Something to cheer about...

Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

Anyone out there remember that little kid chant being circulated when it was pumpkin carving time? Halloween just passed and this past Friday my daughter's school had a Halloween parade in her gym. My daughter is in 1st grade, so she wanted to dress up as something really scary. She picked a cheerleader! I know scary huh; at least it is if you're a dad. You see my wife and I went to this Halloween parade and stood there as the entire elementary school passed us by dressed in costumes that brought out their "special" personality. We saw everything from Storm Troopers, to Minnie Mouse, to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One kid even dressed up as a toilet. Not real sure the statement he was making there. Little does he know that one day when he grows up to be a man that will be considered a special and sacred place. At any rate, my daughter finally paraded by, and I must admit she looked adorable as a little cheerleader. So when she stopped in front of us so mom could snap the moment for all eternity I blurted out for her to give us a cheer! Immediately she held one arm straight up and cocked the other on her hip with pom-poms flowing in each hand. It was at that moment in the parade where I was actually frightened. Scared that my little girl is growing up too fast, scared that she knew how to do that, and still a little disturbed by the tidy bowl boy. I guess at the end of the day I'm thankful that she didn't want to dress up as Britney or an Achy, Breaky Heart, and that she still acknowledges my presence even when we can be seen by other little cheerleaders and mutant turtles. I know the day is probably coming when she'll be frightened by the presence of scary old dad, but for now she's still daddy's little girl and that's something worth cheering about.

The 17 mile ring...

Okay, I know it's been over a month since my last blog, but I've been traveling for the past 5 weeks! Not really a good excuse, but it's the best I got. My travels have been a lot of fun actually and I thought the travel time would lend itself to fresh thoughts percolating around in my head. However, the latest tidbit bubbling to the top and spilling out for me is something I watched on the History channel in the comfort of my own home. Globetrotting is overated. This particular tele show was interviewing all these physicists from around the world. They were talking about their latest project in which they have developed this 17 mile ring to try and discover/create subatomic particles that existed at the beginning of the universe. They each said they were looking for the God particle. By the end of the show my non-physicist head began to hurt, but I do find stuff like this fascinating. What was particularly fascinating was that at the end of the show they wrapped up by quickly jumping from person to person and asking them all the same question. Why do you do what you do? They all said the same thing. "Because I want to know why." That's really the question isn't it. Why? Why did the universe form the way it did? Why does the sun come up and set everyday? Why do humans behave the way they do? Why should I get up out of bed in the morning? Why does John McCain not know how many homes he owns? Why do politicians like talking about lipstick so much? Why do we work so hard, for so long, to pay for things that make us work even harder and longer? Why indeed. Why does anything we do matter? You don't have to be a physicist to ask that question. No matter your degree of intelligence it's always the looming question. People eventually ask why. Why am I doing this again? Why do I care about writing a blog? Maybe it's because I want to see if there's anyone else willing to discuss the why's of life. Or maybe it's just because I'm amazed that I can type something on my computer, and in an instant it can be floating out there on the world wide web! (You know physicists acutally created the internet too.) So the next time you're sitting in line at a drive thru or surfing the web ask yourself the following questions. Why does life happen the way it happens, and why should I bother? And then take it one step further. Respond to this blog and let me know what you came up with. Why? Because I want to know why.

What's my motivation...

I just read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. It was about the athletes in 1968 who wore the black gloves and held up their arms in protest at the summer Olympic games in Mexico city. If you're my age anything that happened in the 60's you have to read about or watch on old videos, but for some it was all to real. It's the 40th anniversary of this particular protest, and with the Beijing games coming up and so much controversy swirling around them the action of these two men back then is getting alot of press coverage today. These men are considered heroes and great political activists in 2008 and their names are mentioned in the same sentence as a Rosa Parks. However, their protest came with great cost. When it happened they were banned from the Olympics and recieved multiple death threats. One man lost his wife to divorce, and the other lost his to suicide. Both men payed a steep price for such a protest. As the years have gone by, however, both men have criticized the other. Each tries to take credit for the idea, and the athlete who came in third even made the statement he let the other man win gold on purpose. (To read the article click on my title or the link below) So, why all the bickering? Essentially, each man now wants all the glory and the prestige that comes with doing something for the greater good. Doing something for the greater good. Is it really possible to do something for the greater good? I often wonder why I really do what I do. Are my actions for my own selfish ambition or am I actually doing my deeds to help benefit mankind? I may not ever get to raise an arm or a banner in protest on some national stage, but everyday I get to make the choice whether or not I want to have an impact on the greater good. When I do a good deed, like say fix my family dinner without being asked, am I really being altruistic or do I have ulterior motives? My own faith challenges me to love my enemy, but I have a hard enough time loving my neighbor! Oh yeah, I guess my belief system tells me to love my neighbor to. So if and when I do actually demonstrate a loving act toward neighbor or enemy is it really love? Or am I really showing love because I'm hoping for a reward in this life or the gold medal in the life yet to come? I remember a college professor of mine once said there is no such thing as a truly altruistic act because ultimately everyone makes decisions based on what will one day be reciprocated by others. Maybe he's right. Or maybe it takes a superhero to truly do things for the good of humanity. I think many of my choices in life are self motivated, but I do hope. I hope there are those individuals out there who can rise to the occasion and live life for the greater good. I hope I can learn to become one of those individuals. So here's to hoping that when those decisive moments come in our everyday life we won't need a cape on our back or a medal around our neck, but simply a purer motivation that defies the norm.

The Stinky and the Brain...

I just finished reading a rather popular Christian book by a pretty well known author. Let's just say the book had something to do with a "a feel good king." You get a gold star if you can guess the title based on my clue! Anywho, whether spoken or on a page, well thought out words seem to give us all something to chew on and can bring nourishment to our lives. As I was reading and pondering over the particular words written by this guy I didn't know, I started thinking about the words of a guy I did know. Probably because what this author was saying sounded like something I had already heard before. Not because I had read it in another book somewhere, but because someone else had already shared alot of these same words with me. You see I have this friend. Let's say his name is "Brain." One because he's been called this before by mistake, and two because his "brain" works in ways that are sometimes hard to compute! Brain is the kind of person that has a different way of thinking than most people. You know how when you were a kid and you asked WHY to everything and anything. Well, Brain still does. See Brain's "brain" works like a computer. It processes information and constantly spits back out data based on logical conclusions. Maybe you have a friend like mine. Kind of makes your brain feel pretty stinky sometimes! I say all this not to chastise my hard wired friend, although learning to occassionally reboot might help alleviate some headaches, but to applaud him for constantly being there to challenge me and my status quo. He causes me to stop and think when I'm tempted to just sit and nod. He helps me to hold up more objective scales to weigh what society and religion so often champion as the standard beyond testing. In short, it's nice to have a friend that says words that challenge and enrich my life. Maybe some of the words you've read here have sparked something in your noodle and you'd like to weigh in on the subject of words. Please feel free to comment and share something from one pilgrim to the next...

Do a favor and win a friend forever, nothing can untie that bond. Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest. Proverbs 18:19-20, The Message.

I have been to the promised land...

Well sort of. Maybe not "the" promised land, but I did go to the land of Zion this past weekend. Zion National Park that is. If you've never been to Zion's it's quite scenic to say the least. The views can take your breath away, and I find myself feeling quite small and insignificant in its surroundings. I would have probably had a chance to do some real deep pondering and had some zen like experiences in an environment like this had it not been for my other surroundings! The other "surroundings" being 3 little Hannah Montanas and 2 grown ones. For those counting, that's a weekend of fun with 5 girls and 1 boy. Drama baby drama! Needless to say by day 2 I needed a drama break. Fortunately, I have a great little honey of a wife, and she let me go it alone on one of the more challenging hikes in Zion. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision for me to go hiking on this trail, so I was ill equipped and ill prepared for this hike. The hike was called Angel's Landing, but at 2 p.m. in Zion's park at the end of June, Hell's Playground might be a more appropriate name. At any rate, off I went, gungho and ready to have a mountain top experience. Over an hour later, parched, dehydrated, and ready to give the boyscout next to me $20 for his bottle of water, I made it to the top. This was the first hike I've ever been on where I really felt a sense of accomplishment when I got to the summit. It was an incredibly cool hike, where literally they had to install large chains in the rock to grab hold of so hikers wouldn't plummet to their death! The hike was pretty amazing, but as I basked in the victory of making it to the top I realized something. This experience would be way more fun if I had others to share it with. You see in my zeal to go on a great adventure I had left those I cared about behind. My drama girls! And I wasn't alone. I came across some older kids on the path who had been left behind by their dad too. Turns out these kids weren't that agile, were afraid of heights, and it had really been their dad's idea to do the hike. The dad had left them behind to fend for themselves in his quest to get to the promised land. As I was pushing my way past these girls I couldn't help to think how selfish that was. Then I started thinking how much life is like that. I want adventure, I want stimulation, I want life to be challenging and fulfilling, and while it's much easier to achieve these results on my own, it's not near as much fun. Noboby wants to stop and take the time to help those who struggle through life, but help them we should (said Yoda). If I'm honest I find myself looking at people in my path and commenting either in my head or to a confidant how incompetent, ignorant, and useless they are. More often than not I'm the guy pushing my way over and through people, so I can hurry up and get the gratification that I deserve. When I find myself doing that I get exactly what I deserve alright. I get to jump up and down, look all around, and ultimately celebrate by myself. Here's to the hands that push up, not down, who grab hold instead of pushing through, who clasp the hands next to them and raise them in joyous celebration...

The pancake man...

I was reading an article today from the magazine, The Atlantic, a magazine I would recommend by the way, and I came across an article entitled “Is Google making us Stoopid?” (All quotes are from The Atlantic unless otherwise noted) I figured the article would be about how we have information overload today, and we don’t really have to exercise our minds anymore to find useful information. Turned out I was right, but the article did have a few twists that got me thinking. It talked about how in 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter which allowed him to continue to write in light of his failing eyesight. However, a good friend noticed that when Nietzsche started using the typewriter his writing style changed. He “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.” It’s pretty fascinating how external forces can begin to slowly change our internal forces. Fast forward 125 years and a little company called Google has changed the way we think and operate today. “The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people—or smarter,” Page, a founder of Google, said in a speech a few years back. “For us, working on search is a way to work on artificial intelligence.” In a 2004 interview with Newsweek, Brin said, “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” That’s insane to think about. Would we really be better off with an AI smarter than our noodle?
What really got me thinking about this topic is that this past Sunday, during a Sunday worship service, I started reading Romans ch.12. I realize I should have been listening to the sermon, but the reading was more interesting. Anyway, I bet I’ve read this chapter in Romans 50 times over my lifetime, but I happened to be reading from The Message translation this time. And as so often is the case when I read the Message a phrase really struck me, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” I’m afraid I’m guilty of this all too often. The systems I live in definitely affect my life. How I pay bills, read articles, and communicate with people has changed because of these systems, but I hope I don’t become so well adjusted to my culture that I stop thinking. I hope I can sit and dwell on the deep and mysterious mystery that is God. I hope I don’t allow AI’s to do my thinking for me, or any external force for that matter. I hope I will continue to stretch and work out my mind by reading long books, writing short blogs, and reflecting on it all. The magazine article ended by looking back in history even further. It seemed that Socrates was worried that writing could be a bad thing for society. He thought as people began to write and rely on a written forum, they would, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” Crazy huh?! Good thing that writing thing took off or we probably wouldn't know Socrates said that. But maybe Socrates was right. More times than not I feel like the pancake man! Very wide and far reaching, but really quite shallow. Shallow in life, and worse shallow in my faith. Maybe it’s because of my surroundings and environment, or maybe it’s just because I’m lazy and it’s too much work to really stop and think. Maybe there's some other pancake people out there? Man, all this pancake talk has made me hungry, maybe I’ll go nuke a pancake…Thank goodness for new technology!

Everyone's Invited...

I have alot of friends out there that due to recent events I may not get to see as much, so I thought I might start a little cyberspace hang out of my own. The coffee shop is a favorite place of mine to sit and chat with friends, read, reflect, and let my thoughts be stimulated by all those wonderful aromas and all that java going in. If you are a fellow coffee shop pilgrim, or just a pilgrim trekking through life, then I hope you'll stop by, so the good stuff between friends can keep percolating!

my first blog

This is my first time to blog. I'm not really sure yet what I want this to become, but much like life I'm sure it will evolve and reflect who I am becoming...