Engineers and programmers are the often-anonymous architects of society, and what you do now could make a huge difference to the lives of millions, even billions, of people in decades to come.
-Charlie Stross Shaping the Future
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
here are some inspirational words. i'm going to try and give up cussing and i will start going to church again.... maybe.
This week we begin the annual season of conversion with the imposition of ashes on wed. It's a time of turning from so that we might begin turning to - turning from what ultimately is self-destructive in order to turn to what makes us whole. And like a big aircraft carrier on the ocean, turning is something we do slowly. That's why it's good to have this extended period of forty days every year. We want to take advantage of this time of grace that shakes us from where we are and brings us to where God wants us to be." (In response to an article in the NY Times about an aircraft carrier that was created primarily as a platform for weapons that became, momentarily, a means of healing and a sign of hope as it left the area hit by the tsunami after the first phase of the relief efforts.)
All Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat; Ash Wed and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. Abstinence from meat means not eating the flesh of warm-blooded animals. It is for all Catholics "who have completed their 14th year" and it applies to all adults "up to the beginning of their 60th year." Fasting means having only one full meal with 2 smaller meals not equal to the one main meal and eating nothing in between; the age of fasting is from the completion of the 18th year to the beginning of the 60th. Both these practices are ways of letting us remember that Lent means thinking less of ourselves and dedicating more to others, especially the needy, and to God.
