Thoughts on an Evening of Human Perseverance

I just wrote this in my journal, and I’d like to share it.
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“Weapons do not cut it, / fire does not burn it, / waters do not wet it, / wind does not wither it.
It cannot be cut or burned; / it cannot be wet or withered; / it is enduring, all-pervasive, / fixed, immovable, and timeless.”
- The Bhagavad Gita, Second Teaching

As I’m writing this, 33 Chilean minder are being rescued after 69 days trapped underground. The quote above is from the Bhagavad Gita, which I just finished reading for one of my college courses. I was watching the rescue efforts on CNN in the background, but now I’m starting to think that these two things lined up the way they did simply because human will, good nature, love, pride, decency, humanity, and the ability to believe in something bigger than the individual have prevailed in times where we see these things only rarely make it through.
I don’t believe in divine miracles, or god, or even that there’s someone up there playing with a Lego version of the world. What I do believe, however, is that those 33 men are alive because they believed in themselves, their country, and in the world. They were trapped underground for more than two months and the whole country, the whole world even, believed in them. The story on Yahoo!News reads: “After the first capsule came out of the manhole-sized opening, Avalos emerged as bystanders cheered, clapped and broke into a chant of “Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!” — the country’s name.”
Holy shit, right? When’s the last time you heard a chant of “USA! USA! USA!” that wasn’t at a partisan rally? When it wasn’t a way to forward the idea that we’re a better country than everywhere else?
Let me say, that meanwhile, back here, we’re calling each other witches and bullying homosexuals until they commit suicide. No wonder “god,” or “fate,” or whatever you want to call it blessed Chile first. Tonight everyone should realize that we’re not #1, no matter what jingoistic slogan you have in needlepoint on your wall. Tonight we, as Americans should realize that, despite those faded bumper stickers from 2001, we have forgotten something.
It shouldn’t take a disaster for us to realize that we need to cooperate to save something. We’re drowning right now - flailing around and yelling for help. But at the same time, we’re tiring ourselves out. If we stop flailing, stop the derisive partisan arguing and stand on our tippy-toes, we’ll realize there’s a bottom down there, and that- oh - we can touch.

How to Recognize Different Religious Figures from Quite a Long Way Away

Two days ago, the local news was reporting in my town. The news vans were speeding through the streets of the city and I was curious. Was there a bank robbery? Did this have something to do with the high school yearbooks they were reporting on last week? What could possibly be going on?

As it turns out, people are seeing the image of Jesus in an elm tree.

The tree has apparently attracted visitors, but from my family and friends, has attracted something much more wonderful - mockery.

The image is now dubbed “Treesus” after a half-drunken rant in a restaurant, and today we drove around town following cars with Jesus fish on the back of them hoping they would lead us to the divine pine.

But see for yourself:

Does this look like Jesus Christ?
Not to me, it doesn’t. Let’s try it from a different angle…

I don’t think it looks like Jesus at all. I think it looks more like Rowlf the Dog from the Muppets.

So maybe it shouldn’t be Treesus, but rather a Dogwood.