Andy's Mind

This was a tiring day. Somehow, I maintained my inner calm through it all. But now I’m going to switch off my computer, meditate and go to sleep.

Good night.

This is one of those days when I’m supposed to work, but memories come. Not necessarily the best ones I have. I wonder where are now people I knew, women I loved or people that used to be my friends but whose paths led them somewhere outside my realm.

Impermanence can be painful sometimes, yet it’s thanks to it that we can grow. When I look back like today it strikes me that I developed a lot over the last years, thanks in many ways to all those people who shared part of their time here with me. I’m always amazed by how flexible and extensible mind is. I just hope to enjoy the ride more in the future.

As news sources have been informing around 4 million people have already arrived in Rome with others expected today. This would be largest human gathering in history, which is something. It’s hard to imagine this number of people crowded on terrain, which normally holds 3 million inhabitants. Logistics of this event are an enormous problem – those millions of people have to eat, drink and, well, defecate. This could cause a local ecological disaster with city’s sewage overloaded, tons of waste left by the pilgrims. And then there is terrorists threat.

Despite the fact that even Muslims expressed sorrow and sympathy for the Christians over the Pope’s death such a large gathering of VIPs and people in general is a huge opportunity for any crazy enough to think of it in such terms. A plane attack is probably out of question, because that’s what all security forces are preparing for. But even a few fools blowing up themselves in this kind of crowd would cause panic and a huge disaster. Let’s just hope that they didn’t have the time to prepare, since magnitude of the event surprises everyone.

But now I’m glad I didn’t go to Rome. After all, chances of getting into the Vatican and witnessing the event are practically none and I can watch TV at home as well.

As people stop to just mourn and start to think about what happened there are some conflicting views now regarding John Paul II and his pontificate. Media are full of talking heads debating various aspects of it. What particularly irritates me about the coverage in CNN and the likes is that during the discussions they inevitably bring gay marriage and ordaining women as serious issues. I don’t get it why people can consider someone’s sexual deviation a serious issue for anyone except his therapist. But even more, I don’t understand how Christians can possibly dispute the decisions of their lord? After all, it was Christ himself who, as a son of god, choose the apostles – and he choose all of them to be men. And homosexual intercourse is explicitly forbidden in he Bible.

Both those “serious issues” just happen to be the (few) things in Catholicism that are perfectly logical, based on the Bible whish is supposed to be its foundation. What I don’t get is why people who don’t agree with Christ and the Bible want to be Christians! I can’t understand it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact, that many people don’t get to actually choose their spiritual path. They get it from their parents, sometimes together with a baptism just after birth, and then either accept and embrace it or struggle with it.

Oh, what a blessing it was to be born into a religiously neutral family.