Late Night tuesday, in the box.

My personal lexicon doesn't attach the following to the word "spirituality".

I guess i'd call it naturally evolving humanity... instead of scraping up the ladder to get to the proverbial Eternal Garden Party, one can instead achieve a higher aim: serve others through evolved common-sense by waking the awareness of the feelings of altruism that occur naturally within all of us.

I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama



unrelated snippets follow.

Tonight was the first election i've been in the proximity to vote in, and i didn't. mostly because of laziness (unwilling to do the research to develop an opinion on "new" local matters to me). i kind of feel like i need a political shower to wash away the amazing amount of ads i've absorbed here in the box.

Dense fog in the valley for the next 16 hours or so... not looking forward to the commute tonight :( tonight we ran a story from national that's predicting four dollar gasoline. fuck it. if it goes up by more percentage points, i'm going to get a nice job in corvallis... far, far away from the TV business entirely. which, at this point, would suit me just fine.

from the partnerships list, authored by someone who has clearly evolved beyond that which we routinely encounter in our daily lives:

It is my opinion that when two people have been together for any length of time, you learn to read your partner. You learn to expect certain behaviors, your image of your partner becomes routine. What I mean is that you have become close enough to this person that you stop seeing them as an individual and more as a concept. I would suggest that you step back and allow him to define who he is to you all over again.
-Dennis Montoya

comfort food for my brain tonight:

"He stood up straight and looked the world squarely in the fields and hills. To add weight to his words he stuck the rabbit bone in his beard. He spread his arms out wide.
'I will go mad!' he announced."
-Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything

Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.
-Phillip K. Dick