Coffee & cathedrals

I'm going to need coffee if this is to be in any way interesting.

So, yeah. Blatant thievery, or I wouldn't be here doing this. I have minimal html skills. Sorry, Angela. (And thanks, Gina!)

I've kept journals on and off since I was, like, 12. At 12 it was all "I hate my mom" and "That guy Brian is really cute!" etc. In my 20's, of course, it was all about passion and meaning and "what's it all about?" See, now, I've figured that bit out: It's not about anything in particular, and it doesn't matter. There's lots of interesting stuff to do anyway.

So here I am, joining the trend of narcissism and reality exposee with rantings of my own. Hell, if you can do it, so can I. Hats off to the pioneers: Jamie, Gina, Elise, Angela, and this girl, who has endured such tragedy and trauma that if she showed up on my doorstep I'm uncertain whether I'd (a) wrap my arms around her or (b) run like hell.

So, it's not about anything in particular, but there's so much to love! Some things are just staggering. The awesome devotion, for instance, of medieval Europeans who summoned the unified energies of the *entire* town for upwards of two centuries, to build towering cathedrals that jutted right into their god's living room, for instance. Now, I'm not terribly fond of religion; to each her own, and all that. But considering the general apathy and banality of folks and our lives these days, within some kind of ratio (I'll leave that to you, I'm not super mathematically-inclined) measuring the effort required to do something *spectacular* within the technology at hand... yeah. You go check out the Milan cathedral, and come back and tell me what a friggin' Wonder of the Modern World the ubiquitous 50-story skyscrapers downtown are.

Then of course, there's Vegas. That's a whole different story. That place is amazing, really. Change the "god" into "profit" and you've got some serious temples of devotion rivalling Chartres.