*De-digitification*  I Been getting my last will and testaments (living and otherwise) and advanced directives in order.  I am wondering though if one needs to provide for the death of one’s digital/virtual self as well.  A good friend died on tuesday, but friends and family are still posting on his facebook page which I am much obliged for.  However, I was captain of the on-line chess club that he and I both belong to, sometimes we have as many as 100 games going at once with people all over the world.  If something happened to me do I need to designate someone to inform my teammates that they need a new virtual captain and to expediently resign all my games?  It seems like someone ought to announce something on all my blogs, Twitter, and Tumblr accts. and art sites too, and post something official here on facebook.  I wonder how long after I’m gone that Netflix will still be analyzing and picking movies for me or Amazon sending book suggestons?  I reckon my Iphone apps can just slowly de-update until the processor can no longer read the advance binary algorithms of my ‘angry birds’ app.  However, with a few pass words, friends and family could keep my digital self alive for years long after experts have reached consensus on my physical death.  A lot of this sort of thing in hospitals is already determined by machines, maybe someday computers will be tasked with making all of these very difficult life and death decisions, and be programed to also inform all the other virtual provinces of my being, after all, they speak the same language.  I can imagine that long after I am dead, the process of *de-digitification* may grind on for years, and I have mixed feelings about that.  Well, for now, blessings and keep looking up and listening for the shout brothers and sisters!  Obliged, 10001 01011010 00001 101011 0100110 1010111011 00101 01000 00101 00010 11010 0010 100010 (that’s Daniel translated into binary code, and yes there’s an app for that).
 
p.s. that's an icon of mine form 20 yrs ago with a pixelated Jesus being uploaded.

Test of Fire: Election 2012 (Official HD Version - Catholic)

This profoundly disturbing video suggests to me something Francisco Franco, the murdering, Catholic Falangist, right wing dictator of Spain might have produced in 1935 (if he would have had the services of Hitler’s Leni Riefenstahl and the financial backing of the oil baron Koch brothers).  It is sheer propaganda of the worst kind and is degrading to the best kind of Catholic/christian critical thinking that could and should be brought to bear on contemporary theo-political issues.  The fact that it was shared by a Franciscan brother of mine really pisses me off even more (I sent him a stern admonition!).  I reckon I need to expect to see a lot more of this dangerous heretical bullshit as the election year continues (maybe it’s time to dust off that application to the Hutterite Brethren I filled out but never sent!).   Obliged y’all.  Oh, and in case anyone forgot, God is love, and has no opposite, fear not, fear not!  

Today in holy week is Jesus’s anointing at Bethany. It is here one finds Jesus uttering every vulgar consumer capitalists favorite verse: “The poor you have with you always” (was Jesus listening to his handlers and P.R. people on this one, and trying to pander to the upper class republican vote?). The fact that Jesus is referencing Deuteronomy 15:11, "Since you always have the poor with you, I therefore command you,'Open your hand to the poor and needy in your land.'" is beside the point, what matters is that this verse justifies every selfish, oppressive, exploitative,(non)action on or for the poor by every citizen of every empire in all of history. So there’s no reason to even go into it really, if someone reads this verse that way then they have no clue who Jesus is, so what’s the point of even trying to explain it to them? Besides, I got my own self-centered consumption to deal with, and I don’t even have any bible verses to make me feel better about it (hmmm....so who is really the worst of disciples here?) Let’s face it, holy week can be pretty damn depressing, no wonder we added bunnies, peeps, and baskets full of corn syrup shaped objects to the holyday. In the long hard road of the pilgrim, this week is one of the hardest.

Mary (the ‘woman?’) that anointed Jesus for his death knew what a hard road laid ahead. Other than Jesus, only Mary I think really understood. I think she knew because she really loved him, not just her own projection or phantasy. The apostles it seems were thinking more about politics and programs, position and power. Mary didn’t just share the words and ideas of Jesus, she shared his pain, she took his sorrow into her own heart, and so she knew him like no other. Dostoevsky’s Father Zossima told the suffering woman in chapter 9, “Love in reality is a harsh and dreadful thing, compared to love in dreams.” Mary knew the dreadful reality, she knew the truth, and so she knew real love. Is there any other way? Blessings and obliged.