FACEBOOK: A SLICE OF HEAVEN?
Some think so, though they don't mean it literally:
"Facebook's enormous membership makes it a more likely spot than any other place on the English-language Web to connect with a multitude of family members, friends, former co-workers, old classmates and anyone else you haven't seen in the flesh for decades.  It wasn't until the May series finale "Lost," however, that I made another connection -- that this idea of people coming into your life and never going away is a lot like what many people believe the afterlife is like....Could it be that Facebook, the digital Tower of Babel built by a cocky Harvard student, is -- to paraphrase singer Belinda Carlisle -- sort of like what would happen if heaven were a place on earth?  The thought led me to a theological search for the spirituality of Facebook connections. Amid the recent flood of political rants, children's Halloween photos and YouTube videos, many of us have seen status updates from friends offering Bible passages, spiritual quotes or information on upcoming religious services.....I found a lot of theologians struggling to figure out whether mobile phones, social networks and text-messaging harm their religions or help reinvent them in positive ways.
There's even debate on whether being so constantly connected to so many people is good or bad, spiritually speaking.  Bruce Epperly, a theology professor, author and co-pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wrote a thoughtful piece about so-called "Facebook theology," likening the "intricate web of relationships" in our lives to our online social network. He acknowledged that even the lowly, short-form status update can carry a profound holiness.  "It might surprise my high school friends to discover that I often pray for them as I read their posts," Epperly writes. "I believe that Facebook can be an altar on the Internet and a place of spiritual awakening."

So many of us are on Facebook.  We should think more about what it all means.  I certainly hope that the connections so many people make there are meaningful...

MEDITATING ON MEDITATION
Actually, no need to meditate on it for too long--it appears to be pretty well proven that it's good for you:
"Meditation is a known painkiller, easing people's pain perception even after brief sessions. Now a study reveals why: Meditation changes the way the brain processes pain signals.  In a study presented Nov. 16 in San Diego at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, researchers reported that practicing a mindful awareness of the body and consciousness for just four days affects pain responses in the brain.

Brain activity decreases in areas devoted to the painful body part and in areas responsible for relaying sensory information. Meanwhile, regions that modulate pain get busy, and volunteers report that pain is less intense and less unpleasant.  Earlier studies suggested meditation reduces anxiety, promotes relaxation and helps people regulate their emotions, said study author Fadel Zeidan, a post-doctoral researcher at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Also, meditation may reduce pain by essentially making the physical sensations less distressing. "It's really all about the context of the situation, of the environment," Zeidan told LiveScience. "Meditation seems to have an overarching sense of attenuating that type of response."

And we with Moebius can use all the help for our brain that we can get...

"Success is achieved and maintained by those who try, and keep trying,
for there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if
successful. By all means TRY! Do it NOW!!!"  -W. Clement Stone