The Glad Game

Stephanie Dare Smith told me I had to post six things that have made me happy recently, so here they are!

1. Preparing and eating hard-boiled eggs. A new comfort food for me, maybe! I have never boiled eggs before and did 5 yesterday. Each of them tasted good ... although I really should convince myself to discard of the yokes.

2. Futurama & The Simpson's Halloween special. Gotta love satirical, (young) adult cartoons!

3. Music: Death Cab for Cutie's song, "I Will Follow You into the Dark," Rufus Wainwright's "Hallelujah," and Coldplay's "Kingdom Come." These songs are some of my favorite song through which to express praise of God. I am currently trying an ecocritical stance with the Death Cab song. Maybe "ecocritical" isn't the right term--ecophilic? biophilic? When the speaker of the song says, "Love of mine," I wonder if that love could be nature.

4. Process theology and philosophy. Here I must include the rich encouragement I received from opening up the world of process thought to my peers. Also, Dr. Goodman's smiley faces when he grades me! In response to my presentation he began, "What can I say? In the first 5 minutes of your presentation you dropped a reference to Kansas' 'Dust in the Wind.' This evaluation could end right here and I think you'd get the point. :)" Oh, Dr. Goodman.

5. Ideas and quotes from the past written indelibly upon my mind and heart--and knowing that things I read and hear now will become part of my thoughts. For example, John Bunyan's image of Christian having to retrace his steps and walk a path thrice, when he should have only walked it once. St. Augustine's "Egyptian Gold." Futurama season 3, episode 3, "Godfellas." The Beatles, Joan Didion's The White Album, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, specifically the lines, "Of God above or Man below, / what can we reason but from what we know?" (I am just guessing at the line break and punctuation).

6. This one has also been a source of anguish: friends & prayer. I am elated that I can pray for my friends. Hell, I'm elated that I can pray these days! But, prayer so often is not a happy experience in and of itself. I pray and pray and pray and hope my prayers make a difference in other people, but I simply do not know if they do. I also pray that God will show some way that I can make a difference in the lives of my friends--especially of late, with so many of my friends making such marvelous differences in my life. But alas, I come up void. When I do think of something that I might be able to say or do, I either shirk any opportunity to do so or I fail to see the opportunity arise. Part of my problem also arises from fear and doubt. I wonder, Is this from God? Will this really be encouraging? Will I just come off more socially awkward than this friend already perceives?

What has made you happy of late?