October 31, 2009 – Fraternized

Akathist: “Glory to God for all Things”

by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Tryphon (+1934)

crucifixion2

ODE 1

Everlasting King, Your will for our salvation is full of power.

Your right arm controls the whole course of human life.

We give You thanks for all Your mercies, seen and unseen:

For eternal life, for the heavenly joys of the Kingdom which is to be.

Grant mercy to us who sing Your praises, both now and in the time to come.

Glory to You, O God, from age to age.

IKOS 1

john,seth,danC I was born a weak, defenseless child,

but Your angel spread his wings over my cradle to defend me.

From birth until now, Your love has illumined my path,

and has wondrously guided me towards the light of eternity.

From birth until now the generous gifts of Your Providence have been marvelously showered upon me.

I give You thanks, with all who have come to know You, who call upon Your Name:

Glory to You for calling me into being.

Glory to You, showing me the beauty of the universe.

Glory to You, spreading out before me heaven and earth, like the pages in a book of eternal wisdom.

Glory to You for Your eternity in this fleeting world.

Glory to You for Your mercies, seen and unseen.

Glory to You, through every sigh of my sorrow.

Glory to You for every step of my life’s journey, for every moment of glory.

Glory to You, O God, from age to age.

See: Ode 2

Renee Montagne of National Public Radio did An Ode to the Internet’s Big Bang on Thursday, October 29, 2009, commemorating the 40^th Anniversary of the founding of the Internet. I wrote a short blog about the World Wide Web being 5000 days old sometime ago. Though I think of the Web and the Internet as referring to the same thing, I’ve been told that they refer to different things, but the difference has never seemed clear to me.

You can read Renee Montagne doing her part to read the Ode to the Internet by clicking on the link above. I just want to point out that 20 years ago the conversation she has in the Ode would have made no sense – and maybe not even 10 years ago. The conversation references:

YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, USB, MP3, GPS, PDF, LCD, ISP, SMS, cookie wiki, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, Paypal, Netflix, iMac, eBay, Wi-Fi, Xbox, and Second Life

I thought the piece was very clever.

It reminded me of a question I heard not too long ago but don’t remember where (Car Talk maybe?): A man calls his wife from work and when she answers the phone the first thing he does is to ask her a question that makes perfect sense today but 20 years ago would not have made any sense at all. What was the question?

I also heard a song a short while ago that had a line in it about a person knowing that the girl he liked was serious about him because as they were walking through a park she took his picture with her phone. That too would have made no sense just a couple of years ago. It also is a clue to answer the question at the end of the previous paragraph. The question was, “Where are you?”

It made me think of a bit of humor. After enough car wrecks from people talking on cell phones or text messaging while driving, and after enough people injury themselves by running into things while talking on a cell phone, some safety minded person will come up with a great method for preventing such accidents: they’ll figure out a technology that will require phones to be land based by attaching them to a wall with a wire.