Piqued

As I was perusing the movies and shows available for instant viewing on Netflix, I noticed that the second season of Showtime’s serial-killer drama Dexter had been added.  I’d seen the first season and a few episodes of the second with one of my roommates in college, but hadn’t finished it.  So I’d been catching up over the last week and ended up spending the better part of my day off today finishing them.

Ok, I also got a haircut, signed an apartment lease, crashed a sale on cleaning supplies at Ace hardware (thanks to a tip from my current roommate), and cooked an egg with onions and mushrooms with my new Calphalon One Infused Anodized frying pan (factory second on sale at the outlet store) and one of the ridiculously sharp knives in the J.A. Henckels set I just received from Amazon (also on sale).  And started putting together the website for my video production hobby/business.  So my day wasn’t completely spent vegging out in front of my computer screen.

But the reason for this blog post is in fact the show Dexter, and the last line from the awesome season 2 finale.  Dexter, an emotionally-deprived police blood splatter expert with a traumatic past who moonlights as a serial criminal-killer, spends a lot of time trying to figure out who he is and whether he is good or evil.  His conclusion at the end of the final episode?  “Am I evil?  Am I good?  I’m done asking those questions.  I don’t have the answers.  Does anyone?”

continue reading…

So that’s the conclusion I’ve come to in the last few days.  No, I’m not struggling with depression because of it, and it’s certainly not the first time it’s dawned on me that the human race is fallen and sinful.  And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with Obama’s inauguration (as much as I disagree with him on many issues, I’m cautiously optimistic that he’ll be at least a reasonable president).  It really doesn’t have to do with anything in particular, except a realization that if you dabble too much in worldliness, it gets to you after a while.

I haven’t been doing anything that unusual and none of the things that have contributed to this subtly oppressive feeling is that serious by itself.  But put together, without anything particularly redeeming to balance them, they become a stronger force than you’d think.

It started with the books I read on my recent vacation.  None of them are overtly anti-Christian or immoral, but each of them has a decidedly agnostic/atheistic worldview.  Now, I don’t think it’s bad for Christians to get that perspective every now and then.  I’m a firm believer in the strengthening effect that challenges can have on our faith, and for me, the “reasoned” perspective of atheism is the one I find myself most sympathetic with.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no atheist and don’t think I’m in danger of becoming one.  The more I learn about creation and the more I observe in our world, the more convinced I become that God exists and is involved in our world.  And as I’ve researched the history of the Bible, I’ve only found my confidence in its truthfulness strengthened.  What I’m saying is that if there’s one worldview besides my own that I have some respect for, it’s that of wise, well-intentioned individuals who reject all religions on the basis of personal experience and reasoning.

continue reading…

Howdy!

Now that I’m a college graduate about to take the next big step of independence, I decided it’d be a good time to get into a tradition of writing an annual update for friends and family.  For now, it’ll just be in the form of a blog post…maybe in the future it’ll become something a bit more formal like an actual letter.

I’ve been a college graduate for three days now, and I can’t say anything feels very different.  The ceremony was fun, since I graduated with a bunch of friends from class and my time working at Hewlett-Packard, as well as one of my roommates.  And the convocation was particularly memorable since President Bush was the speaker.  I’m not a huge fan of a lot of what he’s done as president, but it was an honor to have him there and he gave an excellent speech.  Another memorable part of the end of the semester was the highly unusual snowfall that hit College Station on the last day of finals.  It was the perfect conclusion to the semester, not to mention my time at college, and I got some good pictures as I explored campus with one of my roommates.

continue reading…