Celibacy is not hereditary.
7/29/10
7/28/10
7/27/10
"Following false copies of the good, that no sincere fulfillment of their promise make."
"In short--truth does matter, all claims have consequences, and contrast is the mother of clarity. The ideal of the 'examined life' is as important when it comes to purpose as in any part of life. It would be absurd to be rigorous in examining our insurance policies or preparing our tax returns but blithely casual in deciding what is the purpose of life itself."
-Os Guinness
7/25/10
prone to wander.
There were three digits of degrees Fahrenheit today. That is too many.
Okay, so i'm a weird person now, which may or may not come as a surprise to you (probably not), but when i was a kid, my strange/odd/preposterous side was much more visible to even the less discerning of eyes. This tended to manifest itself in many ways, but one was that from the age of (as far as i can tell) 5 to 7, it seems that i wore the same outfit about four days a week in the summer. It was simplicity at its finest and fashion in its grave. Orange tank top. Teal shorts.
Now, earlier in this summer--which, by the way, draws swiftly to a close, even as i write--i was scanning some pictures for my sister's upcoming wedding and noticed this fact which i have just disclosed. Seriously, these are pictures for her wedding, so it follows naturally that i would not be in that many of them. Therefore, the number of pictures that i was in and found myself in that age bracket would be even smaller (this is statistics. multiply those two together to find the answer.) HOWEVER, i found no less than three pictures of me in that very outfit. Orange tank top. Teal shorts.
It gets better. So, when my mom confirmed that i did, in fact, wear that outfit all the time, i decided something. i decided then and there that i would actually fuse together my past and my present. i felt some sort of explosion might even take place when it happened. So i began a quest to find an orange tank top and teal shorts, and once found, wear them four days a week. Give or take. But everywhere i went, disappointment. Red tanks, three shades of blue tanks, green tanks, yellow tanks. Taupe tank tops. NO ORANGE TANKS ANYWHERE. Why the Sam Hill there aren't any orange tank tops for sale, anywhere, is beyond my wildest guesses, but the fact is that my quest had turned into a tragic comedy.
Well, suffice it to say that my dejection over this matter was not epic (for that is a ravaged word) but was on all accounts unprecedented. True, it wasn't affecting my appetite (at least not yet), but i do think that it kept me from some sleep on some nights. One can never be sure.
An aside: i realize there may be readers who wonder why there is a woman in my picture and yet i rarely write about her on here. i have reasons for this which i think are good, and honestly, those reasons are no business of yours. In an age of everyone knowing everyone's business, i choose not to be a part of everyone, and that is my prerogative.
She plays an absolutely integral part in this quest, though, and so i must break my own rules in this post. i'd be lying if i said i didn't relish that opportunity. She, of course, knows all about how weird i am, and yet still likes to be seen in public with me. Mostly. The crazy thing is that that's not the most crazy thing about this story. You see, she knew how stressful the failing quest was for me, and she took up the quest with me. And last week, lo and behold, SHE FOUND ME AN ORANGE TANK TOP AND SURPRISED ME WITH IT AS A GIFT AND THE VERY NEXT DAY I FOUND TEAL SHORTS AT TJ MAXX ON SALE!
i shall post a picture of my fusion of past and present eventually. i am simply waiting for the world to be able to receive such an image. The house was buzzing with a sort of quasi-radioactivity today as i put on my new/old/atthesametime outfit.
the end.
Okay, so i'm a weird person now, which may or may not come as a surprise to you (probably not), but when i was a kid, my strange/odd/preposterous side was much more visible to even the less discerning of eyes. This tended to manifest itself in many ways, but one was that from the age of (as far as i can tell) 5 to 7, it seems that i wore the same outfit about four days a week in the summer. It was simplicity at its finest and fashion in its grave. Orange tank top. Teal shorts.
Now, earlier in this summer--which, by the way, draws swiftly to a close, even as i write--i was scanning some pictures for my sister's upcoming wedding and noticed this fact which i have just disclosed. Seriously, these are pictures for her wedding, so it follows naturally that i would not be in that many of them. Therefore, the number of pictures that i was in and found myself in that age bracket would be even smaller (this is statistics. multiply those two together to find the answer.) HOWEVER, i found no less than three pictures of me in that very outfit. Orange tank top. Teal shorts.
It gets better. So, when my mom confirmed that i did, in fact, wear that outfit all the time, i decided something. i decided then and there that i would actually fuse together my past and my present. i felt some sort of explosion might even take place when it happened. So i began a quest to find an orange tank top and teal shorts, and once found, wear them four days a week. Give or take. But everywhere i went, disappointment. Red tanks, three shades of blue tanks, green tanks, yellow tanks. Taupe tank tops. NO ORANGE TANKS ANYWHERE. Why the Sam Hill there aren't any orange tank tops for sale, anywhere, is beyond my wildest guesses, but the fact is that my quest had turned into a tragic comedy.
Well, suffice it to say that my dejection over this matter was not epic (for that is a ravaged word) but was on all accounts unprecedented. True, it wasn't affecting my appetite (at least not yet), but i do think that it kept me from some sleep on some nights. One can never be sure.
An aside: i realize there may be readers who wonder why there is a woman in my picture and yet i rarely write about her on here. i have reasons for this which i think are good, and honestly, those reasons are no business of yours. In an age of everyone knowing everyone's business, i choose not to be a part of everyone, and that is my prerogative.
She plays an absolutely integral part in this quest, though, and so i must break my own rules in this post. i'd be lying if i said i didn't relish that opportunity. She, of course, knows all about how weird i am, and yet still likes to be seen in public with me. Mostly. The crazy thing is that that's not the most crazy thing about this story. You see, she knew how stressful the failing quest was for me, and she took up the quest with me. And last week, lo and behold, SHE FOUND ME AN ORANGE TANK TOP AND SURPRISED ME WITH IT AS A GIFT AND THE VERY NEXT DAY I FOUND TEAL SHORTS AT TJ MAXX ON SALE!
i shall post a picture of my fusion of past and present eventually. i am simply waiting for the world to be able to receive such an image. The house was buzzing with a sort of quasi-radioactivity today as i put on my new/old/atthesametime outfit.
the end.
another Dutchman.
Kyle is playing for the Chicago Bulls now, for those of you who don't keep up with such things. He threw out the first pitch at Wrigley yesterday. The video is pretty hilarious.
7/13/10
of soccer and men.
Soccer is a beautiful game, but the way my Dutchmen played it against the Spaniards was anything but beautiful, and so it cost them. And yet, i am still extremely proud of the Oranje, just as i am proud of the US team. Perhaps the world simply couldn't have handled the celebration that would have ensued in Amsterdam. Certainly my home couldn't have handled my individual celebration. And i am not even Dutch by birth.
Life will go on after the World Cup. They say that over 700 million people watched the final between Spain and the Netherlands, which represents approximately 10% of the entire world population. It is interesting to me that for a month, people of all walks of life put down life and become spectators of what is the international sporting language. Some say it is a unifying event, others would disagree. Perhaps many would take issue with the statement that soccer is even beautiful. Most Americans dislike or even hate the sport because there isn't enough scoring. That's because Americans love commercials, and Americans have gotten used to instant gratification, and Americans are in love with meritocracy and quantification. There is no quantification for much of what makes soccer, in my mind at least, beautiful.
But this is only a tangent. What is most interesting is that life will go on. And after the most incredible sporting event in the world crowns its victor every four years, there is still life. And that life begs the "eternal question." Hamlet's question. The questions that haunt the richest and the poorest, those who had box seats for the World Cup final and those of the 90% who didn't see it because they didn't even have electricity. You must answer these questions, just as i must answer them. Is there a purpose for human existence? If so, what is it and how can we determine it? Is there a purpose for your individual daily life? If so, in what or Whom or in reaching what end is it found? What is love? How can i love and whom should i love? Am i to be held accountable by Anyone but myself?
if there is a God, where is He?
The following is a blog post i read just recently. Some of these questions come up, and, although perhaps quite implicity, are even dealt with in a fashion. In fact, it seems that all of the questions that face us are answered by the author in the last two sentences of the text.
But it isn't so simple, because again, what is love? And why do we seek it? And is it true that we are "binary creatures"? And where did death and music come from? And if John Mayer, the author of all of these conjectures, hasn't found the "love" we all want, then what if he is simply looking in all the wrong places?
i firmly believe there is Truth and that there are answers to these questions, and i think that much of that Truth can be found in what Paul had to say to a group of people who had a lot of unanswered questions themselves:
Life will go on after the World Cup. They say that over 700 million people watched the final between Spain and the Netherlands, which represents approximately 10% of the entire world population. It is interesting to me that for a month, people of all walks of life put down life and become spectators of what is the international sporting language. Some say it is a unifying event, others would disagree. Perhaps many would take issue with the statement that soccer is even beautiful. Most Americans dislike or even hate the sport because there isn't enough scoring. That's because Americans love commercials, and Americans have gotten used to instant gratification, and Americans are in love with meritocracy and quantification. There is no quantification for much of what makes soccer, in my mind at least, beautiful.
But this is only a tangent. What is most interesting is that life will go on. And after the most incredible sporting event in the world crowns its victor every four years, there is still life. And that life begs the "eternal question." Hamlet's question. The questions that haunt the richest and the poorest, those who had box seats for the World Cup final and those of the 90% who didn't see it because they didn't even have electricity. You must answer these questions, just as i must answer them. Is there a purpose for human existence? If so, what is it and how can we determine it? Is there a purpose for your individual daily life? If so, in what or Whom or in reaching what end is it found? What is love? How can i love and whom should i love? Am i to be held accountable by Anyone but myself?
if there is a God, where is He?
The following is a blog post i read just recently. Some of these questions come up, and, although perhaps quite implicity, are even dealt with in a fashion. In fact, it seems that all of the questions that face us are answered by the author in the last two sentences of the text.
I wish that when I was younger I could have met my current self. We would have sat down at a coffee shop so that I could explain life to young me in terms that only we would understand. It would have saved me a lot of hardship.
You can listen to all the sage wisdom you want, but things only make sense when you can explain them to yourself in your own words. For instance, I’ve been told for three years that Breaking Bad is the best show on television, but only after I watched it was I able to tell myself exactly why everyone was right. Other truths I know now that I can explain them: that I’m not missing any crucial information and that poker really isn’t all that fun; that heartbreaks do fade but they take about a year longer than you expect and by the time they do you really don’t care about it enough to notice; and above all else, life is simpler than you think.
I used to think that life was an intricate series of levers and pulleys, buttons and switches, Mexican standoffs and hostage negotiations. As I get older I realize that life is more Netherlands minimalist than Jackson Pollock. The problems don’t get fewer, and in fact they grow in number, but the way I index them in the database is different. More problems get filed under fewer category headers.
Things are getting simpler, and it’s making life better. Here’s the cheat sheet:
People want to be liked. We all crave attention and affection and we all reject shame. When we get embarrassed we send a thug version of ourselves to the forefront to do our fighting for us. We’re at the top of the food chain just under fear. We don’t want to be in a relationship to hear the words “I love you,” we want to be in a relationship to say the words “I love you.” We want to feel needed, and exceptional and we hate feeling insignificant. We want to ace a hearing test. We are binary creatures; if we’re the plaintiff, we want to win every dollar. If we’re the defendant, we want to guard every penny. We want to make more money than last year. We don’t want to get cancer or die in our cars and we want the same for our loved ones. We go out on weekends to try and have sex while trying not to get punched in the face. We drink so we can be ourselves and not mind it so much. We’re desperate to be understood. We want to know someone else has felt it, too. We hate being judged unfairly. We want to make the person we heard wasn’t all that into us change their minds and admit they had us wrong. We want sunny skies with a chance of killer tornadoes, just to keep music sounding good. We take hours upon hours to admit to self consciousness. We don’t know exactly how to pleasure each other. We just want love. In any and every form.
See? It’s simple. :)
But it isn't so simple, because again, what is love? And why do we seek it? And is it true that we are "binary creatures"? And where did death and music come from? And if John Mayer, the author of all of these conjectures, hasn't found the "love" we all want, then what if he is simply looking in all the wrong places?
i firmly believe there is Truth and that there are answers to these questions, and i think that much of that Truth can be found in what Paul had to say to a group of people who had a lot of unanswered questions themselves:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 'For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring.'
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead."
Acts 17:24-31
6/29/10
Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond
The Dutch look quite spic and span in their World Cup efforts. That is all i have to say.
6/22/10
"my patronus"
the poet grasps the sieve,
through vapor does he weave,
hoping for Truth
to cleave
and taken by light,
yes, God is there in the night,
a muse of Hope.
he writes:
poured out,
and filled;
healed,
and broken;
blinded by the Grace that i see;
i may chase the night;
but swifter is the flight
of the Love that chases after me.
i finished Harry Potter. And yes, a "patronus" is a reference to that series, but you might be interested to know that it actually is much older than Harry Potter, and originated in ancient Rome. i refuse to explain it here, because i believe there is some value in looking up information for yourself.
through vapor does he weave,
hoping for Truth
to cleave
and taken by light,
yes, God is there in the night,
a muse of Hope.
he writes:
poured out,
and filled;
healed,
and broken;
blinded by the Grace that i see;
i may chase the night;
but swifter is the flight
of the Love that chases after me.
i finished Harry Potter. And yes, a "patronus" is a reference to that series, but you might be interested to know that it actually is much older than Harry Potter, and originated in ancient Rome. i refuse to explain it here, because i believe there is some value in looking up information for yourself.
6/17/10
Why would anyone go to college to receive an education?
The following is an Associate Press piece i saw on ESPN.com that concerns the NCAA and its incredible hypocrisy. Something needs to be done.
A panel of college sports reformers wants to limit participation in NCAA championships to schools where at least 50 percent of the team's athletes are on track to graduate.
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics says runaway spending in college sports and a lack of attention to classroom performance "threaten(s) the very integrity of higher education."
A report released Thursday in Washington calls for a range of financial and academic reforms. The tougher graduation goals repeat a recommendation made by the group nearly a decade ago.
The Knight panel also wants NCAA schools to publicly share more of their financial data on athletics spending while setting aside at least 20 percent of the money received from TV contracts and postseason football appearances for academic use.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
6/14/10
set free, for freedom. why bondage seek?
i think that an update is due in regard to my summer reading list: i am roughly 18% done with the seventh and final Harry Potter book. Stellar books, they are.
In other, bigger news, a gorilla was very nearly successful in his attempt to escape from the North Carolina zoo. Now, i have seen that same gorilla a number of times throughout my years in this great state (i mean to say not that i've seen him wandering about, but rather that i have visited his unnatural habit on several occasions), and i must say that i felt quite proud of Gordy. i don't know if that's his name, but it seems fitting to me as i write this. In all seriousness though, who could really be upset or angry with Gordy over his desire to get out? i think any animal would have done the same thing if the opportunity presented itself. If you get a chance to look at the video of his attempt, i would encourage you to do so, for it seems that for a moment he could have just hoisted himself over the barrier and entered into a whole new world. Not Aladdin, just a figure of speech. i should like to give you my thoughts as to what his thoughts were at that pivotal moment:
"Okay, so i've come this far--what, with carrying that stupid log over here and propping it up against the wall, then climbing that precarious thing--and yeah, i could just pull myself over, but that baby in the stroller doesn't look a whole lot better than i did when i was a little tyke, so i see no real benefits in the beauty department. And i just don't know if i could stand being stared at all the time. i really have no idea how humans function, because it seems to me all they know how to do is stare. And Darwin's idea of 'fit' must have been incredibly different than mine, because they are, as a rule, fat. And this business of botching up an ocean with oil holds no comfort. No, i think i will stay here, for here at least i am guaranteed a square meal a day, and here i have no predators. And above all, i have a feeling that i would cease to be such an attraction after a few days in their world, for they are always wanting something they can control and only benefit from without giving to. Yes, the zoo is where i belong."
Inevitably some will tell me that gorillas lack the cognitive ability to think such things. Listen carefully: i. know.
The point is that we as humans, although loved by God above everything else He created, still stand to learn some valuable lessons from the animal kingdom. Of course i don't know what was happening inside that Gorilla, but it seems to me as if there was a choice to be made between the "free world" and his prison of a habitat, and he didn't chose "freedom." Maybe i'm just weird. i mean, i am weird. But that's what i thought when i saw Gordy.
and on a completely unrelated and yet merited note, i have got to say that the woman in the picture above makes me a much better man than i would otherwise be. She is quite literally a Godsend.
In other, bigger news, a gorilla was very nearly successful in his attempt to escape from the North Carolina zoo. Now, i have seen that same gorilla a number of times throughout my years in this great state (i mean to say not that i've seen him wandering about, but rather that i have visited his unnatural habit on several occasions), and i must say that i felt quite proud of Gordy. i don't know if that's his name, but it seems fitting to me as i write this. In all seriousness though, who could really be upset or angry with Gordy over his desire to get out? i think any animal would have done the same thing if the opportunity presented itself. If you get a chance to look at the video of his attempt, i would encourage you to do so, for it seems that for a moment he could have just hoisted himself over the barrier and entered into a whole new world. Not Aladdin, just a figure of speech. i should like to give you my thoughts as to what his thoughts were at that pivotal moment:
"Okay, so i've come this far--what, with carrying that stupid log over here and propping it up against the wall, then climbing that precarious thing--and yeah, i could just pull myself over, but that baby in the stroller doesn't look a whole lot better than i did when i was a little tyke, so i see no real benefits in the beauty department. And i just don't know if i could stand being stared at all the time. i really have no idea how humans function, because it seems to me all they know how to do is stare. And Darwin's idea of 'fit' must have been incredibly different than mine, because they are, as a rule, fat. And this business of botching up an ocean with oil holds no comfort. No, i think i will stay here, for here at least i am guaranteed a square meal a day, and here i have no predators. And above all, i have a feeling that i would cease to be such an attraction after a few days in their world, for they are always wanting something they can control and only benefit from without giving to. Yes, the zoo is where i belong."
Inevitably some will tell me that gorillas lack the cognitive ability to think such things. Listen carefully: i. know.
The point is that we as humans, although loved by God above everything else He created, still stand to learn some valuable lessons from the animal kingdom. Of course i don't know what was happening inside that Gorilla, but it seems to me as if there was a choice to be made between the "free world" and his prison of a habitat, and he didn't chose "freedom." Maybe i'm just weird. i mean, i am weird. But that's what i thought when i saw Gordy.
and on a completely unrelated and yet merited note, i have got to say that the woman in the picture above makes me a much better man than i would otherwise be. She is quite literally a Godsend.
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