I recently finished archiving a number of journal posts from my old LiveJournal account here on Musings For A Darkened Room.  Before I began seriously blogging I updated friends and family using the free services of LiveJournal.  At the time my blogging efforts were nothing more than journaling my daily life.  I would typically post about the ins and outs of my daily routine and only on the slight occasion did I post anything outside of that.  HOWEVER, I came across a few of those occasional posts which I wanted to share with some of my newer readers.  Most of them still hold some social value, or I just really enjoyed writing.

Understand obviously that many of these posts were written 3-4 years ago and my writing skills were not nearly at the level they are now, though I’m not saying they are exactly up to par just yet.  Hopefully these entries will pique your interest and bring back some life into these old forgotten posts. Enjoy!

Write It Just Like That, But Not Really – A post about school censorship and how we are striking down creativity and self exploration at a critical time in adolescent lives.  How can teens discover who they are if they aren’t allowed to be themselves?  Especially in this case where a student is told to write an assignment in a certain style and then gets severely punished for doing just that.

For My Fellow Pagan Bloggers – Have You Found Jesus? – A funny story that I shared from a Yahoo! Group that I belonged to at the time.  It tells of a woman who had been preached to by multiple people about religion in a single day and how she calmly, but comically responded to the last person.

God’s Politics – My response to a change made to the Kevin & Bean morning show which airs weekday mornings on Los Angeles based radio station 106.7 KROQ.  The changes which stemmed from a strongly right wing political environment were in my opinion unwarranted and ultimately show how the Christian values of politics and society have struck fear into corporations and the media.

The Story of Father Time – A funny anecdote about an experience I had with an elderly gentleman in a Carl’s Jr. restaurant who was convinced that only his Timex had the correct time.

Christianity, Striking Fear Into the Naive and Gullible For Centuries… – I repost a ridiculous list of warning signs that a church by the name of St. Mary’s Catholic Church provided parents with as an aid in determining if their teen was turning goth.  Sadly a large portion of the things listed are pretty normal behavior for a teenager.  A couple of my favorites are, “Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult.” and “Watches cable television or any other corrupted media sources.”

Wedding Invitations & Save the Date Cards – The last and only truly personal post in the group.  This post showed scans of both the Save the Date Card and Wedding Invitations that Misty and I hand made for our wedding using scrapbooking materials.  It was perhaps the most tedious task of my life, but it made our wedding related mailers one of a kind.

I have added a significant number of older posts dating all the way back to August of 2003.  Most of them again are just personal journals that I kept, many of which were related to my early days of dating Misty up until the point in which we were married.  I doubt there is anything of real interest outside of what I provided above unless you want to get a glimpse into my life a few years back.

I moved nearly everything that was hosted on LiveJournal over, however the account still exists and there are still a number of posts with either surveys and tests or just posts that I felt were too general and irrelevant to bring over to Musings.  If you’re interested you can still read the rest at A Day In the Dark

I recently picked up the most recent issue of newWitch Magazine and was pleased to see the piece written by Dagonet Dewr on the pagan influence that can be found in the C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. People have always been quick to point out the strong Christian undertones in this book and even more so with the recent release of the film, however Dewr clearly argues that there is in fact just as much pagan teaching in the book as there is Christian dogma. Many Christian churches have been pushing the book and film on children, probably in hopes to bring them closer to the Christian faith. However they don’t realize that with the book as well as the film these children will find many other things common to pagans. Things such as magic, mythical creatures, and of course witches. Things that will make them ask questions that many Christian parents may or may not be ready to answer. A full transcript of the article from newWitch.com can be found below…

I have been watching with some veiled amusement an absolute tornado buzzing and whirring around on some of the Pagan e-lists I’m on. Seems that some evangelical Christian churches have been putting together trips for public school kids to see the movie adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ book The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. I suspect the organizers of this effort believe that exposure to Lion will help bring the poor, unchurched kids to Jesus. In response, some Pagans are hideously offended and are calling for efforts to try and stop kids from seeing the movie.

My response is a little different ­ I ask, “where do I send a check to help fund this noble effort?”

This whole brouhaha is, to me, a perfect example of the notorious Pagan inferiority complex run amuck. Here’s my question: If one didn’t know that the author was a fervent evangelical would you categorize Lion as a Christian story with Pagan overtones, or a Pagan story with Christian overtones?

It is true that the central plot device of Lion involves a sacrificial death, and the primary antagonist of the story is the White Witch. But although Lewis meant for the story to be an allegory for the Christian gospel, the motif of the sacrificial (and resurrected) god is far older than Christianity. Ask any worshipper of Baldur, Dionysos Dendritus, Tammuz, Osiris, or any one of a number of other gods; sacrifice is a an element of myths about the human virtue or condition, not a solely Christian one.

Is there Pagan content in Lion? You bet. A short list: Dryads. Fauns. Centaurs. Magick. A truly Pagan Father Christmas. Talking animals. A creator deity who is also an animal spirit. A villain who subverts the natural order of the seasons. Griffons. Unicorns. Healing that comes from a maiden figure (if Lucy isn’t the Maiden in disguise as a British pre-teen, I don’t know who is.) There’s a lot more Paganism in there than Christian dogma. We need to evaluate the real threats to our community and concentrate our efforts on campaigns that matter. C.S. Lewis was a good storyteller, and a passionate and orthodox (though not fundamentalist) Christian, but I wonder if the folks who want to make sure that every kid in the world sees Lion know what they are really doing. They are exposing kids to magic and just because it is supposed to be Christian magic doesn’t mean that it is any less magical. For every Pagan kid who is converted to Christianity by seeing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe there will surely be hundreds of Christian kids who will be exposed to magic, and perhaps, get to Paganism through wondering about dryads. I should know, I was one of them.

I came across this in one of my Yahoo! Groups and got a kick out of it and thought I’d share:

So, I’m standing at a bus stop and they pull up. A car load of well meaning, bible thumping nut cases that are just frantic! The middle aged professionally dressed woman rushes forward…She takes my arm and with trembling voices she asks….”Have you found Jesus?”  Her eyes plead with an urgency that is out of proportion to a bus stop. Now normally I just politely decline the sermon, and free religious paperwork that such folk pawn off on unsuspecting by-standers. But unfortunately for her, she is the fourth car to accost me in the last 20 minutes. So by now I’m beginning to wonder what the heck is wrong with these people. I mean if its not Christians it is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Can a simple Druid get no peace?

So calmly as I can muster, without being sarcastic I reply, “You people lost him, again??”  The woman looks confused. This is not the response she was hoping for and she needs to regroup. She takes a deep breath intending to launch into her sales pitch for her God, and church, paying no heed to the concept that *I*
might not be into being converted. I decide to not let her get going so I launch into a speech of my own…

“What is wrong with you Christians? Every time I turn around you’ve lost Him!” I hit her with a glare of accusation. “I mean really…” I take a measured breath. “How do you expect to have anyone follow a deity that you can’t even find!”

The poor woman looks stunned. This isn’t going so good. Panicked she looks desperately to the car… Surely one of the men can help…. Undaunted I press on… “Maybe the problem is with you people… I mean Muslims never seem to lose there deity. Come to think of it neither do Jews, or Pagans of any kind.”

I look at the man getting out of the car. He’s all smiles. “I realize you people used to burn people like me at the stake… What was that about deity even? I may be a Pagan-heathen, but I have never ever woke up panicked that I couldn’t find my Goddess or God. They are always right where they should be… In the fire of my candle, in the air that I breath, in the earth that I stand on, in the water of my spring. I never feel abandoned by my deity(ies).”

“Of course, you Christians aren’t much fun…” I continue. By now they are all out of the car. Befuddled, aghast, and at a loss for words. “Of course,” I offer trying to give them some defense for losing Jesus. “He
could have left due to religious differences. If I remember correctly He was Jewish. So if you are really so eager to find him…” I smile gently to soften the blow. “Check the nearest synagogue. He’s probably in there. Also you folks should try and remember that this is America… Where freedom of religion means ALL religions.”

Slowly they climb back into their car and drive away. I stand at the bus stop… No pamphlets, no bible, no dogma. I haven’t found Jesus, but I haven’t lost him either.  Oh and if you’ve found Jesus, please get his face on the evening news A.S.A.P so the Christians can stop looking for him.