The Frazzled Brain

Already this morning I've:

-- Wrestled in my mind over Jesus's words during the last days of His life. He proclaims Himself to be a light, shining in darkness, illuminating minds and scattering Satan's power. Meanwhile, he heads toward Golgotha, and His death. Toward a day when the sky darkened at noon.

-- This thinking on darkness turns my thoughts toward Egypt. The crowds of protesters I see on the screen -- they seem to me to be living in darkness. The whole Muslim world is full of darkness, to me. Such a fearful religion. People who seem to be grasping in a spiritual void.

-- Re-debated the whole "Harry Potter" issue over on facebook. Are these books really about Satan worship? I don't see it.

-- Bent my mind again to inter-racial issues in America. Does one drop of "black blood" really make someone black? Is Obama our first black president, or our first mixed-race president? Do we want or need these labels?

-- Tried to wrap my brain around the "clean energy" concept. It used to mean wind mills. Now wind mills are out for the environmentalists b/c they kill birds.  Greenies used to hate nuclear power.  Now many tout it as a clean energy. What is a person supposed to believe? Is there such a thing as "clean coal"?

-- Considered the idea that, when Christians offer something simple and ordinary to God, and it becomes a worthwhile offering, it is similar to Jesus's conversion of water into wine. Hmm.

-- People are starting to use funeral pyres again? 

-- Given a few brain cells to: approaching storms in the Midwest, where we're flying next week; thought about stomach viruses that are going around; ruminated on our visit to a nice church yesterday; Obamacare is always on the brain's horizon; mommy blogging and whether it's a worthwhile pursuit; our new-to-us, broken washing machine that must be returned; Anna's math; my own lethargy ....

And the list goes on and on. All because I spend my mornings on the internet.

And I wonder:  is this a useful thing?  Am I frying my brain and making it less useful for truly important things, like my family and my home?

Do we spread ourselves thin each day, mentally stretching our thoughts out across the world like "butter on too much bread," as Bilbo once said?

Thoreau (of whom I am not an ardent fan) once said something about how humans in his time were too fond of searching out each latest morsel of news. What would he think of 2011? He advised turning one's mind to the small items in one's own life worthwhile of study.

Hmmm.  Now I've only given myself yet another thing to ponder.