HAPPY WINTER!!!!!

SNOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lasting snow, this time. It's outside now in all its white frozen glory. Oh, snow. I love it I love it I love it.

Yesterday I went to see the new film version of Pride and Prejudice. It was interesting because it was the first time I'd ever gone to the cinema by myself - which was peculiar but not bad. (I know, it sounds pathetic to go to a romance movie by oneself. But hey, no one else could/wanted to go and I really, really wanted to see it!!) It was deliciously delectable. Go see it!!! (If you've read the book first.) Mr Darcy was swoonworthy as always in his special adorable way, Elizabeth was admirably witty and lively as always, Mr Bennet was very good also, and Mr Bingley was delightfully silly and nervous-in-love. And everyone else was excellent too. I loved it utterly.

Happy Thanksgiving. :)

And I have been very wonderfully inspired lately to write on my novelishthing that I've been going at for years, Waverly. Yesss. Very fun. I have decided that if I want to be a writer I should write a heck of a lot more, or else I'll never get anywhere and drown as a pathetic martyr to self-pity and laziness. But if I writewritewrite, fun and revelations and happy things shall ensue!!!

My Nanonovel, however, was a failure. Lacking inspiration and the will to scribble I stopped at just past 1,000 words. *shame* But that's okay.

SNOW!

Every time I look outside I get a thrill.

After Thanksgiving Christmas can start. OH JOY =D

EEEEEEEEE.

My goodness!

I do solemnly swear that, no matter what, no matter where I go to college and what I do afterward, I will never, ever, become an academic. I have my reasons.

all ye faithful

Lately, it's become even more difficult to answer the question, "What religion are you?" Sometimes a casual person, noticing I haven't gone up for communion at a school mass, asks. Sometimes the question appears on surveys, on college application financial aid forms, other random places - and in my own mind. It's hard to answer!

Someone asked today and I said, "Miscellaneous." He then gave me an incredulous look and I went on, "Well I believe in God and... but, not just one religion...," Then he said, "Agnostic?" And I said, "No!!!! Well, agnostics are kind of like, maybe, maybe not, but I'm..." "A deist, then." "Okay."

It's funny to think of the ways in which I could answer, though. Truthfully I could say, "A little bit Christian, a little bit pagan - a healthy seasoning of Taoism - with an admiration for Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism too. An early transcendentalist..." The truth is that I love all these religions so much that I cannot just pick one! Their prophets are all amazingly enlightened and worthy of being looked up to, their scriptures are all achingly beautiful, their doctrines all have glorious glittering truth behind and within the words. How could I pick one?

Such an idea would have seemed very, very strange to me a couple of years ago. How can there be more than one truth? But now I think that truth is so amazing that it needs innumerable religions to describe it and even then it can't be described fully. I've also realized that God can be found without religion - that spirituality and religion are different - that God exists outside of doctrine (in my opinion). Every feeling of goodness, to me, is part of God, every wind, every leaf falling, every gesture of kindness. I think that some get disillusioned with religion because they keep expecting God to be some supernatural feat - like some blue-colored lightning suddenly seeping through the air and asserting itself as supreme. And when one does not find something like that staring him in the face, he may become disappointed and decide religion isn't true after all - or he may become wiser by realizing that maybe God doesn't need to put on a show to be felt, that in simplicity lives the meaning.

So yeah. I think I'm getting closer... to something. Just be prepared for a hugelong explanation or a small weird answer like "This and that" when you ask me what my religion is.