On learning the bodhran, 

Down down, up, down, up down.... and so it begins, I have started learning something that will most likely drive my neighbours crazy. In other news, I feel that I have significantly connected with my Irish roots by learning this powerful instrument. I hope to one day be that guy at a gathering who brings a certain kind of ancient life to the party. For now, down up down up down up down up and some fiddly bits.  

On future and present tensions... 

I delight myself in a time of leisure. I have no job to hold me down, and some money to fix me up for a while until I actually need a job. I am heading back to school in January with three courses in the department of religious studies at UVic. A Franciscan brother asked me about my degree, what I will be doing with it, and what kind of career I will get out of it. Mostly when people ask this I don't feel comfortable enough to explain the spiritual proponent behind my answer, and it mostly ends up with me giving a typical "I don't know, something in academia" kind of response, when really the answer is the very same that I gave to the brother, "I have faith that the Lord will guide me in a direction that is meaningful and useful to the public". The essence of this answer has to do with a certain passion and a certain delight in the awe and terror of existing and choosing between what one is being guided towards (esoterically) and the dread of following yourself into a meaningless state of despair, like what Kierkegaard intended for folks in his book "Either/Or", to choose or to disregard choice altogether. It is through faith that we are guided rightly, and of course it is by our own free will that we choose. Choosing to be faithful indicates a divinely existential circumstance. And that brings us to the next question, what is faith? What makes it divine, if it is in fact divine? Is faith not the image of the Jews at the Wailing Wall, calling God to restore the Temple and restore the covenant? Is faith not the Catholics trusting in the ever human authority of the Church and taking Her teachings as divinely inspired? Faith, as Tillich pointed out, is ultimate concern. What does the ultimate take the shape of? Well, indeed paradoxically, it is a dynamic within a relationship between the person and the sacred, and the ontology of this is astounding. The ultimate is a symbol of what is beyond.  This could take the shape of a persona, an incarnation let's say. Lord Krishna you might ask? Indeed. Our deepest yearnings are directed to that which is made accessible to us, ie, the love of God in the person of Christ. The connection between the person and the sacred is what gives faith a divine element. For myself, my faith is in the words of Cornel West "like falling in love my dear brother, jumping off of something and hopefully landing on something". And of course this brings me to my answer to Brother Dan's question that the Lord will guide me, or the Spirit if thou wouldst, to fulfill what I was looking for, to jump off from academia unto something profound is what I hope will happen, and if hope were not a virtue than we would be damned, but it is. 

Squalor Victoria

I arrived in Victoria last Thursday via propeller plane with my dad who was attending a CMHA conference that weekend. It was a bit of a rainy autumn day, but I was very glad to have arrived. It was great to get a break from my mundane life just outside the city of Prince George. We were greeted by my wonderful sister at the airport and drove her off to her work where we then took off to see my other sister and her little one. We had a nice time with my oldest sister and her baby who was laughing and smiling at all the new energy in the room. I changed a diaper for the first time, and fortunately I was not peed upon. Having a baby looks pretty intense (not for me at the moment, though I am appreciative of all those who do). After the visit my dad dropped me off at UVic where I was to attend a religious studies meet and greet. It was quite a candid occasion, and got me very excited for going back to school in January. We discussed all the odds and ends of the discipline, had a nice Q and A, and introduced each other. All the profs from the department were there and I introduced myself to the ones I did not know. Though I know some of them only to see them they all seem like the typical eccentric academic types. I briefly discussed with one of them the works of Mircea Eliade, whom I am reading at the moment, I was delighted to find out that he will be my prof for a course I am taking next semester. After we all walked over to the Thursday CSRS lecture on constructing Islamic modernities with Dietrich Jung. Dietrich appears to use post-structuralist methodologies to analyse the conception of modern Islamic identities. I quite enjoyed it. I spent the rest of the time hanging out with friends, going to concerts, staying at my buddy Joey's flat above the Shine cafe right downtown (pretty sure that place is haunted though..) fortunately his cat Panther is keeping out all the squalor, and of course seeing someone whom I am captivated by, someone who when I think about makes me shiver, I am so fortunate to have to spent some time alone with.... and now I am back in Prince George, but only for the odds and ends of my existential debacle, only another couple of months. And yes the title is a reference to the National's song...

Yeah, blog of !

Ah, how wonderful, Easter Sunday. A great day to enjoy having most of the family around. I sit here having just finished composing a potential song. The last bit of the week has been spent attending Mass to remember Jesus and everything that God did for us in those powerful, intense, and renewing 4 days from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. Oh Lord, the walk of love is filled with suffering, but with so much hope for a better tomorrow. In the words of our Latin brothers and sisters from long ago,

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem

In other news, I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist, and currently I have been working as a cook trying to save up money to go back to school, hoping to pursue whatever funky voyage I can. I  am trying hard to be careful to continue being a guitarist without chopping any of my fingers whilst cooking. Risky business, but so far fortune favours the brave.

I am inspired by a guy named Derek Joyce to keep a blog on all things funky. He is a funky cat, and his blogs are pretty nice.

Earlier on tonight my good Mum introduced me to a most excellent singer/songwriter popular in the 1970's, Michael Franks. So smooth, so filled with song, but oddly sounds like he could be an indie artist from today's trendy hipster Vancouver.