Yeah...and so, anyway...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy I found this little item on Rachel Maddow's website via Twitter...you know, doing the social media scoping and snooping (hereby known as SMS&S, only on this blog) and I promptly forgot about the story I was originally looking for. This was far more diabolical, provocative, so...Star War-ish, that I had to check it out. Yes, I wrote "Star War-ish", with a nod to comedian Jaime Foxx's stand up routine. Come on now, if you watched the video you have to admit, there are similarities--think of a miniaturized, non-lethal Death Star, or those energy bolts streaming from Emperor Palpatine's hands that tortured poor Luke Skywalker. The difference is that the rays are invisible (Isn't it a shame that CG effects don't work in real life?), and as far as I know, they do not kill. At least for now they don't, although I suspect that someone is working feverishly to produce a terminatin...

Apparently, there are more than five people reading this blog, which is something I didn't know before. Quite frankly, I've been neglecting this piece of the blogosphere for other writing ventures, such as the Sacramento Baha'i Examiner , Angela's eHow page and BerthaButtNoMore , not to mention one story for Associated Content and another for Bukisa.com. Then there's the social media thing, you know, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg...good grief, there are so many ways to get lost (or addicted) on the Internet! I've been feeling a lot of guilt about my attention deficit for this site, especially since it was my initial foray into the world of blogging on the Internet. But quite a few of you haven't forgotten about it, and for that reason, this four year old mashup of my foibles, reflections and always evolving perspective of the Baha'i Faith was voted as one of the top 100 Baha'i blogs by Online University . When I was notified of the award, I ...

'Abdu'l-Bahá on Suffering and Tests "Does the soul progress more through sorrow or through the joy in this world?" `Abdu'l-Bahá. -- "The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment. His attitude in this world will be that of divine happiness. Man is, so to speak, unripe: the heat of the fire of suffering will mature him. Look back to the times past and you will find that the greatest men have suffered most." Paris Talks: Addresses given by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1911-1912, 11th ed. (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979), pp. 178-79. I never think about personal suffering, in fact, I have trouble accepting the concept of su...