Lost -> religion -> RL stuff
Jan. 10th, 2006 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserFinally a new ep of Lost tomorrow night. Since the title is "The 23rd Psalm" I decided to google that to see if whatever that psalm is would have a clue to what the ep was about. Quite amusingly, hit #4 under that search was a page about Lost. I had thought I'd need to comb through pages of bible stuff before I found anything Lost-related.
So it turned out the psalm was one I was familiar with ("The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures...") and I quickly got distracted from thinking about Lost stuff. I read the psalm and the notes about it:
In describing the Lord as a shepherd, David wrote out of his own experience because he had spent his early years caring for sheep. Sheep are completely dependent on the Shepherd for provision, guidance, and protection. The New Testament calls Jesus the good shepherd; the great Shepherd; and the Chief Shepherd.
No offense intended to religious people, but I can't understand anyone willingly comparing themselves to sheep. "Sheep are completely dependent on the Shepherd for provision, guidance, and protection." Ummmm. No thanks? I'd rather trust in myself, in my own strength, in my own knowledge and experience.
Back in college, I was a psych major "by default". (I was in my third year and still had no idea what I wanted to major in. Psych had the fewest requirements, so I picked that so that I could still graduate in four years.) I took a series of classes about substance abuse, and the teacher was a big fan of AA. That was one of the few times I've seriously butted heads with a professor: The idea behind AA drove me nuts. The basic idea was that you-the-person were powerless. You had to give over control to "a higher power". Your substance abuse wasn't your fault and you didn't have the power to fix it, you had to rely on "a higher power". There were so many things about that that annoyed me! My first argument was what if you didn't believe in a god/some random religion? The professor told me that you could believe a chair was the higher power if you wanted -- BS. BS. BS. The other really big thing was ... why make people powerless? Why make people weak? YOU made this problem, correct it yourself!
(And watch me go off on a tangent, wheeee!) My sister and I are both overweight, but she got that stomach reduction surgery. I would never do that. She did it because she "couldn't" diet. She "couldn't" exercise. She was "powerless" to help herself. I would never, ever, ever do that. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I did. I made my own weight problems. Every time I eat or drink, it is my decision. I don't care if it takes me 10 years to lose the weight she lost in 10 months, I'll do it myself and I won't mutilate a perfectly healthy organ in doing so.
Well, this turned out rather more ranty than I had intended. Want to hear about my wacky Animal Crossing town instead? :P
So it turned out the psalm was one I was familiar with ("The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures...") and I quickly got distracted from thinking about Lost stuff. I read the psalm and the notes about it:
In describing the Lord as a shepherd, David wrote out of his own experience because he had spent his early years caring for sheep. Sheep are completely dependent on the Shepherd for provision, guidance, and protection. The New Testament calls Jesus the good shepherd; the great Shepherd; and the Chief Shepherd.
No offense intended to religious people, but I can't understand anyone willingly comparing themselves to sheep. "Sheep are completely dependent on the Shepherd for provision, guidance, and protection." Ummmm. No thanks? I'd rather trust in myself, in my own strength, in my own knowledge and experience.
Back in college, I was a psych major "by default". (I was in my third year and still had no idea what I wanted to major in. Psych had the fewest requirements, so I picked that so that I could still graduate in four years.) I took a series of classes about substance abuse, and the teacher was a big fan of AA. That was one of the few times I've seriously butted heads with a professor: The idea behind AA drove me nuts. The basic idea was that you-the-person were powerless. You had to give over control to "a higher power". Your substance abuse wasn't your fault and you didn't have the power to fix it, you had to rely on "a higher power". There were so many things about that that annoyed me! My first argument was what if you didn't believe in a god/some random religion? The professor told me that you could believe a chair was the higher power if you wanted -- BS. BS. BS. The other really big thing was ... why make people powerless? Why make people weak? YOU made this problem, correct it yourself!
(And watch me go off on a tangent, wheeee!) My sister and I are both overweight, but she got that stomach reduction surgery. I would never do that. She did it because she "couldn't" diet. She "couldn't" exercise. She was "powerless" to help herself. I would never, ever, ever do that. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I did. I made my own weight problems. Every time I eat or drink, it is my decision. I don't care if it takes me 10 years to lose the weight she lost in 10 months, I'll do it myself and I won't mutilate a perfectly healthy organ in doing so.
Well, this turned out rather more ranty than I had intended. Want to hear about my wacky Animal Crossing town instead? :P
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 06:29 pm (UTC)If I were to believe in a god-like being, I'd certainly hope for one who worked that way. I don't want to be a child, a sheep, or any other helpless/hopeless critter!
On the other hand, it does clearly work for some people.
There is that. I almost put a disclaimer on my post 'This is just my opinion. If you like the idea behind AA and it works for you, then yay!'. Because, like you, I'd rather they be sober and dishonest/weak people than drunk and honest.
There's also a bit about the stomach reduction process: If it takes me years to lose the weight someone else loses in months, I would potentially have other weight-related health problems in the meantime. If someone else wants to do the surgery and they're comfortable with it, hey. It's their life.
If I lack the will to do certain things I'd like to do (and there are cases where this is true), it's a situation entirely of my own making.
Yeah. I was worried this post would make me come off as claiming to be perfect, which is far far from the case. But I try. When I fail, it's 100% my fault. But when I succeed? That's all me, too. And the success is so much better because it was done by me. :)