Beginnings Are Always So Hopeful... followed by a series of questions that demand discussionnotanswers

In Judaism, the places for higher theological learning 

are called yeshivas. From yoshev, the Hebrew word 

meaning to sit. 

Because it's important that  you sit still.

I have now been to one sitting for each of my classes and I am so incredibly excited about what I'm doing. The material is intriguing and new and one of my classes offers me the opportunity to simply sit and think about the ways in which I think about God. It also offers/demands that I read 1300 pages of material but I'm ok with that tonight. 

It took until right now to realize how incredibly fortunate I am to have this time. Three years separated from school, working and occasionally making money has taught me one very important thing. 

I really like school.

I couldn't help but smile while the laptops

clacked and the guy up front

told us 

all about the time the Lutherans and the Methodists got together

and the Methodists felt outgunned 

or about

the guy who used to debate Einstein but will always be remembered for his Theology.

Do you think that people are more willing to accept mystery 

within God now as opposed to 

50 years ago

 because

50 years ago

they still thought that we could

 use science to explain this whole world around us and 

God along with it?

If science explained it all,

down past the quarks and neutrinos,

hung a left past those vibrating strings,

and found whole other multiverses

would you still need God?

Is He just there to explain what you don't understand?

Or does He inform something more?

Would you trade enlightenment

for

a little bit of mystery?

So many questions and I haven't even written a paper yet.

Mints Aren't Meals

It's a land where space and time aren't concrete truths but rather matters for debate as if they were art or music. "You see at this time of day, Santa Monica is the shortest way to get to Hollywood. If it were tomorrow, the 10 to La Brea would be much shorter."

LA's roads are like a Dali paintings. Ever shifting.

Lines growing and shrinking with no connection to reality.

Clocks, like my soul, melting.

My friend and I moved to LA simultaneously and independent

of knowing each other's plans. His name is Seth.

We talk sometimes and that makes things feel more ok. Like the whole world hasn't stopped making sense. Mostly this consists of gripes regarding what passes for normal here. This could be anything from talking about the fact that yes, people really do own those stupid tiny dogs. whygodwhy To the need to immediately compliment something about a person's appearance as soon as you see them. New hair? Love it. Great T-shirt! Your skin looks amazing. Some of these things are good things, but it's great to have someone around who is running headlong into the same bewildering experience. One of the more confounding stories that Seth told me recently was about a mutual friend whom he had invited to out to lunch. She looked at him, pondered a bit and said, "No thanks, I'm eating dinner tonight and I have some mints. I don't really want to eat lunch as well."

I've started working a lot in the past couple weeks as a result of my little sister (thelavirgin.com) basically knowing every last person with hiring/firing capabilities in Los Angeles. I'm venturing for the first time into the realms of the service industry as a Busboy as Hemingway's Lounge in Hollywood (hemingwayslounge.com come grab a drink!) and advertising as a Copywriter for DBA Worldwide (dbaworldwide.com come get advertising done!). All told, I'm pulling down a lot of non-concurrent hours. 

Down at 3AM up at 730. Check.

I love the places that I'm working, the challenges are new and both will be incredibly flexible as I move into the school year.

They are changing me though. 

Pulling me into the ether of Los Angeles.

There are some days when I work at both institutions. This involves getting to Santa Monica at roughly 930 (read: leaving Pasadena at 730, driving 25 miles on the freeway at an average speed of 12.5 miles per hour while imaging how great personal flight would be as well as how great personal violence to those around me would be. I laugh maniacally the whole time.) I work there until about 630 and then run over to Hemingway's for my shift which begins at 8 (This 1.5 hour drive is shorter in distance so, for reasons of personal sanity, I don't calculate an average speed), complete my shift at around 230 and hit the hay back in Pasadena at 3. The roads are empty at that time of night and the freedom makes me weep for the roads of Detroit where my little Ford Focus can and does travel as fast as it wants to go with its mismatched wheels.

So sexy

One such day I found myself glued to my desk working feverishly on a project when I looked down to see that it was 2 in the afternoon.

I was very hungry.

But I had bigger problems.

If I ate then, I would lose my rhythm on whatever it was that I was doing and I would ruin my dinner. (this 'dinner' being a mcdouble that i would pick up on on the way to the bar. dont judge me. im so sensitive.) I don't normally go for Altoids, the experience is too violent for my liking, I prefer breath fresheners that taste like candy and fortunately, I had just that in my backpack. I began fumbling blindly through my backpack with my left hand while continuing to type with my right and found the container. I started popping the candies in my mouth like a toofarnorth penguin eating sand because he thinks it's snow.

This is when I had me Teen Wolf moment.

I was changing. Adopting the habits of the people around me and not one that I was particularly fond of. I was looking in the mirror and seeing my canines grow. I shouted "Mints aren't Meals!", Confused my coworkers severely and ran out to get something to eat. I would write better with a full stomach.

Afterword


Cities always change us. 
We are going to become like the people we spend time with.


Jerusalem made me slow down and rest.
Port-au-Prince showed me how to hold my own.
I'm just trying to be mindful of what I want to keep from LA
 and what's not worth hanging on to.