Reason fails

Where will logic and reason fail you?
How quickly will reasoning loose its usefulness?

• When you fall in love, and if you try to understand it rather than just enjoy its pleasures, reason fails
  
• When a girl (or boy) that you are deeply in love with no longer feels the same way about you and you are crushed, reason fails
• When friends betray you or those for whom you have sacrificed yourself treat lightly your gift and spurn your love, reason fails
• When you are captivated by beauty in the world or in art or music, and transported in tears, reason fails
• When you experience a debilitating failure in an important venture, reason fails
• When you find yourself in the grip of an addiction or depression or some other uncontrollable urge, reason fails
• When you ask the question, Why should I do anything for or care for anyone else but myself? reason fails
• When some injury or sickness brings you within reach of death so that you smell the odor of it and retch, and tremble at the dark figure that comes to claim you, reason fails
• When you encounter an undeniable miracle or see a ghost, reason fails
• When you are overpowered by a sense of God's presence and find yourself certain beyond all doubt of untestable truths, speechless before its power, unable to explain how you know but more certain of it than anything you've ever known, reason fails
• When you are deeply, powerfully thankful, reason fails
• When you are guilty and your own conscience condemns you bitterly, reason fails
• When you decide you want to have knowledge of unseen things and begin to long for a relationship with God, and strive to see the infinitely more satisfying truths outside the observable world of science and material possessions, reason fails
• When you are lonely, both in the momentary spacial sense and in the soul sense of being lost in the cosmos, hungry for the relationship for which you were made, vacant and cold in your soul and wishing for something good and right to fill it, reason fails
• When you loose your ability to think in old age or mental illness, reason by definition has failed
• When you experience disabling fear, either of something that is not real or of real danger that can do no more than end your life, for why does reason or logic care if your little candle stops burning?  it is not rational to fear death or anything at all because the impulse to self-preservation is instinctual, not rational

Fragmented

It has been said that a society's architecture represents the character of the society.  A building is a monument; it contains our best thoughts, it proclaims our conception of value and beauty.  It can also proclaim our aesthetic bankruptcy, moral disorientation and spiritual smugness.

Let's not rehearse the tired, obvious mantra about buildings needing to be a combination of form AND function.  We all know that.  Function is not hard in the modern world.  It is what people think about the most:  "oh, dont put a window facing the west - it will ruin the evening service"  "the front desk of the lobby should be the first thing people see so that they have to sign in before going further"  "be sure to observe all the regulations for the disabled - and that kills the idea of a balcony."

Church architecture - does any one want to argue that churches should be built first for God's glory and second for man's function?  I just finished The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so this is on my mind.  The overwhelming sense upon walking into most cathedrals is one of the greatness and majesty of God and the smallness of man.  Why did they build such buildings then, and why are church buildings so man centered today?  Who would countenance building a building that was less functional, but more formal?  forget about it.

Hungary Burning

Last year Halapi Roland of Hungary earned the world record title of Longest Distance Being Pulled Behind A Horse While On Fire - 472 meters.

Congratulations Mr. Roland.

this is no joke.