Ah, the joys of the ADF posts. You know, though people can get offensive, ornery and confrontational on those lists, I find them extremely beneficial because they make me think. They open up new doorways in my mind and cause me to see other's perspectives on issues in ADF and spirituality.

   The posts today - and most of the past few days - seem to center around one person's complaint about the lenght of ADF essays and assignments. The responses that bother me are the ones that hint or say outright that the person in question is just being lazy. Personally, I didn't find that in any of her posts - in fact, not to be mean, but it seems in the way she types that she may be dissabled in this respect or even possibly uneducated. If a person has a low reading/writing level or has a disability, I can completely understand why they would have trouble with the requirements of the ADF DP. I can also understand why it might be difficult for her to go into her problems in detail with a bunch of strangers being as cynical and outspoken as they are - it could be something that she finds embarasing to talk about.

    I personally don't think it has anything to do with laziness. Even though I struggle to get through the requirements with most people, I find it's more because of my bad memory (forgetting to keep up with it) and simply finding the time (especially during the semester). As for what the DP is for? This is another question that seemed to come up on this strain of posts. I agree with a lot of the folks who said that the difficulty in the journey is what they joined ADF for. However, I can also see how one could skate through it still, despite any requirements or "difficulty." As terrible as it sounds, I skated through catecism classes when I was Catholic, and they had more requirements than ADF, plus they had time limits. It wasn't until I became truely interested in my spirituality that I started to really make the program work for me. At the time, that was when I found out that Catholicism wasn't for me. I don't think that the DP is there for me to struggle through it to make a better me. I think the DP is there for me to learn more about myself and my chosen path, but to also WORK for me. Sure, I could choose to BS my way through it and probably sound like I know what I'm talking about and that I spent time meditating and really thinking about it - and I might pass that way. I could also learn as much as I want about ADF and IE religions, my own spirituality and all sorts of things withough taking the DP. But I choose to study this path through the DP because I feel I can make it work for me.

    For example, in meditation; Honestly, most of the time I don't have the time to sit and go through the steps of clearing my mind and relaxing, and since I know how to do it (I learned at a young age) I don't always feel the need to. Most of the time I come to enlightened conclusions simply by thinking things through. Perhaps this is just another way of meditating, but whatever the reasoning, it works for me. My point is, one doesn't necessarily always have to go by the book to come to the same conclusion. This is why I don't think the DP is simply a set of rules to follow, such as "going by the book." I think the DP is more of a way to explain how you got to the end result and how you plan to keep going from there.