it's about to begin

the week that is. i'm just about to head into work after working from home this morning. i have to say that i really like working from home on some level but i haven't quite mastered the battle for productivity.

tradition, honor and ceremony...

often seem lost in todays United States. today i was watching part of Ronald Reagan's funeral and i started thinking about this again.

often i ask myself what my tradition or place in history is. the US seems to lack some of the cultural markeres that we assign to other cultures and i don't have some distinct ethnic heritage. i'm a white guy with roots in the British Isles, Europe and perhaps the Native Americans. most of my ancestors are talked of as oppressors or imperialistic. None of these dominate or shape me as they do some people.

so i'm left with my spiritual heritage. it's not at all bad. after all Christians are children of God in the lineage of Isrealite patriarchs that left the lands of Iraq on wild God chases that lead to great hope and promise.

it's hard to be satisifies with though. christians have little in the way of a unified culture. it is a heritage of values and duties, one that embraces a hosts of cultures, traditions, and ceremonies. what can i say, maybe it's time i readjust my expectations.

my future wife...

will be a godly woman who is willing to think deeply with me about art. she'll be be someone who isn't afraid to disagree with me or debate with me about something while also respecting me and working with me.

those random thoughts brought to you care of some recent interest in women i will likely not pursue because of my coming move. God knows.

cool? scary? both?

in looking at a number of blogs that Chris linked to at his blog, i came across Amy's blog. i've seen Amy post at Relevant but don't really know her.

she came across an interesting site that bears pondering. check it out sometime. i'll probably write more about it later.

creative blogging

there are always people who will use regular things around them in irregular ways for good result. Marieke's "Life of eM" is a good example.

undoubtedly many blogs out there are an odd combination of fact and fiction due to personal vanity but Marieke, like a few others, is using a blog to present her fictional story. The main character, Em, a 20-something woman whose internal struggles are the source for most of the blog.

if you have a chance take some time to read the four chapters she posted. there is an emotional honesty and rambling, near stream of consciousness, style that i enjoy.

i should note that there is some minor objectional content.

a german poem

Ken pointed me to Poetry Daily a website for, you guessed it, daily poetry a while back. i'm glad he did. here's one from today that i liked. i can really sympathize with the meandering thoughts of the writer and i like how in the end the writer puts away the philosophizing for the raw emotions of the moment.

It's not that I think we should mimic that completely but I've been in a similar mindset when i consider the loss of people i love, both dead and living.

In July
The summers are getting shorter and
the winters longer. I feel their length
as unsalvation. Why am I so resigned
when looking at the columns of ants
losing their silly way like in an allegory?
What unrest, what eagerness, what labor.
Toiling is their destiny.
And I hear on the radio maybe there's a lot of
violence in the universe. Really
nothing new under diverse suns.
Maimonides, the dissident,
believed that God is actually
a principle, a code in consonants
inexpressible. Just the same
and in spite of it all I'd really like
to see my parents once again.

Günter Kunert
Translated from the German
by Gerald Chapple
AGNI 59

I was brought to tears today at work

As you can imagine it's a rare thing. Cultural pressures, my general complacency and a host of other factors prevent it. But how can I not?

I was reading about believers in a South America ex-colonial country who are working with people from another former colonial territory in West Africa to build up the church there. throw in a few believers in the US who have been blessed with the wealth to support such things and you have a powerful intercontintal work of God.

this sad colonial takeover and the resulting imposition of a foreign language has been used by God to bring His truth to people a hempisphere away.

i love the way my God works.

sort of like that line from a song that i've come to love, "Instead of letting it all end, you bring new hop

fleeting inspiration

it is quite amazing how thoughts of inspiration come and go so quickly. chalk it up to the mysteries of the human brain i suppose.

i plan to revitalize my blogging soon. a friend of mine has started a story using her blog and i've been pondering following her example by putting more writing up here. We'll see.

an aside: If you want to put the link to that blog you're welcome to. I didn't know how private a thing it was.