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I read David Torkington's "The Resolution to end all Resolutions" and started a new prayer routine three years ago.

My starting point was Lauds and Vespers from Liturgy of the hours. Don't be too impressed. Lauds was recognizable after my adaptation. But I reduce Vespers to something I could reliably remember, late in the day.

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Whether or not I believe in ghosts depends on what's meant by "believe in" and "ghosts." And how I see myself, for that matter. I'll be talking about ghosts and why I think seances are a bad idea. Also, briefly, superstition and metaphysics.

I don't fear that an ancestral banshee might come to the new world and find me. Or think spirit photographers were selling pictures of ghosts.

If that's 'believing in ghosts,' then I don't. On the other hand, I'm not a materialist. I think part of me won't die, no matter what happens to my body....

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It's about four months since I started a new daily prayer routine. (February 19, 2017)

I sometimes forget the morning set, but not often. Having a printout of both sets next to my keyboard helps.

The evening prayers are another matter. Happily, I remember the gist of what's between the Lord's prayer and "glory be." That lets me catch up: if I remember before falling asleep, which doesn't always happen.

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I tried — briefly — bargaining with God when we lost Elizabeth, our youngest child. (October 9, 2016)

When the somewhat one-sided conversation was over, I was accepting the unpleasant realities, and asking for help dealing with them: so I don't feel particularly guilty.

I suspect that some folks say bargaining with God is always wrong because they see it as trying to manipulate God. That's a bad idea: also impossible. The Almighty is just that. I can't make God do anything....

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I don't have the 'I'd rather be dead' attitude of the deceased in that 2011 Non Sequitur strip. My viewpoint is more like Edison Lee's dad in yesterday's comic.



I figure that someone will win the 2016 American presidential election. It'll probably a candidate from one of the two major political parties.

I think which candidate wins matters. But I also think that whoever gets the job — America will keep going. There's a great deal more to this country than the national government.

That's not what this post is about, though....

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(From Diliff, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

Authority, superstition, and misapplied technophilia (it's a real word) rate at least one post each: but that'll wait until another day. Days.

This time I'll take a quick look at all three, and then say why I don't believe in Progress with a capital P — and don't yearn for the 'good old days.'

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