Fascinating Captain

[Laudate_Dominum]

Alexander the Great is fascinating.
The Maurya Empire is fascinating.
Graeco-Buddhism is fascinating.
The history of Greater Persia is fascinating.
Sufism is fascinating.
The Neolithic Age is fascinating.
The Bronze Age is fascinating.
Mycenaean Greece is fascinating.
Mongolia is fascinating.
Ethiopia is fascinating.
The moons of Jupiter are fascinating.
Hermetica is fascinating.
Homo floresiensis is fascinating.
Nicholas of Cusa is fascinating.
The Han Dynasty is fascinating.
The Qin Dynasty is also fascinating.
Ibn Arabi is fascinating.
The Cyprus Dwarf Elephant is fascinating.
Birds of Paradise are fascinating.
Bob Marley is fascinating.
Helium is fascinating.
The Kingdom of Urartu is fascinating....


This list could not doubt be continued for billions of lifetimes and much more considering what the total content of the universe must be through all of time. The question is, how to appreciate the world? Where to begin? How to proceed? What to do when life is so short and so much of it is spent sleeping and doing bizarre chores? Why have a mind capable of curiosity and fascination if we're merely designed to scratch along in life in a way not really so much above the beasts?

Intended as a random discussion starter...

[ardillacid]

Time is fascinating

[laetitia crucis]

This is something I think about somewhat often.... so many things that are just truly FASCINATING, and yet, there is so little time.

It would be a luxury to be able to go to school for the rest of my life, just to learn for the sake of learning. Every aspect of creation, of life, reveals something so simple and yet profound about God... ...I suppose the only time any of us will ever fully be able to indulge in that kind of learning is in the Beatific Vision. Seeing God face-to-face, loving Him, and truly [i]knowing[/i] Him in the truest sense of [i]knowing[/i] Him. Ahhhh...

I suppose when we get caught up with "every day life" it helps me at least to think about some of the simple things in life that reveal God's mercy or His genius (or both) working through weak human instruments in modern times. As silly as it sounds, sometimes I find myself pondering "What must it have been like to live in the time of Jesus...? To know Him as one of His contemporaries?" or perhaps thoughts of living in the time of Sts. Francis and Dominic. Then (this is the silly bit) coming back to reality, when those random "modern everyday life" type things creep in... and I am reminded that we have the "privilege" of living in a place with running water, air conditioning and heating, and perhaps one of the best things evar: indoor plumbing. And not even Jesus had those things... and He is God Incarnate.

Then I am both fascinated and oh-so-grateful for His Mercy and compassion. (Truly. )

God is good. Sometimes maybe a little [i]too[/i] good to us. Hahaahaha!

[Laudate_Dominum]

Oh, +1's all around. More later.

[zunshynn]

Doing the dishes can be fascinating. Dusting can be fascinating. Cleaning a sink can be fascinating. Chopping carrots can be fascinating. Sitting in traffic can be fascinating. It's all a matter of how you look at things.

I don't recall where the quote is from, but I think it was Chesterton that said something along the lines that all too often man makes the mistake of thinking that something is only thrilling if it is big and loud. But that God knows what is truly fascinating... repetition, and monotony, and things that are small... that's why there are so many of them. Like we think that something is wonderful when it is uncommon, but when God thinks something is wonderful, He makes them very common. Like dandelions, which we think are weeds.

I wish I remembered where I was getting that from. None of those are my ideas. I certainly don't think like that, unfortunately.

[BG45]

Sometimes it's the small things in life. It's rather cliché, but true. It's one thing that definitely separates us from the beasts as you put it LD; we're able to appreciate things that are simple to us.

[cruciatacara]

thinking is fascinating