I hope "Hebraic" is a real word

A. "He wanted to be more Jewish, but he didn't know where to start. With Hebrew? With Yiddish? Dr. Feinberg didn't want to go through the remainder of his life full of burdens and lies."

B. "I rarely swear outside the occassional damn or hell, considering swearing a lazy form of expression."

C. "You never know when death will hit."
"No, we don't. And that's why we shouldn't live in fear of it."


a. I've come across many instances of religiousness recently, and unfortunately can't recollect them all right now but I do remember that each has evoked a deeper response than normal. I mean, yea, "religion" always evokes a response from me, gutteral, angered, saddened or sometimes inquisitive - always too soon and rarely handled well. I know this. I know this about myself. I know that my sensitivity to the subject is high and that my reactions are explosive (it could still be a controlled explosion) but recently it's been different. I'm not quite sure how to explain it. I think the best way I could characterize it for now is a feeling of being beaten. It's like exhaustion and surrender; what you feel when your 5-page paper vanishes from your hard drive and you know it's due in 6 hours. It's that kinda, This again?! I can't do this anymore... but you know you will do it again. It reminds me of that great scene in The Mummy Returns when the magi finish off a wave of mummy/zombie types and have their victorious celebration interrupted by the second wave (10 times as large as the first) approaching over the dunes. Sheer numbers would have guaranteed the magi's failure but the mummies' kamikaze automaton (and able-to-move-limbs-post-mortem) ways make the feat even worse. The magi swallowed hard and readied themselves, knowing what was going to happen. That kind of bravery and resilience I know nothing about.

b. It's true. I remember thinking/realizing this WAY back in the day... I guess, around the time I was 16 or 17. I remember telling someone that swearing is a way to "color" your sentences or your language. What's funny is that I can't remember if I was saying this to someone as a reason they shouldn't swear or as an excuse for me to swear. I dunno...somtimes it's lazy - it becomes like a crutch - and sometimes it just makes an excellent point.

c. Sounds like a trusay to me. I mean, I think I can take it in the context of Christ's second coming and that makes total sense.
Recently, a friend of mine told me how a pastor she heard preached about how no one knows the hour of Christ's return for most of his sermon but at the end said that it was his personal opinion (a word carefully chosen, I'm sure) that Christ would come in three to five years. (Everytime I say that I think of prison time.) It's more than a little bogus, to make a claim like that. God's declarations about the end of the world are not meant to be so cryptic that only the most astute or privileged will figure out the precise time. He's not really into favoritism. (As my other friend in the conversation aptly pointed out, No one knows, not even the Son. Anyone who claims to be greater thatn He is not getting it.) The point was that we need to be on our toes. "But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into."* Dude - you could spend your whole life guarding your house. But then it'd be taken away from you anyways because you couldn't pay the bills and the government be repossessing it. In terms of the quote above, your best bet is probably to realize that what is seen is tempoary and what is unseen is eternal and then to continue living your life. In terms of what Jesus was talking about, our best bet is to work toward being ready to go at any given moment. I would pack my everything bag and leave it by the door like an expectant father. I'd like to always be able to say I have no regrets and no unfinished business but, thanks to God's grace, I still have time to get there.


a) Steinfeld, J. J. "Disfigurement of the Spirit." Anton Chekhov was Never in Charlottetown. Wolfville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2000. 55.
b) Steinfeld, J. J. "Inflatable Dolls." Anton Chekhov was Never in Charlottetown. Wolfville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2000. 89.
c) "High Octane." CSI: Miami. A&E. [ ], Toronto. 6 November, 2006.
*Matthew 24:43