The Journal of Theo

A friend was visiting town and we went to the main library in Chicago. As we were coming close, I mentioned the large grotesques that were placed along the top of the building. I told my friend what someone had told me. "Most people think of these structures as gargoyles but to be a gargoyle, it has to spout water. What most people think are gargoyles are actually really grotesques." We entered the building and explored the beautiful architecture within. At what point, we got to talking about some political thing that I can't recall. To describe the actions that were being taken, he used an interesting word. "That's kind of grotesque." Of all the words he could have used, I found it interesting that he chose that one. It wasn't the most relevant word choice - not even that close really. To me, it was clear what he had done. He had used a word that was primed in his short-term memory. He pulled it out. It's not wrong that he did that. He u...

Normally I don’t allow comments or the option to see likes and dislikes on my videos. I made this choice for several reasons: 1. I wanted to be free of considering the response to my videos. 2. I wanted to follow the template that Jesus and Mary made for their videos. 3. I wanted to make my videos out of a desire to share with people, not out of a desire to please people or get recognition. 4. If I allowed comments, some people would use the opportunity to engage with me in co-dependant addictions - I would get more viewers but the quality would go down. 5. I didn’t want people to stop watching my videos due to the like to dislike ratio - I wanted them to review the content itself. But for most of these reasons, there is an alternative positive aspect to leaving comments and the option to see likes and dislikes. If you see likes or dislikes, you may be able to gauge the response and see if it’s worth your time. The likes to dislikes ratio can sometimes accurately reflect the qualit...