From whom all blessings flow

I feel really blessed to be able to share with you all today. Just really, really... blessed.

Excuse me. I'm just trying out the concept of "feeling blessed," because lately I've heard the phrase on several occasions, and it's made me think about it. It's not the concept of a blessing that bothers me--it's everyone's right to perceive fate as they wish, but to me, the words "I feel blessed" carry just the slightest tinge of "neener-neener." Like "God likes me a lot. A lot more than he likes YOU."

Plus, certain people attribute any old occurrence to "blessings." Is it up to me to determine whether someone finding a dog to adopt is a "blessing"? No. It is not. But I could just as well say that the fact that I didn't get eaten by a tiger today is a blessing. "I feel so blessed, not to have been eaten by a tiger!"

I saw this band a couple of times in Boston, and both times, during their "soulful musical interlude/introduction period," the singer said, in a silky, practiced tone that the band was "blessed with not one, but TWO songwriters." I recognize the figurative possibilities of the phrase, but taken literally, the blessing in that case is a little weak. I mean, wow. What are the odds that two out of six people who come together for the purpose of creating music would be able to line up four chords in some sort of repetitive pattern? It must be astronomical.

On the other side of the coin is the concept of being cursed. If someone told you "I feel really cursed right now. Cursed. By God, I mean," you'd think he was nuts, and advise him to take responsibility for whatever his problem was. Or, say your car kept breaking down, you might express that you're having a run of bad luck, but I doubt that many people seriously attribute misfortune to a curse. Blessings? Those are from God. Curses? All you, pal.



Star of the day. . .Paul Kochansky
posted @ 3:25 p.m. on 01.20.05 before | after

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She lay awake all night,

zzzzzzzzzzz......