Levels of Death

I) Sometime in grade school (c. 1978), I read a book called A Walk Across America. What's relevant is that the guy's dog died midway through the first leg of the journey. I wept. It was the last, major emotion I remember feeling until the 2000's, save a few incidents.

II) We saw Bridge to Terabithia the other night. I cried. It felt the same as that book in grade school. I realized, upon reflection this morning, that what I felt was the Loss of Relationship Future. That is, I actually dread the idea of a good relationship not lasting.

III) It doesn't take long reading commentaries on the Bible or going to a Bible or theology class before one comes across this, "The definition of Death is separation." That makes more sense as I get older.

Conclusion: I realized this morning that a huge part of my world(view) is Great Relationships. I strive to help them exist, I attempt to provide a multiple-source paradigm so that people are not left without Great Relationship should one relationship end.

Internally, I am working to prevent what God has allowed: death. If I can't prevent it, I try to make sure it can be easily and quickly replaced. It is a major part of my vision for the future.


Now I have to figure out if and where I am out of resonance with God.

One simplistic view of effective Leadership

QuickDefinition to establish a starting point: Leaders act on behalf of their followers while directing same followers. In most situations, it's an issue of taking them from one "place" to another.

The nature of the "other place" is that it is, typically, more ideal than the current situation. As such, leadership can be seen as helping people experience more and more of "tomorrow" until today becomes what used to be the new tomorrow. Ideally, it's a cross-fade between Reality and Vision. Parts of tomorrow "infiltrate" today. Then more. And more.

One question test for Depession

I may have some variant of a Psych. degree, so in theory I should be able to answer this myself. But, alas, I studied the hypothalamus much more than human interaction.

I stumbled across a song by Imogen Heap called "Hide and Seek" (featured on my friend's myspace site). It has a traditional, upbeat chord progression but somehow has a sad, longing overtone. It made me sad-ish just to listen to it.

So I did my typical response: self-observation (hah). Here's what I found . . .

The place of least friction in my soul is in the sad, the homesick, the slightly despairing.

I take to C.S. Lewis here who is the one that uncovered "desire" as a longing-for-God. So I don't know that I see this form of depression as being altogether evil. I don't live here all the time, but it is so easy for me to snap into this space. And it feels quite comfortable.

But I am curious about you - whoever you are reading this. If you are one who struggles with mild depression of some kind (clinical or otherwise), does this post resonate with you?

Or perhaps you would like to answer this: how would you describe the place where your soul seems most at ease, with the least friction, like being in the perfect spot on a slow river - the place where you can effortlessly float at that perfectly effortless speed?