September. Somewhere outside of San Fransisco, several years ago.

He showed me his favorite course, we drove around

The green, and grazing on the soft golf grass

They watched us watching them, maybe

A dozen deer.

I love religion. I love the tapestry that religion weaves with threads of culture, tradition, and history--the way that the fabric changes and moves, and how that cloth is used--as a robe, a tent, a piece of art. Religion is one of those things that you can't avoid. I think that it's a part of human nature. Not the concept of religion as we have it today: belief in God and certain tenants that we should follow to up our holy status. But religion in the sense of having a core philosophy, a trust in something that exists outside of yourself--even if that trust is only that oneself is the only vessel for understanding the world. Is this a human construct or some sort of coping mechanism? Perhaps, but that doesn't invalidate it or make it any less necessary or real. The point of religion, as I see it, is not a means to and end, it's a means to an existence, a 'means to a means.'

I love religion because it's completely fascinating. The different mythologies that we've created that all really mean the same thing (mythology not in the sense of fiction, necessarily, but a construction of adages and verse and oral history). This is what I wish we could all appreciate about religion rather than argue about which construction is right or better. But looking past the horrors that we've committed in the name of "religion," there is something beautiful about the personal association humans can have with a belief. That's what makes us extraordinary--that we can believe in things, that we can establish moral value systems, that we can conceive of life and of death and of an ego, a body, a connection between ourselves and other egos and bodies.

Religion is what makes this all matter.

Not belief in God or Allah or Jehovah or Buddha or The Force--just simple belief that there is an intent behind our actions and thoughts, and that they affect another individual or even the environment. Trust in something else.




This is why I love Islam. That trust and that investment in religion, in something greater, in the word of Allah...It means something huge. Islam comes in a number of tasty varieties, but each has the potential to become intimately entwined in a persons life. So much that the person becomes a part of a community in which Islam is intimately entwined with the community. So much that the community can shift different forms--an Empire, a number of states, members of a legal system--the dar al-Islam. Diin (دين) means religion, medina (مدينة) means city, same root, not a mistake. The city is an essential unit because it is a source of people, of the faithful. The implications that kind of association has on society, politics, foreign policy, and individual lives are major. And that all springs out of one religion--pretty powerful stuff. It's certainly not a thing that we can or should discount, and why would we want to? If nothing else, it shows the strength of humanity, and maybe even the strength of something outside of humanity. Perhaps something even greater.

I hate religion. I deplore what religion has come to mean, the historical perversion of the term and the idea. People use religion to justify intolerance, equating religion with faith, and faith with God. Religion has nothing to do with God. It has, perhaps, some relation to one's conception of and therefore commentary on God.

People are morons. Why? Name something, it indicates the idiocy of the human race.

Religion is a major one of those indicators. I mean to say that our modern notion of religion, as a set of distinct theologies, is and indicator of our stupidity. When one commits to a religion, the expectation is that one gambles on a team with the expectation that it will get you through to--what? The divine Super Bowl? The Holy Hall of Fame? Some just focus on playing the game, and don't give a shit about the final score. Others only care about who leaves a winner, and they'll commit any foul on the field to get there.

Bullshit. Teams.

The Pope this past week made a speech that quoted a 14th century Byzantine Emporer, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (The Muslim Brothers) are actually being decently rational, calling for a Papal apology. The rest of the damn world is going crazy.

Jesus! (As it were)

First of all, screw the Pope. He's an embarrasment to his entire community and he repeatedly slaps modernity in the face.
Secondly, screw everyone else. If you're not a Catholic and/or you have some semblence of reason, then you don't believe that he's the spokesman of God. So get over it. The Pope is an old bag, and he's going to rant like your senile, racist Grandfather.



I belive in God. There it is, whoopdeedoo, I believe in God. Hell, I even pray. Does this make me an idiot? Maybe. Does it make me a religious person, no. And I won't accept the same criticisms as one could levy on religion. I'm just so sick of the negative connotation that has come to settle over belief, lack of belief, different belief, changing belief--there's no excuse for this. It's something that we forget too often, and that forgetfulness may just end the world.

Then maybe we'll find out who's right and who's wrong.


(I started this intending to write about how I came to be so interested in Islam, but I got sidetracked...I'll get back to this later).

Ok, so I've been wanting a tablet for my computer for ages, and my friend Ted just let me borrow his for a test drive. I'm hooked. I love to draw, but I rarely pull out my supplies. Especially charcoal. Messy.

So this blogger stuff doesn't independently support any extra programming languages and I styled all my images to fit in this frame. Therefore, I apologize in advance for the cheesy pop-up if you want to see them full-sized. (Hey, this is a design class, right?) Also, props to Safari for doing such a great job compressing images. And balls to the other guys that continue to pixelate the hell out of anything that's been resized. Boo.



So, drawing. I used to be so good at it and I feel like my eyes need some retraining. I've gotten really lazy about keeping a sketch journal and I just don't feel inspired anymore. I'm falling into this trend of thinking that I'm just not good enough to bother, even though it's something that I love. Same goes for my webdesign. I know that I can do good things, but I get ridiculously discouraged. I need a new challenge. I want a specific project to confront, and I want my ass kicked into shape. I feel that it's almost a waste of time to take the studio classes here after being in Glasgow because there's a lot of mediocrity. My work is feeling completely mediocre, too. Ugh.

But the tablet's still super-fun.

We assume time to be continuous, chronology gradiential. But can time exist without life? If we can only understand time in the human context, is it really meant to be continuous? Or,

Is time a compilation of distinct units?

Considering that humans may be the only species to conceive of the past, present, and future, we can understand only events and their placement according to the wider experience of life. Time does not pass, life passes. So how, then do we chart the passage of life? We construct units.

Thin lines, black and white, stacking. New, ongoing, old. Birth, death.



Nothing goes on--it exists and then it does not.