Purpose, Parks, Preaching & Paranoia

Today was a nearly perfect day, because I spent most of it alone.

The day began with mate, that South American weed-like-looking jungle drink. Shortly afterwards, I had breakfast: corn flakes with two pieces of buttered-toast.

For the remainder of the morning I read G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. Here's a little teaser, relating to his discovery that the world has a creator who acts willfully, purposefully:

"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separatetly, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore." (70)

Early in the afternoon I went for a jog at a park just around the corner from my place. I ran 15 laps, about 3km. It was gloriously warm! I love this warm weather!

Late afternoon I went to mass at a tiny little catholic church with my friend DL. The sermon was actually pretty good, but generally speaking, it seems to me that the strength of the Catholic church lies in the liturgy and eucharist, not in the preaching. After church we went for dinner.

Finally, in the evening I went out and rented a movie: The Manchurian Candidate. I'm so sick of American Hollywood movies. I can't think of another nation on earth as self-consumed and paranoid as our neighours to the south. I guess that's the cost of being a global superpower. I rarely watch movies nowadays because after watching them I inevitably ask myself why I fill my head with such garbage.