Tag: questions

Brief Thoughts (No. 44)

Brief Thoughts

If only I could reach into the mind of GOD and pull out the answers to my most burning questions – the questions that bring me deep pain and sadness, the questions that consume me from dawn ’til dusk.

How to abandon myself into the Hands of One Who remains so unknown to me? One Whose plans are, at times, altogether hidden?

…

“Yes, I’m having a terrible time,” you said. “Yes, I’m drinking from the pool of tears. Yes, I’m stuck, stagnant, with a desire that never seems to penetrate the heart of GOD, that never seems to move Him, though it moves me to my very core.”

…

I have no philosophies to entertain, no big ideas to untangle.

I’m just a simple soul longing for rest. Don’t give me more than I can take. I didn’t sign up for the difficult way.

…

It’s better to accept the loss, sometimes, than to break yourself down fighting for a win.

Brief Thoughts (No. 35)

Brief Thoughts

Sometimes you start to think about your life in ways that seem sophisticated and smart, because they are intricate and complicated, but in the process of doing so, you may be failing to ask the questions that are actually wise – the questions that will lead you more surely to truth and understanding than the complicated lines of thought that you believed were helping you to appreciate the complexity of life.

Remember, simplicity is your friend. Don’t get bogged down in unnecessary problems.

Brief Thoughts (No. 26)

Brief Thoughts

Don’t ask questions you don’t wish to know the answer to. If you fall into the trap of thinking someone will choose flattery over truth, you’ll wind up with an ego whose wounds you may not be prepared to minister to.

50 Thoughts & Questions

Journal & Essays

I have a Word document saved to my computer called “Thoughts and Questions.” Now, I haven’t updated the file in quite some time, but over the years, when I remembered, I would periodically add a lingering (or fleeting) curiosity to the list of unknowns. Some of the questions have been answered (to #5, my family responded: “Well, of course they use wooden bats in the Major Leagues! That’s all they use!”… shows you how much I know about sports!); some questions need only a quick Googling to be resolved; some questions may require a lifetime of wondering; and some aren’t even questions at all. (And some make no sense: cf. #49.) Of course, these aren’t all the things I wonder about. But in case you wanted a partial glimpse into my thoughts (ay, God be with you, good fellow!)… anon, here is the list:

  1. compassion as the heart of religion?
  2. origin of lion head as popular installment on fountains
  3. compatibility of innocence and intelligence
  4. spelling trends matched with advent of personal computer
  5. Are wooden bats permitted today in the Major Leagues?
  6. origin of the term “devil strip”
  7. How did “The Entertainer” come to be known as the Ice Cream Truck Song?
  8. If a fireplace is lit, why do the surrounding rooms grow cold?
  9. Why does the brain like familiarity (as in music)?
    1. See this article
  10. Why is there a patch of solid-white flowers among the dappled leaves of the plant in our side yard?
  11. How does reading books stimulate the mind?
  12. Is a poor diet making me feel nothing toward life?
  13. how to prevent varicose veins
  14. Is “beach” restricted to the area abutting seas, oceans, and lakes?
  15. sea vs. ocean
  16. What is the relative merit of not acting on negative impulses (versus not having them at all)?
  17. Do plants respond to conversation?
  18. origins of the term “peewee”
  19. If the Jewish people are considered the Chosen People, what of those who convert to Judaism, not being born into it?
  20. music as a totally metaphorical language
  21. living without confrontation in a noisy society?
  22. “popular introvert”
  23. Do narcissists cry, genuinely, for other people? How great is their self-loathing?
  24. Is anger necessarily directed, to distinguish it from other emotions?
  25. moral compass vs. ethical principles
  26. Is self-pity nauseating, as George Steiner’s mother believed?
  27. hope vs. optimism
  28. What would a breakdown of the religious affiliation of judges and magistrates look like?
  29. How much time does the average American adolescent/adult spend reading in a day?
  30. Acting inauthentically is self-destructive. (derived from Rousseau)
    1. “Act well your part; there all the honor lies.” (Pope)
  31. Association begets assimilation?
  32. purge me with hyssop
  33. “It’s better to burn out than fade away”? (Neil Young)
  34. Does brightness of the eyes signal intelligence in a person?
  35. The work of the writer is similar to that of the lighthouse keeper, in terms of the extreme solitude that characterizes both.
  36. To say the thing aloud brings it into existence.
  37. fairness vs. justice
  38. Concept imagery is the ability to visualize the whole or gestalt and this type of ability is related to reading comprehension.
  39. Students cannot self-correct unless they can perceive. / You cannot think about something unless it comes to conscious attention.
  40. What do you picture? (Not What do you think?)
  41. poem read silently vs. poem read aloud // sheet music vs. musical performance
  42. The map does not equal the territory.
  43. going vs. coming: e.g., “How’s the studying going?” vs. “How’s the studying coming?”
  44. Seriousness does not preclude enjoyment.
  45. moral utility of fiction
  46. “ravage of”  vs. “ravaging of” (question of what is ravaging, what is being ravaged)
  47. Msgr.: Monsignor / Messenger
  48. The sound made upon opening a can of soda is not unlike the sound of a kiss.
  49. “I am a goat-person.”
  50. Grammar of a sentence like: “I took the umbrella in case it were/was to rain.”
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