I need to start the new year early by a whole month. It's been a good year in a lot of ways, but I feel weighed down by some dissolution and a lack of discipline. This most primarily shows that I gained back 10 of the 15 pounds I lost last year, mostly due to eating too much junk and exercising too little. I've also been spiritually lax, both feeling less in touch with a personal sense of the divine and regularly practicing my Catholic faith. I need to turn these things around and turn a new page. I intended to write this in an entry on the first of December to give it month-early punch... but you get the idea.
I also got to attend a funeral last week. The funeral was for a Brother T., a member of the Society of Mary -- the religous order that meets the Catholic spiritual needs of students at the university where I did my grad work. He was not a complicated man, but his life was an example of something sorely missing in today's world. His daily mission as a religious was simply to work hard to serve others. How many people can say that these days? This he did, in several ways -- as a gardener and landscaper, a cook, a maintenance man, and simply as a human being. He landscaped gardens for churches and schools. He cooked for fundraiser dinners for a variety of worthy organizations. He visited widows and shut-ins who would otherwise be denied human contact. His life was about service. As I stood over his casket, looking down at his lifeless form so clearly missing his animate spirit, I kept thinking of how Pope Benedict was merely "Christ's humble worker". That description fit Brother T. more truly than most anyone I know. He will be missed.
Mrs. Geek and I also went out to a rock concert on Saturday night. It was my first in a while... and one that renewed my faith in live concerts. It was a charity show for Toys for Tots put on by my favorite local radio station. There were three acts, and all were good... though not always to my taste. There was no cheesy local band opener called "The Scuzzcocks" or "Big Alice and the Sleestaks" that just stood up there mouthing double entendres while whacking away at their instruments -- a welcome relief after seeing such ho-hum acts as "It Bites" and "Kelvinator" open over the years. The first artist was a female petite firecracker of a singer/songwriter from the British Isles. She is a bit of a discovery on the part of said local radio station. Her first CD is only presently available as an import, but they heard it somewhere and started playing it on the air... before her record company even knew that anyone in America was listening. She was one of the two artists on the bill that I wanted to see, and she did not disappoint. The second act was a band... one of those groups that is really just a front to realize the artistic vision of a single member. They're also from the British Isles, and while they were also very strong in Coldplay/early Radiohead sort of way, they were not quite my cup of tea. The last act was a singer very much in the Norah Jones mold. I've been a fan of hers since the late 90's and she also did not disappoint. A great night in all... and well worth the $35 we were forced to pay the parking nazis.
said drgeek
on 2005-12-05 at 7:45 p.m.
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The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond
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