Sunday, August 23, 2009

Weekends . . .

Einstein had something going with the whole relativity thing. I have my own theory regarding weekends. I don't know how E=mc2 will figure into it, but I know that somehow time accelerates over the weekend and then slows to a crawl. My weeks here have, for the most part, gone by fairly quickly. I set small milestones along the way so that I can act surprised when I get to them. Childish, I know. Wednesday night is the best one for me so far. I found a really good church here and look forward to visiting with the people there.


But back to the weekends. Thus far the weekends cruise by at the speed of light. I usually catch a movie and then do some hiking with a friend of mine from church. Today we hiked in an old abandoned mine up in the Huachuca Mountains. The weekends have been a great experience here, but they just fly by so quickly. I always seem to find myself on Sunday night lamenting the coming morning.


As I walked through Hasting's buying books to entertain me over the coming weeks, I also made a movie purchase. Their on the shelf was no movie other than "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." Many may have no idea that this movies exists, but it stars Don Knotts as a would be newspaper reporter vs. an old haunted house and the murder mystery within. A lot of people don't like that kind of comedy, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I've watched it twice already, and Monday doesn't seem so bad. Can Don Knotts thwart the theory of relativity?


Maybe I'll make another disjointed post like this soon.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Stil thinking

I've been stewing over what I wrote yesterday and have some more thoughts to post about it; however, my homework from my schooling has crowded into my evening. I think I'll ruminate on it some more and post more tomorrow. Besides, I'm almost finished with my Dean Koontz novel and will probably wrap it up tonight (instead of reading army field manuals).


So I will post a picture. I've been studying some military history and recently purchased the "Band of Brothers" DVD box set. So I give you the true reason for the allied victory in World War II. Who knew it was so simple?


Sunday, August 9, 2009

More questions than answers


Well, some time has passed since I last posted. I have been both busy and in an all-consuming funk as of late. I can't really explain it, but part of it has to do with my current school schedule. It's just not he most exciting thing in the world right now, and I find myself thinking of home and other things. That's dangerous when you still have some 11 weeks left until school is finally over for a while. I've always been a bad day counter, and BOLC2 sapped the last bit of my motivation.


My friend Mary Anne and her husband, Cy, have both told me on numerous occasions that "you're problem is you want to go out and change the world." This is usually after I've denied yet another job offer from Cy to go and work for Fastenal and make a lot of money as one of his employees. I would always thank him and make some statement similar to the change the world deal. Then I would promptly forget about it and go about making my plans to "change the world."


I would usually roll my eyes and tell myself that I don't think that I need to change the world. I haven't thought about those moments in a long time until I got here. Since coming here I do a lot of thinking. I tend to think of just about everything except what I should be thinking about here. In keeping with that tendency I went to the bookstore this past week and bought a Dean Koontz and a Chris Baldacci novel. I began the Dean Koontz book and found a little bit of wisdom in an odd place.


The book, Fear Nothing, has turned out to be quite intriguing, and as I lay reading it on Saturday night, I read a few pages that left me sitting open mouthed in wonder. While Chris and Bobby are discussing the strange turn of events surrounding the past several hours, they come to a decision point. They must do as Christ wishes and pursue the matter further, or they may take Bobby's path and just forget it happened at all and hope life returns to normal. As Chris goes off to change the world Bobby says, "You know what your problem is? Your problem is you want to make a mark on the world. You want to leave something behind that says, I was here."


Chris responded by saying that he pretty much didn't care about things like that. Sound familiar thus far? I was in agreement at this point until Bobby's next point.


"We're not here to leave a mark, bro. Monuments, legacies, marks--that's where we always go wrong. We're here to revel in the world, to soak in the awesomeness of it, to enjoy the ride . . . The world's maximum perfect as it is, beauty from horizon to horizon. Any mark any of us tried to leave--, it's only graffiti. Any mark is no better than vandalism . . . Live life. Soak it up. Enjoy. That's what you're here to do."


Now I understand how this might come off as a "throw everything to the wind and live in complete and utter drunken revelry." In the context of the book you would realize that this is not what Bobby is saying. Chris suffers from a disease that has left him extremely photosensitive. The fact that he has lived to 28 years of age is a miracle in and of itself. Bobby is trying to ensure that Christ prolongs his years and makes the most of what he has.


With that being said and looking back at Bobby's idea, have I missed a point in life? Have I missed what it's all about? Have I wasted time . . . a lot of it? I'm normally not a confused and mentally errant person, but those few words summed up the thoughts in my mind over the last few weeks perfectly.


I feel like I've missed some simply truth in my life that has been staring me in the face for 27 years only to go unseen due to my blindness. I think of my mother and the focus on life she has always seemed to possess throughout my life. Have I made my life far more difficult than it should be? Do I seek things in other places that I have always had close by? I am discovering more questions at a time when I thought my life was going to start becoming clearer.


What's going on?