With no concrete theme (an intentional decision), Never Stationary is the culmination of my writing efforts. At 18 years old, my life is looking a lot like me when I have a lot of papers spread out on a tiny table in a coffee shop. Cluttered, with lots of coffee stains and I can’t find my pen!
To help me decipher what’s going on in the world around me, and to help me formulate an opinion on such things, I’m deconstructing any barriers that have been erected around my writing. I’m taking whatever’s on my mind, and taking a stance. I’m trying to reach others.
“Try everything” seems to have become my life’s motto. It means experimenting in college, meeting new people, trying new foods, and stirring up the metaphorical cement (that is my life) whenever it starts to set.
On this blog, it means cultivating all of my writing skills, which means that I will be posting shitty music reviews, half-decent book reviews, amateur movie reviews, and most importantly, bush-league food reviews. All of this, in the name of writing as much as I can whenever I can, in hopes of hammering out a rhythm and getting into a groove and mastering the basics.
This blog is made of me taking perplexing issues, mapping them out in my private writing, rustling the paper, seeing what rises to the top, and posting it online for the world to read.
Look back to 2012! See how far I’ve come since then.
This blog is for taking advantage of firefly thoughts and brainblasts during late nights, but it’s also for not just accepting writer’s block, not without a fight, which means that I’m armed with a notebook on my nightstand and a small Moleskin and 12 pens in my bag whenever I go out.
This blog…it starts and ends with the idea that writing is beneficial for the soul, if nothing else. At least, this type of writing is.
I can picture myself growing tired of journalism, and while there was a time when I feared that I would run out of content for this blog, I realized that it was the equivalent of fearing that the grocery store would run out of peanut butter, which it does, on rare occasions, but not nearly enough to warrant a rational fear.
I take away something from every single day, and my mind always seems to have something to say.
– inspired by #40 on Roy Peter Clark’s Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List –
Cat Zhang 
Love the whole attitude of the blog. But allow me, if you will, to stir up the cement a bit myself.
I believe that almost 2 years ago, you wrote an incredible post, titled “Does God exist? Do I care?”. I want to know if this position has remained stationary. Seeing as you are now a college student, I sort of refuse to believe that you have not had run-ins with the idea of a god since. If your position is of religious tolerance, I want to ask you: have you been listening, watching, and thinking, or are you just filtering it out? For example, how well do you know Christian theology, about the importance of “Sola Scriptura”, “Sola Fide”, and of total depravity? How well do you understand the five pillars of Islam, or the controversial sixth of Jihadi? Who was Mohammed? In what context was Mohammed? Can you tolerate something you don’t understand? Do you care?
If, as I suspect, this topic is not on your radar, I’m curious as to why. I can tell that your past experience with Christianity has left some rough marks, but I don’t think it should be all-defining. After all, we are constantly changing, right? What intrigues me is that this question, of the importance of the existence of god, has been much less asked than the more popular question of whether god exists at all. Nietzsche acknowledges the impact of god in his famously quoted snippet: “God is dead / and we have killed him.” The American constitution recognizes the implications of religion with the famous separation of church and state. And I believe many now heavily fear religion in light of the recent terrorist attacks.
Tl;dr
Do you care about the existence of god? Why or why not?
Sorry if I drive a harsh and blunt course, but these kind of thoughts consume me, and I want to know what you think.
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Hi Jay! Sorry for the late response. Your comment is thought-provoking and I’d like to answer it in a future blog post, but for the time being, to answer your question, I’ll say the following: If there is a god, that’s great, but I don’t want to make decisions or take actions based on what I think some higher being might want. I’d rather do those things for myself, even though I know for others that it can be a source of relief and comfort. For myself, however, religion plays no role in my life. Does that make sense?
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It does! So it seems that for you, the idea of being subordinate to somebody else – even if it is your most loving creator, even if it is for your own and others’ ultimate good – is just out of the question, right? Who matters more than your self? And that is not to say that is irrational or “bad” per se. In fact, I would argue that has largely been the social goal since the Age of Enlightenment: the love and benefit of an individual for the individual.
On a slight tangent, I also find it quite funny when people consider Christianity to be a cop-out method, because it asks for a whole, conscious (this being a most important aspect), and achievable submission of the self for the God-defined good. That is incomparably challenging in my opinion. Wouldn’t you agree?
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“There was a time when I feared that I would run out of content for this blog, I realized that it was the equivalent of fearing that the grocery store would run out of peanut butter, which it does, on rare occasions, but not nearly enough to warrant a rational fear.”
Love this. So much.
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:) THANKS SABINAAAAA YOU ARE DA BEST<3
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