The Futility of Xanga and What Makes Someone Great

So I've got a Xanga. You're welcome to check it out if you like. Just click here. However, I've noticed something. When I post fairly deep things, the comments and eprops seem to drop off. (What exactly is an eprop, anyway? Someone answer me that.) One would think that Xangans have a natural aversion to intellectual stimulation. I once observed to a friend, "I made the little Xangans think... And it killed them."

I don't have a very high opinion of Xanga's target crowd, in case you hadn't noticed. I do have some friends on Xanga that will engage on that level, but for the most part, a random post about my goldfish dying will get more comments than a post regarding the oft-unconsidered questions of everyday life. Ah, well. Let 'em have it.

They can have my dead goldfish, too.

I copied this post from my Xanga. While it may not get comments here, I know people will at least read it, engage it, and take something from it.

(And if you don't... Don't tell me. I'd rather not know.)

*commence posting*

So I started reading philosophy again... The flavor of the month is "Fear and Trembling" by Soren Kierkegaard. In this work, Kierkegaard talks about Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. Why did Abraham do it? What could he possibly hope to gain? What good could possibly be done for anyone at all? He is sacrificing his only son... It isn't likely that he'll have another. No one benefits by Abraham doing this. And yet... We remember Abraham and respect him. Even if the ram hadn't shown up, and God hadn't spared Isaac's life, we still would remember Abraham as a patriarch, a hero of the faith. Why? Here is what Kierkegaard says... May we learn from Abraham's example.

"No one shall be forgotten who was great in this world; but everyone was great in his own way, and everyone in proportion to the greatnesss of what he loved. For he who loved himself became great in himself, and he who loved others became great through his devotion, but he who loved God became greater than all. They shall all be remembered, but everyone became great in proportion to his expectancy. One became great through expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal; but he who expected the impossible became greater than all. They shall be all be remembered, but everyone was great in proportion to the magnitude of what he strove with. For he who strove with the world became great by conquering the world, and he who strove with himself became great by conquering himself; but he who strove with God became greater than all. Thus there was strife upon earth: there was he who conquered everything by his own strength, and he who conquered God by his powerlessness. There was one who relied upon himself and gained everything, and one who, secure in his own strength, sacrificed everything; but greater than all was the one who believed God. There was one who was great in his strength, and one who was great in his wisdom, and one who was great in love; but greater than all was Abraham, great with that power whose strength is powerlessness, great in that wisdom whose secret is folly, great in that hope whose outward form is insanity, great in that love which is hatred of self."