Sloth

You know what I can’t get over? If these documents are so bloody sensitive, then why are they as vulnerable as they so obviously were. OH, sorry, you caught me mid-thought… I’ve been reading the WikiLeaks… leaks.

Every country on earth talks exactly the same way about other countries, how do I know, well when I was The Minster for External Affairs for Taiwan, we had hundreds of cables and communiques as sensitive, if not more so than those released Sunday. It’s part of the game, our planet is pretty big, but technology means we’ve essentially made it into a smaller, global playground. Heard any stories about Chilean miners lately? Good stories originate anywhere on earth, a shooting at an isolated school in some tiny Mongolian territory, it’s on the news here within the hour….

We all pretend to get along, while secretly thinking of ways to politely not invite other countries to our birthday party. I seriously doubt anyone is surprised by anything contained in these documents.

I saw a great tweet in the midst of American politicos going bonkers over the leak, (as America has been telling its citizens since 9/11) – “if you’ve done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about” how does your own medicine taste American Government – Public officials countered with – “but you are putting real people and lives in danger by publishing these documents.” Excuse me? You mean like sending hundreds of thousands of troops half-way around the world under false pretenses and …. OK I feel a rant coming on so I’ll nip it in the bud, all I’m saying is since when is America concerned with putting lives in danger?

I’m sure Wikileaks doesn’t intend to see anyone harmed as a result of the leak, but good intentions aren’t always enough, you might start walking with the intention of seeing the sunset, but if you start walking East, then you’ve got a problem. (You see, the sun sets in the West). So intention must be accompanied by focus, purpose and direction, and perhaps OnStar.

America has been the big kid in the playground for so long, they’ve grown complacent and with complacency comes inattention, cutting corners… in other words Sloth….Todays sin topic….

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Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathy, being physically and emotionally inactive. Sloth is the most misunderstood of the Seven Deadly Sins. Often regarded as laziness, it is more accurately translated as apathy. Like all sin, Sloth is an excess of something good.  That something good is leisure and recreation. The horror! How dare we take a moment to enjoy ourselves… sinner!

St. Thomas Aquinas, Oh great he has a quote, Hang on everyone, Tommy has something to add, please Thomas, please share with us your feelings on Sloth, he tells us that the only justifiable reason to take time off, is so that you are able to work better. And if we ever take leisure, to the extent that it impairs our ability to work or the quality, it becomes sinful.” What an Idiot. Talk about NOT wanting to invite someone to your birthday party.

I think Sloth was made a sin because the Church fears inactivity, they feel idleness invites the desire to sin. “For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Translation, being all super pious and holy, guarantees you a mega-cruddy, no fun existence. They needed a way to ensure people were kept sufficiently busy to never have a chance to wonder just what the church was on about. Why can’t you buy that red corvette, and hey, hookers have to eat too…. – the lord sayeth “thine body is thine temple” Ok – what better way to honour your temple then top down, music on, cruising with the wind in your hair… it maketh the temple happy and a happy temple is a more satisfied, generous, merciful & loving temple.

While in the Taiwanese government I was also the Minster responsible for torture, oh  and pet licensing. Let me tell you, seeing someone tortured, well – there just isn’t any comparison to someone having their bones systematically broken to someone happily cruising down the road in a convertible, beer in one hand and hooker in the other – it’s really quite different. I guarantee you, breaky breaky bone bone isn’t thinking about ways to get into trouble, not like that dude hitting 100 in the corvette… and therein lies the crux of the churches argument, free time leads to temptation.

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Your punishment in Hell for Sloth: You’ll be thrown into a snake pit, for eternity. Really? How does that even work? I assume once they throw you down into the pit, you then take some kind of Satanic chair life that brings you back to the top, just so they can chuck you down again. Hell sounds dumb.

In order to help out morons like you and me, the Vatican was kind enough to put out a list and examples of ways you can be considered slothful;

First: you’re slothful if you avoid as much as possible all manual labor or physical effort. For example: not making your bed in the morning, letting the dishes stack up in the sink, letting your yard turn in to a pasture.  The second way is the excessive seeking of bodily ease and comfort: am I comfortable — that is sloth. Thirdly, if you put off things that must be done: procrastination. A fourth way is to give up a task before it is completed. Fifth is habitual tardiness. If you are late for everything: work, appointments, meals, assignments — it is sloth.  Sixth is wasting time on useless activities: too much t.v., too much newspaper, crossword puzzles, too much talking on the phone.

Ok so ummmm, that is just beyond stupid, not doing your dishes right away? Procrastination, tardiness & doing crossword puzzles, seeking comfort? Moronic – again they guarantee everyone, every single man, woman and child on the planet would be hell-bound. What’s the point of creating a sin, rigged to ensure everyone fails? It makes no sense and therefore, this sin is an extravagant fail. By the power invested in me by the Taiwanese government, I declare this sin no longer valid…. see what I did there, now we are down to three sins left. So tonight, spend some time doing what you like to do and maketh thine Temple a place of Joy. Of course, there is always the hooker….

Have a Great Day.