Recently, I read an article about spiritual apathy. It was written by Abbot Christopher Jamison and was adapted from his book, Finding Happiness. Jamison made some thought provoking points about the disconnect between our actions and our motivations about our actions. He describes apathy as the eighth deadly sin. The following is his description of spiritual apathy.
“The Seven Deadly sins, pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust are derived from the Eight Thoughts of the monk John Cassian. Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century removed one vice, acedia, a Greek word which can be translated as spiritual apathy. When this word disappeared from ordinary people’s vocabulary, it deprived Western culture of the ability to name and important feature of the spiritual life, namely, loss of enthusiasm for the spiritual life itself.”

“The purpose of such lists, like the seven deadly sins or eight thoughts is to provide a framework within which people can develop self-awareness. Self-awareness is different from introspection. Introspection is only looking at me, whereas self-awareness involves considering how I act with the world around me. Self-awareness is paying attention to how I relate with people and things. It involves understanding how one’s outlook affects the way one sees the world and how it affects the world itself.”

The conclusion drawn here is that a lack of self-awareness leads to apathy, which is simply not caring. When we do not consider the condition of our core, or our soul, we become complacent and careless. When our words and actions match our belief system, we exhibit care for those around us in significant and life-changing ways. 
One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of hoopla surrounding a few instances of horseflesh being sold as beef in Europe.

While I agree that public deception is not acceptable in most cases, including this one, I don’t see what the big deal is with eating a little horse.

Or a big horse, depending on what is at your disposal.

It is an accepted scientific opinion that horsemeat was a normal source of protein during human development, after all.

Do we even consider why we recoil at the thought of eating meat from a horse when most of us don’t even blink before digging into a dish of chitlins or even opossum?
(Don’t even act like you’ve never had this stuff. If you’ve lived here your whole life, chances are you have, whether you know it or not.)

Take a minute to research the process by which the eating of horseflesh became taboo and you’ll find that the stigma associated with horseflesh finds its roots dug deep into the dark soil of economic stratification and papal decrees intended to prevent the pagan practice of ritual consumption of horsemeat.

Purely culinary norms aren’t what prevents the use of horse in the kitchen; According to Viande Richelieu, a French meat retailer, horsemeat is “slightly sweet, tender and low in fat.”  Instead, a papal campaign from the 700s restricts what could otherwise be a large economic market.

When was the last time you stood beside a horse? Those suckers are big – you could get a lot of meat from just one of them!

Sure, you aren’t going to butcher your kid’s pet horse, but what about the rest of them?

Last week, we crossed the halfway mark for the legislative session.  The pace is really picking up, with the second half promising to be very intense.  The House voted on 22 bills and resolutions during the week.  Most were fairly minor issues or housekeeping measures, though we did pass two bills to restructure MARTA, which were obviously significant for folks inside the perimeter.

It seems that can our government kicked down the road back on January 1 is upon us in the form of the looming March 1 “sequestration” cliff. One can both admire and be sickened by the hyperbole employed by politicians when discussing these impending “cuts.” President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address (http://goo.gl/SbMBp) described them and their effects as “harsh” and “devastat(ing)” to our “priorities” as well as “jeopardizing” military readiness. Really? So a 5 percent cut is going to jeopardize essential government operations? That’s funny, because the governments own Congressional Budget Office report (http://goo.gl/ftDos) states that “If no additional appropriations are provided by then, nonessential functions of the government will have to cease operations.” The operative word there being “non-essential.” If all the things the President pointed out are truly “priorities” then there should be nothing to worry about as only non-essential items will be cut. Of course this begs the question as to why these “non-essential” things were funded in the first place. Isn’t government only supposed to do what is essential by definition? Claiming that essential programs will be devastated by a 5 percent cut is to claim that the government lacks the common sense of any citizen. If your ability to spend is reduced do you immediately cut back on your food budget in order to keep paying your cable bill?

I recently traveled to Columbia, the state capital of South Carolina, to host a pre-wedding party, and attend weekend wedding festivities. Home to my college roommate, I’ve become comfortable visiting Columbia over the years; I always enjoy exploring the city and surrounding area. With a little online research, I gathered some interesting facts and added some favorite haunts to give you a sampling of what this “Famously Hot” city has to offer.
“The Capital of Southern Hospitality,” Columbia has a small town vibe, although the population hovers around 130,000. One of the first planned cities, Columbia’s early commissioners planned 400 city blocks with 100-150 foot wide thoroughfares and perimeter streets believing, optimistically, “that dangerous and pesky mosquitos could not fly more than 60 feet without dying of starvation along the way.” Certainly, this theory solicits a lot of questions, but inadvertently 19th century mosquito control paved Columbia’s wide streets for easy navigation, and manageable traffic, in the 21st century.
The city boasts three rivers. The Congaree, created by the confluence of the Broad and Saluda rivers, flows through Columbia and the Congaree National Park, located 20 miles southeast of the city. The park “protects the largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States.” Paddling the rapids, created along the fall line, and hiking through old growth tops the to-do list for a cool weather visit.
Columbia is an easy 160-mile drive due east on I-20 from Madison; you can be in downtown Columbia in two hours, 30 mins. This no-muss-no-fuss travel makes it a great weekend getaway, girls' trip or one-day destination. You’ll discover a wide variety of activities, good food, and nice people. Here’s a smattering of Columbia’s best.

Allegedly – oh, how many of these columns have to begin with that word – Sadie Robinson, 29 of Warrensburg N.Y., tried to blow her boyfriend and his apartment up with a can of exploding lube.
(pause)

While Peter Moody, Robinson’s boyfriend, slept soundly in the apartment that they share with their 3-month-old and 15-month-old children, Robinson stuck a can of WD-40 lubricant in the oven, cranked the oven to 400 degrees, and abandoned the apartment with the two children. On the way out, she also picked up Moody’s IRS refund card, which was valued at more than $2,500.

Moody’s awakening was accompanied by an aura of smoke, and he was disappointed to find that his loved ones were no longer in the apartment.
Feeling that he should inform the authorities about the recent changes in his surroundings, Moody had the cops dispatched on a (wo)manhunt.

Robinson and crew were found attempting to board a plane headed for Florida, apparently misinformed of the location of WD-40’s headquarters, which are located in San Diego.
That is, I assume she was headed out to pick up more canisters to bake for supper, and who doesn’t like the freshest ingredients?

Although canisters of WD-40 does have a flash point, which could create an explosion under high pressure, that temperature was not reached in the oven of the apartment that day; the residence suffered only minimal damage.
As far as the fate of Robinson, after her arrest she has been charged with arson and grand larceny. Additionally, Robinson is not allowed to be in contact with her children in the near future.
This is the way their home life ended.

Printed in the February 21, 2013 edition