First off, thanks to all who commented and e-mailed me in response to the recent posts regarding Christianity. Mac, by the way, has written two additional posts in response to that other one and some of the comments that I've posted here and on his site, so give those a look if you're interested in the discussion. I plan to respond to both of those (and a number of the comments therein) in one more big post to cap off this present discussion, but not tonight. I was thinking I would, but I'm exhausted. Maybe tomorrow. And then we'll go back to the wacky and the usual exploits of my life for a while. I was digging through some of my old blog entries -- like, way before Scary-Crayon and this current blog -- and there's a lot of stuff in there I'd like to post again for the current audience. Like really freaky dreams and stuff.

Anyway. Tonight, a few brief notes on stuff.

In Dawn's "The Truth in Small Things, Part 8: The Lord of the Wings", she writes: "One of the Bible's most striking metaphors for God is that of a large bird, particularly an eagle, that protects its children with its wings. ... There is something inherently comforting about this image."

I must confess, I don't find it the least bit comforting. Perhaps I am unique in this respect. After all, there are all sorts of songs like "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Wind Beneath Your Wings" -- songs in which people are likened to birds and birds are viewed as these majestic, benevolent creatures who soar above and watch over those below and whatnot. Dawn also adds, "There's also a strange and beautiful paradox in the passage I mentioned earlier from Psalm 63 that states, 'in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.'" But when I see the shadows of birds overhead, I run for cover as if these shadows were red dots with which an airborne Sheriff John Brown was aiming to shoot me down. Why?

In the summer of 2001, I was shat on by birds thrice. Yep. Three times. Once in the eye. I was walking through the streets of Vancouver, admiring the scenery -- and it was such a beautiful day -- and then I looked up at the sky and a runny glob of bird shit fell smack into my right eye. Luckily, I was wearing my glasses at the time, but this does not change the fact that a bird tried to blind me with shit. And recall that this and the other two instances took place in a single summer -- there have been, of course, other times when birds tried to shit on me. One of my half-written short stories is entitled "He Whom the Birds Despise", and it is based largely on my experiences. I do not remember it, but I am told that during my childhood, one of the first times -- perhaps the first time -- my father carried me on his shoulders a bird shat on him. Clearly it was aiming for me. I just think that in the midst of a discussion in which God's love and benevolence are called into question, it's interesting that Dawn should note that God has been likened to a bird. Besides humans themselves, birds are the only animals on the planet who have marked themselves as my enemies on multiple occasions. Believe me when I tell you that the photograph that accompanies A Crayon Haiku #9 was shot from a safe distance.

From Em, two links -- South Park Studios: Create a Character and the Belief-O-Matic quiz. I fooled around with 'em both, so here are the respective results:

Wes as a South Park character!

Yup! I edited the pic a bit to match the skin tone a bit more closely to my own, since the three choices the program has were all kinda off. I would've messed with the hair plugs a bit to replicate the triple-point thing I've got going on with my hair, but I was too lazy to do that. Still, it looks pretty neat, eh? The background choice is quite appropriate! And I gave me a lollipop. 🙂

Go create your own South Park character! Post 'em on your blogs! I wanna see. 😀

And now let's see what the Belief-O-Matic had to say about me. FYI, the significance of the results is below, followed by the results themselves:

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)

2. Theravada Buddhism (90%)

3. Liberal Quakers (87%)

4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (81%)

5. Secular Humanism (77%)

6. Neo-Pagan (68%)

7. Mahayana Buddhism (62%)

8. Bah?'? Faith (61%)

9. Taoism (58%)

10. Jainism (57%)

11. Nontheist (57%)

12. New Age (57%)

13. Sikhism (49%)

14. Hinduism (47%)

15. Orthodox Quaker (45%)

16. Reform Judaism (44%)

17. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (43%)

18. Jehovah's Witness (43%)

19. New Thought (38%)

20. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (37%)

21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (35%)

22. Seventh Day Adventist (31%)

23. Orthodox Judaism (29%)

24. Eastern Orthodox (27%)

25. Islam (27%)

26. Roman Catholic (27%)

27. Scientology (25%)

Woo, Unitarian Universalist! I've met a few of them; they didn't seem so bad. 🙂

That'll do it for the content of this post, then, but for additional reading material, I'll refer you back to one of my earliest posts in this blog, in which I recounted some events of my senior year. I'm hoping someone will comment on it (preferably here, though all comments come to me via e-mail, so it doesn't really matter where you do it), since I didn't have comments back then. 🙂 So anyway, here it is: "Speaking of cookies..."

And I'm out. Ja!