violetismycolor

doggies at church...

Today was our annual "Blessing of the animals" service at church.  It was mostly dogs...maybe about 30/more of them, and a couple of cats, and I think I saw a gecko.  Pretty cool, though. 

I took Cookie on a good walk before the service, just to get all her heeby-jeebies out of her system.  I wasn't sure she was going to do very well, what with all the people (who would be STANDING part of the time, for goodness sake...and Cookie hates it when people are 'towering' over her) and all the other dogs around.  But she was the very picture of good behavior.  She mostly sat under our pew (safer there) and was so confused by the mass of people/dogs walking around and greeting each other during the passing of the Peace that she let people pet her!!! 

She got a blessing after the service and did a lot of mingling (read:  sniffing other dogs), and was much too excited to even nibble on all the doggie treats thereabouts.  A real Red Letter Day for our Cookie, I'd say.

Note:  The last remark made me wonder where the term, red letter day, came from.  Here is the answer, via Wikipedia: 

A red letter day (sometimes hyphenated as red-letter day) is any day of special significance.

The term originates from Medieval church calendars. Illuminated manuscripts often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as rubrics. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed the saint's days, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.

Many current calendars have special dates and holidays such as Sundays, Christmas Day and Midsummer Day rendered in red colour instead of black.

On red letter days, judges of the English High Court (Queen's Bench Division) wear, at sittings of the Court of Law, their scarlet robes (See court dress). Also in the United Kingdom, other civil dates have been added to the original religious dates. These include anniversaries of the Monarch's birthday, official birthday, accession and coronation.

 

no longer a neo-pagan...

The subject of beliefs has come up in some of my conversations lately, not at all unusual for me I guess.  In those conversations, I have mentioned an on-line beliefs quiz, called Belief-o-matic.  About a year ago, I took the quiz and came up with Neo-Pagan as the belief system that most closely matched my beliefs.  Seems odd, since I consider myself far from a pagan, but...okay... 

I took the quiz again about a month later, and got the same result.  So, that was last year. 

I decided to take the quiz again, today, and here is the list of  belief systems that apparently match mine:

1.     Reform Judaism (100%)
2.     Unitarian Universalism (90%)
3.     Sikhism (88%)
4.     Liberal Quakers (82%)
5.     Neo-Pagan (82%)
6.     New Age (78%)
7.     Mahayana Buddhism (77%)
8.     New Thought (73%)
9.     Bahaii Faith (71%)
10.     Orthodox Judaism (71%)
11.     Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (69%)
12.     Scientology (66%)
13.     Jainism (63%)
14.     Theravada Buddhism (62%)
15.     Islam (61%)
16.     Hinduism (60%)
17.     Secular Humanism (51%)
18.     Taoism (50%)
19.     Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (48%)
20.     Orthodox Quaker (47%)
21.     Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (33%)
22.     Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
23.     Nontheist (26%)
24.     Eastern Orthodox (22%)
25.     Roman Catholic (22%)
26.     Seventh Day Adventist (22%)
27.     Jehovah's Witness (18%)

Note that I match Reform Judaism by 100%...this should make my parents flinch.  They are Catholics and I only have 22% of my beliefs in common with them.  This should surprise no one who knows me.

So this is how I amuse myself on a Saturday afternoon where it is 92 degrees outside and I have exhausted myself with a morning full of gardening.  Next up on my agenda:  vegging out in front of the TV, watching the College World Series and hoping my team (Oregon State) kicks butt...

Jon says...

I know I have said this before, but I love Jon Stewart.  The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are (to me) the most entertaining, smart, and interesting shows on television today.  We watch every night that these shows are on. 

Tonight, Madeline Albright was the guest tonight, talking about her new book,  The Mighty and the Almighty:  Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs.  Interestingly, I had heard her interviewed on NPR this afternoon, so I knew what her themes were.  Jon Stewart always takes things in a slightly skewed direction, though.  So, when she spoke about George Bush's belief that God wanted him elected president, Jon commented on how it's too bad God was doing such a bad job in Iraq.  Cracked me up.  Maybe you had to be there...

faith journeys...

John and I went to an Eid-ul-Adha supper tonight.  This is a Muslim holiday celebration, the feast of the sacrifice', and it commemorates Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham's) unselfish act of sacrificing his son Ishmael to God.  It also celebrates the end of Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), one of the important elements of Muslim faith.

We sat with our dear friend, Shariar Ahmed, who always makes a big fuss over John.  He got up in front of the group and introduced him, reminding people that after 9-11, John encouraged the Muslim community to come together with people of other faiths so that all would understand each other better. 

Anyway, the food was awesome, as always...lots of biryani rice and chicken masala and naan.  Yummy.  And it's always interesting to hear other people's belief systems and try to understand them.  All in all, a good way to spend a Sunday night.