The Absence of Noise

I finally got the overly loud, constantly running fan on my laptop fixed this week. It's been that way for awhile, but I keep putting off contacting Dell, because I assumed I'd have to send it back and be without my computer for awhile, and I really need it for freelance work. But I had reached a point where it was completely driving me crazy, and where I might be able to get by without the comp for a bit.

I was pleasantly surprised though...I used Dell's online support to report the problem, and was told that a technician would contact me in 1-2 business days to schedule a maintenance call. That's right, they came to me. So two days later, the Dell guy came out, and my computer is now blissfully silent. It's taken some getting used to though. I didn't quite know what to do for a few days, when I would boot up my computer and not be greeted with an annoying hum. It almost seemed like something was wrong, I had become so used to it. I told a friend, it was like going home for spring break from college and trying to sleep at night without the sound of the freight train that ran by my dorm going by every 30 minutes.

In other news, I think I might go to church tomorrow. Okay, you can close your mouths now. Yes, the heathen might go to church. But this is nothing like the narrow-minded church I grew up in. It's a Unitarian Universalist church. They don't adhere to a specific doctrine, and don't believe there is only one particular means of having access to God. One of my old editors once asked me if I'd ever been to one, and said I might find it interesting. Basically, from what I gather, it's more a forum for personal growth and the betterment of society than it is a "religion."

I've actually thought about going to a service for a long time. Part of me held back, because I thought, what's the point of a church service if you don't adhere to a particular doctrine? But the more I think about it, the more I realize there is a benefit in belonging to a church that I have been missing--the gathering together of a group of people to say, "We want to be good people. We want to be the kind of people who help those in need and defend the weak."

I've even thought about trying to find some kind of liberal Christian church for that reason, but I know that I would feel uncomfortable and hypocritical, because no matter how liberal the church, it would still preach a doctrine that I don't completely believe. The more I mull the idea of going to a Unitarian church, though, the more intriqued I am. In many ways, I believe those who attend there are more likely to be altruistic than those you'd find at traditional churches. Ultimately, most of the world's religions are motivated by a fear of punishment (hell), a promise of reward (heaven), or a combination of the two. The Unitarian church requires no belief in either, so its members are there simply looking a greater purpose--something I'm looking for as well.