Lots of bits & pieces: Life's purpose and other wonderings

Various things happened today.

• I got the chance to read a fair bit: Pages 72-78 of JW's Lapsed Agnostic worth re-reading - finally he is getting to the nub of the issue and not discussing The Peter Pan Factor.
  I visited the Quaker musem in Kilkenny/Kildare county and became curious about the nature of that religion and the necessity of a simple life or even the possibilty of going without [certain things].
  
• Also in the library attached to the museum i picked up a copy of the kildare county sustainable magazine. I had hoped the magazine might contain some info about alternatively-living sustainable communities (ie those not relying on salaries and jobs involving long commutes to cities and cheap rents in suburbs of rural towns); I read something about this in a sourcebook I bought in the amnesty international bookshop a few years ago and have found no information about since - communities in ireland that barter etc... but this mag was a waste of time.
• On the way home, I stopped by a friend's house (it's soooo important to meet people you get on with and understand you and you understand them. meet them regularly. v important.)
• Heath Ledger died last night. I've never been a one for idols or people I admire yet for some reason I respected him. A good actor and oh so good-looking. And now he has died, cause unknown. Owen Wilson's apparent break-down was confusing as well. The idea of celebrity is confusing.
• My uncle, with whom I was travelling through the country, blessed himself as he passed by a church (it happens less now with the bypasses) - that too was a notion to get my head around.
• Also had coffee in a coffee-shop in Kilkenny. Was very much looking forward to it. Coffee at 11 o'clock on a weekday is something I rarely do since I got a full-time job. But the coffee shop was crowded. Who are these people who can sit around and engage with each other, who don't need to be in an office earning shekels to pay for things? And outside sat a fully-robed monk, with sandals and a pocket containing the wallet he would use to pay for his scone and coffee - I mock unfairly - he was conversing with a friend and was joined by another female friend and greeted warmly by a female passerby, they were discussing a great poet when I eavesdropped. These, I feel, are the important things in life: having time for coffee breaks and conversing with friends about ideas that matter to you at the time.
  The least we can do as humans with our time on earth is try to gain an understanding of ourselves and to take responsiblity for ourselves within our picture of humanity.
• I listened to an interview with Marian Finucane a saturday or two ago (she was speaking to a psychotherapist, can't remember his name); the interviewee claimed it's important to read books, I suppose to keep the intellect alive and keep excited by the thoughts and ideas of others in the human race.
• We visited a CoI cathedral in Leighlinstown called St. Lazarian's, the name fascinated me, unfortunately we couldn't enter the church but we wandered around the graveyard.

[couldn't find pic for this post!]