So, I tried to cancel my Twitter account the other day and discovered that I had failed to stash away the passwords in a safe place and have, of course, forgotten them. So, I guess Twitter is going to follow me forever.

I wanted to cancel it because I discovered the other day that Twitter is stupid. I think I may have figured this out before, might even have known it before I signed up for it, but for some reason that obvious fact didn’t seem to have any impact on me.

The other day, God forgive me again, I spent at least an hour reading a comments thread on Facebook. What a fecking idiot! I could have spent that hour looking out the window at the valley or reading a comic book or digging out another patch of garden.

I suggest that this is further evidence that the innernet in general makes you stupid. It might also make you evil, at least a little bit.

Mike seems to have taken exception to Fr. Longenecker’s thing.

I dunno. Guys like Longenecker seem only interested in scoring points. Against whom, I’m not sure. But I’m sure it’s not really worth feeding the trolls.

I suppose if we were to use the innernet more intelligently, it might not be so bad. But think for a moment – if you still can – what I just said. “Intelligently.” Yeah, I kind of see the problem there too.

Here’s what Fr. Vitalis Lehodey says about Catholics who use the innernet all the time:

“How can a Catholic who wants to be holy spend all his time looking at the internet, neglecting to observe silence and be also a man of prayer? Besides multiplying acts o disobedience, small scandals and large, and sins of the tongue, he shows by his avid internet chattering that God is not enough for him, that he knows not how to abide with himself and watch over his interior. By commenting, he is constantly labouring to empty himself of God, to lose the perfume of piety, to extinguish all devotion. By reading and constant surfing, (he aims) to fill his soul with dissipation and to deliver it up to the demon of curiosity and levity.”

Ways of Mental Prayer, p. 40.

A paraphrase, but that’s the gist, I think.

The whole book can be downloaded here. I’ve started reading it.

Honestly, it’s getting harder every day to keep thinking this whole Francers/NewChurch/endoftheworld business is very important. What do we need to know that we don’t already know?

I have a friend who spent three years in a Carmelite monastery after spending several years in the news biz. When she was getting ready to go in, she said she wanted to keep in touch with the news cycle. She said the nuns needed to know what was going on so they could pray for the world. I said, “You’ve been doing this for how long now? And you don’t know what’s wrong with the world? I think you already know everything you need to know.”

Here’s a little poem from C.S. Lewis on being clever and scoring points.

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more

From all the victories that I seemed to score;

From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf

At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;

From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead

Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.

From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,

O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.

Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,

Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

– C. S. Lewis

My Carmelite friend told me a very useful piece of wisdom from St. Teresa of Avila once: “Pay no attention to your Thoughts. They’re not nearly as important as you think.”

Here’s what I’ve been working on this week instead of ranting and raving here.

It’s a new cover for a book that the monks lent me. Just a bit of fun, really. More pics here.

And here’s where you can learn all about the puffins of Skomer Island, the place I want to go to when I just. can’t. stand. this crap any more.

~