Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Since there's all sorts of speculation as to why I left the church, and people are coming up with numerous ludicrous theories as to who got into a fight with who, and who has a grudge against who, I feel I should explain before things get out of hand. Leaving out many of the more obvious logical arguments, I am simply going to tell a story here to clarify.

I was recently walking with an old friend, a far wiser person than I. We were talking about the Church of Body Modification and he asked me, “Shannon, why do you stretch your ears, and why do you take part in these suspension events?”

I told him a long story about the relationship between inner and outer body images. Then I did my best to explain to him about the relationship between body and soul, and about how body modification could strengthen these connections. I tried to describe my spiritual experiences from ritual as well. I told him all about the potential spiritual benefits, and then pointed out how important it was that we all be able to express these things.

He paused for a minute, and then turned to me and asked, “but does it make you happy?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Isn't that good enough? Why do you need to tell me anything other than that?”, he said to me, and, in a moment of clarity it became obvious that any formal organization or doctrine that I try and pile on top of these honest truths simply obscures them. I don't need a church to be happy. I need my freedom, and I need my friends, but I don't need a church.

I spoke to him a bit longer, and I told him that I felt that maybe the real reason it was so difficult to build the church was that we weren't spiritually mature, and maybe it would make more sense to form an organization that dedicates itself to spiritual research to attempt to answer the questions of doctrine.

He told me that he appreciated what I was looking for, and that forty years ago he'd been desperately looking for the same thing. Eventually though, he came to the conclusion that these things are best found through personal journeys, not through preaching — these things are vapors, and are perfectly understandable and valuable as beautiful mysteries.

And then we sat and watched a heron fly over the lake, and for a moment, I was at peace and happy.

I haven't picked up any CDs in a long time, so I went for a walk this morning to do so. As you know, it's been snowing and the sidewalks on the side streets are still icy. I'm walking down a stretch that's literally ALL ice and coming toward me on the sidewalk is some jackass on a bike.

Outside of the fact that riding your bike on the sidewalk is illegal, this is a sidestreet, and there are cars parked. Even if I wanted to jump out of the way, I couldn't easily do so. In addition, there's no traffic and no ice on the roads, so this guy has no real excuse to be on the sidewalk.

I figure he's somewhere between 25 and 35, and looks like he weights about 120 pounds. I weight about 240 pounds, so I decided to just let him hit me (it's either that or jump off the sidewalk). I figure it'll do more damage to him than to me. He's coming straight at me, looking me in the eye. I look at him and keep walking straight at his bike.

A few feet in front of me he chickens out and bails out. Next time he'll ride on the street I hope.

(I'll write about the CDs later).

On the way back I followed some very very cold skinny goths for a while. They'd chosen fashion over common sense and were shivering miserably… Then I walked past some hockey punks (oh canada).

OK, first, I said yesterday that there'd probably be stories coming out soon suggesting that the Bin Laden tape was either fabricated or manipulated. I suspect that there's no way that tape will ever leave government hands for truly impartial analysis, so we'll never really know for sure one way or the other. Here's a story from the Washington Post and another from NewsMax (nothing but jokers in the indymedia right now).

So Cracker Barrel is being sued for racism (no, not by poor white folks) again. A black woman says that others were served before her. Boy, if that's all it takes to launch a $100 million (yes, one hundred million dollar) lawsuit, then sign me up. There are lots of times where I've been at a business and some asshole didn't like my ears or tattoos and I get bad service. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm not sure it entitles me to $100 million. It just entitles me to tell everyone I know not to give their money to that company.

Many of you have listened to Saira's college/community radio show online, as well as I'm sure similar shows in your local area. It may well be a thing of the past… Thanks to the DMCA, college radio stations may well be banned from broadcasting over the web. (more…)

Well, I'm off now to take out my airconditioner for the winter.