This phrase is common in Christianity. There are so many references to freedom, to setting captives free, to removing oppression. This IS Christianity. I'm going to try my best to avoid railing about rechaining and the obligatory system of religion people erect under the name of Christianity. So if that's your understanding of the thing, you aren't wrong, but that isn't the truth of it...
...I actually stopped writing this for several days because the idea didn't seem fully formed yet. Maybe it still isn't. I'm not sure quite where to go with this honestly. It was a powerful impression that became half visible in the mist and then vanished before I could get a clear view of it. I'll try just talking about notable occurrences and maybe it will tie up.
I actually had a dream that was not a nightmare last night. This is a first in a very long time. It wasn't the kind of dream that I would seek out or wake from feeling like I really enjoyed it. I haven't had one of those in about 15 years. But at least no one died, no one was chasing me, there was no violence, and no demons or other evil beings. And it was bilingual...in Japanese and English.
For one thing, I had an opportunity to see a good friend again recently who happens to be a powerful dreamer, and we talked about why I dream so horribly. It was just a passing conversation, but speaking out loud some thoughts I hadn't really formed before really seemed to help. It might have had an influence.
Also, I had the opportunity recently to spend some time alone in the wild. I took my newly constructed paddle board for a long paddle up a swampy river. It was running clear at low water, so I could see all the HUGE fish swimming under me. Swam a couple of times to cool off. Felt the bracing effects of fear as alligators up to 10 feet long startled, swam and submerged within 4 meters of me. Raced turtles. Stared vultures in the eye at close range. This is precisely what another friend who happens to be gifted in dream interpretation prescribed when I told him my dreaming predicament several months ago. So that probably helped as well.
I've felt pretty good lately. Allergies have been minor or nonexistent.
My new bike is lighter and faster than my old one, but the gear ratio is much tougher and forcing my legs to get stronger.
My new team member started at work and we get along very well. I found myself able to understand Japanese on TV again almost as well as when I lived there. I don't know why this has occurred.
I saw a fun adventure movie recently that surprisingly had a character which I very much admired. He was a missionary who held his faith in a bold and fearless way all the way to the end. After the movie I found out that both my son and God-daughter thought that character reminded them of me! I was very happy to hear this since that is exactly the kind of person I want to be!
I did not die last year as I expected.
Perhaps, I feel like chains are breaking for me. Deep chains. Chains I didn't even know bound me. I'm feeling a freedom and peace that I have not felt in a long time.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Practical Belief
I realized recently that my darkness and staunch pragmatism make it very difficult to take anything at face value, and therefore very difficult to simply enjoy something that I can see through or in the midst of greater difficulties. Not impossible, just difficult.
On the up side, I am very rarely surprised by things because I prepare for the worst. I think through possibilities and find the worst case. Once I have prepared for that, any lesser case is easier to deal with. It actually serves me very well most of the time and provides a perspective that many less thoughtful people lack.
But the problem is that things very rarely go that bad. Still they always could and that 'could' is where the trouble starts. Because I have inferred a path to that worst case, it is hard to get it out of my head. The stats help and I realize logically that it probably won't go that bad, but even within the realm of probable outcomes there are plenty that are not good. I can also see the variables and recognize those (most) that I don't control. So in short, I am constantly seeing the bad and this makes it hard to just go on and be happy.
There are some things to combat it though. I try to rule out hearsay and hype. These only falsely color the situation. Local news is the worst about this. Please don't watch it. It's trash TV disguised as journalism. Even gossip is trouble this way. I try to bring things back to my actual experience. For example, I hear crime reports. Hear rumors from neighbors. See warnings from police and neighborhood watch. This makes me feel that crime is immanent. It's only a matter of time before I am hit. But in my actual experience, this is not the case. There are far more good days than bad. Far more good people than bad. Most of the incidents are stupid kids that are easily caught. and some reports are just plain false. Like the one about the neighbors basketball hoop that was supposedly stolen when it was no longer on the street. I looked at their yard and saw the hoop laying beside their fence. This isn't rose-colored glasses; remember I can't do that. It's just the REAL facts.
You might be tempted to say, "just trust God and let him care for you." Well, that's great, but short-sighted. If you could see all the pathways that I see and consider all the cases that I know, you'd see that there's a whole lot of bad that can occur inside God's will. It doesn't mean I won't get robbed, beaten, sick, jailed, persecuted. In fact, the historic and modern cases around the world show that in fact those things are far MORE likely if I am a Christian. The fact that we don't see them so prevalently in this part of the world means 1. we are not capable of handling them, 2. we are not worthy of them (i.e. we don't offend the enemy enough) or 3. we are EXTREMELY blessed.
This is not to say that God doesn't provide all our needs. Just that many of our fears lie between our accustomed lifestyle and our needs. So for me, I have to find faith in something more solid. Remember that faith, as understood by those to whom the Biblical books were originally written, meant something more like credit or patronage. Not blind belief. It meant, it means in actuality, an offering of trust. Just like you trust the bank to hold your money for you. Or in those days, you might trust a powerful ruler to provide security and prosperity. In fact, that is the context of all the references to God as King. We are asked to trust Jesus like we would a king. That's why he laughed at his disciples so often that they didn't trust him in that way even though they trusted God as they knew him through Judaism. It was a whole different game with that God standing next to you.
So for me, I've been trying to give more of that trust. To recount past incidents where He was faithful and therefore bolster my faith. It's hard to truly do this in all situations. I constantly want to take back some control, as feeble as it is, and provide for myself. I've been really practicing seeing the good. Counting my blessings...really, it's not a cliche. And where I can't settle on a high probability of good outcome, I have to trust that there are factors I can't see and that He has promised not to let me go. And where bad outcomes are the most probable, I am practicing enduring, and even charging in. This is bravery, though we don't think of it like that. I would easily take on a gun or even knife over something less decisive like uncertain financial future. But one dragon is as another. Both must be charged down, come hell or ruin...
On the up side, I am very rarely surprised by things because I prepare for the worst. I think through possibilities and find the worst case. Once I have prepared for that, any lesser case is easier to deal with. It actually serves me very well most of the time and provides a perspective that many less thoughtful people lack.
But the problem is that things very rarely go that bad. Still they always could and that 'could' is where the trouble starts. Because I have inferred a path to that worst case, it is hard to get it out of my head. The stats help and I realize logically that it probably won't go that bad, but even within the realm of probable outcomes there are plenty that are not good. I can also see the variables and recognize those (most) that I don't control. So in short, I am constantly seeing the bad and this makes it hard to just go on and be happy.
There are some things to combat it though. I try to rule out hearsay and hype. These only falsely color the situation. Local news is the worst about this. Please don't watch it. It's trash TV disguised as journalism. Even gossip is trouble this way. I try to bring things back to my actual experience. For example, I hear crime reports. Hear rumors from neighbors. See warnings from police and neighborhood watch. This makes me feel that crime is immanent. It's only a matter of time before I am hit. But in my actual experience, this is not the case. There are far more good days than bad. Far more good people than bad. Most of the incidents are stupid kids that are easily caught. and some reports are just plain false. Like the one about the neighbors basketball hoop that was supposedly stolen when it was no longer on the street. I looked at their yard and saw the hoop laying beside their fence. This isn't rose-colored glasses; remember I can't do that. It's just the REAL facts.
You might be tempted to say, "just trust God and let him care for you." Well, that's great, but short-sighted. If you could see all the pathways that I see and consider all the cases that I know, you'd see that there's a whole lot of bad that can occur inside God's will. It doesn't mean I won't get robbed, beaten, sick, jailed, persecuted. In fact, the historic and modern cases around the world show that in fact those things are far MORE likely if I am a Christian. The fact that we don't see them so prevalently in this part of the world means 1. we are not capable of handling them, 2. we are not worthy of them (i.e. we don't offend the enemy enough) or 3. we are EXTREMELY blessed.
This is not to say that God doesn't provide all our needs. Just that many of our fears lie between our accustomed lifestyle and our needs. So for me, I have to find faith in something more solid. Remember that faith, as understood by those to whom the Biblical books were originally written, meant something more like credit or patronage. Not blind belief. It meant, it means in actuality, an offering of trust. Just like you trust the bank to hold your money for you. Or in those days, you might trust a powerful ruler to provide security and prosperity. In fact, that is the context of all the references to God as King. We are asked to trust Jesus like we would a king. That's why he laughed at his disciples so often that they didn't trust him in that way even though they trusted God as they knew him through Judaism. It was a whole different game with that God standing next to you.
So for me, I've been trying to give more of that trust. To recount past incidents where He was faithful and therefore bolster my faith. It's hard to truly do this in all situations. I constantly want to take back some control, as feeble as it is, and provide for myself. I've been really practicing seeing the good. Counting my blessings...really, it's not a cliche. And where I can't settle on a high probability of good outcome, I have to trust that there are factors I can't see and that He has promised not to let me go. And where bad outcomes are the most probable, I am practicing enduring, and even charging in. This is bravery, though we don't think of it like that. I would easily take on a gun or even knife over something less decisive like uncertain financial future. But one dragon is as another. Both must be charged down, come hell or ruin...
In these moments, I sometimes catch a glimpse of myself...at least I hope it is me in the same way I see others, like Galadriel of previous blogs. I see a fell warrior, bloody and singed, but standing firm in the midst of the demon swell. Maybe a little something like this.
But only for a moment. And then I come back to my own life...or maybe I just fall back to sleep.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Re-reawakening
I am slowly living back through so many things but on a different level. Like a giant spiral of translucent life in which I am passing back through things I've already experienced, but now colored by the new place in time and space. Rejection of things I had rejected. Embracing of things I had embraced. Having reactions to things and remembering having the same reactions before. Understanding what I had felt then on a younger shallower level and seeing again on an older more experienced level why I had gone that way. It's almost like reliving my life as a wiser person...yet turning out to be the exact same person. I see how I got here and I am choosing to do it again.
It's a reaffirmation really of who I am and who I am made to be. It's good. And I am choosing good. I have had enough of the fake and less than...again. I am gravitating toward the real and more...again. It looks from the outside so much like going the other way. But there is peace here. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but I'm following that peace.
I have a friend that I often argue with...not angry fighting, but just engaged debate. This debate has helped me. Like iron sharpening iron, it is a grating and clanging process, but it leaves a finer edge. He says some things that I do not agree with and that I wouldn't say, but I understand what he means. It's all about perspective. One has to be in another's place to see from that perspective. I always did understand what he means on a certain level, though I constantly take exception with it for good reason. But in this place right now, I can feel affinity for his statements so much more than just assenting to it logically. I guess I'm saying that I feel it right now. I'm following what feels good and right.
I'm moving away from what hurts. I've tried to find the way to a place of peace again for a long time and all I keep finding is injury. I'm going to think on the pure, holy, worthy things. But that won't take me where most think it will. It didn't before. I don't deny my darkness. It is part of me and will be me, but I am accepting it and moving toward a place where the darkness is acceptable as part of the whole. I will never be at peace in the places that I was not made for. I learned this early on and had somehow flopped back out of the water where I have floundered and flopped trying to walk on fins and trying to breathe air through gills. And then upon strangling and tripping I began flopping about looking for the water again. I think I have found a trickle. Maybe a puddle, but there seems to be flow and life there and I'm looking for deeper water. I'm diving in, going deep, hearing that fluid rush. Get me in the water!
Get me out of the Keep (mixing metaphors, I know). I need to find that dewy wild place beyond the wall where I can crash down among the lilies and find the one waiting for me there. When I catch that scent, hear those pipes, I'm gone man! Watch how fast I cut it all away.
It's a reaffirmation really of who I am and who I am made to be. It's good. And I am choosing good. I have had enough of the fake and less than...again. I am gravitating toward the real and more...again. It looks from the outside so much like going the other way. But there is peace here. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but I'm following that peace.
I have a friend that I often argue with...not angry fighting, but just engaged debate. This debate has helped me. Like iron sharpening iron, it is a grating and clanging process, but it leaves a finer edge. He says some things that I do not agree with and that I wouldn't say, but I understand what he means. It's all about perspective. One has to be in another's place to see from that perspective. I always did understand what he means on a certain level, though I constantly take exception with it for good reason. But in this place right now, I can feel affinity for his statements so much more than just assenting to it logically. I guess I'm saying that I feel it right now. I'm following what feels good and right.
I'm moving away from what hurts. I've tried to find the way to a place of peace again for a long time and all I keep finding is injury. I'm going to think on the pure, holy, worthy things. But that won't take me where most think it will. It didn't before. I don't deny my darkness. It is part of me and will be me, but I am accepting it and moving toward a place where the darkness is acceptable as part of the whole. I will never be at peace in the places that I was not made for. I learned this early on and had somehow flopped back out of the water where I have floundered and flopped trying to walk on fins and trying to breathe air through gills. And then upon strangling and tripping I began flopping about looking for the water again. I think I have found a trickle. Maybe a puddle, but there seems to be flow and life there and I'm looking for deeper water. I'm diving in, going deep, hearing that fluid rush. Get me in the water!
Get me out of the Keep (mixing metaphors, I know). I need to find that dewy wild place beyond the wall where I can crash down among the lilies and find the one waiting for me there. When I catch that scent, hear those pipes, I'm gone man! Watch how fast I cut it all away.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Railing
My reader...the only one I think (maybe I should just address these like letters to that person) said that my posts can change dramatically in style and tone. I recognize that and apologize by saying that I wanted this blog to be raw and real, so those swings are actually swings in me, chronicled in the hopes that some other soul may read them and feel less alone...but I know it makes it hard to read sometimes...which is probably why I have one reader. Whom I am tempted to call the "fan base", but I'll leave that reference there just to see if anyone ever gets it.
I also noticed that my blogs tend to be railing sorts of things. Not always, but a good deal of them. My facebook posts are even more so. I don't really like that about myself. I don't start out to be that way. And I don't feel like a very angry or miserable person always. I just think those are the things that get posted more. I have a hard time writing happy drivel.
Honestly, I try very hard not to be negative. This is an uphill battle as anyone who reads this blog will know about me. But it isn't helped by the fact that there are just so many darn insufferable things out there. What is insufferable? Well, for me it is misrepresentations, usurpations, manipulations, by those who claim (and are expected) not to do so. In my world, these are usually people who call themselves Christians and the organizations that they operate. I can't judge what goes on in their hearts, but I can comment on their actions. I want to be clear that I do not judge the person as I judge the actions. I don't. And since no one but God can see into my heart as well, you'll just have to take my word on that. I hope my actions bear it out as well.
I want Truth. I want what is real. Recently, I went into church after a few weeks out. I've been slowly extricating myself from that system of religious obligation and manipulation, but was feeling open and ready to see if God would speak through those present. I was trying hard to not be bothered by the usual irks (plastic expressions on singers, forced hype, awkward smiles covering real hurts, etc.) And then, what met my ears was, well, insufferable to me yet again. I fully believe in a real hell. I've experienced enough of it and what comes out of it to know this, so we are on the same page at the root. I was even able to look past the short-sighted Biblical citations. They were correct in reading, but the speaker failed to mention (if he knew) how those who counter them do so. There are some very good arguments against them that make it hard to use those verses alone as proof of point to someone who knows how to argue at all. If he knew and chose not to mention it, he only sends his flock out with false security against wolves.
But then he went on to start nothing short of brainwashing. Telling the congregation that they may have questions, but so what. Throw them out because if the Bible said it, that was all they needed. At this I was piqued. But then he went on to have a call-response where the congregation was supposed to repeat the mantra that they didn't need proof and their questions didn't matter. I had had enough. I had to walk out. What I felt like doing was interrupting the whole sermon by calling out the heresy right there. Maybe I should have, but most wouldn't have understood what I meant and those that did would have been too bound by their own issues to accept it. I would have instantly rocked their boats so hard, they would have instinctually thrown me out simply to stop the shaking.
So I went to the bathroom to hide for a minute, then look for a place to go. Everywhere I went there were people milling around who knew me and wouldn't understand. I couldn't attempt to talk to them, they'd see my upset. So I had to go outside.
Out there was a world. A world that God made and lived in. There were things living and moving and happening. It was calming. A whole different tone from the cursed tomb that was being created inside what should be a place of life, a well of living water. Instead it was turned into a stinking sepulchre of religious bondage.
Jesus never spoke to people that way. Jesus went to lengths to be tender to people's needs. To meet them where they were. To explain and build trust. He even met with one scholar one on one to explain one of the seminal passages in the Bible! I'm sure he must have done it more, but we don't have record. He still does this today. I thought we believed he was a living and active and caring God. Yet speakers like this try to force their point on the masses who look to them for guidance through manipulative techniques like that. God, it would be better to have mill stones hung on their necks and be thrown into the sea than to lead those astray. The Bereans were commended for questioning what they were taught and searching it out to see if it was true, not expected to blindly repeat what they were told! It hurts me and makes me want to rend my clothes! And my only outlet for this is some lonely blog with one reader. I am thankful for that, don't misunderstand. But it makes my heart cry out like David, "How long, God?!" How long will this evil continue? God I want to see your mercy and grace poured out on these people, even the speaker.
And yet these masses will listen for a while, until the stench builds so strong in their noses that they know something isn't right. Then they leave as well...probably to be more disgusted with Christianity and less friendly to the one who came to do away with this very thing. Jesus only ever railed against the religious and self-righteous...with good reason.
I also noticed that my blogs tend to be railing sorts of things. Not always, but a good deal of them. My facebook posts are even more so. I don't really like that about myself. I don't start out to be that way. And I don't feel like a very angry or miserable person always. I just think those are the things that get posted more. I have a hard time writing happy drivel.
Honestly, I try very hard not to be negative. This is an uphill battle as anyone who reads this blog will know about me. But it isn't helped by the fact that there are just so many darn insufferable things out there. What is insufferable? Well, for me it is misrepresentations, usurpations, manipulations, by those who claim (and are expected) not to do so. In my world, these are usually people who call themselves Christians and the organizations that they operate. I can't judge what goes on in their hearts, but I can comment on their actions. I want to be clear that I do not judge the person as I judge the actions. I don't. And since no one but God can see into my heart as well, you'll just have to take my word on that. I hope my actions bear it out as well.
I want Truth. I want what is real. Recently, I went into church after a few weeks out. I've been slowly extricating myself from that system of religious obligation and manipulation, but was feeling open and ready to see if God would speak through those present. I was trying hard to not be bothered by the usual irks (plastic expressions on singers, forced hype, awkward smiles covering real hurts, etc.) And then, what met my ears was, well, insufferable to me yet again. I fully believe in a real hell. I've experienced enough of it and what comes out of it to know this, so we are on the same page at the root. I was even able to look past the short-sighted Biblical citations. They were correct in reading, but the speaker failed to mention (if he knew) how those who counter them do so. There are some very good arguments against them that make it hard to use those verses alone as proof of point to someone who knows how to argue at all. If he knew and chose not to mention it, he only sends his flock out with false security against wolves.
But then he went on to start nothing short of brainwashing. Telling the congregation that they may have questions, but so what. Throw them out because if the Bible said it, that was all they needed. At this I was piqued. But then he went on to have a call-response where the congregation was supposed to repeat the mantra that they didn't need proof and their questions didn't matter. I had had enough. I had to walk out. What I felt like doing was interrupting the whole sermon by calling out the heresy right there. Maybe I should have, but most wouldn't have understood what I meant and those that did would have been too bound by their own issues to accept it. I would have instantly rocked their boats so hard, they would have instinctually thrown me out simply to stop the shaking.
So I went to the bathroom to hide for a minute, then look for a place to go. Everywhere I went there were people milling around who knew me and wouldn't understand. I couldn't attempt to talk to them, they'd see my upset. So I had to go outside.
Out there was a world. A world that God made and lived in. There were things living and moving and happening. It was calming. A whole different tone from the cursed tomb that was being created inside what should be a place of life, a well of living water. Instead it was turned into a stinking sepulchre of religious bondage.
Jesus never spoke to people that way. Jesus went to lengths to be tender to people's needs. To meet them where they were. To explain and build trust. He even met with one scholar one on one to explain one of the seminal passages in the Bible! I'm sure he must have done it more, but we don't have record. He still does this today. I thought we believed he was a living and active and caring God. Yet speakers like this try to force their point on the masses who look to them for guidance through manipulative techniques like that. God, it would be better to have mill stones hung on their necks and be thrown into the sea than to lead those astray. The Bereans were commended for questioning what they were taught and searching it out to see if it was true, not expected to blindly repeat what they were told! It hurts me and makes me want to rend my clothes! And my only outlet for this is some lonely blog with one reader. I am thankful for that, don't misunderstand. But it makes my heart cry out like David, "How long, God?!" How long will this evil continue? God I want to see your mercy and grace poured out on these people, even the speaker.
And yet these masses will listen for a while, until the stench builds so strong in their noses that they know something isn't right. Then they leave as well...probably to be more disgusted with Christianity and less friendly to the one who came to do away with this very thing. Jesus only ever railed against the religious and self-righteous...with good reason.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Responsible
Why am I always expected to be responsible? Is it because I've never been anything but? Even my rebellion is responsible, chivalrous even. I hate lies and would sooner tell someone to their face that I will not do what they ask than sneak around.
But right now I feel like I am surrounded by people who are not like this. I know I hold myself to a very high standard. Far higher than most people will ever know. Psychotically high almost. But sometimes, I feel that my responsibility gives others the room to be irresponsible and they don't feel bad about taking advantage of it. I don't even believe they notice it most of the time because I just pick up the slack.
Maybe I should just stop. Skip work, miss a payment or two, leave someone hanging or stranded, not do something I'm expected to do at work or home. Blow a paycheck or two. But the thing is, I can't. I can't! I can't let myself be this way, so it will never happen. Oh sure, I could give my whole paycheck away, but I couldn't blow it on frivolous stuff. I can't let the housework go. It eats at me and I have no peace until it's done. The kicker is, most of the mess I clean up isn't even mine. I recently went through to throw out more of my stuff and had a hard time finding any that wasn't necessary and useful items.
I guess that's why people don't believe me when I try to tell them these things. I even recently lost a long time friend over this very thing. He just wouldn't believe that I was capable of expressing bent feelings in an irresponsible way. Everyone else could be forgiven, but I was not given that grace. I was even accused of intentionally trying to hurt him by acting that way.
When will someone come find me? When will I get the hand up?
Even as I write this I am reminded of times when God has provided for me. He has never let me go too far. But that's just it...no human has ever done this. Is it any wonder I find so little of value in this world? A band once wrote that "this world has nothing for me, and this world has everything" I feel just like this. The thing is if it's true, then there is nothing left for me.
But right now I feel like I am surrounded by people who are not like this. I know I hold myself to a very high standard. Far higher than most people will ever know. Psychotically high almost. But sometimes, I feel that my responsibility gives others the room to be irresponsible and they don't feel bad about taking advantage of it. I don't even believe they notice it most of the time because I just pick up the slack.
Maybe I should just stop. Skip work, miss a payment or two, leave someone hanging or stranded, not do something I'm expected to do at work or home. Blow a paycheck or two. But the thing is, I can't. I can't! I can't let myself be this way, so it will never happen. Oh sure, I could give my whole paycheck away, but I couldn't blow it on frivolous stuff. I can't let the housework go. It eats at me and I have no peace until it's done. The kicker is, most of the mess I clean up isn't even mine. I recently went through to throw out more of my stuff and had a hard time finding any that wasn't necessary and useful items.
I guess that's why people don't believe me when I try to tell them these things. I even recently lost a long time friend over this very thing. He just wouldn't believe that I was capable of expressing bent feelings in an irresponsible way. Everyone else could be forgiven, but I was not given that grace. I was even accused of intentionally trying to hurt him by acting that way.
When will someone come find me? When will I get the hand up?
Even as I write this I am reminded of times when God has provided for me. He has never let me go too far. But that's just it...no human has ever done this. Is it any wonder I find so little of value in this world? A band once wrote that "this world has nothing for me, and this world has everything" I feel just like this. The thing is if it's true, then there is nothing left for me.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Uncommercial
I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with many things and haven't felt a pressing need to lay out my thoughts in this way. That in itself is a good thing. Life is storms and calms. This must be one of the calms.
I've been working on a stand up paddle board of my own design. It's plywood and very short. The idea is to make something that is ultra cheap and portable. It turned out to be a bit more work than I anticipated, but it floats well. One more small modification and it will be finished. As a prototype, I've already got some better ideas for the next one. The plan is for three personal craft that fit in my short bed small pickup. One for each person in my family. It's my first foray into boat building and I'm learning a lot. It's a skill that I feel bridges a big gap for me and ties two great interests...water and woodwork.
My parkour training has continued and I'm seeing slow progression while not injuring myself. My training partner had his first injury this week, but I think he's ok. My mind has been centered on flow more lately. Obviously there is still need for drilling basics, but I am ready to start stringing them together and taking routes. It's an interesting art. Like many urban activities that are real and dangerous, it is forced to be a guerrilla sport. Find a location, climb it, and keep moving before people have a chance to run us off. We're also getting good at spotting potential nay-sayers and avoiding a meeting.
One thing I've learned is the difference in the training demo technique and the actual practice. Like most things, they don't often match exactly. At some point, you just have to go for it and find what works for you as an individual. Not to mention that there are variations among the experts too. Not in large part, but every master teaches what works best for them. This gives rise to various styles. As a very new and very unexploitable art, I feel connected to something primal. It stands amidst our commercial culture, but distinctly outside it. It ignores rules of how people should move through a built environment. It ignores rules about how we should train...no schools. People of course are forever trying to force it into those molds, but it has resisted largely thanks to the philosophies of David Belle and many of the current masters.
I've also been reading My Ishmael, third in Daniel Quinn's series. It dovetails nicely with what I've said above. As always, I don't entirely agree with Quinn's take on history or on what should happen in the future, but he does bring many excellent things to light about education, economics, and what it means to be human. Most notably this time, I have been thinking about commercialism. How we base everything on products and selling. Trade of goods and services. Commodities. It doesn't have to be this way. It isn't this way in many places. I used to think we needed overhaul of many paradigms, but they remained closely rooted in what is...for example, I love steady-state economics. But now I'm seeing this as just a spin on the same product exchange economy. Better yes. But not ideal. Not everything has to be sold. Not everything has to be taken stock of and comparatively evaluated. It is possible to live as humans in a society that does not operate on commercial principles...and it's possible to do that now, as we are. Not in some luddite fantasy. Truthfully, we already do to a large extent. Many societal structures, many of which we view as negative, are natural attempts at this...or rather, natural states, breaking through our systems.
I've been working on a stand up paddle board of my own design. It's plywood and very short. The idea is to make something that is ultra cheap and portable. It turned out to be a bit more work than I anticipated, but it floats well. One more small modification and it will be finished. As a prototype, I've already got some better ideas for the next one. The plan is for three personal craft that fit in my short bed small pickup. One for each person in my family. It's my first foray into boat building and I'm learning a lot. It's a skill that I feel bridges a big gap for me and ties two great interests...water and woodwork.
My parkour training has continued and I'm seeing slow progression while not injuring myself. My training partner had his first injury this week, but I think he's ok. My mind has been centered on flow more lately. Obviously there is still need for drilling basics, but I am ready to start stringing them together and taking routes. It's an interesting art. Like many urban activities that are real and dangerous, it is forced to be a guerrilla sport. Find a location, climb it, and keep moving before people have a chance to run us off. We're also getting good at spotting potential nay-sayers and avoiding a meeting.
One thing I've learned is the difference in the training demo technique and the actual practice. Like most things, they don't often match exactly. At some point, you just have to go for it and find what works for you as an individual. Not to mention that there are variations among the experts too. Not in large part, but every master teaches what works best for them. This gives rise to various styles. As a very new and very unexploitable art, I feel connected to something primal. It stands amidst our commercial culture, but distinctly outside it. It ignores rules of how people should move through a built environment. It ignores rules about how we should train...no schools. People of course are forever trying to force it into those molds, but it has resisted largely thanks to the philosophies of David Belle and many of the current masters.
I've also been reading My Ishmael, third in Daniel Quinn's series. It dovetails nicely with what I've said above. As always, I don't entirely agree with Quinn's take on history or on what should happen in the future, but he does bring many excellent things to light about education, economics, and what it means to be human. Most notably this time, I have been thinking about commercialism. How we base everything on products and selling. Trade of goods and services. Commodities. It doesn't have to be this way. It isn't this way in many places. I used to think we needed overhaul of many paradigms, but they remained closely rooted in what is...for example, I love steady-state economics. But now I'm seeing this as just a spin on the same product exchange economy. Better yes. But not ideal. Not everything has to be sold. Not everything has to be taken stock of and comparatively evaluated. It is possible to live as humans in a society that does not operate on commercial principles...and it's possible to do that now, as we are. Not in some luddite fantasy. Truthfully, we already do to a large extent. Many societal structures, many of which we view as negative, are natural attempts at this...or rather, natural states, breaking through our systems.
Monday, March 14, 2011
At the Eye
It's amazing how much can swirl around us. Thoughts, emotions, ideas. Most seem pretty much meaningless. I'm hoping there's a point in here somewhere, so let's see if it comes out.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis wracking Japan. Nuclear meltdown threat. Japanophiles everywhere rushing to make websites and raise money and go help. These are all pretty meaningless acts in themselves. We don't even know the extent of the damage yet. Going there is the last thing a disaster wracked county needs...hundreds of half-illiterate, barely-communicative foreign crash-tourists streaming in with no place to stay while you are trying to get streets cleared, restore power, prevent nuclear devastation, find dead and dying, and restore some semblance of normal life. Plus, it isn't like it's an impoverished nation. Not only is Japan's emergency management I dare say better than the US, they have the help of the US and every major relief organization in the world as well. Bad, yes. Sad, yes. So pray, find out about your friends and family, and don't be stupid.
There was a time when I longed for the destruction of everything. I wanted to see all the wrongs set right, the rebirth. I didn't care about the suffering or pain that might cause. I think that comes from being in a deadened state myself. Now I see the fear and pain that such destruction brings and it hurts me. Now that I would not see that sort of end to things, I have a feeling I am going to see more and more of it. I'm not making predictions about the Second Coming, just saying that I have always been drawn to apocalypse and have felt that I may live to see one. Whether this is The Apocalypse or merely the demise of a culture, I don't know. But regardless of my feelings about it, there is nothing for it but to walk it out. I trust beyond myself.
I have recently encountered a situation where I am learning to love someone through a very (for me) unlovable situation. It challenges me at every state, but I won't let it go until I am told to do so. If there is hope of seeing God's truth dawn on this soul, I am willing to do what I am given to do. This person sees on such a small level, and thinks everything fits that neat little package. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the world is so much more complex in many ways and so much simpler in others. It is a challenge for me to stay true to my beliefs without crushing those tender shoots of truth through my heavy-handedness, and without being influenced into something I do not believe.
At work, things continue to swirl, as change without hope of improvement continues. I have often said that it is a pessimizing business I am in. Being aware of legitimate information about the state of our society, being charged with helping to change it for the better, and constantly being suspected of some uncouthness from both sides. I found out today that yet again, I was cut out of a dealing which is entirely within my realm of responsibility. And I was cut out intentionally by my immediate supervisor. I will bring it up with him, even though he hates confrontation. I cannot abide being patronized or muffled. Trust me to do my job or tell me openly not to. Don't try to sneak around me and then tell me to continue doing the 'great job' I am doing while you subvert what I am working for. Every other country I have contact with seems to be doing a better job at what I do than this one. In those places, what I do is respected and brought to the table, if not prioritized. Here I fight on both sides. What's worst about this is that it forces me to operate on my own. I cannot discuss and cooperate because no one in my loop wants to hear it. The best I can do is commiserate with the few others in my boat.
Pollen is swirling again. I didn't have such reactions to it just a few years ago. Now it's worse. Here it's worse. Doctors say it's normal for those things to change over time, and usually for the worse before they get better. But I am healthier than ever and have trouble accepting this. I suspect pollution from industrial chemicals and air pollution have either irritated me (and countless others) to the point that we can't tolerate this minor natural irritant, or that the irritant itself has become more potent as a result of contact with these toxic compounds ala Nausiccaa. I bounce through phases during this season of just resorting to medicine every day, and then fearing side effects (or actually having them) or philosophically hating the concept of daily medication. It twists me up until at last the season is over. Thankfully so far we've had some rain which helps. Hopefully this mercy will continue.
In weaker moments I have issues with dissipation. I am a sheepdog. When I connect on a real level, I can't let it go without much suffering. Which is why I rarely allow myself to connect like that. Yet I have watched so many people just walk away from what I thought was real and valuable. Not that all cases are people walking away from Good, some are clearly a walking toward Good for that person...I guess I just feel left out. Like I have just run over to a friend's house to share the new toy we had talked about so often just in time to see him run away to play with other friends and I'm not invited. Honestly, I wouldn't go even if asked because those friends share something I not a part of. I would simply be the tag along. But this is a feeling I've felt most of my life at various points. I wish at least sometimes, someone would run over to my house. Choose to play with me this time. Unless I organize it, I rarely ever see any friends.
But I can see the calm center in this storm of circumstances. I rely too much on circumstances. This is the problem. I am being taught to place my whole hope and trust in the one eternal thing. The one thing which meets all needs. The one thing which so thankfully is not a what but a who. It's a bittersweet process. All emotions rolled together into a tumult with a calm center like a cyclone. Desire truly is the root of all suffering...but that doesn't mean we should stop desiring altogether. Desire simply needs to be for the right things. The eternal things that do not disappoint.
Yet I am often lonely and sorrowful. Brother Lawrence says that I can find mystical joy if I focus entirely on what pleases the object of my desire. I am not even to try too hard for this, but to relax in my ineptitude and allow God who can fulfill all needs to do so in me. I must trust that my pitiful and whiny struggles are my portion of the sufferings of Christ. All will be well. In complete surrender is freedom. In losing myself, I find myself. God I adore you.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis wracking Japan. Nuclear meltdown threat. Japanophiles everywhere rushing to make websites and raise money and go help. These are all pretty meaningless acts in themselves. We don't even know the extent of the damage yet. Going there is the last thing a disaster wracked county needs...hundreds of half-illiterate, barely-communicative foreign crash-tourists streaming in with no place to stay while you are trying to get streets cleared, restore power, prevent nuclear devastation, find dead and dying, and restore some semblance of normal life. Plus, it isn't like it's an impoverished nation. Not only is Japan's emergency management I dare say better than the US, they have the help of the US and every major relief organization in the world as well. Bad, yes. Sad, yes. So pray, find out about your friends and family, and don't be stupid.
There was a time when I longed for the destruction of everything. I wanted to see all the wrongs set right, the rebirth. I didn't care about the suffering or pain that might cause. I think that comes from being in a deadened state myself. Now I see the fear and pain that such destruction brings and it hurts me. Now that I would not see that sort of end to things, I have a feeling I am going to see more and more of it. I'm not making predictions about the Second Coming, just saying that I have always been drawn to apocalypse and have felt that I may live to see one. Whether this is The Apocalypse or merely the demise of a culture, I don't know. But regardless of my feelings about it, there is nothing for it but to walk it out. I trust beyond myself.
I have recently encountered a situation where I am learning to love someone through a very (for me) unlovable situation. It challenges me at every state, but I won't let it go until I am told to do so. If there is hope of seeing God's truth dawn on this soul, I am willing to do what I am given to do. This person sees on such a small level, and thinks everything fits that neat little package. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the world is so much more complex in many ways and so much simpler in others. It is a challenge for me to stay true to my beliefs without crushing those tender shoots of truth through my heavy-handedness, and without being influenced into something I do not believe.
At work, things continue to swirl, as change without hope of improvement continues. I have often said that it is a pessimizing business I am in. Being aware of legitimate information about the state of our society, being charged with helping to change it for the better, and constantly being suspected of some uncouthness from both sides. I found out today that yet again, I was cut out of a dealing which is entirely within my realm of responsibility. And I was cut out intentionally by my immediate supervisor. I will bring it up with him, even though he hates confrontation. I cannot abide being patronized or muffled. Trust me to do my job or tell me openly not to. Don't try to sneak around me and then tell me to continue doing the 'great job' I am doing while you subvert what I am working for. Every other country I have contact with seems to be doing a better job at what I do than this one. In those places, what I do is respected and brought to the table, if not prioritized. Here I fight on both sides. What's worst about this is that it forces me to operate on my own. I cannot discuss and cooperate because no one in my loop wants to hear it. The best I can do is commiserate with the few others in my boat.
Pollen is swirling again. I didn't have such reactions to it just a few years ago. Now it's worse. Here it's worse. Doctors say it's normal for those things to change over time, and usually for the worse before they get better. But I am healthier than ever and have trouble accepting this. I suspect pollution from industrial chemicals and air pollution have either irritated me (and countless others) to the point that we can't tolerate this minor natural irritant, or that the irritant itself has become more potent as a result of contact with these toxic compounds ala Nausiccaa. I bounce through phases during this season of just resorting to medicine every day, and then fearing side effects (or actually having them) or philosophically hating the concept of daily medication. It twists me up until at last the season is over. Thankfully so far we've had some rain which helps. Hopefully this mercy will continue.
In weaker moments I have issues with dissipation. I am a sheepdog. When I connect on a real level, I can't let it go without much suffering. Which is why I rarely allow myself to connect like that. Yet I have watched so many people just walk away from what I thought was real and valuable. Not that all cases are people walking away from Good, some are clearly a walking toward Good for that person...I guess I just feel left out. Like I have just run over to a friend's house to share the new toy we had talked about so often just in time to see him run away to play with other friends and I'm not invited. Honestly, I wouldn't go even if asked because those friends share something I not a part of. I would simply be the tag along. But this is a feeling I've felt most of my life at various points. I wish at least sometimes, someone would run over to my house. Choose to play with me this time. Unless I organize it, I rarely ever see any friends.
But I can see the calm center in this storm of circumstances. I rely too much on circumstances. This is the problem. I am being taught to place my whole hope and trust in the one eternal thing. The one thing which meets all needs. The one thing which so thankfully is not a what but a who. It's a bittersweet process. All emotions rolled together into a tumult with a calm center like a cyclone. Desire truly is the root of all suffering...but that doesn't mean we should stop desiring altogether. Desire simply needs to be for the right things. The eternal things that do not disappoint.
Yet I am often lonely and sorrowful. Brother Lawrence says that I can find mystical joy if I focus entirely on what pleases the object of my desire. I am not even to try too hard for this, but to relax in my ineptitude and allow God who can fulfill all needs to do so in me. I must trust that my pitiful and whiny struggles are my portion of the sufferings of Christ. All will be well. In complete surrender is freedom. In losing myself, I find myself. God I adore you.
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