'Peter Pan's gots kids?'

Why do people have kids? Is it because children make a family feel complete? Because they add to the overall love quota? Is is a basic human instinct to propitiate the human race? Or is it a lesson in flagellation? (Hehe.)

Of course I have thought about having kids, but it would completely change our lives. Financially, physically and emotionally (no specific order there). There must be positives to it since so many people have kids. I even want them sometimes - but I can never put my finger on why, other than (occasionally) the idea makes me all fuzzy inside.

Although this doesn't apply to adoption - I only feel fuzzy about that little Tereffrey that would be running around. Maybe it's about possession and creative pride - 'I made that kid.'

Hm. Well, any thoughts?

what human invention are you the most grateful for?

MOM(Ms. Literal Pants): 1) sewing machines - "we would still be stitching our own clothes by hand!" 2) artificial heat - "we don't have to rely on the sun for heat" (Although I think this just makes us suffer the injustice of living here rather than Hawaii!!!!!)
DAD: printing press - "those scribes would be cramping up"
JEFF: electricity - "otherwise there wouldn't be electric guitars"
ME: 1) libraries - "free knowledge, can't get any better than that!" 2) indoor plumbing "although there are some really cool looking outhouses"

the dark back of time

"It is always said that behind every novel lies an episode, however pallid or tenuous or intermittent, in the life or reality of the author, thought it may have been transfigured. This is said as if in distrust of the imagination and the inventive faculties, and also as if readers and critics needed something to hang onto, to keep from falling prey either to the strange vertigo of that which is absolutely invented and without experience or basis-as if they did not want to feel the horror of something that appears to exist as we read it, that breathes and whispers and sometimes even persuades, yet has never been-or to the ultimate absurdity of taking seriously what is only a representation, as if they were struggling against the lurking awareness that reading novels is a childish pastime, or at least inappropriate to the adult life that is always gaining on us." -The Dark Back of Time by Javier Marias.

I love this, it reads as my thoughts on the subject. It exasperates me when people ask, "but what does it mean?" while looking at art, or reading a story. It is what it makes you feel. Whether the reader wrote out of real experience or with a particular emotion, what it means is how it makes you feel. Nothing more. Nothing less. Every piece of art doesn't need a title. It can just be art.

wish lists

Does it defeat the purpose of present giving, if you make a list beforehand? When I was really little I started making up birthday wish lists and posting them on the fridge (partially because I had this fear that people would otherwise forget my birthday! as if i would let them!). I still continue to do this, and from my point of view it makes sense. For those who know me well, I can be quite fickle and it may be hard to figure out what I really want if I didn't write it down for them. However, this year Jeff is coming up with a list too, and I feel like if it is coming from the same pocket why don't we just buy it for ourselves. Of course then there isn't any surprise left at all. Hm.
What are your thoughts?

i have lots to be thankful for...

Others have done this, and I thought it a wonderful idea, so here is a list of things that I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1. The occasional sunny day that brilliantly offsets the rain and gloom (today)
2. Jeff who adores me and who is my life
3. Parents who live close enough that we can crash their place for weekends and vice versa
4. This one is a little dreary, but I am thankful I can function fairly well most days
5. Friends who want to hang out with me, for hours
6. Family who love me and are proud of me because I'm me
7. Although I am sometimes annoyed of this, I am also thankful that I have a bad memory...I tend to have more optimism that way (I can't remember the bad stuff!)
8. That I have talents in so many areas
9. For the conviction I have in the things I believe, about whats right, about God
10. That I have dreams and goals (that are attainable)

here is a realization

that I figured I should write down so I will remember it, and maybe it will mean something to someone else:

As I wrote to Jeff today, "Loving something is losing yourself to that love, to whatever you love, and whatever you love becomes apart of you." That seems to go for most anything. I love Jeff, and that has changed me. I love God and that has changed me.