Like a Led Zeppelin

Yeah... so that was a fun experiment in the new customizable blogger.

To the point: 'customizable' is not the word I would use to describe updating from steaming pile alpha to steaming pile beta.

So, here I am back to the old version. But I will play with the look some bit.

New Look

I've finally decided to go ahead and let the new Blogger futz around with my oh-so-carefully-bodged-together template file. So now that blogger has a GUI-enhanced template generator, I can go ahead and get the generic layout all fixed, then go into the template file and muss it up some more. Hooray!!! (I mean, c'mon... what is the idea of not giving me a target="_blank" option on my links list?!). Then there's the whole can't set your background image to something else deal, etc. etc..... sheesh!

To Heck with John McCain

...I'm the Maverick!

Walking the path

Here's an excerpt from Stephen Batchelor's "Living with the Devil"

" Yet the well-intentioned urge to preserve a religion runs the risk of mummifying it. Although you might succeed in preserving its institutions and dogmas for a while, you cannot preserve a path any more than you can preserve the current of a river or the whistling of a wind. Insidiously Mara (the devil) attempts to secure what by nature is open and fluid. The survival of a path is achieved not by preserving it but by walking it-- even when you have no clear idea where it will lead.
As religions grow from humble beginnings into churches and orthodoxies, the narrow path turns into a brightly lit highway. The risk of embarking on a journey into the unknown is replaced by the confidence of setting off on a well-planned excursion. Homelessness starts to feel like home again. The freedom of the open road is replaced by the drudgery of repeating a cycle of routines. As we proceed along the well-trodden paths of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, we may begin to weary of their certainties. Perilous trails that branch off the main track and peter out in the anarchy of wilderness catch our attention. We realize that the path we are taking might too disappear into a pathless land."

So much to absorb, but the passage in a way describes where I am right now.

I can sense the dessication of the preserved religions, their dogmas, institutions.
The drudgery of routines and cycles leaves me uninspired to continue down the highway.
The journey is no longer into the unknown but is one of confident certainties.
I am wearied of their certainties, their misplaced confidence.
I see the narrow path, perilous, as it branches out into the anarchy of the wild.
I long for the unknown, for the journey, for the freedom, for the uncertainty.
I seek the narrow path, one preserved only by my walking it.