Despair and Coffee

Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

For those who care ...
2008-05-17 20:43:00
Despair and Coffee is not dead. Look for the blog's return in the summer of '08 at its own domain (DespairandCoffee.com). Until then ...
More About: Care

Blog Carnival: Life, love, God, and other questions
2007-06-30 08:48:00
This is the inaugural issue of a bi-weekly carnival. The initial submission guidelines were broad, allowing posts dealing within the range of topics presented here at Despair and Coffee. In later issues I hope to revise the criteria for greater clarification and thematic unity. If you have any ideas or would be interested in hosting a future issue of this carnival at your own blog, please email me. In the meantime, consider this selection of the best and most relevant from the many posts submitted.Rory Sullivan presents Everyone believes in God - Some children are just angry at their parents posted at hamelife, saying, ?The atheist knows there is a God - it?s just that he is furious with Him.?William Dvorak presents Selfishness, defined posted at The First Creation, from an Objectivist perspective, the philosophy of Ayn Rand which identifies selfishness as the greatest virtue of humankind.Brandon L presents Defense, defined, at The Libertarian Dictionary, attempting to free ?the lan...
More About: Life , Carnival , Love , Questions , Blog

Ron Paul: A constitutionalist among politicians
2007-06-28 21:15:00
My original concept for Despair and Coffee was to create a blog which reflected on the human experience and the typical anxieties accompanying it, nothing much more than that. I wanted to stay somewhat distant from issues of theology and politics since both are highly divisive, polarizing, and at times, alienating. However, given the polemical nature of some of the posts, delving into theology has been unavoidable, for better or worse. And now, after some thought, I?ve decided to venture into the political forum.The more I consider my political values, the more I recognize an affinity with libertarianism. I am ardently opposed to big government and its continually expanding cost and power. I find it disturbing that the hefty, perpetually increasing taxes imposed upon citizens fuel an ever burgeoning budget and egregious federal spending. President Bush, though campaigning on a small-government platform, has expanded the size and power of the government as well as exponentially incre...
More About: Ron Paul , Politicians , Paul , Const , Cons

Thinking Blogger Award
2007-06-20 07:10:00
Random Magus recently tagged me with the Thinking Blogger Award , a meme created by Ilker Yoldas of The Thinking Blog. The rules, as outlined by Ilker, go as follows: If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.Since I have recently taken up writing as my new pastime, I have frequented numerous blogs and found many to be quite interesting. This list isn?t exhaustive, of course, but the following are five noteworthy blogs with which I may not always agree, but certainly have made me think.Nick Queen covers many topics, including recent events, politics, theology, and pop culture.Politics and Religion is a blog which deals, unambiguously, with current issues of politics and religion in our society. Typically, Justin, the author, provides his thoughts along with the issues...
More About: Ward , Logger

Betrayal of the deepest kind?
2007-06-20 00:17:00
In tough times the tendency is to rely on our closest friends for support and camaraderie. Life provides few people with whom we may reveal our true selves in unguarded confidence. For me, difficulties typically reaffirm how fortunate I am to have such people in my life. The stalwart presence of good friends provides a buttress against the onslaughts of life. The awareness that others have our back and best interests in mind grants solace and security in the midst of personal upheaval. Sometimes, however, those we have allowed closest to us contribute to those upheavals. There are few experiences like having a good friend stand behind you during hardship, and there are also few experiences like being sold out by one you considered an authentic friend.During the greater portion of my high school tenure I remained steadfastly devoted to one girl, Della [names have been changed to protect the guilty]. She was the first girl who ?liked? me that I actually found attractive. Our relations...
More About: Betrayal , The D , Tray

Concerning the vacillations of young love, part 2
2007-06-13 03:48:00
You?ve heard the colloquialism, opposites attract. The conventional truth of this statement is undeniable. Many people, when explaining what originally attracted them to their spouse, describe the most alluring characteristics as those different from their own. ?He was always thinking ahead, secretly planning surprises. It was thrilling,? or, ?She was very spontaneous, suggesting the craziest things at such odd times? I wasn?t used to it.? It is often the unfamiliar and foreign which we find most remarkable and beautiful. Yet, within such relationships it seems that there must be some basic commonality which underlies the diversity of preference, personality, ethnicity, interests and experiences.The most intimate relationships are those grounded in shared goals, ethics, beliefs, or perspective. It is unlikely that any enduring relationship would be made up of two polar opposites with conflicting approaches to life or entirely disparate ways of looking at the world. Our sociological ...
More About: Love , Young , Part , Once , The V

Concerning the vacillations of young love, part 1
2007-06-12 01:31:00
You know the story: A guy and girl meet, fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. And if you have even been in a romantic relationship, you will also know that this simplistic depiction does not quite represent how things typically play out. A more realistic and common synopsis would be: A guy and girl meet, fall in love, soon become beset with doubts, wonder what they are even doing in the relationship, and generally torment themselves with questions concerning desire, compatibility, and destiny?The outcome is varied. Resolution may be found in time, through talking things out, analyzing oneself, breaking up and moving on, or through some other manner. The idea is that dating relationships never merely jump from ?falling in love? to ?happily ever after.?There comes a point in many, if not all, romantic relationships of young adults where the initial swell of infatuation and passion subsides, where doubt seeps in and disputes the validity of the romantic experience. Su...
More About: Love , Young , Part , Once , The V

The proximity of death
2007-06-08 23:56:00
It is easy during an ordinary childhood to take for granted the austere temporality of human subsistence. A child?s life is one of apparent suspended animation in which most change is all but imperceptible. One?s known reality of being dependent and compliant hardly seems a short-lived phase during those years. Driving a car, attending high school, and impending adulthood are inevitable but seem so distant they may as well not even be called certainties.For me, death was a feature of life quite removed from my immediate frame of reference. I attended multiple funerals, mostly for elderly people within the church who were acquaintances of my parents, and once when I was five for an out-of-state relative. However, these early exposures were largely unaffecting since they did not hit close to home.During elementary school I knew a boy who battled with leukemia for multiple years. After chemotherapy everyone thought he was going to be okay but he soon relapsed and was quickly claimed by...
More About: Death , Proximity

A love realized and explicated
2007-06-05 23:53:00
I few evenings ago at the roadhouse I served an elderly gentleman somewhere between his late sixties and early seventies. He sat alone in a booth with room for six, peering through his glasses at the menu before him. When I approached the table he struck up a conversation by asking if I was a student. After I respond with a yes, he inquired further about my future plans and how I wished to use my degree.At some point after I had brought his food to the table he remarked that he wasn?t used to being at restaurants and looking across the table to an empty seat instead of seeing his ?favorite girl.? He quietly explained that his wife had fallen and broken her hip a week before and had been hospitalized ever since. Each day he would drive the hour trip to spend around four hours with her, and then return home alone. The roadhouse was on his way back.The man mentioned that he and his wife had recently celebrated fifty-one years of marriage. I remarked about the considerable amount of tim...
More About: Love , Cate

The successful, wealthy Jesus
2007-06-04 08:25:00
One conception ardently embraced within certain Christian movements, is that Jesu s promised prosperity to his followers, both those modern and contemporaneous with him, including physical health, psychological well-being, but most notably, affluence and wealth. The inevitable implication is that those who are sick, depressed, or in dire financial straights are not conjuring up their faith, and therefore, by extension, deserve their situation. The primary assumption behind this position is that Christianity will bring success, happiness, and material fortune.In some permutations, this belief takes the form of a self-esteem mantra devoid of Jesus? teaching of sin and guilt before God. In this form, Christianity becomes about feeling good and attaining a ?victorious? and vibrant earthly existence ? your best life now, so to speak. Some ?claim? or anticipate their future Cadillac, occupation, or dream home, and presume that their material gain is manifested in direct proportion to their...
More About: Bible , Wealthy

Even more rejoinders
2007-05-31 08:54:00
This blog is further continuation of the dialogue with my friend Jonathan which was initiated by the post Questions of God . Jonathan?s reaction to Rejoinders and amicable concern, part 3 may be found in the comment section below that post. This post will follow the format of his latest response which purports to raise four major observations regarding the position I have already articulated. What follows is my rebuttal.Observation 1:I did not expect this further clarification to be necessary since I believed that the opening of the last post on this subject would sufficiently clear up any possible misinterpretation. Here is my original provoking statement from ?Rejoinder 2? in context. I begin by quoting Jonathan and then give my analysis:?Jonathan writes, ?The erroneous oversight in this [?liberal literary criticism?] approach is that the nature of authorship in the Scriptures is categorically different from any other text!!!! It can not be treated as any other text which we evalua...
More About: Christianity

Announcement: Blog Carnival
2007-05-30 18:17:00
On June 30, I will be posting a compilation of links to other blog posts which consider issues similar to those that I address. The intention is to bring together honest and reflective posts on the realities of life and the personal and philosophical journey one must take. The range of possible topics for submission is broad, in a sense, but must display thoughtful consideration of the basic and common questions pertaining to love, human existence, and God.Submissions do not need to be philosophical or theological in nature, personal reflections are equally as eligible. However, submission does not guarantee inclusion in the carnival. That determination will be based upon how closely the submission corresponds to the (broad) guidelines. You may submit your postings here, if there are any questions feel free to email me.
More About: Carnival , Announcement , Blog , Blog Carnival , Anno

The personally customizable Jesus, part 1
2007-05-30 16:47:00
Who is Jesus to you? Ask around and the incoming responses would certainly be diverse, influenced by anecdotal reflection and experience as well as social factors such as culture, ethnicity, and denominational affiliation. I suspect that many of these images would prove strikingly different from the portrayals in the gospels. Jesus tends to be de-contextualized, removed from the historical circumstance in which he lived, taught, and died, his words often misconstrued and applied to any given situation in which they seem to fit according to convention or personal conviction. Just as politicians and rhetoricians appeal to religious sentiment, adopting Jesus to bolster their particular platform or agenda, many fashion Jesus and his teaching according to their own perception or likeness.A prevalent misconception is that Jesus? central message was one of love. Many who assume this may have in mind the admonishments concerning the love of one?s neighbor or general notions of salvation. Ho...
More About: Part , Person , Persona , Custom

Forthcoming bliss and satisfaction
2007-05-27 07:39:00
I catch myself frequently assigning a date other than the present for whenever I?ll feel satisfied with my daily life. Some of it?s procrastination; I tend to put off today what (I convince myself) can be done tomorrow. I dread the hours my 20 page research paper will require so I put it off hoping that in another day I actually want to sit at my computer for hours on end. My quality of life, I tell myself, will improve exponentially when it?s done. I?ll be able to get up in the early morning and sip coffee by the window while reading the news, workout and run before noon, taking the rest of the day to read and write what I want ? whenever the paper?s done.I can?t mentally dismiss assigned academic work, as some apparently can, and blissfully watch movies or hang out. Whether it?s a lengthy paper or impending exam, it sticks in the back of my mind and follows me around constantly announcing its presence like the kid-brother your mother forced you to take to your crush?s birthday par...
More About: Sati , Satisfaction , Fort , Ming , Forth

Rejoinders and amicable concern, part 3
2007-05-24 04:49:00
This blog is part of a continue dialogue initiated by the post Questions of God . Jonathan?s reaction to part 2 may be found in the comment section below that post.Clarifications and reiterationsIn Jonathan?s recent response to my last post on this topic, I was taken to task over what he interpreted to be an absurd misconstrual of his conceptualization of the nature and composition of the Bible. However, I never accused him of believing in a ?purely divine production? which, implied by his allegation, evidently excludes the involvement of human agents and their distinct contexts, personalities, perspectives, and experiences. I realize that Jonathan recognizes the reality of human authors behind the text of the Bible and the particularity unique to each. But, this is the extent to which he acknowledges the Bible as a human composition.Here is what I mean: Jonathan argues for the supreme authority and inerrancy of the biblical text based upon the assumed indirect divine inspiration of ...
More About: Christianity , Part , Part 3 , Once

The dehumanizing effect of selfishness
2007-05-23 00:59:00
The brazen egoism rampant in society never fails to amaze me. I cannot understand how people unhesitatingly indulge their self-absorption and walk around with such unmerited auras of entitlement. It is a common and pervasive practice to disregard those encountered in the course of one?s day, treating others as mere occupiers of social roles, such as receptionists, employees, customers, salesmen, waiters, etc. We all have been guilty of this objectification, though in varying degrees of intensity and frequency. Some, however, habitually relegate the other solely to the capacity or function he or she occupies in their lives, never considering the other?s distinct personhood. This narcissistic attitude is conveyed in the way these sorts engage with other people, their behavior and interaction betraying this casual denigration of others.As server at a local grill and bar, I frequently witness this egocentric preoccupation of others. A recent incident occurred over the weekend when appro...
More About: Effect , Ness , Uman , The D

Love, from abstraction to application
2007-05-21 20:03:00
It is much easier to conceptualize love than it is to consistently demonstrate it in a practical, lived-out manner. Many can articulate lofty ideals of enduring faithfulness and mutual sacrifice in glowing abstract terms but its application in trivial and emotive daily affairs is deficient. It's hard to anticipate the abrasive conflicts that arise in relationships within or intending towards marriage. Once the initial romance and infatuation subsides and the individuals began to grow comfortable in the relationship their true personalities and characteristics show through, particularly the negative aspects. Part of the reason is that a sense of security and normality has been attained and, conversely, a tendency to take the relationship for granted. Conflicts typically arise over seemingly insignificant actions or careless words. One person feels disrespected and the other misunderstood, both defending themselves out of pride.Perhaps, during the beginning of a relationship, the sim...
More About: Love , Stra , Application , Trac

Personal upheavals of multiple varieties
2007-05-18 07:35:00
I was in my early teens, a couple years from graduating high school. It had been a typical day around house so far, nothing to do other than the laundry. As I headed upstairs from the basement a searing pain suddenly clenched my chest and seemed to twist it around my spine. My throat burned and tightened. I dropped to my knees and fell to the floor, tense with pain, terrified that I was dying of cardiac arrest. The sensation passed after about five minutes and everything seemed normal. I didn?t mention the incident to anyone, just dismissed it as indigestion.It was the second semester of freshman year in college and I was grabbing a quick lunch in the cafeteria in between classes. I had introduced myself to a guy sitting alone ? freshmen are outgoing like that ? and he offered me a seat though clearly not all that enthused about the company, but who comes out and says that? I was listening to whatever it was he was talking about while working my way through a feeble excuse for a che...
More About: Personal , Person , Persona , Sona

Rejoinders and amicable concern, part 2
2007-05-16 23:53:00
This blog is a continued dialogue which was initiated by the post Questions of God . My original intent behind that post wasn?t to delve into weighty theological issues and analytic philosophy, but rather to explore personal doubts and questions on an experiential level. However, Jonathan, a close friend, responded and prompted me to think further, taking it beyond the existential level. Jonathan?s first response, my initial rejoinder, and his rebuttal (to which I?m now responding) can be found at Rejoinders and amicable concern, part 1. Again, note that this is a conversation over differing ideological concepts, not some harbored hostility.Presuppositional apologetics and human reasonThe position articulated by Jonathan is heavily indebted to what has been called ?Presuppositional Apologetics.? The fundamental assumption of the position is that the Christian worldview ? at least the version advanced by Cornelius Van Til and the ilk ? is the only rational belief system. In contrast t...
More About: Christianity , Part , Once , Cable

Perpetual discontentment
2007-05-15 03:26:00
Loneliness and discontentment are inherent to being human. It?s ordinary for people to want their lives to have significance and to feel that their existence has a reason and purpose. As self-conscious beings, we recognize, unlike other animals, that our lives are temporal, that one day we will die. The internal ache for meaning resounds, its echo reaching us when all is silent and we?re in our most unguarded moments. A common method of dealing with this is to drown out the empty purposelessness with activity and busyness.Our modern society offers many avenues to quiet the sounds of one?s inner unrest, with scores of music and iPods to play it on, social networking, and cozy coffee shops with light jazz or indie tempering the atmosphere. Some people can?t handle the silence of being alone. The television is always on and their cell phone in hand. Anything to keep their mind occupied. What is it that?s so frightening?It seems that despite the fear of ultimate meaninglessness the tend...
More About: Disco , Disc , Tent , Contentment

Rejoinders and amicable concern
2007-05-13 20:48:00
A close yet geographically removed friend posted the following on Facebook in response to my recent blog about questioning God. The two of us are clearly situated at diverging points theologically and philosophically but note that this dialogue is colored by an underlying sense of sarcasm and friendly banter.His post:"I'll pray for you my agnostic friend...doubting even the existence of the Christian God are you...I would expect this much to be the result of a Lee grad theology student, but I also assumed you were anchored enought [sic] both experientially and philosophically to combat it. As impressed as i am by your flarely prose, I am sobered by your epistemological ambiguity stemming from your blanket autonomous reasoning seemingly detached altogether from the authority of the Holy Scriptures. How much you've shifted in just a few years!!!! PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF WHO YOUR INFLUENCES ARE!!!"My response:There?s nothing commendable in dogmatically believing what one has always beli...
More About: Christianity , Once , Cable

Questions of God
2007-05-13 02:07:00
One of the major obstacles to belief in a benevolent God is the abundance of gratuitous evil in the world. Unwarranted suffering is ubiquitous, pervading human existence. If one cares to look, situations of severe anguish and horrendous evil can be found everywhere, from Darfur and New Orleans to Indonesia and Blacksburg, Virginia. A traditional resolution or theodicy is to uphold human freedom and God?s resolve to allow human beings to act out of their own volition. This rationalization, however, doesn?t seem to address the inherent moral dilemma. Perhaps, freewill leading to suffering is understandable in cases of self-destruction, but what of situations where the innocent, especially children, fall prey to the will of the abusers, persecutors, and afflictors?If God is omnipotent, it must be within God?s capacity to alter and prevent such situations. Many claim that divine intervention has occurred in their own lives, thwarting death and other undesirable outcomes. Some maintain t...
More About: Questions , Quest

Pondering the afterlife
2007-05-11 08:05:00
For whatever reason, the notion of an afterlife has (apparently) existed throughout human history in one form or another. Perhaps, even in the primeval ages nonexistence was too much for people to comprehend so they developed metaphysical paradigms to shield against the anxiety. In ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, the person was thought to continue existing after death as a ghost restricted to the netherworld. Death was accepted as final, even then. Once one descended down the path of no return, there was no leaving the netherworld. Gilgamesh?s quest for immortality was averted, the unequivocal rationale being that immortality was reserved for the gods.More recent notions of the afterlife, such as heaven and hell, no doubt help alleviate existential anxiety and counter the injustice witnessed in the world. Heaven provides a future place for the good to be rewarded and to have a happy existence despite whatever suffering they might have been dealt on earth. An eternal...
More About: After , The A , Afterlife , Erin

Irony and the movies
2007-05-11 07:08:00
I find it rather ironic that George Lucas recently called Spider-Man 3 ?silly?, implying that the movie is nothing more than shallow entertainment. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?" That?s something like Bush chastising Blair for not withdrawing from Iraq; or the Chicago Bears starting Superbowl quarterback Rex Gross chiding secondary Brian Griese for failing to complete a pass. &title=" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank">
More About: Movies , Irony , The Movie , Iron , The Movies

Conceptualizing an enduring love
2007-05-08 05:15:00
When asked to define the nature of love, people tend to reach in many directions for insight, from anecdotal reflection on their personal lives to the larger familial and cultural values they have assimilated. One arrives at a conception of love through analysis and synthesis of his or her own experiences with the ideals that have been gleaned from external sources. This process is both conscious and unconscious in that it is an amalgamation of deliberate acts of reflection and unwitting adoption of values through environmental immersion and observation of what has been modeled by parents and others.Perhaps the most immediately accessible source is popular media. Compelling conceptions can be found in music, film, books, etc., and may be overt or subliminal. At times love, as presented, is utterly self-gratifying, ephemeral, and stems from physical or sexually desires. In other cases, love is depicted as heroic and self-sacrificial, assuming a mythic quality more at home within the ...
More About: Love , Once , Concept , Conceptual

Suspended commencement
2007-05-05 22:49:00
The bells have ceased their tolling and most of the Dodge Caravans left three hours ago. Another graduation ceremony has passed and several hundred people are now officially (and presumably) launched onto bigger and better things. Those involved no doubt sensed the monumental nature of the event with their family thronging about cajoling them to pose for endless photos. The campus, however, is now barren, the only movement belonging to the few straggling employees removing the decorative banners brought out only for the occasion. The cool gray sky and the calls of birds accentuate the unusual vacancy.I recall watching my family?s minivan pull away after being dropped off my freshman year. I wondered what I was in for and if I had made the biggest mistake of my life. Five years later and this town seems more like home than where I grew up. The irony is that I want to leave this place. Many of my friends graduated with me last year and left. The few who also enrolled in the M.A. progr...
More About: Commencement , Cement , Comm

How Spider-Man broke my heart
2007-05-05 00:45:00
Superhero movies are among my guilty-pleasures, right above epic period films. Batman Begins and the first two Spider -Man films are some of my favorites from the genre. I generally anticipate the release of superhero movies for months in advance, with the exception of Ghost Rider and other obscure characters. I?m already stoked about Iron Man and The Dark Knight (the Batman sequel) both coming out next summer. This being said, I couldn?t have been more excited about Spider-Man 3. All of the principal actors returning, Sam Raimi once again directing, villains Sandman and Venom; it seemed destined to be two hours and twenty minutes of web-swinging eye-candy.I was disappointed. Depressed, actually. The 3 a.m. drive home from the midnight showing (which started late and required shifting the entire audience to another screen) did nothing to help my foul mood. The first half-hour is great, seeming to set up an amazing arch for the rest of the movie. Old history is quickly revisited and n...
More About: Heart , Spider man

The disquieting nature of maturity
2007-05-04 00:49:00
As a child, the young pine forest next to my house seemed an infinite source of wonder and adventure. The trees were slender and dense, careening skyward, their evergreen canopy thwarting any optimistic penetration of sunlight. It was a world unto itself, like Sherwood or Narnia, a place where my imagination was given free reign. I would sketch maps plotting out the beaten trails and the quickest routes to the old tobacco barns concealed deep in its recesses. Entire summers could be spent fantasizing about the forts and hideouts I wanted to build. I was brazen and entered the wood without fear. But when you?re young, that?s also how you look at life, wide-eyed and enthusiast, unaware of the lurking dangers, inevitable pain, and the indifference of the world towards your quest for meaning.I was one of the fortunate few, spared any real trauma or disillusionment during childhood. All too many are exposed to the harshness of life at a young age, sometimes through abuse, neglect, or the...
More About: Nature , Maturity , Natur , The D , Quiet

Apprehension and vocational ambiguities
2007-04-28 05:51:00
Determining my desired vocational course is rather daunting. The ensuing anxiety is surpassed only by the gravity of pledging myself in marriage. I fear becoming locked into a career which I loathe and provides little money to boot. There?s a lot of pressure which accompanies growing older, graduating college, and determining a subsequent course of action. Up this point, my biggest decisions have been selecting a college to attend and to love a particular woman to whom I have since proposed. Both are certainly major and established certain parameters which may restrict later decision, but I had a higher degree of confidence that those were the decisions I wanted to make. I don?t have the same certainty when it comes to my vocation.My unconscious method to forestall this decision has been to continue my education. After college I considered taking a year away from academics, the constant obligation and responsibility to read and write out of compulsion had long begun to drain me. How...
More About: Vocation , Sion , Vocational

Commentary: "The Road"
2007-04-27 18:37:00
Cormac McCarthy?s latest work The Road , which was recently awared with the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is set in a desolate and razed America a few years removed from some unknown global calamity which laid waste to everything. Most of humanity has been eliminated and the remaining straglers are left scavengering for food and even preying on the unlucky weakest and less cunning. Yet, this is not a disguised polemic about inevitable nuclear holocaust or the consequences of global warming disregarded for too long. It is an intimate and understated story about a father and his young son as they travel through the barren country in an effort to reach the coast, not knowing what awaits them.The two protagonists remain nameless, known only to the other. But names aren?t necessary since they are truly all the other has. In McCarthy?s words, ?? they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other?s world entire? (6). The Road subtly illustrates th...
More About: Commentary , Menta , Comment , Comm