I have now been doing the Vow of the Nazarite for six months. To me the time seems to have gone by so quickly which is funny because at the beginning of the year I thought the time would crawl by. The beard has grown in fairly well. Not trimming has allowed for a few uneven areas, but it shapes into a pretty good looking beard when I want to look presentable. Which I will have to do tomorrow since I have a job interview for a tutoring company.
I've been reading the Bible chronologically and have made it to the book of the Judges. I've also been doing research into the history and archaeology surrounding the people and places that are mentioned in the Old Testament in order to get a better understanding of the culture that the Bible came from. I'm thinking of putting my notes up on another blog. I have really enjoyed having so much information at hand and really want to have a dialogue about the story and the creation of the Book without getting into a religious argument. I feel that learning the truth about the Bible gives us an even better appreciation for God's work through it.
The school year ended well with only one incident of beard pulling by the kids. It didn't hurt too much and I was able to diffuse the situation quickly, but I do need to be aware of the danger there in the future. The teachers that I work with in the SDC classes all know about the vow, but I haven't mentioned it to the principal or the other Gen Ed teachers. I hope it doesn't present a problem for the first half of the school year. I think I will always have this element of paranoia at the work place with facial hair. Working for Disneyland will do that. :-)
Now on to the rant of the Nazarite. With all the talk about 2012 and the obvious ridiculousness of it meaning anything about the end of the world I can't help but feel a little eerie sense of coincidence with the path that we are taking as a global race of humans.
After a rather quiet beginning of the year the world seems to be slipping further into a chaotic state. There are all kinds of really crazy and morbidly violent attacks happening with more frequency it seems. Family members killing family members over small disputes. The idea of a designer drug called bath salts had been blamed for some of the more crazy stories. However, the most popular story involving a man attacking and eating the face of another man has now been shown to have no link to the drug. In fact the toxicology report that was released showed that the crazed individual had no known street drugs in his system other than marijuana. Its like there's a tension in the air and it is making us all tense and some folks it is literally driving crazy.
The madness is not just in America, though. It's all over the world and with the internet and social media it is being observed by more and more of humanity at a faster pace. Situations in the global economy are very bi-polar with agreements and compromises reached one day and then broken the next. Wars and revolutions abound with the lines dividing the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' blurring with each new report of torture. The major problems of our time are met with apathy, lots of talk with no action and procrastination.
You see the ideological hatred in a frenzy all over the world and each culture calls it something different. We fight between Shia and Sunni, Democrat and Republican, between the leaders of nations or between the three main branches of monotheism; Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Still others war between Science and Religion or a many number of other things that only us humans are concerned about.
If the Devil does exist and he revels in bringing about the destruction of Humanity then it is his handy work that is being observed at the center of all the conflicts of these dying institutions. If the Devil does not exist then it is even worse for us because we are destroying ourselves with our own power. If we have such a capacity for destruction and apathy for the lives of our fellow human beings what wonders would we accomplish if we focused our energies on construction and Life?
Sigh. I don't know if we will ever get to a place where we will find out the answer to that question. At least not in my lifetime, anyway.
Man, I really could use a drink.
