Does prayer really do anything?

I have a confession to make: I still pray occasionally. Yes, my regular readers may be surprised, given that I’m largely atheist/agnostic, that I do pray. However, for me, it’s something different. It’s more akin to meditation. It’s similar to the process of de-fragging a computer hard-drive. I appreciate the time when I can be alone and quiet with my own thoughts and just sort things through. I don’t pray for anything, I just endeavour to reach a state of calmness and balance where I can sort through the stuff in my head. For me, it’s not an easy state to reach. I attend weekly sweat-lodge ceremonies, and I do meditate a lot there. I also meditate on the yoga mat. Sometimes, it’s when I’m driving–I do some of my best thinking when I’m in the car. Other times, it’s when doing outdoor activities. On an individual basis, within my own thought, yes, this process of meditation (you can call it prayer if you want) does do something, in my opinion, for me.

Reality is a dying art form

In some exchanges on a post I made on my Facebook timeline, we’ve been talking about the increasingly blurred lines between satire and reality. So often, I see news-articles posted on-line about political candidates, political leaders, and other news items, and will get several paragraphs in before I realize that what I’m reading is satire. Likewise, I’ll sometimes find myself reading an actual news story, saying to myself, “this has got to be satire, it’s too absurd not to be.” But, in those instances, it’s reality that has turned out to be the absurd one. One of my friends lamented that satire is a dying art form. She thought this because it is harder and harder to discern the difference between reality and satire. I disagree. I think satire is alive and well, and better than it’s ever been. It’s the absurd reality of our world today that is the problem. It’s reality that is dying.