A Realization...?

It seems that most non-voting twenty-somethings fall into three categories (Politically that is): those that are disgusted with political zealots, those who don't care because their vote "doesn't count anyway," and the third (the newest group) think that the results do not effect them.

"Elections are going to happen whether or not we vote. And the people who are elected will make decisions on issues large and small. The same is true for the various referenda and regulations put forward by our states and municipalities. The vast majority of these decisions won’t affect the vast majority of us directly. But each affects somebody, and there’s the rub:
Whether you’re personally motivated by a given issue or candidate, do you to learn what’s at stake in your community’s life, and then pull the lever?

That’s why it’s important to remember that elections are about
people—and don’t let anyone get away with saying it doesn’t matter who wins. That’s always a cop-out. It may be that no candidate feels completely satisfying to vote for, but your satisfaction isn’t the point of voting.
The point is making an informed decision about the person you think will best serve your neighbors."

Work is work. Enjoy it.

What is it like to be famous...

What is it like to have people want to eat everything you eat...

So many times, I am caught up in these conversations trashing superstar athletes or musicians, finding myself secretly balancing between envy and disgust.

Why do I want what they have, yet, say I don't?

I am usually on the side of trashing athletes for not taking their jobs seriously enough and not working for their pay. Just living as over-sized kids still playing games with their professional and personal lives.

Me, of all people, criticizing someones work ethic...

Today I read an article interviewing Kobe.

(Kobe Bryant for those born yesterday.)

The interviewer was trying to get a rise out of Kobe inciting him with remarks Michael Jordan recently said. It went something like this...

Reporter: Are you upset that Michael Jordan said you were only in the top 10 best to play in the NBA?

Now after this question I was instantly turned off because I have been so burnt out on questions similar invoking a debate on who is the greatest basketball player of all time. That conversation always results in a heated debate, then ends with the conversation reveling in top plays from both. This interview was different, much to the reporters chagrin...

Kobe:“There have been a lot of great guards to play the game. For me to sit here and say, ‘He should have said top five,’ that’s disrespectful to the other guards that I’ve watched.”

He goes on in the interview to disarm the reporter and talk about how he hopes to be remembered as an athlete who did more with less. To be remembered as an athlete who wasn't supposed to be The Greatest, but turned into a great one.

This shook me awake from my cultural bias' and made me see him more as a person than an athlete. A person trying to live a humble life.

This is Kobe Bryant, the man millions envy, taking his job, well, like a job.

whoa...

So this past month has been crazy. I have done a lot of things I probably shouldn't have. It was fun.

But, I write this now as a wake-up. Damn.

I find myself constantly trying to look through things. Constantly trying to see through the obvious and look at hidden meanings or intentions. I love that about myself. I loved that about myself.

Sometimes I forget what a formidable opponent complacency can be. I forget and then the cycle begins.

So here's to me waking up. Here's to me shaking up. Here's to me moving. Always moving.

Broken world
I’m not deceived
The hopelessness I once believed
Tells a story of nightmares in dreams
Between cribs and gravesides
There are beautiful things

Here we go...

It seems I am at this place in my life where I know where I am going, (I think) I know how to get there, just can't seem to get there fast enough. I have found that no matter how much I try to tell myself to let go of the social boundaries and timelines that are imposed upon me daily, I forget to fight and let them consume me.
It is ok to not have graduated yet. It is ok to work a labor intensive job. I am Happy. It is ok to be single. All of these things mold and push us to pretending to be someone less than who we are. An abbreviated version of ourselves that is easier for everyone to swallow because we are all pretending to follow and live by the same rules. It is bullshit. More than being bullshit, it is poison. It has so many people unhappy. So many people compromising their convictions. We have to stop making people who we want them to be, and we have to stop being who people want us to be.
I have found that this happens a lot in our faith as well. We all allow our faith to be attuned to someone else's walk. I take a lot of heart in an analogy shown to me many years ago when reading Nouwen.
He tells a story of a piano tuner who tunes every piano he tunes to a precise tuning fork. Therefore minimizing the amount of human error involved. He then begs the question, what if one was to tune one piano and then tune every according piano to the previous. If one was to try and play one hundred of those piano's there is no way they would sound in one accord. In order to tune a piano precisely and accurately you must tune them all to the original source, such as the tuning fork.
This analogy applies all aspects of my life.I can take elements from Buddhism or other religions and see the similarities and differences in those, and learn from those, but at the end of the day, I don’t care as much about man’s interpretation of religion. What I care about is what God tells me directly.
My hope is this. That we do not put our faith in people. that we do not put our faith in who we are supposed to be. But that we put our faith in god and can learn to be ourselves...