Duh! Success is about encouraging others.

“He [The Blessed Pope John Paul II] restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope”

– Pope Benedict XVI, 1 May 2011

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Blessed Pope John Paul II

In an interview, a reporter asked him how he felt about the enthusiasm and cheering of crowds for him. He replied that the enthusiasm is not about him, that the enthusiasm was for the Successor of Peter and Christ living in the church. His reply is splendid in the man’s humility, conscience, and convictions.

I am not a man qualified to demonstrate or explain the heroic virtue of that man to you. I am not qualified to describe the miracles nor the inquisitional examination of those miracles that qualify that man for beatification. Nor am I qualified to explain how he was one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century or that he may have been the most important thinker and philosopher of the twentieth century. His titles and service recommend themselves as much as they recommend that gentle man.

If I am to be honest with you (and I do want to be honest with you) I can only share with you, inadequately, how that man encouraged me to pray, to think about the dignity and drama of the human person, and to remember the splendor of truth that shines from Christ, from the cross, and from the resurrection.

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Once upon a time. Europe was where the best of culture was at.

Europe

I used to think that Europe was where the best of human culture is. It’s normal for an American kid with middle class dreams and aspirations. America has deep roots in Europe.

I worked after school to save up money for my high school trips to Europe. I mopped the floor. I took out the garbage. I stocked refrigerators and shelves. I washed the dishes. I delivered subs and pizzas. I even mowed lawns. The boss had rental homes too.

And when I graduated from high school, I went on a grand tour of Europe. I couldn’t afford to do it in style like my once favorite author, Marcel Proust, did holidays. But I did go places, see things, make friends, etc. I slept in trains, train stations, on Greek beaches, and even some famous places you might know about – The Spanish Steps of Rome among them.

I continued to make my cultural pilgrimages to Europe into my adult-life. And, finally, I moved here. That was an accomplishment!

I’ve been here about 10 years and I can tell you that there’s some big problems here – problems that reflect only glimpses of that cynical and cruel capacity of the much admired European sophistication.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Europe. But I love the USA more. More and more, in fact, as I come to a better understanding of the world.

Christian v. Christian

This Palm Sunday, VMRO (BMPO) thugs attacked peaceful church-goers as seen in this Youtube video. http://bit.ly/eGqsyZ

Palm Sunday is a Christian celebration of Christ’s return to Jerusalem in preparation for his sacrifice. It is also a reminder of the Christian anticipation of Christ’s triumphant second coming. Palm Sunday illuminates the Christian story of crowds welcoming Christ into the city with palm branches – symbols of joy and triumph.

VMRO is a Nationalist Orthodox Christian movement that is growing in popularity in Bulgaria, a European nation. Bulgaria, however, is not the only European state to see fascist currents rising in the public square. The French,  Germans and Italians are unembarrassed to declare that Multiculturalism is something that Europeans don’t view as worthwhile.

To paraphrase one popular German politician speaking about the so-called Muslim problem, “They can live and work here, but they are not entitled to the rights and dignity that are shared by our native people and citizens.”

In the hate crimes depicted in the video, these are actually Bulgarians assaulting Bulgarians. Worse, these are Christians (Bulgarian Orthodox) attacking Christians (Jehovah’s Witnesses). In the opinion of the Bulgarian Orthodox extremists, there is no place for dissident opinion (private, public, religious or otherwise) in Bulgaria.

Bummer

Myself, I love Bulgaria as a tourist. I have a long list of Bulgarian products that I fan including jam, brandy and soap made with Bulgarian Rose petals. There’s a culture of art, music, food, and wine there that I love.

Did I mention that one of my favorite drinking wines is Thracian’s Mystery from Todoroff?

I’ve even considered relocating to Bulgaria.

In Romania, the mainstream media are reporting that the Jehovah Witnesses provoked the attack. As you can see for yourself in the video, the Jehovah witnesses were at their place of worship, turning the other cheek, and getting their asses kicked.

Prayers

My prayers go out to the Jehovah’s Witnesses injured and terrorized in this video. My prayers also go out to all peoples who are not free and at ease to peacefully pursue good conscience, prudence and wisdom.

My prayers go to you in the world – you who can make this a better world by sharing insight and wisdom according to your conscience. And, yeah, my prayer to you are CCed to God.

DON’T be surprised if He mentions them on judgment day. <grin>

Stan Faryna
19 April 2011
Bucharest, Romania

If you’d like to connect with me, follow @Faryna and tweet me up on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/faryna

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About Stan Faryna

Mr. Faryna is the founder and co-founder of several technology, design and communication companies in the United States and Europe including Faryna & Associates, Inc., Halo Interactive, and others.

Stan Faryna served as a Global Voices author and translator. Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

His political, scholarly, social and technical opinions have appeared in The Chicago Defender, Jurnalul National, The Washington Times, Sagar, Saptamana Financiara, Social Justice Review, and other publications.

Mr. Faryna also served as editor-in-chief of Black and Right (Praeger Press, 1996), a landmark collection of socio-political essays by important American thinkers including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Copyright

Copyright 1996 to 2012 by Stan Faryna.

Here’s my fair use policy for my content: If you want to share my content with your own audience, you may quote a brief excerpt, if and only if, you provide proper attribution (Source: The unofficial blog of Stan Faryna) with a direct link to the source. Generally speaking, as long as you are not acting as an agent or on behalf of a corporation or institution, I am not interested in any payment for the quotation or use of a complete article. Nevertheless, you may not republish or translate the entire article without my written permission. Send your request for permission via Facebook. Or tweet me up me on Twitter.

moby and me: Easter Pilgrimage To Bucovina (part four)

If you missed part one of my Easter Pilgrimage To Bucovina, go here. Part four follows herein.

Last Night

Last night, I tried to get through this recollection, but it didn’t happen. That reminds me…

Last week, you [moby] mentioned that you were going to a seminar where Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscience professor from UC Davis, was going to be speaking.

moby wrote:

“i’m having a seminar/conversation with neuroscientist petr jenata at the rubin museum in nyc… come down and talk about the brain with us.”

You never mentioned how it went.

I found Petr Jenata’s website. It states there that he uses “music as a model system for studying the neural basis of auditory attention, imagery and memory.”

Some background music: moby, We’re all made of stars.

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Also, I checked out the sxsw spin interview video. Quick impression: another uninspired, interviewer along for the joy ride of kicking it with an unassuming, soft-spoken A list celebrity.

Will you ever find a hardcore interview where the interviewer can actually engage you at your intellectual level?

Again, congrats on the website update. The new homepage is cool.

moby and me: Easter Pilgrimage To Bucovina (part two)

If you missed part one of my Easter Pilgrimage To Bucovina, go here. Part two follows herein.

moby writes:

“oh, we’ve also put up the new album [Last Night] in its entirety on my myspace page (and it might be elsewhere on myspace, i’m not sure).”

Hear Last Night here (warning: product may contain peanuts, based on Schrödinger’s paradoxical thought experiments using quantum superposition).

Thanks, moby. Have a great weekend in Miami!

BTW, I think removing the forums was a great idea. Don’t cave to the mob of angry trolls. Comments to your journal should be sufficient to keep your website personalized and almost Web 2.0ish.

Below, a little background music: moby, Whispering Wind:

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St. Mary’s Church in Cacica

In a small Romanian village, I stood in an old church in the freezing cold. I stood shoulder to shoulder with the villagers. They were strangers to me. These people spoke another language, they worried about things which I did not worry about, and given the opportunity on any other occasion – most of them would be trying to sell me a square meter in their village for a preposterous amount – like nothing less than a million dollars.

Maybe, I exaggerate. But not by much. Been there. Done that.

And, yet, here we were in the same place and time, contemporaries, doing the same thing and not trying to get the better of each other. We were expressing by our very presence in that church, a desire (more or less) to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our worries and everyday concerns, and bigger than our differences and our personal self-interest.

Standing there, I felt a strange community with these strangers as I reflected on the resurrection of Christ and anticipated a hot bowl of sour soup.

moby and me: good friday and happy easter

Good Friday and Happy Easter

Below, my humble, fleeting gift to you: a listen to Enya, We are free now…

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Good Friday

moby writes:

“This weekend in acapulco, i’ll be dj’ing, not playing live. just want to make that clear. same thing is true in miami. at some point in the next few months i might play live again, but for now i’m happy to just be a bald beer drinking dj.”

For some, today is Good, Holy or Great Friday- the day to remember Christ dying on the cross. Today is the day that the Roman Catholic Church has designated the anniversary of the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The date of Good Friday changes every year. But I don’t know how they pick the date. Anyway, I stopped at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Bucharest. There were long lines to the confessionals.