Amazing Grace

The word 'grace' has a great many definitions and to only write about one of these definitions would do a great injustice to the word, yet attempting to delve into all of them would mean that I would be writing all night and you would stop reading 10 sentences from here. So I will focus my energies on a definition that has become one of my personal favorites.

It is not the one that deals with the Grace and Mercy of God. Although that is truly a mind blowing concept. To think that there is an all knowing, all powerful God that wants to forgive my worst sins because He loves me and desperately wants to be with me is almost too much for me to wrap my mind around. Instead I will zero in on the definition of grace that comes from Classical Mythology.

In early Titan Mythology the word Graces was used as a collective moniker for the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. These three women, Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia, were known as the goddesses of beauty and charity. Personally I don't really care who the early Greeks and Romans chose to worship for beauty, grace, or charity. The interesting aspect of this to me lies more within the name of the Graces mother.

Eurynome is often pronounced (or mispronounced, depending on how you view it) as 'your enemy'. Whether or not this is the correct pronunciation may never be known, however, if this is correct then I am most definitely in love with the symbolism that comes from Zeus (The main god and for the purposes of this argument, we will just refer to him as god) and Eurynome ("Your Enemy") having three daughters that were the symbols of grace, charity and beauty.

Typically when we think of the results of a god and an enemy coming together we do not think of beauty or grace. We tend to think of the ravages of war, for surely any encounter that a god would have with an enemy would result in a terrible battle with massive levels of damage. In this case though, the result was the creation of three beings that symbolized pure beauty. Two forces that would appear to be at odds with each other managed to produce a form of grace that that was so perfect it enticed people to want to worship it.

If this concept could have a parallel in our current reality I can only imagine what it would look like. I have no way of finding three perfect examples of grace walking amongst us, however, I can take notice of all of the tiny acts of grace and every minute display of beauty that I encounter every single day. When it would seem that humanity has slipped so far into a pit of sin and ugliness that there is no hope left, that is when I am able to see most clearly the beauty that still lives within us.

To put it simply. When God, who lives within us, meets our enemy Satan, through his presence in our world, it is then that we are able to see the purest Grace possible if we allow God to reach through the darkness to reach the lost. It is then that we are truly able to see the best of all of the Graces....Amazing Grace.

What's on your mind?

What's on your mind? That's the question that Facebook asks when prompting its users to set their status updates. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the question by itself....my problem is with the answers that this question elicits.

I understand that the thought of me having a problem with anything anyone does just shocks the socks off of my faithful readers, but if you will bear with me I will be happy to explain why the answers to the question of what is on Facebook users minds annoys the crap out of me.

First of all the question is absolutely ridiculous simply because many of the individuals that use Facebook will add or confirm friends based on a one time encounter or a mutual friend out of sheer nosiness or a strange desire to have a vast number of friends so that they look popular (That is a topic for another blog and another day), and they either don't really care what is on someones mind or they have no business knowing what is on someones mind.

Secondly, and far more importantly, far too many Facebookers will post a status update that says something ridiculously encrypted that is obviously directed at a specific person. Assuming that said specific person actually reads this status update, and also assuming that said specific person realizes that this status update is directed at them, my reasoning is such that I seriously doubt that said specific person gives two dingle berries about how they have caused grief to a person that is not even bold enough to name said specific person in their status update.

Facebook has been kind enough to add the 'tag' option to the status update feature. This means that Facebook users can not only type the name of the person that they are upset with in their status update, but they can also 'tag' that person to it so that the post is displayed on that persons wall. Tagging this person ensures that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt how badly they have upset their fellow Facebook user (assuming they care, of course).

The second irritating aspect of the obscure status updates is the totally random undecipherable nature of these updates. For example "I'm just so sick of all the lies and pain" or "Some people should really learn to grow up and face the facts. You know who you are" are not answers to the question of what is on your mind, they are random snip its from some conversation that the rest of the Facebook world is not privileged enough to be party to. Furthermore, I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that most of the users on Facebook are just as confused as I am by these updates. And they probably care about as much as I do (which is not at all).

I said all that to say this....if you decide to use the status update feature on Facebook to tell all of us what is on your mind, please be so kind as to leave us out of your personal drama, because we care to read about your personal drama about as much as we care about what happens to the fleas that infest the armpits of Osama bin Laden.