I'd Like to Thank My Higher Power For... Stuff

So anyway I have all these culture issues. That's the trendy way to refer to reservations and disputes - as "issues." But as I was saying, I'm watching this "Rock and Religion" program on Vh-1. It's the usual mixture of gossip, facts, and hoo-ha (as if anyone cared or took seriously Madonna's "explorations" of the Kabbala). The usual suspects are served up: Little Richard, Prince... U2 is going to be sprinkled in somewhere. So far the consensus is that God wants you to know that sex and rock'n'roll is okay, but that "religious leaders" aren't ready to accept that. I don't know why I was expecting something other than the usual rehash of stuff we already know or have been told over and over again until most people under twenty think that it's written in the Constitution: religion is good if it allows you to "express" your emotions, bad if it tries to impose any discipline whatsoever; Madonna is controversial; priests and ministers of traditional religions "just don't get it," and so forth. There's some intense, red-headed and bearded skinny little author commenting on all of this, who looks disturbingly like the actor who plays Byers in The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. (Note - the last link will probably very soon be condemned to the Sea of 404 Errors, since that show has been cancelled.) In any case, I'm beginning to think that the only "religious" rockstar with any balls was Cat Stevens, who at least went all the way instead of dabbling with the fun parts of trendy exotic beliefs. I'm still waiting for Bono and co. to get to the part of Christianity that realizes you can only improve this world just so much.

Well, I have to think of more stuff to say, since I want to upload this on the actual day I am writing it. This Vh-1 program is so boring. Bob Dylan? The man is sixty. I was never into him. I never "got" Elvis either. A couple of songs here and there were good, but the Elvis Mystique makes me feel like an alien from the planet Zwarg - we just don't care about this stuff in my solar system.

Today, as has been the case all week, we had a real bang-crasher of a thunder storm. Lightning, rain so heavy it sounded like hail, wind, thunder, computers going off, lights fading off and on, UPS devices blinking... Yet we are still under a drought, apparently. And I woke up this morning to see aphids in my milkweed plant, which I planted to entice butterflies. Except for one little silvery-gray butterflyette all I have enticed are the aphids and a very persistent wasp. Why, god, why? The herbs, however, are doing well, except for the ones I have been trying to grow from seed - of those, only the basil has produced shoots.

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