A Tale of Two Cats And One Dog

It's been an interesting day today; one of the neighbor's dogs named Chief jumped his fence (which, while being a rare occurrence, does happen from time to time) and wound up bounding joyfully into our backyard... which happened to be occupied by both Onyx and Patches. Thankfully Chief is a very friendly dog who wouldn't hurt a fly, but he's also very energetic and frankly overbearing -- more than suitable to terrify a pair of cats who've never met him before. And that's exactly what he did: he drove them both into climbing for their own safety.

Patches climbed the highest, seeking the sanctuary of the tree sitting in the dogs' portion of the back yard. She climbed so high, in fact, that it became impossible to get up and help her down safely with our own hands. And keep in mind: at this time, the only people in the house were myself and my brother Ryan. There was nobody else around to help us: Dad's in Georgia, Mom and Katie are in West Virginia, and Jon was at school. But we weren't about to panic and lose our minds; we were gonna get these cats to safety, somehow.

Onyx was the first to be saved; she'd climbed up on top of a support beam keeping up a portion of the back porch's roof. By lifting a chair up to her level and giving her something to walk on, we were able to successfully get her back to the safety of the house. However, by this time Patches had climbed even higher across her branch and was scared out of her mind. Undeterred, Ryan and I went to work making sure that we could get her down unharmed; as a safety precaution we took a platform from the barn out back and stuffed it with blankets and pillows in case Patches fell from the tree, and meanwhile Ryan called the fire department and I called a local tree service here in Nolensville after the fire department failed to return our call.

But remarkably, we didn't need the tree service because Patches had already begun climbing down slowly and carefully. Seeing an opportunity, Ryan climbed back up onto the platform and, at long last, lifted Patches down from the tree and handed her off to my arms. From there I took her inside, and that's where she's been the rest of the day. I finalized this little adventure by letting the tree people know that our cat had been saved, and now all the blankets we used are being washed. It's been a great day!

~M.D.

The Future Ahead Of Me

Well, folks, the future is looking fairly clear for the first time in months. Mom and Dad have hired painters to help pretty up the house for us and the plan is looking pretty clear: some time next month (rough estimate: the 3rd week of June) I'll be sent down to Georgia to look for a job, as well as to keep Dad company at the new house. Over time the rest of the family will move down too, and once we sell the house we'll finally have enough money to make some much-needed renovations in the new place. Turns out that there are indeed renovations needing to be made... most notably the fact that there's only one shower in the house (but thankfully another bathroom has a simple tub, which can be turned into a shower with some minor configuration). I'll also be sharing a bedroom with my brother Ryan, but thankfully I will most likely have plenty of privacy regardless since he'll probably sleep mostly on a couch. That seems to be his preference nowadays.

Also gonna be getting myself a pair of snake boots. No, not boots made of snake skin, but rather padded boots designed to protect my legs from getting bitten by a venomous snake. Because as it turns out, snakes are a very real and ever-present threat out in the wilderness of Georgia, whether they be hiding under tree roots or sunning on some rocks. Now granted these snakes aren't particularly aggressive; they really just want to be left alone and would sooner flee from me than attack me. But there's always that risk, and it's a risk I'm not taking without some sort of protection. But as soon as I have those boots, I'll be trekking through the forest and seeing whatever amazing things I can find out there! I'm very optimistic about this whole thing!

There is one downside, however; for a time there will be absolutely no internet access whatsoever. On a positive note, this means I'll have more time for things like job searching and creative writing and exploration... but on a negative note, this also means I'll have no access to social media or anything else that I've become so adjusted to using for entertainment. Granted though, Dad has all our good movies... so there's that. However I should point out that I won't be deprived of internet access forever; eventually the family will all be under the same roof and at that point I'll be able to update you all with whatever took place in the intervening time. ... That is, assuming anyone even reads my blog and I'm not just muttering to myself with every post.

For now though, I'm in for an... interesting week; Mom's going to West Virginia to help my aunt with her job, and she's taking both my little sister and our golden retriever Lucky there with them. They're all leaving this weekend and won't be returning until the 31st... meaning that the rest of us (namely myself and my two brothers) will spend the rest of the week all on our own. Mom's gone shopping for enough food to keep us occupied for that amount of time, but it'll still be all too quiet around the house. Well, at least it'll still be a calm and relaxing week.

... Provided that my brothers don't get themselves into a fight while Mom's not around. That's prone to happen at some point, I'd wager.

~M.D.

Rant: "But- But He's Funny!"

As anyone who knows me (or who reads this blog with any regularity) will tell you, I can be very critical of this modern generation and its increasingly shallow tendencies, with thoughts and opinions ranging from snide yet constructive observations to malicious and unrelenting ferocity. This pessimistic attitude has only increased as I've grown older, and it certainly hasn't been helped by our modern "politically correct" liberal age that we're living in right now. But of the many issues I've had with my fellow young people, one has consistently stood out like a sore thumb and thusly has never failed to get my blood boiling: and that issue is the multitude of stupid and/or incompetent people who are nevertheless praised and celebrated "because they're funny".

Yes, it seems as though you can get away with just about anything in this day and age if you can cover your tracks with a quick joke to make people laugh. Or if you're not creative enough to think of anything even remotely witty, just act like a goofus and people will magically never hold you accountable for anything ever again! Seriously, it's like magic! Let's look at some common internet trends, for instance; things like "Damn Daniel" is a prime example of what I'm talking about here, where the "creative minds" behind the "joke" are clearly little more than a couple of talentless hacks who couldn't write an intelligent joke if their lives depended on it, yet they are nevertheless granted a free pass complete with interviews, publicity, and a mass of fans -- purely based on the excuse of "because they're funny!" despite there being no specific reason as to why they're "funny" to begin with.

Let's look at another example: Adam Sandler. Here's a guy who's essentially come to embody everything I hate about modern "comedy": he's brash, immature, and has a sophomoric sense of "humor" with jokes that shouldn't appeal to anybody who can count past the number 10. And yet time after time he keeps making box office hits with the same bland humor, the same annoying characters, and the same constant stream of box office revenue. And what defense do his fans have for supporting his uncreative and unbearable films, despite far superior comedy existing elsewhere? "But- but he's funny!" Again, his "fans" won't hold him accountable for his constant failings as an artist, purely because he makes them laugh by being stupid! It's agony! Pure agony!

Ah, but we're not done yet. I have just one more target to roast over the proverbial fire: none other than our dear, beloved president Barack Obama. And of course by "dear" and "beloved" I mean "loathed" and "despised". This guy has gotten away with so much crap that you'd think the entire nation has lost its mind; he bows to dictators, looks the other way when Islamic terrorists attack, has issued more support to criminals and deviants than to our own military, plunged our country into the deepest pit of debt that it's ever been in, caused racial relations in America to go down the tubes, was implicit in the tragedy at Benghazi... but now all of that doesn't matter to the average American citizen because "he's funny". Look, everyone! Look at the funny man telling jokes on TV! Look at him and laugh at how funny he is! Isn't he so funny? Doesn't he make you laugh?? Why, we shouldn't hold him accountable for anything he's ever done! After all, he's funny and cool! So we should all just let it go and laugh at how funny he is!

Pardon me while I puke. Rant over.

~M.D.

Creation, Faeries, And a Stuffy Nose

It's been just about a week since I came back from college, and it's pretty clear that my sickness is on its way out. There's no sign of a fever anymore and all I've really got left is a stuffy nose, an annoying cough, and drainage; but on the plus side, these few symptoms are clear indications that I'll be completely healthy before too long.

So to tie this further into the title, I've been studying up on the core concepts of Christian Animism and have found that I am in fact not alone in my theories; there have actually been a variety of people who hold this same viewpoint, and some are even still revered by Christians today. The most interesting examples I've come to discover are C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, both Christian authors... and both animists. This took me by surprise; soon as I found this out I thought to myself, "if they broke away from the traditional Christian mold, why do my modern-day brothers and sisters still revere them? Lewis especially!" But then again maybe that's just a fact of my own upbringing; I've been raised, you see, in a very traditional Christian household. And as such, my entire spiritual education revolved exclusively around the Bible and therefore other points of view were discounted as being completely and unquestionably false. ... And no, I promise you that the Day family isn't a bunch of ill-educated hillbilly rednecks. (In hindsight, though, I guess my education could've been worse...)

Anyway, I guess I just kind of figured that all "serious" and "honest" Christians held the same beliefs as my family back in the day... but now that I'm getting older, it seems almost as if the lines between Christianity and Paganism are starting to blur. This has led me to develop a theory regarding my findings; I theorize that back in the day, ancient Pagans were made privy to a number of facts regarding nature and the earth, but they didn't know how to properly connect the dots and henceforth were clueless about the actual Creator. Christians, in turn, developed the opposite perspective: they were made aware of the one true God and the salvation provided by His son Jesus Christ, but because of this awe-inspiring revelation they (justifiably) focused more on Him than on the world around them. Now please, don't take this assertion as being grounded in any actual historical fact; as with any hypothesis, this is merely a theory grounded in observation. For all I know the Pagans could've been nutjobs and the Christians were right to ignore their crazy talk of faeries and dryads and nymphs. ... Still, though...

I admit I do kind of like the idea of nature spirits; not entities to be worshiped, but more like secretive neighbors who've accompanied mankind since Adam was first tasked with taking good care of Eden. I see them almost as potential friends who know of the goodness of their Creator, and who answer to Him just like all spirits do (as specified in the Bible). When I'm out in the woods, standing among trees and other wildlife... it's a comforting thought, to believe that all of creation is alive and connected with little beings running around and living in God's honor. I relish a good mystery, especially one which may or may not be solvable. Maybe there are faeries and dryads and nymphs prancing through the wilderness, free from the cares and woes of humankind's arrogant ideals. Though if we're being logical here, it's equally likely (if not more likely) that they aren't...

But there's always that chance...

And that's the chance that I'm going to hold onto. I could be right, or I could be wrong, but I'll tell you one thing: this world needs more magick in it. We as a people should strive to be connected more closely with the outdoors than we are now. We need to regard nature with more reverence than we do in this modern age of steel skyscrapers and concrete jungles. And for my part, I would rather live in a world of enchantment and mystery than a world of cold numbers and data. So with all that being said... I take back what I said in "A Question of Faith Part 3"; and with a critical yet open mind, I will say that I am a Christian Animist. I will spend my life giving glory to God, and thanking Him for the sacrifice of His son Jesus so that we could be saved from our sin... but I shall also adore all that He has created.

Including faeries and dryads and nymphs.

Home Sweet Home

Well the semester is over and I'm finally back at my folks' home. And with that sweet, sweet escape there has come an unfortunate dividend... namely my body finally caving in to a sickness that's been building up gradually over the course of weeks. Funny how my body can do that; it's like it physically denies me any sickness until I can actually afford to be bedridden. Good job, body. Thanks to you I was able to finish all my finals without the burden of a fever.

Fortunately the aforementioned fever seems to be vanishing almost as quickly as it arrived in the first place. I've been walking around all day today with only marginal difficulty, and my symptoms have been gradually receding faster than my hairline! ... ... Okay, that joke actually kind of hurt me. Self-deprecating humor can only go so far.

Anyway, I've also pretty much decided that I'll be taking a break from college until things settle down around here and I have a better understanding of what I wanna do with my life; with the family moving to Georgia very soon, it's best we should focus on that first and foremost. When I started out as a student I had no idea that we'd be moving anywhere at all for a good long time; I honestly thought Tennessee was gonna be our permanent home. Then again though, we of the Day family don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to permanent housing. How many times have we moved now in my lifetime? 4? 5?

In any case, I can safely say that I'm actually looking forward to the move this time. This area of Tennessee has way too much construction, way too little wildlife... whereas the area of Georgia my family's moving to has the exact opposite: plenty of wildlife, absolutely no construction. I'm talking woods, rivers, hills, valleys... I think I'm gonna love it there.

Now, onto the spiritual segment of this not-so-weekly update... yeah, I know what you're thinking: What, this again? Wasn't this settled like two posts ago? Heh... yeah, don't I wish. Apparently the power of self-guilt isn't quite as potent as it seems, since I'm still finding myself thinking about "Christian Witchcraft" and other things of that nature. (I guess I'll just stop acting like I can put it all behind me and just regularly tell you guys what's on my mind as far as that goes) However, as usual I must still approach the topic with an open yet logical mind. And if nothing else, I've steadily become more and more critical of the occult and the beliefs held by its various members.

For example: there is a saying that people in these communities often times use, which goes "as above, so below". What this statement means is that God is equal to man, man is equal to Earth, and so on and so forth. And following this logic, it's believed in their circles that the actions of man must certainly equal the actions of God. ... ... But given the frequent conflicting natures, beliefs, and behaviors of each individual person, then the core logic behind the saying falls apart completely. Are Islamic terrorists representative of God's nature? How about corrupt politicians? Pedophiles? Rapists? Thieves?

Do you see the problem here? And this is just one logical fallacy I've come to find in the occult belief system.

However, the Craft is far too varied to be limited to just one ideology or belief system. I'm... honestly not sure what to make of where I want my spiritual journey to go. I did find this very interesting webpage, however... and the woman who wrote this seems almost to be some kind of a reflection of myself. Or rather, who I could be. Granted of course I approach her theology with a critical mind... but not a closed one. But the question is this: after all this spiritual drama, going this way and that across a theological checkerboard, where does it all leave me?

I guess when it all comes down to it, it's still my life and my choice to make. My curiosity about this stuff isn't something I can just get away from, even if I'd want to. So I guess... I'll just see wherever the wind takes me, and trust that Christ will be there to catch me if (or when) I inevitably fall. That's all for my thoughts tonight, guys. Have a good one.

~M.D.

Finally, Some Basic News for a Change!

Tired of all that pseudo-spiritual drama? Well so am I! It's high time I started covering, oh I dunno... actual news in my life on my own friggin' blog! So with that being said, let's cover the basics. For starters, it's finals season again. I've got a downloadable final test for Art History class which is due on Wednesday, a final Typography project which is also due on Wednesday (which will be my easiest final, since it's basically the same work I did for a Graphic Design class last semester), and two Physical Science tests on this coming Tuesday: one being the pre-final test, and the other being the actual final. Lord willing, I won't fail either of them.

Now you might be asking yourself: Michael, you pessimistic weirdo, what's with the red and black face paint? Well it's Christmas Day, ambiguous viewer, and I'm after someone on my naughty list! ... Well okay, obviously I'm just referencing some obscure indy film you've probably never seen before (I think the name starts with a D?); in actuality I'm embracing an aspect of my Native American heritage here; in older times (and maybe in the modern day, I dunno, I haven't studied their modern culture enough), tribes would often paint their faces for special events like hunting, celebrations, and other important things. And since it's finals week here at MTSU, I've put on a "war face" in recognition of how crucial this part of the semester is. I'm also wanting to incorporate a few other elements of Native American tradition into my lifestyle, though I'm still working on what exactly I'm going for here.

Now, onto everyone's favorite part of this blog... the aforementioned pseudo-spiritual drama! Well more like an epilogue, just to let you all know what's on my mind (which, I assume, is why you even follow my blog to begin with... I mean it sure ain't for my pretty face!). I'm still on the straight and narrow of the Gospel, in case you're wondering; but I bring this up because according to the Bible itself -- as verified by my own curious research -- it seems my reverence for nature is far from unfounded. However, it was decidedly misguided at the offset. Nature is God's handiwork, and a testament to His great power. So technically, God is very much laden in the very fabric of nature, which is covered in His fingerprints. Henceforth I've chosen to be more attentive to His presence in the outdoors... and let me tell you, reconnecting with the one true Father is the most satisfying thing I've ever felt.

A Question of Faith: Stepping Back

... What have I done? What am I doing?

No, really guys... what am I doing?

I've been going about this all wrong... all wrong. Why am I seeking spiritual guidance and comfort from places outside of Christianity? Why am I obsessing so much over Paganism and Wicca when I already have a great and loving God who'll take care of me and tend my needs?

Why am I so eager to put Christ in my pocket when He deserves to be at the forefront of my life?

Why am I so quick to find some "alternative" lifestyle when Christ is already providing me with all that I need? I'm already an individual! I don't need nature worship to fill that void!

Friends, tonight I had an epiphany. Jesus spoke directly to me, all without saying a single word. He made me realize just how foolish I've been about all this... I've been such an idiot! No more! NO MORE!

I've been taking my fascination with these alternative religions far too seriously, and it's been putting a rift between me and my Heavenly Father. I've been putting Wicca and animism first, and Christ second. Well that changes tonight!

I mean yeah, I'll always see these things as a curiosity. But they should remain that, at the absolute most: just a curiosity. I'm not gonna put my faith in things like faeries and sentient trees when I already have a flawless God to worship. I take back what I said last time: this is the conclusion of my conundrum. This is the path I will walk: the path of loyalty to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died for our sins and is risen, living, and quick to save us from ourselves.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

~M.D.