Rants

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How is the cruelty-free shopping going?

It’s actually going really well, thanks for asking! I’ve replaced *most* of my bath/body/beauty items with more eco-friendly (and at the very least, cruelty-free) alternatives.

These are some of my faves:

Too Faced Cosmetics – foundation, blush, and bronzer

Physicians Formula – mascara, brow pencil, eyeliner

Alba Botanicals – shampoo, conditioner, face wash

Village Naturals – body wash (though I love Jason, for an occasional splurge)

St. Tropez – self-tanners

Basically all I need now is a good face moisturizer and eye cream. I have some in line to try, but first I need to finish my current bottles (which I thought were cruelty-free, but actually aren’t… which is a bummer because I really like these.) I’d like to find a good toothpaste next! I feel like that may be harder, unfortunately… especially since I’d have to impress Chuck with that one too 😉

Anyway, that was probably way more info than you wanted, but yeah – I am on a roll with it!

If you were to ask me who my childhood heroes were, it would be WW2-era Resistance fighters – the everyday Joe Schmoe’s who harbored Jews during the Holocaust.

I watched this blast-from-the-past Danish resistance move last night with Chuck, and it all came back to me how amazing and brave those people were. In a time of such great evil, there was so much incredible goodness and selflessness. I ate it all up when I was younger – reading every book, watching every movie, signing up for every class…

I always wonder if I would have been as brave in those situations, and of course I will probably (hopefully) never know, here in my cushy 21st century American life. But they will always inspire me, and if I ever face such adverse circumstances, I can only hope I would do the right thing.

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Heaven or Hell?

There appears to be some controversy over whether or not the Pope said atheists can still go to Heaven after they die. My guess is that he made some merciful and constructive statement about atheists that got twisted into something entirely different… but regardless, it hits upon one of my biggest unsettled doubts about my faith: Heaven and Hell.

I can grasp that those who choose not to believe a certain creed will not reap the benefits and promises of that creed. For instance, an atheist can’t expect to get into the Heaven as described in the Bible. He can’t expect to achieve nirvana/Paradise/what have you without accepting what the creed has to say. That just wouldn’t make sense. What’s the point, if everyone can get in (especially without faith?)

What I cannot grasp, however, is that those who choose not to accept a certain creed (perhaps in favor of another) will go to Hell. In fact, it’s really, really hard for me to grasp Hell at all.

There are many ways Christianity has been interpreted over the years, but the biggest message I get from it is a loving, merciful God who views us as His (imperfect) children and wants us to succeed in achieving everlasting life. As for humanity, in many ways I am very cynical about it, but I also feel that very few people are truly evil. And those very few evil people are the ones who “deserve” Hell.

As for the rest of us in between…? I just can’t accept it!

I can’t accept that the majority of my friends, family, respected colleagues – who are not atheists, but are not “born again” Christians either – are going to Hell. I am blessed to know so many wonderful, overall good people (we are all flawed), but I can’t accept that my God would send them to Hell.

I know what the Bible says on the issue. I know the countless ways it has been interpreted. I know there is no one alive on Earth who can tell us what it all really means. I know that most people in the world have faith in something, just in different forms. We are all doing the best we can with what we’ve got, and reacting to what Life teaches us. In some ways all of our stories are the same, and in others, they are drastically different.

But it’s one of those confusing, complicated, and depressing subjects that I probably will never figure out. I like to think that perhaps “accepting Jesus” is living a Christ-like life. Many world views teach a very similar message to Christ’s, and I think most “Heaven-deserving” people are trying to lead that good life, at least as much as Christians are (if not more so, in quite a few cases.)

I don’t want to be one of those Christians who misses the entire point of my faith to mesh with my own wishful thinking, but I am also far too humanistic to believe it’s quite that cut and dry…  Are so few of us really getting in? Or, are so many of us really getting in just because we “believe” in Jesus?

Is it okay to just say “I don’t know?”

9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask…

Depressing and bleak, but helpful article…

Honestly, my first reaction after hearing about the chemical weapons attack and the prospect of a US strike in Syria was a sinking sensation in my gut. Like everyone else, I’m sick of intervention, sick of war, and want to focus more inward than outward.

At the same time, I recognize the magnitude of what has happened. You can’t make laws that forbid the use of chemical weapons and then refuse to take action when someone breaks that law. Not only does it make us look weak – and thus threaten the balance of power – but it also puts the entire world at risk. If we turn a blind eye once, we’ll turn a blind eye again, so what’s to stop someone who wants to slaughter thousands of innocents by such horrific means?

Ugh – I wish the world would stop being so crazy. And I hope that if we do strike, we can simply make our point, handicap Assad’s means, and let that be it. I’d like to keep Chuck (and our other men and women at arms) home a while.

9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask…

40 maps that explain the world

Visualizing everything from the spread of religion to the most racially tolerant countries to the world’s writing systems.

This is one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen in a long time, and I could probably spend hours on it, if I include the linked explanations and analyses. There are quite a few surprises in here, too! The world is such an incredible place, in all sorts of ways.

40 maps that explain the world

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Random political thought…

All this news on embassy closures and intercepted terror threats feels like excessive political posturing to me. It feels like a) the administration is trying to cover its ass and prevent another Benghazi, and b) they are trying to defend the likes of PRISM and distract from the NSA scandal by “showing” everyone that we need it and it’s working.

Not to say the threats aren’t real, but all the press coverage and big glossy statements seem a little sketchy/showy not to have a self-serving agenda behind it…

There are no Jack Kerouacs or Holden Caulfields for girls. Literary girls don’t take road-trips to find themselves; they take trips to find men.

“Great” books, as defined by the Western canon, didn’t contain female protagonists I could admire. In fact, they barely contained female protagonists at all.

It’s Frustratingly Rare to Find a Novel About Women That’s Not About Love – Kelsey McKinney – The Atlantic (via oditor)

Hadn’t thought about it, but it’s true.