Ok, this was really only a test. I saw a recruitment ad at Google which referenced this e-blogging site, so I thought I'd check it out. The inception of my blogging was career oriented, therefore, not necessarily a result of having anything interesting or otherwise worthy to put in print, but to investigate what a blogging site offers.
In that vein, I had to come up with something quick. "Growing Up Schizoid in America" was a tongue-in-cheek title I thought about years ago as a first year Psychology/Philosophy major. It's probably worth noting that during those college years all my free time and electives were spent reading physics or taking drafting engineering classes, noteworthy in the sense each requires a different perceptual filter when viewing the world. One consists of a concrete, empirical representation of the world, the other abstract and theoretical.
Now, back to the title of this blog. Perhaps a bit of an explanation is in order. I mean Schizoid resulting from growing up in an arena that Xenophobe's Guide to the Americas attempts, rather succinctly, to portray. Schizoid meaning aloof, not crazy. It could be summed up in an old, but common phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt", which probably was coined by a Schizoid or nihilist. Or a quick look at the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes gives an idea of what I'm talking about. (That's what makes the Bible so great.... if read in light of modern day psychology, it contains all the precepts, rather prophetic, don't you think?).
OK. I had to make that distinction in definition of the term Schizoid because adjectives, particularly mental health ones, tend to be viewed by some in the most negative light.
From that perspective, you hopefully have a better understanding of this blogs title and direction. Didn't I address direction? Well, its bringing to light those incongruities in life that would leave one feeling a bit, well, Schizoid. This covers social, political, and economic incongruities which leave the thinking person sometimes apoplectic, the emotional person sometimes confused, and the spiritual person seeing signs of the last days.
I'm older now, so I can afford to be more honest than when I was younger, can afford to make fewer compromises in life, can afford self-scrutiny without fear of falling apart, much more so than when younger. The irony of life.... that as the body ages and decays and we work at being limber, the mind fortifies and becomes stronger, less dogmatic, more flexible. It's an inverse relationship for some of us.
And although my theology is Christian, I am all too well aware of the current trend of labeling oneself born again (a phenomena that has gained popularity in recent decades). What comes to mind is the Biblical phrase "...many worship me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me"(Isaiah 29:13) and I feel it better to let the reader make that declaration of me, if so inclined or observed, but that it should not be uttered from my own lips as self-proclaimed enlightenment.
I like to think of those dreams in the same terms as perhaps Carl Jung would... and as the epitaph on Jung's tombstone reads "Bidden or unbidden, God is Present".
In that vein, I had to come up with something quick. "Growing Up Schizoid in America" was a tongue-in-cheek title I thought about years ago as a first year Psychology/Philosophy major. It's probably worth noting that during those college years all my free time and electives were spent reading physics or taking drafting engineering classes, noteworthy in the sense each requires a different perceptual filter when viewing the world. One consists of a concrete, empirical representation of the world, the other abstract and theoretical.
Now, back to the title of this blog. Perhaps a bit of an explanation is in order. I mean Schizoid resulting from growing up in an arena that Xenophobe's Guide to the Americas attempts, rather succinctly, to portray. Schizoid meaning aloof, not crazy. It could be summed up in an old, but common phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt", which probably was coined by a Schizoid or nihilist. Or a quick look at the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes gives an idea of what I'm talking about. (That's what makes the Bible so great.... if read in light of modern day psychology, it contains all the precepts, rather prophetic, don't you think?).
OK. I had to make that distinction in definition of the term Schizoid because adjectives, particularly mental health ones, tend to be viewed by some in the most negative light.
From that perspective, you hopefully have a better understanding of this blogs title and direction. Didn't I address direction? Well, its bringing to light those incongruities in life that would leave one feeling a bit, well, Schizoid. This covers social, political, and economic incongruities which leave the thinking person sometimes apoplectic, the emotional person sometimes confused, and the spiritual person seeing signs of the last days.
I'm older now, so I can afford to be more honest than when I was younger, can afford to make fewer compromises in life, can afford self-scrutiny without fear of falling apart, much more so than when younger. The irony of life.... that as the body ages and decays and we work at being limber, the mind fortifies and becomes stronger, less dogmatic, more flexible. It's an inverse relationship for some of us.
And although my theology is Christian, I am all too well aware of the current trend of labeling oneself born again (a phenomena that has gained popularity in recent decades). What comes to mind is the Biblical phrase "...many worship me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me"(Isaiah 29:13) and I feel it better to let the reader make that declaration of me, if so inclined or observed, but that it should not be uttered from my own lips as self-proclaimed enlightenment.
The best declaration I can make is that the darkness made it's presence known, made it's bid that I find sanctuary in it's abode, occasionally seduced me towards it's promised rewards, yet saved was I from trodding too far down it's path. It is truly to the Grace of God that I give thanks, for as I paused before the next step, the dreams would come and show a different way, dreams not of my own desires or making, but dreams visited upon me during that momentary respite from all our efforts, where we relinquish all control. It has been in the serenity of sleep that the battleground is sometimes established, where Grace triumphantly resounds her call and claims her own. It is that Grace that informs the Daylight where I resume the pilot's seat, navigating and charting a course informed by Twilight Dreams.
I like to think of those dreams in the same terms as perhaps Carl Jung would... and as the epitaph on Jung's tombstone reads "Bidden or unbidden, God is Present".
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