whatever

Lot of stuff on my mind, I think that I'm going to be moving to the 'never posting' stage. I think I've said what I wanted to say. Not totally destroying the blog but . . . . I don't really feel like I've been effectively communicating what I want to say and its irritating me to death. I'm kind of halfway serious and halfway cynical and I don't know why. Anyway, I'm out. I'll see you when I see you.

The Nobility

Throughout recorded history, in every culture that has been uncovered, in every philisophical movement set up, there has always been a caste system. From the nomads of the desert to the halls of Versaille, from the Wild West to the Soviet Union, mankind has stratified itself. In some instances this stratification has taken place based on absurd grounds such as, race or skin color. In many instances the division has been based upon the accumulation of wealth. And in a few instances the division has been based on an idea (or idea's). Our Nation has always been a stratified society - divided by race, creed, wealth, gender and a host of other issues. Thomas Jefferson during the drive to throw off the stratified society of Great Britain wrote that he wished to make a nation where the aristocracy was not based on wealth or family but rather on the so-called 'intellectual nobility', that is he desired an aristocracy of knowledge. So much for true democracy. Like many grandiose, utopian idea's this one has fallen by the way side in this day and age. Indeed, it seems that in our postmodern age we have lost any sense of nobility left in our society. As our public men and women are held up to increasingly powerful media scrutiny, the secrets of people, that fifty years ago would have remained unknown to the vast majority of our world, are now displayed for all the world to see in newspapers, blogs, tabloids, and TV. Because of this attention we have lost one of the most valuable aids to human progress - the ability of myth-making. We have no person in any part of society that is able to rise above the mundane aspects of life and become a hero (I use this term in a gender-neutral way). And our increasingly critical eye has now been turned to the past, in an effort to "debunk" history we are forced to research and read books that are more interested in the sordid details of a man's life than in his idea's and accomplishments. In a way, this is not a bad thing. For instance, it is exceptionally ironic - and necessary - to know that Jefferson could write "that all men are created equal. . ." and own slaves and have a slave mistress. But in all of this inquiry into people's lives we have lost mankind's nobility. And it is quite sad.
It is not that I am any better than you, or that you are better than me. Its the fact that we seem to have lost the ability for a person to raise themself to the level of 'nobility'. Part of the problem is the people that we focus on: frankly, any person in Hollywood is not worthy of any respect not entitled to a common person, nor are there many politicians that are worthy of even being in office let alone being objects of hero-worship. It is possible that amongst the people of some backwoods town or amongst the vast middle-class suburbs or the ever-growing inner-city there is a person who deserves the right of nobility. But that person doesn't make himself known to the common man. So yes, it is possible that this is more of a rant against the media, it is possible that this is a meditation on the ills of postmodernism. It is also possible that my own inexperience, lack of knowledge and youthful idealism are combining to make a fool out of myself.
All of which begs the question, what is nobility? Is it my ability to lead a great portion of society? Is it my ability to be a good, decent citizen. How does God figure in to this situation? Is it God's will that there even is nobility? Would it be possible that God would want me to lead people? For these questions I have no answers.

To be Continued

well what shall we talk about today.
I could argue the Wii vs. PS3 vs. XBox 360
I could talk about the man who wanted to commit 'violent jihad' in a Rockford mall that I'm going to today.
I could talk about the joys of Christmas that shine through in spite of the greed.
I could talk about the coolest background ever on my computer. (a photo of a place in Finland)
I could talk about having the bulletin ready at 11:15 in the morning (almost ready that is)
I could talk about the One, Double, Triple, and Quadruple Bypass burgers along with their Flatliner fries (cooked in pure lard)
I could rhapsodize about cheap chocolate doughnuts
I could discuss my horrors of dentistry and tie it in cleverly with my spiritual shortcomings
I could talk about the future and how motivated/unmotivated I am about it
I could tell a sappy story
I could mock RuthAnn for posting about guys
I could mock Daniel and Dale for never posting
I could discuss some random movie that I enjoy
I could go on and on and on and on and on about music and its quality (or lack thereof)
I could discuss summer plans
I could jamwrite about nothing
I could talk about the Packers, or the Bears, or the Steelers, or the Chargers, or almost any other football team
I could tell funny anecdotes about my students
I could complain about being so busy that I'll hardly get to see my brothers this Christmas
I could rejoice about getting to see Brittany over New Years
I could try to be open and real and discuss things that bother me in regards to me, christianity, the world, friends, enemies, future, past, etc.
I could post cool paintings
I could make up pseudo-intellectual discussions like: Is silence a sound? or "is black a real color"
I could talk about dark matter

But I won't

(another logical well-rounded post from the man who is supremely logical)

ummmmm, yeah . . . . . .

This week I have two signs of the apocalypse
1. A grandmother in AZ was caught with 200+ lbs of pot in her trunk. She said she got into drug running to support her bingo problem.
2. Customs officials searched a plan flying from Jamaica to Miami and found/confiscated 4000 lbs of marijuana.

If you need commentary on either of these pieces, you are a hopeless wreck of humanity.

Short term memorizing has never been all that difficult for me. I love words, I love the taste of them in my mouth and I find myself constantly filling my mouth with as many words as I can, and then spewing them out wantonly as fast as I can and at whatever I can. So I don't really understand why the kid next to me can't remember the little two-line verse he's supposed to be memorizing. Until, that is, I realize that the kid can barely read the verse, and it would take a miracle for him to understand what the verse is actually driving at, which in this case is why we should love God. Now, disregarding the obvious parellel between my experience and the kids ignorance and God and myself, I began to think about two things. 1) how quick I am to skim the knowledge offered me and discard it. and 2) my horrendous propensity to take the love of God and my ability to love Him for granted.
Most of you know that I was involved in a rather serious accident this past summer, in a matter of seconds I went from the inside of a vehicle to being the next incarnation of Superman. I had never realized how fast everything can change. How fast a split second is. And the fragile hold I have on life and my own well being. But for me, the hardest thing about the accident wasn't the accident, or the hospital, or the pain, or even the fear which assaulted me every time I drove past the accident site, the hardest thing was how normal the next day was. Your not supposed to walk away after being thrown 20 ft in the air. Your supposed to end up with your back broken and your hands mangled beyond recognition. Not wearing your seatbelt isn't supposed to save you from a closed casket funeral. Your not supposed to be blessed with almost no memory of the accident itself. But that's the way my accident worked out. Now I was really sore and stiffer than I'd ever been, but that didn't stop me from walking out of the hospital the next day and driving back to camp. After the initial hugs and queries over my well-being life settled back into its normal routine for everyone else. But it was hard for me to go back to the normal routine - my world had just been exploded around me. Suddenly it wasn't quite so important that one counselor bugged me to death, it didn't matter that it was hotter than I liked, or even that I wasn't able to counsel that week despite really looking forward to it. For the first time in my life I realized my vulnerability, and then God proceeded to hammer it home every single time I drove by the spot where we flipped. And then the summer ended and I flew back to Wisconsin. And the Midwest is a lot different from California - there's no sand, or heat. No scorpions to catch and feed to your pet (also a scorpion), no rattlers to kill with a pair of scissors, there's not a hundred kids running around screaming bloody murder from sunup to sundown (as you love every moment). And so I forgot - until a kid next to me couldn't memorize his verse.