Illuminating Ruminating

[This article was originally a continuation of the post below, TwitterBurger.]

I can’t help it; I love looking at every single one of people’s Tweets. You never know what you might miss, I suppose… and some are really quite profound or inspirational. Take this, for example: I follow Deepak Chopra (if you don’t know who he is…look it up), and he has some really amazing quotes. Today he Tweeted: “We have fallen into the place where everything is music. -Rumi“

I would imagine that this has something to do with Rumi’s general teachings (I had to look this up too): He believed that he had been disconnected from his creator and had begun to think himself above it/him/her, but that he had the ultimate goal to reconnect with his primal roots and restore that relationship.

So at first, the quote that Deepak Chopra Tweeted seemed a little… derogatory, shall we say? towards music. If we have “fallen” to that place where everything is music, it doesn’t seem very positive. It makes me think of falling from grace, or “falling” as a sort of failure. So despite my unconditional love for music, my conclusion was that perhaps Rumi saw music as monotony? To say that “We have fallen into the place where everything is monotonous” would make much more sense, since monotony isn’t really something we strive for, and it could definitely be said that our world has become monotonous (despite all the Twittering).

However, even my extremely rudimentary Rumi research through Wikipedia told me that Rumi was anything but skeptical or pessimistic towards music. Apparently, he wholeheartedly believed that music was one of the best ways to get back in touch with his creator or God.

(At this point I must stress that if you know anything about Rumi, please tell me, because I’m completely at a loss and I’m a little distrustful of Wikipedia sometimes.)

Anyway, Wiki says that Rumi thought poetry, music, and dancing were the ways in which people were most spiritual and soulful. The idea of “whirling dervishes” (which I always thought were a kind of garden ornament) originated around Rumi’s time. They were so invested in the sounds that they would move in whatever way the spirit moved them, which often resulted in spinning. Pretty soon, this sort of dancing became a ritual, during which Rumi believed that the soul was damaged and repaired, and when it was repaired, there was a renewed devotion to God.

From Wiki: “In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations.”

Honestly, this sounds amazing. I was never one for believing that the soul could have just one point of revelation; rather, it is always evolving and maturing. But for the alternative, it’s an amazing idea. And of course, whether you believe the soul goes through one very powerful transformation or many, I do concur with the idea that music plays a huge part of it.

“Falling into music” is a little bittersweet, and actually I think I was partially right in my analysis of it. We’ve fallen into a place where everything is monotonous, but we can choose to see it as music, because that is all we have. And because music is so powerful, we can choose to make something of it and use it to our advantage, not just in the world but for ourselves, spiritually. And once we change ourselves, we are well on our way to changing the world anyway.

TwitterBurger.

At this exact moment, I wish blog entries were released via snail-mail first. I don’t know why. It’s not like I ever send snail mail (or receive it). But I guess it’s just so easy to file. With emails, you may have to read the first few lines to know whether to delete it or read it. But with most junk snail mail, all you have to do is look at the envelope. Sometimes the junk envelopes are different colors or they have “act now!” stamps on them.

No wonder it’s junk; who would want to be burdened with more things that demand immediate action? I just got TweetDeck and Seesmic, which are apps for Twitter and Facebook so that all your updates are accessible on your desktop, without having to access the actual web pages. You can also change your status for either Twitter or Facebook from your desktop. They’re updated by the minute, which is actually rather nerve-wracking, not time-saving. If you have either of these apps, you may know what I’m talking about:

One of your favorite musicians posts a question and it shows up on your Twitter feed: “I’m at In-n-Out, what kind of burger should I have?” You can imagine that they’re probably getting a thousand responses already, but for some reason you think you should chime in. After all, they are asking, and maybe they’ll go with your answer! You go to the box where you can change your status, but you have to make sure that it only goes to Twitter, not to Facebook. Then you have to do the little “@” reference, then make sure you spell their screen name right. At this point, you’re wondering if this celebrity is even still wondering which burger to order, but you’ve come this far, so you might as well post an answer. The thing is, you didn’t actually have any type of burger in mind in the first place. You really couldn’t care less which type of burger she gets; you just wanted to be part of the decision making process. Which, now that you come to think of it, is really quite lame. Maybe she wasn’t even looking for fans to answer; she really just wanted her close friends to answer. But again, you’ve come this far… so you tell her to get a veggie burger with cheese, even though she’s vegan, because it’s what you would get. And then you post… and it’s all over. A few minutes later, she Tweets about getting a veggie burger, but you wonder if your Tweet even got to her in time to influence her decision, or whether she even read it, or whether she cared at all. You firmly resolve to never respond directly to celebrities. And then, an even more favorite musician Tweets, asking all his fans what they thought the meaning of life is. Ahhh, damn.

True story.

But I can’t help it; I love looking at every single one of people’s Tweets. You never know what you might miss, I suppose… and some are really quite profound or inspirational. Take this, for example: I follow Deepak Chopra (if you don’t know who he is…look it up), and he has some really amazing quotes. Today he Tweeted: “We have fallen into the place where everything is music. -Rumi“

Needless to say, I will be reading some Rumi.

[This post is continued as an article above, Illuminating Ruminating.]

Loony Chocolate Toes with Another Constitution

… That was my latest update on Twitter. Sounds very strange, right? You know you want to follow me… and when you do click the link to my Twitter page, linger for  a second on this one and leave me a comment or two! I’m actually thinking about making my blog have its own Twitter site, so that I can post when I have a new blog post and all that.

So, I woke up this morning and realized that in my dream, my grandpa had just died. It was kind of heavy to wake up on, and I still don’t really know what to do with it or anything. He is pretty old, and pretty frail, but it’s not like he’s imminent or anything. Still, it’s good to be prepared… and I also don’t feel like I have any unfinished business with him. Unless you count thanking him for all the money he’s ever given me, including my entire education– yeah, that would be good. It’s not like I’ve never thanked him before, and my family doesn’t really do outspoken verbal stuff anyway… but it might be nice at some point. I really value everything he’s given me and the rest of my family.

Good day. everywhere I turn, signs point to Haley, and I really miss her. She’s on the Grand Canyon right now on an epic rafting journey… she didn’t seem as excited as I thought someone who was on that kind of trip would be, but whatevs. I think she’ll have fun, but if she doesn’t, she gets to go straight to India afterwards! And then we send in our applications for an apartment, and that will be AMAZING… and then I move in!

I’m seriously considering going to Bumbershoot, the music festival in Seattle during the first weekend of September. Mainly it’s because Jason Mraz will be there… but also, tickets are extremely cheap. $80 for three days, and you can upgrade to about $200 (which is what most music festivals are) and get unlimited drinks in an air-conditioned lounge and stuff like that. I’m totally down. I don’t have anyone to go with or anything like that… but I’m fine going alone. I mean, I have mace.

So this next week I’m housesitting, and this place has a tv (we don’t get tv at my house; haven’t for most of my life) and I caught this special on Paul Simon on PBS tonight. It was so cool! They had Lyle Lovett, and James Taylor, and then at the end Paul Simon performed with Art Garfunkel (yay!) and then a song with Stevie Wonder. And when they got to Stevie Wonder’s verse, he faltered and they had to stop the song, and then Stevie Wonder said “I’m sorry–I don’t have my notes up here with me.” AHH, it was so funny. I so appreciate people who have a good sense of humor. My standards aren’t that high, but I am picky. In fact, my number one criteria for anyone I might date or hook up with is that I must find them funny. Take that.

I have a new writing job, which is great. Instead of getting $1 or $1.50 for a 500 word article that would take me and hour to write, I’m getting $3 for 300 word articles that generally take me a half hour to write. It’s so much more worth it, and the articles aren’t even that dull. My boss seems funny and easy to get along with, as well as pretty laid-back. The only downside is… it’s like, he’s too laid back. Let’s face it, I don’t have a life. So when I sign up for a writing job, I’m assuming that it’s going to take up most (or all) of my free time, so that I can really get the… buck for my bang. (…ok…) You know what I mean. If I’m going to do one of these jobs, I want to go all out.

Then again, this seems like the kind of job I could stick with for a long time (maybe even through school), so maybe it’s not so bad if it’s building up to a long term thing. And I told him I’m only in it for two weeks (while I’m housesitting, basically) so I’m thinking anytime after that I may get to make my own terms.

Anyway, I really must go to bed, before my chapped lips distract me too much and keep me from sleeping. I have to be up WAY early tomorrow (later today) to go kayaking with my mom. yay me.

Follow me on Twitter!

OK, when I joined Twitter I didn’t get it. Why not just have a facebook and update your status all the time? That was almost two months ago… and now, finally, I’ve gotten myself a profile picture, I’ve customized my profile page, I’ve set up my phone so that I can update my status from it, I’ve searched for my favorite bands, news sites, and websites to follow, gained a few followers myself, and just generally have been enjoying myself.

So definitely check out my page if you want to keep posted on all the exciting things I’m up to: www.twitter.com/josahlin.

In other news, I had a most amazing weekend. My family visited from California, which consisted of my first-cousins-once-removed (my dad’s cousin and his wife) and my second cousin. We went to our cabin and my uncle took us out on the boat, and my cousin water skied and I went on the inner(inter?) tube, and now my arms are very sore and I’m happy about that. :)

My cousin and I had great bonding experience; we talked and talked and talked, which I’m ecstatic about. I finally feel like I have more family members, rather than feeling sort of marooned and cut off from them. She has great insight and she’s 27, so she’s good at giving advice without being too pushy or motherly. On Friday we went and got sushi and went to my aunt’s house to watch Harry Potter 5, and that was great because I could tell them what was beyond the movie (since they don’t do any justice to the books!). But, to my surprise I realized there were holes in my explanations, which clearly means that I have to reread the series… oh darn. :P So after I finish this post, I’m going to start the series over and be done with that by the time “Half-Blood Prince” comes out in theaters. Then after seeing that a few times, I’ll probably reread the Twilight series so that I can stay caught up with my friend who knows everything about that one.

I’m continually amazed by the integrity of the Harry Potter series. It’s just incredible that it is so popular and so influential, while being subtle. Granted, it took a while for the books to get to that point, but eventually they broadened so that they would still be universal, but also deeper. … I think I’ll write an actual article about it soon.

Oh, and on Friday when we went boating, my uncle’s “lady-friend” came with us. They had met maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago on Match.com, and here she was. She was… so… nice. Honestly, she was the nicest person. But… too nice? Something like that. We talked about it at length (that was kind of cool too, because we are NOT the kind of family that talks about each other when we’re not around, but now we had a topic to bond over with the Cali family) and my insight was that she didn’t have an “edge,” and my uncle needs someone who’s edgy, not just quietly quirky (ha, *you* try making alliteration with Qs!). Anyway, the bottom line was that we couldn’t imagine it going anywhere.

We didn’t tell my uncle this, of course, but as my aunt said, “he’s no fool,” and he either got the message or didn’t need it in the first place. None of us were worried about him making the “right” judgement call, so what may or may not have been gossip didn’t amount to any drama whatsoever. And that’s a very, very good thing.

So then Saturday we went to my uncle’s house for our 4th of July dinner, which was amazing because there were TEN people at the table! My aunt made amazing food and my grandma looked SO cute–white pants, white sandals, and a sea blue tunic top that she had made, beaded, and embroidered herself(!)–she’s absolutely amazing–and the family gathered and talked about the weird things we talk about. Grammar, Michael Jackson (for, like, the fifth time that weekend, gah), writing, Jewish things (my dad’s cousin’s wife is Jewish and my dad’s cousin converted to marry her), the great food, our heritage and other family members, grammar (trust me, it’s a big issue; everyone in our family is meticulous about grammar, spelling, writing, and anything of the sort and has some related pet peeve), the food (also a recurring topic since it’s always so good), pets, some current events…

Actually, it sounds blissfully normal… I think? What do other people’s families talk about?