Letters to God #3

Hello Big G,

Pieces of Letters to God

It's Charlie again. I'm here a lot lately - lots to say and nothing at all at the same time, sound and fury. The thing that keeps me coming back is what You've done with the throne room, very nice! The clouds drifting through the whole space and the throne carved into a mountain peak is just a nice touch. You've always had great taste though, one need only look at trees, the ocean or the stars in the heavens to know that You're balling.

 I'm lost, You know. I'm not sure where to begin with everything that's happening to me. This is my chance to build something beautiful, something I can write You about and You'd smile in approval. I have plans, blueprints, maps and all that great stuff effective people always have on their desks but I've no idea what to do with them. I spend most of my time staring at all of my plans and frowning a little. Would You terribly mind telling me what the first step is? All I want is to do something constructive that I'll enjoy, that'll make someone else out there (in the horizon I guess) breathe a little easier, that'll pay my bills, pay for Mass Effect 3 and allow me to watch the second season of Game of Thrones, that sort of thing, You know. I want to do something that gets me excited about being alive and all. I don't mean that it has to tickle me all day long but it has to get me going. The stuff I have planned can do this for me I suspect and that's why I need a little kick start.

The clouds drifting through the whole space and the throne carved into a mountain peak is just a nice touch. 

Sifting it all through my mind works out a little like this: Big Five literacy programmes, GAM (this one's uber big), NAG, Food and Trees for Africa and company. Those are the big players that I can access in the tangle of my brain right now. Commendable don't You think? Well, I hope You do think it's worth pursuing.

I guess it's all about time management in the end. I think my 24 hours are broken, they go by much faster than other people's. If I do one useful thing a day it's a miracle (sorry for having You perform so few miracles). I've got to learn how to do the time management thing and the getting things done thing while I'm at it.

I dozed off on a comfy cloud for a bit. Had a mini-dream that featured Whiskeyjack as a ghost in the supporting role. Not an Oscar performance but still cool.

Because Grunt has rights too.

Before I go, we had Human Rights Day this week, do the other sentient races celebrate that sort of thing? Like a Krogan Rights Day? I wonder.

Okay, later.

Love,

Your b3anbag

Letters to God #2

Dear God,

Pieces of Letters to God

Hello, I hope You're well today. It's raining here again, but that's in my head only. I guess You know that though, but it's still cool telling You all these mundane things. It's like in that Jeffrey Archer story where bargaining with the Turkish rug dealers over a cup of coffee is an enjoyable part of the interaction. I'm feeling a shade of colour between blue and green, I'm not really sure what that's about to tell You the truth. It's just one of those days.

I'm still waiting on that bottled inspiration. I don't mean to rush You or anything but it would be useful right about now. There are things that need doing in this little life of mine. Thank You in advance.

Then there are all these people on the social networks always trying to emotionally blackmail me into loving You. Silly things like,'If you love God you will forward this and if you love the devil you won't.' That irks me very much. It's such religious masturbation! Are You opposed to smiting a few of these people? I'm even willing to work for You in that capacity - just riding around smiting a few ridiculous people, Ghost Rider style (silly movies, those). Mind You, I've not given the whole business much thought and I might end up not enjoying it and whining like a girl somewhere down the line. I'm just saying.

Tell me, do You think I should be going to Church again? Don my dragon helm and go to the meeting with Your other soldiers? I'm not much of a team player or anything useful like that, but, who knows, I could be of some use and those guys annoy me only a little bit. I don't even get bored and only rarely do I feel like arguing with anyone's views. I'll take my queue from You on that one. Send me a crop sign or something. I don't know.

"Don my dragon helm and go to the meeting with Your other soldiers?"  

Clearly these conversations are going to be somewhat ridiculous on my end. I know You have a ridiculous streak too though, so this might be a good thing. I look forward to those occasions during which we solve world hunger and then realise our plan is too elaborate to successfully implement. Travie wants to know what Your favourite brand is since the devil favours Prada and all. I want to know what Your favourite beer is and whether it's safe for Charlie consumption.

I'm feeling sleepy and Game's shouting in my ears about some city and the angels in it. I'm gonna go now. Have Yourself a great day. Much love. I'll pop in again soon.  

Letters to God #1

Pieces of Letters God

Dear God,

Hello there, it's me, Charlie, You know, that guy who never really calls. Well, I'm in the mood to talk with You today - it's raining outside and that might have something to do with my sombre mood. I'm awfully worried about my life of late, my days have been broken and I need some help in fixing them, I really do. I'm sorry that I'm that guy who only talks to You when I'm down and need Your help. I try harder each day to do better and be better.

Your mission, should You choose to accept it, is to send me some inspiration in a bottle. You, know so I can put it on a shelf and use a drop on days like these, when my brain and body don't feel the urge to actively participate in the happenings of daily living.

There is so much that I need to be doing and I seem to lack the energy and enthusiasm of youth. I need to make Jo'burg libraries realise that they need me on-board with their Big Five literacy programmes, no one else can do it better than me. I need to convince NAG that I should be writing for them and that my whimsical style will fit in perfectly with their style. Big G, I need loads of inspiration to actually get things done - all the big plans I have and whatnot. I'm such a lazy guy and it's not good for my health. So please just drop me a vial of that inspiration elixir tonight. That would be nice.

"...they need me on-board with their Big Five literacy programmes" 

Anyhoo, enough about me and my somewhat tedious life (loads of its aspects are really nice though), how are You? What with having to deal with the running of the multiverse and listening to all the sentient beings you created complain about one thing or another. I was watching some Supernatural (great show that) and watching Castiel run around trying to be You was fun, he's got badassery down (yes, Thato, it's still a real made-up word) for a usually mild-mannered guy in a trench coat. I know this is not the sort of thing You usually do but could You please send me that bottled inspiration in the pocket of a Castiel  trench coat. I'm kidding... Or not if you're really going to do it.

"...please send me that bottled inspiration in the pocket of a Castiel trench coat"

Tell me, what's the deal with cockroaches? You made so many of them! I just don't get it, they annoy everyone. You made lots of ants and I get that, those little guys are super useful and they work very hard to do whatever it is that they do. I just don't get cockroaches though; they make no sense to me.

Okay, I should get going now. I'll write You more, I promise. It's always cool chatting with You and picking Your brain. Have a good day. Goodbye.

I love You.

The Reapers Have Arrived!

The Reapers are finally here. It's time to take up arms as Commander Shepard and defend not only the Earth but the Universe in the final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy.

Falling in Love With Humanity

I Give My Beauty And My Youth To Men,  But My Wisdom, Experience, Time and Love To The Causes Of Humanity and ALL Life. For With Sacrifice Comes Balance, Awareness and Inner Peace.

I'm sad that people make something like falling in love seem so difficult. I'm a lummox, falling comes naturally to me - whether it's down a flight of stairs or into the heart of another human being. I'm not even speaking of romantic love, I'm simply referring to falling in love with your fellow man. I'm mean, petty, judgmental and probably cruel to many people - those I know and those I don't - but I find that I have an above average tolerance of people and their strange personalities because I seek to understand them and what they're about.

Imagine a world where everyone made some effort to get to know others on a less superficial level. That's the sort of world I'd like to inhabit, a place where people allow others to be as quirky or eccentric as long as those personality traits don't result in harm to others. In many parts of the world we have made a huge dent against issues like racism and many other prejudices but people still don't know what the person sitting next to them on a bus is about. I'm not saying know the lengths and depths of everyone you ever meet, all I'm saying is try a little harder to understand when an opportunity presents itself. Share some of yourself and listen to the other person a little more deeply than you usually do. Of course the world is filled with people who are douche bags, scum bags, lunatics and the rest of humanity's crummy lot so be careful about who you go and show a little extra kindness to . . . unless you are eloquent in several forms of the martial sort of arts, then you can afford to try get to the soft core of those scary looking big guys with the cold eyes.

Falling In Love Consists Merely In Uncorking The Imagination And Bottling The Common-Sense.

I like my space and things that are my own, I'm very territorial and slightly obsessive compulsive about my 'stuff' and I like that part of me, I find it to be rather quaint. So the last 3 months have been hard on me, what with life kicking me in the nuts for making stupid financial decisions (or failing to make decisions at all at times) and me having to move home after 3 years of living in my own space. Negotiating space with a strange mother, slob of a sister and bundle of energy of a 4-year old cousin has been difficult to say the least. But I've learned to become more social through it all and to understand life from their perspective: mom's just outright crazy and doesn't like things beyond her control in the house, even things that aren't her own; sis is just too cool to care about where she leaves her clothes, shoes or books, neatness is not something that adds to her life and cousin's just a kid who needs all of his toys scattered on the floor in front of him to have fun. I still consider moving back home a bad experience but I've opened myself to it a little more and when I'm not annoyed I love my family a little more.

To Love Deeply In One Direction Makes Us More Loving In All Others.

Human beings are rather exceptional creatures when we aren't killing each other and we all just want to be happy because we were programmed for Joy. We try and get to that state in the strangest, if not dumbest, of ways most of the time. But, of late, I really do love us a little more. I've tripped into that love and it's really squishy and nice.

Cupboard Person of the Week

Superman

“It's not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. ... It's about what you do... It's about action.”

With the Batman trilogy's director, Christopher Nolan producing and 300's Zack Snyder in the director's chair I have faith the movie will be worthy of the Superman mythos.

This week I’m pulling out the biggest gun of them all! This post will be riddled with exclamation marks to emphasise the awesomeness of this more-than-man! Everything about this guy’s extreme; there are no half hearted attempts at anything on his part. I am referring, of course, to the greatest hero of them all, Kal-El or Superman as we know him on planet Earth.

The Sphinx: What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?

Superman: They Surrender.

-          Grant Morrison

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t like this guy much to begin with. In fact, there was a part of me that outright hated him! He was just too good at everything for me to take him seriously as a hero. He is almost perfect dammit! This is strange in itself, that I’d hate the guy for being too rad-ical. I liked (and still do) super muk muks (as Dan Turpin refers to ‘em) like Batman who are at the ‘peak’ of human excellence and whatnot because at the end of the day they’re human and if I train hard enough I could be like them. This was a naive thought, though, because when it’s all said and done Batman’s also too good to be true. Thus, after looking at Superman from a new perspective I’ve started appreciating him for what he is in the DC universe. I actually like him quite a lot now, especially after reading Final Crisis: Superman Beyond by Grant Morrison.

“It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the skies and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.”

-          Batman

I agree with Batman's sentiment that Clark is the most human of us in that he lives up to most of the virtues that we uphold as being good and true but never seem to be able to live up to. He shares some similarities with Jesus in that regard. The whole idea of man made perfect and all. As our greatest hero he sets the standard for us. Philosopher, Peter Kreeft says of Christ that He is not the exception when it comes to being the perfect human being but the rule. Superman's whole ideal is the same, he seeks to inspire people to stand up and be more than they ever thought they were and to uphold justice in all that they do, regardless of their power and abilities. People don't have to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to stand up against the tyrannies of this world. But it does look cool dealing with them by shooting heat rays out of one's eyes, you have to admit.

Superman's one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe but his humilty is quite astonishing and he is willing to give his all, body and soul, to protect is adopted homeworld against powerful threats like Darkseid, who in Final Crisis launches an attack against existence itself. In a squeeze Superman's the dude you want by your side: powers that embody the term badassery (a real made-up word, Thato!) and humility that makes you think you're on the same level as he is. He is without a doubt DC's greates hero and I, for one, cannot wait to see him in all his glory on the silver screen next year in Man of Steel. I really hope the reboot does him justice because all the movies thus far made him seem a little bit silly. With the Batman trilogy's director, Christopher Nolan producing and 300's Zack Snyder in the director's chair I have faith the movie will be worthy of the Superman mythos.


P.S. That turned out a little more serious than I'd intended. Not enough Pow! and Bam!