Ode to the Coffee Maker

A humble poet, yet
A crafty mind, sat
At her desk to
Write a love poem.

She began,

“To the noise at dawn
Of deep gurgling,
To the spew of liquid
Into the pot,
To the stained edges
Of plastic and glass.”

And did not finish,
For the coffee was ready.

© 2007 Beck Forsland

Health Quotes

When we were in South Padre Island (SPI) we were at a tiny grocery store/cafe called Naturally Yours. There were a few good quotes…

Don’t think thin,
Think health.

I am not my body.
I am my spirit.

To eat is a necessity.
To eat intelligently is an art.

Oh so true. Personally, and I’m no saint, I find it really hard to eat with anyone because no one is conscious of what they eat! I honestly made a choice tonight to stay home and just do homework instead of going to a young couple’s for dinner because I knew they were eating something I wouldn’t eat.

First day of Spring Semester

It was a good day today.  I think I had my first actual “friend” conversation with someone that I actually am interested in being friends with.  Come to think about it, I haven’t have many of those “friend”-type conversations even with people I don’t want to be friends with.  Ah well.  One year and 4 months later and I will be done.

I think, anyway.  I’ve been having these crazy thoughts about double majoring and that would put me in school for at least another couple semesters.  Fun stuff!

Hmm I didn’t really think about it: up here in the North we call it “Global Warming” but in other places where the temperature is messed up the opposite way they probably call it “Global Ice Age”… like Damon said.  Hehe  Suckers!

Winter! Finally!

Sunday night we finally had a snowfall up here in the “cold” Midwest. What a joke. I was beginning to think that it would never snow and that global warming was really taking place! Crazy talk!

Yesterday Elav and I got all bundled up in warm gear and headed outside to stack firewood and drive too fast in circles on a snowmobile.  It was great.  Just like the old days when we used to get snow during Thanksgiving and Winter break.

And the coolest thing is that it is currently 1 degree Fahrenheit. No pun intended.

Hmmm

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student: Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is this God good then? Hmm?
(Student is silent.)

Prof: You can’t answer, can you? Let’s start again, young fellow. Is
God good?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student: No

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student: From…God…

Prof: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything.
Correct?

Student: Yes.

Prof: So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these
terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and serve the world around you. Tell me, son…Have you ever seen God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, and smelled your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?

Student: No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol,
science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes, faith. And that is the problem science has.

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn’t.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have any thing called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold.
Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?

Student: You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light…. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it is called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes,
of course, I do.

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelled it?….. No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With
all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student.)

Prof: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.

Student: That is it, sir.. The link between man & God is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive.
Guess who that young man was ?

ALBERT EINSTEIN……

Post Texas Blues

After spending my whole Sunday fleeing meeting (I was very scared about getting to the airport on time and rushed out of meeting at the last hymn), driving to the airport while being subjected to the worst possible music: country, being frisked by security, having my bags manhandled (by a very polite security personnel, though), sitting for two hours because of delays, sitting in a different airport for hours because of delays (all the while worrying about who was going to pick me up because I was out of a cell phone)… I finally made it back to the house of girls in St Paul. Whew!

Now I’m back in River Falls, my first week (well, 4 days) of school has been started and finished. I am taking a J-term class from 9 – noon Monday through Friday. Its a fast paced class and I’m kind of nervous.