Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation

"Whatever I want, I get," Ellison once said. "That's the beauty of being worth $26 billion. I thoroughly recommend it.”

William Blake

Life’s dim window of the soul

distorts the heavens from pole to pole,

and leads you to believe a lie,

when you see with, not through, the eye.

a gay man, dying of AIDS, learns to pray

An excerpt from "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts:

Alone, Bill sat on a stone bench, staring at the statue of the Virgin Mary in the grotto. The words "Jesus" and "God" crossed his thoughts, and he automatically began to push them out of his mind, as he had for many years. As Bill watched the other pilgrims and contemplated the statue, he realized that he should not dismiss the thought of Jesus, as if he were some nuisance. The essence of the Christ figure was loving and compassionate, no matter how the message of Jesus may have been corrupted by Christianity.
He realized that the bitterness he had held against the church had alienated him from this elemental source of strength. He had been separated from the fount of love and forgiveness that Jesus had to offer, and it was not right. God knew that. It all was very clear to Bill now, and for the first time in many years, he prayed.

258 AD

"This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see - brigands (bandits) on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians - and I am one of them."

- St. Cyprian, c. 258, a letter

Thank God for HIV

So, I was talking with a guy this morning who is HIV positive. He told me about a guy he met who was also HIV positive. The guy in the story was speaking at an HIV support group. This guy got up and said, "I thank God for HIV." The guy I was talking with heard him say this and was immediately confused. What is there to be thankful for if you have HIV? It is a terrible disease that destroys your body and slowly sucks the life out of you until only a shell remains, and then you die. And why would you thank God for it. Shouldn't you be angry at God, if anything. Well, then this guy who was speaking at the support group said, "if I hadn't been diagnosed with HIV, I would still be an addict out on the street. I wouldn't care about my health, and I wouldn't be here today. I thank God for HIV."

So... I recently got an iPod touch after months of coveting both it
and the iPhone. I can't afford the iPhone data plan, so this is what
I have and I am quite pleased. Carrie probably misses her husband but
she'll have him back when the novelty wears off. Until then, here's
to patient wives:)

Sent from my iPod

Pluck the Mask from the Face of the Pharisee

Quote from the preface of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:

"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns."