incipit vita nova

for the unacquainted, hermann hesse, (along with aldous huxley and gabriel garcia marquez) is one of the authors who consistently gives me a fitfull night's sleep. take, for example, this exerpt from one of his first short stories:

"Shivering, I passed among the ruins of the world of my youth, over shattered thoughts and twisted, quivering dreams, and everything I looked at dissolved into dust and ceased to live. I saw friends whom I was ashamed of knowing, thoughts I had thought only recently looked me in the face, and they had grown as alien and remote as if they had been a hundred years old and never been mine. Everything fell away from me, and soon there was a deadly emptiness and calm all about me. I had nothing more that was close to me, no loved ones or neighbours, and my life rose up in me with a shudder of disgust. Every measure was full to overflowing, every altar desecrated; there was no sweetness but sickened me, no summit I had not left behind me. Every shimmer of purity was spent, every intimation of beauty defaced and trampled under foot. I had nothing more to long for, nothing more to offer, nothing more to hate. Everything that was still sacred and unravished and harmonious within me had lost its eyes and voice. All the guardians of my life had fallen asleep. All the bridges had been severed and all horizons robbed of their blue."

Hermann Hesse, Incipit vita nova, 1899 (from Stories of Five Decades, Triad/Panther, 1976)

mo respektabul mo

for those hesitant to sponsor my mo-efforts, i just wanted to let you know it's now a very respectable pencil moustache, as modelled here by david niven

so it would be great if you could throw a few clams the way of movember.
do it for the fur!

more mo (mo mo)

after being warned against #6 and growing it as such, then being informed the rules did not allow for the tache to join with the burns, this is the progress, 13 days in.

you like? or should i rather go espanol? i realise the hitler is a little un-p.c. perhaps the david niven pencil moustache?

strike!!!

as much as i love a good rally, holding up a sign, and traffic, what role are Christians to play, when it involves contradicting the wishes of your employers. specifically:
1 Peter 2:13-14 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
and
18-19 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

is the question whether you place the union as supreme, ie worthy of more respect that your employers? what should Christians have done in Tienanmen Square, what about in Thatcher's England?
what about caring for the weak, the unprotected among us, those unable to stand up for themselves?

would not not striking mean you are complicit in their mistreatment? we can't all be Daniel, having a chat with the King, or the CEO i guess in our case.

thoughts? advice?

movember

yes, someone at my church had the grand idea that as a group of men we could participate in movember. therefore i need some ideas, of how to tame my voracious facial hair.
i'm leaning towards #6, the koteletten-bart, or sidies-beard.
please suggest away, if you wan to donate, (to support men's health issues - prostate cancer, testicular cancer, depression in men) feel free. you can do that here.