Perspectives of a Wanderer

The recent storm on the east coast as made me realize that we are an over-dependent society.  In fact, in my opinion, it as gotten to the point that it borders on or is, in many cases, codependency. We are, for the most case, incapable of living without the “conveniences” of modern society.

We saw this before the storm with the total panic where grocery stores, the primary source of food these days, were stripped bare of goods.  We saw it during the storm where people were panicking with fear of freezing due to the loss of power.  Yet, today, a little over 24 hours after the storm started not completed, much was getting back to “normal”.

We are so dependent on getting out food from stores and our heating (and cooling) from others that many would live only a very short time if they were suddenly gone.  This is a recent development.

Not more than a mere 100 years ago, a storm like this would have been a yawn.  People would have enough food to survive a period of time and heat would of come from wood or coal fired furnace that was stocked for just such an event.  Of course in those days, one would probably not be aware of the coming storm.

Our modern “progressive” society frowns on people who strive to be self-reliant.  It is all about control as if people are incapable of fending for themselves.  And guess what, THEY ARE WINNING.  Most of us are either “wage slaves” of the plague of Capitalism plague or “slaves”, either via welfare or working for, of the plague of Socialism.

We must get back to the point to where “events” like this storm is just a minor “inconvenience” for a day or so, not a matter of life and death.  I for one am looking into being able to live “off the grid” as much as possible.  In fact, I would love to build a community off the grid just to show it is possible.

It may be “politically incorrect” but, to be blunt, I could care less.  We must get back to a point were we can survive without depending on the plagues of Socialism & Capitalism.

For just over a month, I have been on a diet. This means I have been limiting the portions in my meals and gearing those portions to provide the most nutritional value as possible.

In that time, I may of eaten at a “fast food” restaurant just over a dozen times with most of them being at one well know franchise that has a selection of items that are conducive to those on a diet. Those other times, for the most part, I have limited myself to the limited selections with fewer calories.

One thing I have noticed is that the portions of those meals are way more than what I normally make when I prepare the meal. For instance, tonight I ate at my favorite Chinese “fast food” restaurant since it is one of the few places that has seafood (in this case shrimp) that is not fried and they will cook it to order (I like a Szechwan that is very spicy). Now the Shrimp with Mixed Vegetables portion of the meal was reasonable. However, the meal also came with rice and that portion was almost two cups. To me, I now see this as excessive (I only ate half of it).

This got me to thinking that we are a society of excesses. The socio-economic plague of Materialism has instilled a culture of greed that equates bigger or more as being better. Moderation is to be scorned today.

We see this in the “super” or “king” sizing of meals. Houses being built have to be bigger and have more amenities or they will not sell. We have seen the consequences of these excesses with the financial crisis and the economic repercussions that have occurred because of them.

Another consequence of this green and excess is that God has been, for the most part, removed from society. In my opinion, this is because Our Lord is seen an impediment to the greed and excess.  There is no place for God in a world of greed and excess. Man has replaced God as a “supreme being” in society.

We need to examine our lives and get rid of any excesses that have built up in it.  This means anything and everything.  We do not need that 5,000 square foot mansion and that giant SUV in the three-car garage.

We also need to move God back to his rightful place as the center of our lives.  God is the only exception to excesses. One cannot get too much of God (and I am not talking about gorging ourselves on the Eucharist).

Moving God to the center of my life has become my main goal in life.  This has changed my plans many things.  I still want to buy a nice plot of land, but now it is only a few acres (unless I decide to go into farming) where I can grow (and maybe raise) much of my own food.  I have also started to modify the plans for if I decide to build my own house.  I do not need to build myself a four-bedroom mansion.  I just need a dwelling that will meet my basic needs.

I also plan on replacing my current car.  However, I do not plan on buying a new car but am looking at used cars that will, again, meet my basic needs.  I have not decided on what type (although I am leaning towards maybe a Subaru Forrester or a small pickup) but I am not looking at any gaudy status vehicle.

Finally, getting rid of the excesses, mean simplifying my life.  If this means doing without some things, fine.  I probably did not need those things anyways.  God is my need now.

Recently, where I work, the company instituted a new on-line social networking policy. Essentially, it states, you keep your private/personal networks and blogs separate from your professional social network and blogs.  This policy I totally agree with.

For the most part, I have been doing it all along.  The only exceptions are/were:

1. A few current and former Co-workers were on my Facebook. That has been remedies.  In fact, my boss was thinking of doing the same thing.
2. All my social networks use my default personal email account. That sill has to be remedied for my profession social networks.

The only real profession social network I have is LinkedIn.  In fact that is why I joined it. My other social networks (Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk) and my blog are purely personal in nature.  In fact, I have tied the social network accounts down to the point where only people on my friends list can see what is there.

The reason I bring this up is that it seems more and more of one’s time is taken up by work and there is a growing conflict with one’s private life.

I will make no qualms about it; I am in a high stress career (information technology) and am currently in an even higher stress job.  Although the job pays well, I am wondering how long it will be before I completely burn out.

I am saying that, one must learn how to balance work and non-work in their life.  When a job takes up over well over half of the time you are awake it is time to take inventory of what is most important in your life.

Like I said, my job pays well and I do, for the most part, like it.  It is the best company, by far, that I have been with.  However, pay is not the first thing (it never has been) I look in a job.  What I look for is a challenge.  However, this is economy, it is not a challenge when more and more duties are piled on a person.  A balance is needed.

One thing that had been taking a beating, and to a point still is, in the past year or so was my spiritual and prayer life. Usually I have barely enough time in the to do my Morning Prayers before I head off to. The same can be said for Evening Prayers, I get home and usually I only have a couple of hours before I head off to bed. It seems I have little time for any more with other things I need to get done in the little time allotted.

With my commitment now to spiritual growth it is more important than ever to separate my work life from my private life.  I am finding ways to find time for spiritual reading and listening.  One thing I have been doing is to listen to CD’s that I have loaded on my iPod and iPhone during my lunch and breaks on various spiritual topics.  In addition, if I am driving and where I am going will take more than ten minutes, I will plug my iPhone or iPod (depends on where I am on a conference and what I was last listing to it on) into the car radio and listen to that instead of music, news, or talk radio. Even in the evenings and weekends, depending on what I am doing, I will listen to the CD’s instead of having the TV on.

One thing I need to do, however, is to take inventory of my work life and see what I can do there to reduce the stress and distractions. I have some ideas and will be looking to implement them in the next couple of months.

One good thing that will be occurring later this year is that the company I am with is moving to a new building.  With the new floor plan I will out of the major traffic flow.  The only drawback is that the cube walls will be lower.  I have already figured out how I am going to solve the privacy issue due to the lower walls and that will not be an issue.

The key is to balance my personal life that I am trying to dedicate to Our Lord with my work life.  If there is a conflict between the two, I know which one will lose and it will not be Our Lord.

Ever since the silent retreat I went on last month and being successful in getting a Spiritual Director, I have been racking my brain in trying to figure out how I want to proceed in my direction.  Well tonight, I had an “eureka moment” on the matter.

While driving up to the Somerset Collection (a mall in the area) to check on something, I was listening to a CD from my confraternity entitled “The Seven Stages of the Spiritual Life” and it hit me; this is the exact topic for my first session with my Spiritual Director.  And that is “What stage in my Spiritual Development am I at?”

I reasoned that this single topic could encompass all other areas that I was considering since those would aid me in my growth through the “Spiritual Stages” of growth.  These topics included, but not confined to confession, prayer, and which temperament I am.

One thing I did though was finally bought a book that want mentioned in the “Question and Answer” session where the participants wrote down question during the retreat (it was a silent retreat an we were still in the period of silence).  The question that was submitted by “someone” was on resources on the Four Temperaments (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy, and/or Phlegmatic) other than a CD by the Confraternity on the topic.

Even though I had a feeling that I knew which temperament I was, it was confirmed when I took the test in his book and two other tests I took on-line.  My temperament is definitely Melancholy.  One thing further I may do is to give the test to a select few and see what they perceive me as.

Now that I have the topic in hand, I can call my Spiritual Director, and set up an appointment with him.  That is of course, when I get up enough courage to call him.

One thing I have been trying to do is spiritual reading.  However, being a person who gravitates towards audio rather than visual, I have been going through the CD’s  (over 60 hours worth with more coming from the last retreat) associated with the confraternity I belong to.  At this point, I am about half way through the CD’s.

Why am I doing this? I have a couple of reasons.

First, other than the CD’s from the retreats and missions I have gone to and have heard what is on the CD’s, I have only listened to a few of them in full.  This has been something I have been meaning to do for a while, but have never have gotten to.

Second, many of these CD’s are on topics pertaining to various aspects of the spiritual life.  With my renewed resolve to grow spiritually in the coming year, I decided that this would be a good way to start on that growth.  Yes, they limited to what they can go over in respect to the various spiritual topics, but they may give me ideas to explore further.  Many of the CD’s also site resources on these topics.

Third, some of the CD’s speak directly to some of the deficiencies in both in my spiritual/prayer life and practicing my Catholic faith.  Again, as with reason two, it will give me ideas, in this case, on how to remedy these deficiencies.

Finally, although it touches on second and third reason, it will give me topics to discuss with my Spiritual Director.  I have areas that I do want to talk to him about, but these help in communicate these areas.

I plan on going through these CD’s a couple of times.  The first time to get a general idea what is on each set of CD’s.  I will then go through these CD’s in detail to get specifics for further study.

Now, this does not mean I am going to neglect the “reading” portion of my spiritual reading.  On the contrary.  As I states above, I am using these to get ideas and resources on areas of spirituality.  Many of these resources are books and will allow me to focus on these resources no matter form they come in.  In addition, I am listening to many of these CD’s, at least for the first time though, at times where it is impossible for me to read (like work and driving).  Furthermore, I have a book titled The Catholic lifetime reading plan by Fr. Hardon.  The book lists hundreds of additional works that I can explore in the future.  I plan on using this to supplement my reading list as I progress.

One of the advantages, for us who follow the Old Liturgical Calendar associated with Extraordinary Form of the Mass, is that the Easter Cycle, also known as the Second Part of the Liturgical Year, starts three Sundays before the Ash Wednesday that signifies the start of the Lenten/Easter Season for the Ordinary Form of the Mass.  This coming Sunday, called Septuagesima Sunday, is the start of that Easter Cycle.

For us, Septuagesima Sunday marks the beginning of preparations for Lent. I like this because it gives us a reminder of what is coming and allows for preparation before the Lent Season officially starts on Ash Wednesday.  It is also a good counterbalance to “festivities” (more like debauchery) of Marti Gras that normally occur during the days leading up to Ash Wednesday.

This year, it has extra significance since I am on a new segment of my spiritual travels. I plan on using these two and a half weeks to firm up some of the ideas on where I want to head spiritually.  That way, I will be ready for Lent.

One of the things I have been contemplating on pertaining to changes in my life is where I want to go career wise.  This has not been recent development, but something I have been thing of for quite awhile.

Being in the Information Technology field as An Applications Developer is not one of the most relaxing career (and that is an understatement).  Not only does one have to put in long hours working, but also there is constant need to continue to study just to keep your skills set up to date.  In the past decade, with the retirement of many legacy systems, the amount of studying needed has increased exponentially. Yes, the pay and benefits are good but, for me, that is not the most important thing anymore.  My main goal is to adjust and simplify my life to facilitate the growth in my spiritual life.

As I said, this is not a recent development.  I haven been thinking of this for years.  The problem was, and still is, what would I like to do.  One criterion that I have recently added is that, whatever I do, it must be compatible with the spirituality that I am trying to nurture in myself.

One thing I have been thinking of is teaching and writing (mainly when I retire).  I have a number of interests that I would love to go back to school for and get advance degrees in.  Some of these areas include:

• Theology
• Philosophy
• History
• Economics

The last two, I would combine with one of the first to since I would like to do both from a theological and/or philosophical point of view.

Another area is learning some other skills (like accounting, management, and finance) that would be of use in a non-profit, charitable, and/or organization.  I have some ideas there, and this may become a topic for discussion with my Spiritual Director.

I have some other ideas, but they are either very unlikely or need further thought before making them an option.  For right now, I will concentrate on the above to.  Yes, they would involve a substantial cut in pay, but the piece of mind they would bring will go far in achieving my spiritual goals.

On a Facebook wall post of someone on my friends list, he mentioned being “a bit out of step” due to “not acting as though Western civilization is on the line is today’s football playoffs.”

When I mentioned that I was listening to conference CD’s put out by the Confraternity I belong to, he quipped that I “won the out of step race” with him.  It is not because I do not like football, I just never got this “fan MENTALity” (and this is coming from someone who grew up in Steeler country and went to college where the Steelers have training camp). That mentality bores me and I will not apologize for that opinion. This got me to think about being “out of step” with society and that not necessarily being a bad thing.

If being “in step” with today’s society giving into the perversions of the socio-economic plagues like Relativism, Liberalism, Socialism, Materialism, and Global Capitalism, than I prefer being “out of step”.  Why? Because being “in step” in this way means God is not at the center of one’s life. And that is something I do not want.

I will admit that, in the past, I did subscribe, to a point, to Materialism and Globalism, but not the others.  These days, I am trying to move towards making God the center in anyway and every way possible.

Of course, this does put me at odds with the “powers to be” of the secular world.  If that is what they think, so be it.  I do not give squat about what they think. They are the ones that are making others and even themselves gods.  And that is just plain wrong. We need to get society back to where God is at the center.  This means making the “out of step” “in step”.

As for me, I consider being “out of step” a badge of honor and I will wear it proudly.  Anyone want to join me?

In the retreat that I recently took, there was a conference on Our Lady of Guadalupe. The main thrust of the conference was that of Our Lady being the Patroness of the Unborn.

In that conference, the human sacrifice of the Aztec was discussed and how the wholesale slaughter in their “temples” is similar to the wholesale slaughter of the unborn in the modern day “temples” of the abortion mills.  It was only after the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe that there was a mass conversion of the Aztec and the surrounding people to Christianity in its one true form of Catholicism. It has been estimated that over 9 million converted in 15 years where only 200 thousand were converted in the previous 20 years.

It was suggested in the conference that praying to Our Lady of Guadalupe (and also the Holy Angels especially our Guardian Angel) for the conversion of those in the abortion industry.

This has gotten me to thinking that the abortion industry is only one symptom of a very sick society. Not only must those in the abortion industry need to be converted, but also society, as a whole, needs a conversion.  In addition, this conversion must be the same as that of Our Lady of Guadalupe and that is to the one true faith of Catholicism.

It is my belief that devotion to Our Lady (in her many names) and to the Holy Angels must be nurtured and deepened in order to bring about this conversion.  It may also take another apparition like Our Lady of Guadalupe to accomplish this conversion but we not depend on this happening or even to pray for this to occur.  It is our prayers that are the most important right now.

In Post Retreat Reflections, I outlined some of things I plan on doing to make adjustments where necessary in my life.  I have made come progress on this as follows:

1. Completed removing groups and pages from Facebook.
2. Even though I said I was going to leave my Friends list intact for the time being, I have removed a couple of them that were either too political or completely unrelated to my goals.
3. Removed a number of “people” from my following list on Twitter and blocked a number of following so they cannot see my tweets.  Again, these were mostly politically related.  I will be examining any “new” followers and will block them if they are contrary to my goals.

I did examine Plurk and LinkedIn and those network sites are fine since Plurk is mainly like-minded people and LinkedIn is my professional.

These were only my first step and probably the easiest.  Setting up my first meeting with my Spiritual Director is next on my list.  This will probably be the most difficult, at least for me, to do.  I have tried in the past and have “chickened out”.  I do not want to do that this time since this may be key in one of my goals of getting an advanced degree in Theology or Philosophy.