Where we started at RDF.

[Mysturji]

If I recall, my first post was in word association... hardly memorable!

Misturji's was too.

Moon

[Bella Fortuna]

If I recall, my first post was in word association... hardly memorable!

Misturji's was too.

Moon

My brother!

[Mysturji]

If I recall, my first post was in word association... hardly memorable!

Misturji's was too.

Moon

My brother!

Suddenly I feel all incestuous.

[Heresiarch]

I think my first post was in an OT thread about a man caught having sex with a bicycle.

[juːtoʊpiə]

I just looked up my first post and realized I'd almost been there a whole year
How time flies

[Apollonius]

I said hello in the welcome forum and no one paid attention.

I sent Dawk a PM telling him about how his book "The Selfish Gene" helped me understand something about US politics back in college days, and what did he think.. (added a description). I was really disappointed he never responded.

Then I posted this in the Religion Forum:

"Disneyland for the Faithful"

Everyone should see Jerusalem at least once. It doesn't matter what you believe or don't believe, once you go there, you leave more of what you were before you went.

This is my account from a few years ago after I went to Tel Aviv on business for a week. It was customary for the host company to keep customers happy and give them something to remember, so why not ditch work a day or two and take a van to Jerusalem?

To make it even more interesting, we get an ex-Israeli military office driver (who else are they going to let strangers take off in a van with?) a Jew of course, and my work colleagues-one a born-again Christian and one a Muslim, and me the quiet atheist taking it all in.

Jerusalem is Disneyland for the Faithful. It really is. It's similar in scale, just like a large theme park, and surrounded by tour buses. only the park is ancient and the real deal. All the faiths fit inside the park. One ticket gets you to all three monotheistic rides-The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

People from the buses can be touring from anywhere on Earth, and know where they want to go and what to see, depending on their beliefs. They might be Japanese Christians and rush over to some rock by a Church and pray and kiss the rock-just what they came for. Then to the side you may find a group of African American Baptists rocking out, clapping and singing. Everyone finds it.

Even just outside the walls, the British have a place to find what they need-a garden-aka the Garden Tomb. Go there and you get a very proper tour from a British guide that shows you a nice garden, and a tomb that just had to be the one Jesus was buried in. Why is that? Just look at this place, it's beautiful, it's a garden. This had to be the place.

Back inside, I'm just taking it all in at one of the stations of the cross, next to my Muslim friend. Some Christians stop and touch a rock, and seem empowered. My friend wispers "That is wrong, that is SO wrong?" "What?" "He's a man. They are worshiping a man. That is so wrong." I had never thought of how they would see it that way-interesting.

You can take in all the major rides in one afternoon, you just have to pick what lines you want to stand in. I quietly went through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and saw again the variety of groups, each getting something different out of it or focusing on something different, and all really into it.

I did the take your shoes off and see the Mosque thing, the Dome of the Rock, all that. Same thing, people got what they came for.

Of course we stop by the Western Wall. Here, Jews put on a cap and write a note to god on a piece of paper and stuff it in a crack. Can I do it too? Sure, all you need is to wear a cap, and there is a table of them waiting for you.

So I put on a white cap, go stand at the Western Wall, and write on the back of my card-"Dear God-sorry about last weekend in Amsterdam. Call me if that was a problem!"

He never called.

I still feel good about that. Everyone gets what they want out of Jerusalem.