By Larry Ryan
Perhaps I was just looking for an excuse to jack-knife in some incongruous looking photos of clergymen strutting around a baseball stadium in Washington at the Pope's mass, but this morning I felt compelled to check out the new religion-themed website, dear-god.net.
Set up by web arbiters of all things hip, The Cool Hunter, it seems their approach is a bit more, er, catholic, than the Catholic church, as they declare the site "is a new concept of religion spirituality where people from all over the planet reveal their innermost hopes and fears in the form of prayers to god... completely non-demoninational and the term god is used in the broadest sense – encompassing every religion’s concept of a higher power; be it a Christian god, a Muslim god or simply a fluid idea of universal energy." And that's just the blurb...
Each day the site posts a reflection/prayer from a different person. Here's a snippet from today's by J in Phoenix:
Dear God,
Please give me wisdom about my job. My boss treats me like a dog. I have confronted her to no avail. Despite my ardent search for a better job I have no prospects. My wife and son depend on the income I provide, but I feel so depressed getting ready for work I have to muster all the will power I have just to shower and shave... Provider, please provide what I need, whatever that is and help me recognize it when it comes.
Normally talk of spirituality or indeed "a fluid idea of universal energy" makes me want to rip out my eyes and stick them in my ears so I don't have to hear or see it, but dear-god.net is certainly a very stylish looking website - as is probably expected, coming from the Cool Hunter stable. And it does beat normal conceptions of regligion on the internet which for me, involve a guy from Texas with a mullet and gleaming teeth asking you to send him cash for his newsletter.
Speaking of newsletters, if you want to go a touch high-brow swing over to the Borzoi Reader, the website of Knopf publishing house, and sign up for its free Poem-a-Day e-newsletter. Doing what it says on the tin, everyday at about 1.55pm a new poem will arrive in your inbox.
Today's is by Mei Yaochen:
At Night I Hear My Neighbour Singing
I cannot fall asleep at midnight,
overhearing my neighbour singing.
I imagine her red lips moving
till dust falls from the beams.
I don't laugh when she misses a beat,
just pull my clothes on to steal her song,
but when I put on clothes, the song ends.
Only the moon in the window still shines.
(Photos: Getty Images)
This is the best website to ask questions & vent your anger at your boss, worth looking at.
Posted by: si smith | Sunday, 18 May 2008 at 04:19 PM