summertime...when the livings easy

I feel like I need to lighten the mood of this whole blog thing. Enough ranting for awhile. How about some of my favorite pictures from the past few months?




Steph and Nate came to visit in May. We took a little jaunt to Lost Valley and decided to goof around on Helen's Rock.

Steph took this in the game room at Oscar Blues. It turned out pretty sweet.
This is a looking down into the valley that we spent most of our Yellowstone trip exploring.

Keith, Dan, Tony, Justin, and I about to hike out of the backcountry in Yellowstone. It was an epic time.

If you will it dude, it is no dream. Cheers fellas.

Zach came to visit in July, and we were able to climb Long's Peak. It was quite the time. Exhausting but amazing. We managed to get this awesome shot as the sun was coming up. We started the hike at 2:45 AM. When I say "we" managed, I really mean Jim managed.... The Daves, Pramode, and I at a Rockies game in July.

Nothing quite like bouldering in Boulder....

Bethany and I at the Greek Festival in Birmingham. Great food!

Jim, myself, David, and Jacob and David's wedding. It was awesome....

a clarification

I realize that the language I use tends to be strong and often times critical. Please do not misconstrue this for anger or hatred or anything of the sort. I do not hate my country, nor any of her citizens. Quite the contrary, my life has been full of joy and adventure, in large part due to the people and opportunities afforded me. However, I refuse to ignore the smoke. Speak your mind.

just a thought

All of this economic bailout talk is worrisome. Are we really going to "bail out" companies predicated almost solely on greed? These are the same corporations who simultaneously prey on the middle class and give out bonuses to the tune of millions of dollars every year to CEO's. Bonuses. Not salary, not wages earned. Bonuses. And now because they played roulette with the average American's money and lost, they need bailed out. So the government feels inclined to spend 700 billion dollars, which we don't have, to "save" the economy. For as much as socialism is belittled and maligned in the United States, it seems as though we are getting a crappier version of socialism, one without public benefit. Forget public healthcare, mass transit, and cheap education. Let's instead spend 700 billion dollars to ensure that the same system that got us here keeps on running.

If you ask me, it's just putting off the inevitable. This nation has been on a bit of a historical honeymoon. After all, we have been here for less than 300 hundred years. If America is to survive, then it must find a way to be sustainable. Some hold that "its better to burn out then it is to rust." Let us hope that this is not the case with the United States. Regardless, a slower economy, though not as glamorous and shiny, might actually allow for more sustainability. We have been burning hot and bright for the past few centuries. We have grown so fast that we do not have accurate historical self-perception. We believe our causes are always just, we believe that we can do anything we put our minds to, and we believe that a blazing economy and comfort is our right. Pride predicates a fall, remember? Maybe it is time to shift our priorities and find a more humble national identity that does not rely on money, superiority, and self-righteous expansion. We are bound to come down from this cloud. When we do, it will not be without painful adjustment, but does not pain give birth to greatness? The Great Depression was terrible indeed, but it gave birth to the "greateast generation" who, it could be argued, saved the world.

Let the chips fall where they may. The bed has been made, with or without our consent, and it is time to lie in it.

overstuffed and misguided

We are all, by now, well aware of the financial woes lately visited upon Wall Street. I am by no means a business-minded person; I will be the first to admit that my cursory knowledge of the financial markets is suspect at best. Still, as I watch CNN and read articles online about the current instability and impending crisis, I watch without surprise. Perhaps I am part of a jaded generation.

After all, we have seen consumerism and materialism spread like cancer; we have watched Presidents boldly lie about issues large and small; we have seen the 4th estate become a morass of celebrity and sensationalism; we have witnessed unprecedented violence among children; we have stood by while our government redefined torture in its own self-interest; we have taken part in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis in the name of national security; our jails swell but the streets become more dangerous; we pay more for education and healthcare because our tax dollars are heading overseas; we have been told that Osama Bin Laden is public enemy number one, only to watch Saddam hang from the gallows pole while Bin Laden becomes a side project; we have seen unemployment and gas prices rise; we have watched the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.Why should we be surprised when financial markets collapse? What else is to be expected from a society that has become the ultimate Lover of Money. The entire system is built on greed. I don't mean that far away, mystical place called Wall Street. I mean every street. It is disguised in new clothes and new cars, expensive haircuts and expensive luggage. We are conditioned to consume. We have grown morally obese. We lack the agility to change and we lack the self-perception to understand that we need to change.

And somehow, through all of this, we are expected to nurture the American dream, feeding it a steady diet of rhetoric, optimism, and a new manifest destiny. And somehow, improbably, a large number of us remain hopeful. I have been accused of hating my country, and this is not true. Perhaps it should be true, but it is not. I have heard the phrase "hate the sin, love the sinner" passed about among Christian circles, and I feel the need to bring that idea to light. I love my country, but God help me, do I hate where it is headed. I am unwilling to enter the American mainstream because it is polluted. The question is, how do we clean it up?

Since high school, I have become a firm believer in DeToqueville's statement that "small nations are the cradle of liberty." Nation or not, smaller is better. Those who know my political views may find this an odd thing for me to be saying, but it is not. I still believe that a socialist drift is inevitable, and I still believe that a reformed democratic communism should be the ideal. America has grown too large for pure capitalism to work effectively. If we continue on this current path, we will only see the gaps between rich and poor widen and injustice flourish. The dollar is not a fair master. I digress. What I mean when I say smaller is better, is that as citizens the burden of change falls to us. If we decry the horrors of corporate America, then we must not shop at Walmart. If we complain about the bias in media, then we must seek out better sources. Buy local. Join a protest. Recycle. Turn off the television networks and seek out a good journalist online. Turn off MTV and read a book. The change we seek is in the home and in the church. It is in our schools, and it is in the individual.

Smaller is better, and what we need is to form small subcultures. Become an outsider to the system. When the ship goes down, at least we won't be on it. I don't mean that to sound extreme or isolationist, but consider it. If the stock market collapses, only those who have invested their life and their work in that market will collapse with it. Find what is truly valuable in this life and pursue it. Forget materialism, forget image. Forget status, forget greed. Forget pleasure, forget comfort. Find truth. Find love. Find adventure. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also, right?

www.newmonasticism.org

insomnia

Occasionally I will get out my journals, past and present, and read through all of my former thoughts. Some of those thoughts, both trivial and critical, seem to loiter in my not-so-subconcious. It seems that whenever I have trouble sleeping at night I am taken back to the question "why am i so much more fatalistic at night?" I have, in the past, mused all over and about this question, and I like to revisit it from time to time. I am not sure if it is the inherent darkness of the nighttime, or if I am simply emotionally more vulnerable after a long day, or if I just have more time to think, but I know for certain that most rash decisions are made at night. My mind will travel down extreme paths much more easily. What seemed so necessary late at night will, six hours later, seem ridiculous and excessive. I do not think I am alone in this. There is something about the night that is at the same time romantic, frightening, and cold. An evolutionary psychologist might hypothesize that since humans are not nocturnal, and therefore as a species have developed with a natural aversion to nighttime behavior. The night would have been more dangerous and unfamiliar, and although we have developed socially, technologically and the like, the nighttime still arouses thoughts and emotions of a stronger, more extreme nature. Whether or not this line of thought has merit, it is interesting. Evolutionary psychology is a fascinating deal. Anyway, I digress. Whatever the reasons may be, midnight musings almost always take on a more intense tone. I find it useful to remember this and to check myself before acting on this ruminations. Otherwise I end up doing things like traveling to other states.....without telling anyone.....in the middle of the night.....in the middle of the week.....without much money. Yeah, its happened twice. Good thing I am becoming more self aware. Maybe next time I start to get crazy ideas I will just blog instead. That seems to work a whole lot better.....

step 1

Being that this is my first post, I feel as though I should have something substantial to say. Really, I don't. It is Friday afternoon and I am one class removed from the weekend. I am excited to get this blog started. I don't have a well articulated plan for where I want this to go, but that should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me. Let's just say I have some ideas. Rough though they may be, I am becoming more and more committed to these ideas each and every day.

I suppose I should be at least a little more specific. I am infected with a terrifying combination of idealism, optimism, and wanderlust. I desire to see the effects of change in this world, and I desire to be part of the forces affecting that change. For a long time, I kicked around the idea of writing a book titled "Confessions of a Christian Communist." Who knows, maybe one day I will. For now, I know too little, am far too arrogant, and do not possess the required discipline. Currently, I am seeking a practical confluence in the rivers of adventure, social change, and personal growth. As there are no constants in this life I am sure that I will change, and so will my visions. Consider this a log of my personal and professional evolution.