws and shortcomings inspire more devotion. Which is not unique. But it was reassuring to see that there's a whole branch of thought out there that agrees.
          Things are ... easier to love? is that the phrase I mean to use? ... when they're fleeting. When they're imperfect, impossibly human.


Here are some great professor quotes from the first week of classes.
          "Plagiarism is really, really, really bad."
          "Jesus wept and went to prom."
          "One man, three women, and a gun. Trouble."
          "Masturbation. Oh, yeah. That's the new millennium thing."
          "Writers are experts in trouble, experts in suffering."



          God save comfortable acts of desperation.