ruthless winter to come: sleeping in ice & snow

Every year, the media and the local government advise that the elderly and children be protected from the cold. They also offer hot-line phone numbers for people to complain if they've got no heat and/or hot water. Of course, there's also the worry of the homeless -- those who sleeping in the cold streets out of no other choice. Shelters are offered as an alternative, which of course can only hold a certain number of people leaving many in the cold. In all, winter in NYC can be brutal and ruthless especially if you're cold with your body heat dropping by the minute and getting numb.

I'm listing some organizations if you care to help or need help.

• Coalition for the Homeless
  http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/
• NYC Department of Homeless Services
  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/home/home.shtml
• New York Homeless Shelters
  http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/newyork.html

What I just wrote above is absolutely nothing unless you've lived through this. Do something. At least, support whatever outreach ministry your church offers. Said the latter, if your church doesn't have outreach programs, find another church.

conditional love

I've been reading an article several times called "God is Love" (http://www.allaboutgod.com/god-is-love.htm) not because it's hard to understand, but rather because I like read it. The following is my response and/or interpretation of such article.

LOVE: "an intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties"
-- American Heritage Dictionary

This definition explains why I've gone through several relationships though out my life.

We're like vampires sucking whatever that other person's willing to give us and to fulfill us with till we exhaust those resources. After doing so, we grow tired and uninterested of that person. We simply fall out of love. In most cases, we then look for someone else who can fulfill some other need that we may have. We prey and hunt for love.

Considering this, the only persons we might never stop loving are the extensions of our lives -- that part of each of us that'd keep living after we're dead -- our own children (well at least, most of the time). Maybe our children never finish fulfilling us or we might simply truly "love" them. In any case, the attachment that we've got with our children could be the purest form of love -- the purest emotion -- that we might ever experience.

Understanding a parent's love, we might somewhat understand how God loves us. It's still incomprehensive to us though since God's love depends on no condition at all, hence being eternal and honestly pure.

disgusting

I grew up Catholic. Nowadays I wouldn't call myself such. Anyway It's disgusting what the Catholic Church has done for generations -- paying off victims of sexual abuse and/or molestation -- especially since the new pope took charge. There's something that makes me distrust him, sort of evil. It feels that this whole sexual abuse spectre is the white elephant sitting in the corner getting bigger day by day till the room explodes.



How can a priest (or any other title given to the pastor) use his power to abuse children? Regardless of the name, sex, religion, traditions and any other possible excuse, a PEDOPHILE is a PEDOPHILE and must be put in prison. Let's see how the PEDOPHILE feels when he gets molested in jail as he is taught that children are one of the protected groups even by the worst criminals.


Catholic Church abuse allegations ripple across the globe
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1364

Vatican defends pope in US lawsuit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100330/ap_on_re_eu/eu_the_vatican_s_defense