Thrilling Adventure!

Hi there,

While we were mini-golfing in Kauai this February my mom wanted to get a picture of my wife and I, but rather than just smiling like an idiot with a child's club in my paw I got my wife to help me out and we tried to imitate one of those campy 1940s or 1930s adventure-type movie posters, with the brave and stalwart man leading a timid and fearful damsel through the jungle.  

Here's the picture (that's sugar cane behind us!):

Claustrophobic Anyone?

Howdy,

Remember when I talked about the confidence course we went through for the fire academy? Well just watching this video made me freak out a little. This obstacle is definitely the worst I've seen!

Fire Learnin'

Howdy,

Apart from a couple of other more serious things, my mind has been totally occupied with getting back in shape and getting back into the fire service. I'm still in touch with the guys going to fire academy, and they're still out training for graduation on June 7th.  I have to drive past my former station to get into town, and every weekend I see their cars parked there and it just kills me that I'm not with them.
     Making up my mind to get back into the fire service is easy (provided my back does in fact get better), but the hard part is deciding how to get back into it. Considering how difficult it was to try and work full-time and go to fire academy, I think I might cash out my stock next summer and go get a two-year Fire Protection Technology degree from a community college 30-minutes away.  I never finished college when I was younger because there was nothing that I wanted to do that I needed a degree for, but I'm feeling that my time is coming and this may be what I've been waiting for. Crazy right? Who knows, maybe next there'll be a politician who will motivate me to actually register to vote (seriously doubt it)!

Here's a little video of clips from the fire program I was talking about. Looks pretty cool!

Tempted to Good and Evil

With the disclaimer that I haven't heavily invested myself into St. Augustine, Martin Luther or John Calvin (yet), or become an expert by any means in the concept of the Elect and whatnot, I would like to write out a series of questions that I have concerning free will and the depravity of Man.

I believe it can safely be said that we have been given free will to choose whether or not to follow God and his teachings. Starting with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we have always been able to make our own choices for good or evil. This concept could be a lengthy post on its own, but I'm not arguing it now.
     So now, assuming that God doesn't force someone against their will to do the right thing, will he instead urge them to do the right thing? When we have the temptation to commit a sin, we are very strongly compelled to make that choice, but ultimately it will always be our own personal choice and responsibility to sin, despite the level of coercion we face. And some sin is much more pulling than others.
     We are told that God doesn't tempt us to sin, but will he 'tempt' us to good? Will we feel a strong urge to do the right thing when we need to? And if God doesn't 'tempt' or urge us to do good, then does that mean we actually are capable of good of our own free will?
     Some thinkers and theologians have argued that Man is totally depraved and incapable of good without the prompting or intervention of God. But if that's so, how is choosing good free will? How can we choose to be good if we are incapable of it on our own? Is this the 'tempting' that I mentioned above? We are given the inclination to act good, but the ultimate choice is ours?
     Additionally, some have postulated that it's to God's glory that he chooses to urge us to make good choices. But how can it be to his glory if he compels us beyond our own nature to act according to his purposes? I think I may have just answered my own question though.

If I had a friend who went astray and began making some very bad decisions, and I decided to pray for that friend as I have been taught, am I only able to pray that they will be 'urged' to make good choices again? If God isn't going to force them to make good decisions, then what's the good of praying? My own conscience? Shall I say, "please urge them to make a good decision?" I could really only pray that they would realize their mistakes and receive the wisdom and prompting to start making good choices again. But then my prayers could only ever be vaguely answered because I don't know for sure whether that person is capable of good on their own. Maybe they just decided to start acting smart again. What good is prayer if it's best result will still only allow a decision by the party currently making bad decisions?

That was about a thousand questions, and probably not interesting to many. This is one of those subjects, like time travel or the chicken and egg riddle, that really just sucks you deeper the more you think about it. This is why I watch Spongebob.

Take Care!

The Glorious or The Profound

Howdy,

With my back injury I've been given an interesting, if forced, vacation from all the busy-ness that was my life for the last few months.  Whereas before I was busy with fire academy, Muay Thai, and work from 5:00am until 11:00pm nearly every day, now I only have the option to work and then go home to think, or to go wander around town and think before going home to think some more. The only thing I have scheduled is my chiropractor, which is down from three days a week to one (I'm improving!!). I'm now four weeks through my 16-week recovery program.
     Truly, wandering has been interesting and rewarding. I've struck up conversations with total strangers that have lasted over an hour and were as intimate as if we were best friends, I've read and realized some very strange ideas that I've never thought of before, and I've found a deep peace in living free and thoughtfully. Much material to write about!

There's a friend at work with whom I've been speaking about some serious issues for the last few months. He's been working for the company for 14 years, and in that time has counseled and listened to many of us in distress during those years. Whenever anyone has had a problem or faced difficulty and lack of direction in life he's been there and made time for us no matter how busy he is.
     When I first applied for the fire service he would check up on me and ask how the progress was going. When my "hip was touched" and I had to take a breath to deal with some things he was there for me to cry to and confide in.  It really would have been a lot more difficult to get through my current circumstances without him.

What struck me about all of this was not that he was a good person to talk to, or an awesome fella, but the fact that somebody who has a humble job in a humble company could have such a profound impact on the lives of the people he works with and oversees. When people leave our department they always say thanks to my friend for the "enormous impact" that he's made in their lives. And he's made an enormous impact in my life. But he's never going to be in the paper for his efforts or his influence. People will carry his friendship and advice with them for the rest of their lives, but he will never have a monument or civic achievement award given him.
     With the fire department, the job is to go save a life and deliver the injured person to proper medical facilities. It's truly an honorable profession and one that I'm painfully waiting to get back into. But, it's not a profound job. The people affected may have had their life saved, or been transported with a serious but non life-threatening injury, but the person's being will remain mostly unchanged by the responders themselves. The job of a first responder is glorious. It garners the admiration and acclaim of society, and rightly so, but the effect they have is almost certainly limited to the physical. The victim's life is forever changed by the event, but their character is most likely unchanged by the firefighters and medics.

This then is the difference between the profound and the glorious. Every one of us can influence another person in a positive way, in a profound way, and never receive an earthly reward or honor. But the effect that we make can be deeper, more meaningful, more permanent (arguably) than if we stitched them up on the side of the road and drove them to the hospital. Without ever getting a key to the city we can create changes  in people's lives that will live longer than ourselves.  It's important to remember, and I believe I touched on this with "That Which Moth Destroys," that we came into this world with nothing, and we will take nothing with us. The only true legacy that we can leave behind is the impact we had on people, the relationships that we created and whether they were good or bad.
      I for one would love to return to the fire service so that I can help in the physical realm as well, but there's not a person who can't choose to make a positive difference in all the lives they touch.


Take Care!

Another One Bites The Dust

Hi there,

There is a growing a number of guitarists and guitarists/lutists who have become enthralled by the uke during it's recent popularity boom. They already have a skilled and delicate touch for the strings and they are arranging some beautiful classical and baroque pieces for the instrument. Here's one of many great videos by just such a gentleman, Valery Sauvage:

Inheritance

A few weeks ago I was down visiting my folks in the neighborhood in which I grew up.  They live 15 minutes outside of town in a heavily-wooded area with mostly older neighbors. As I was standing in the yard admiring my parents' garden a little boy scurried out of the house across the street.  I remember when his parents moved into that house, and I remember when his mom brought him home from the hospital. Now he must be around eleven or twelve, maybe a little younger.
     He didn't notice me, but he ran out into the middle of the street with a cape, a wooden sword and toy bow and quiver of arrows and began doing battle with unseen forces. He fired his little plastic arrow at an imaginary orc and then drew 'steel' and closed with the mortally wounded enemy. I fierce fight was going on, but he was a hero and well up to it.

What was odd for me seeing this boy was the thought that 15-17 years ago I was him. I had the wooden sword; I had the homemade bow and cloak; this was my street, and there were no orcs allowed! This boy, while I remember him being the baby across the street, doesn't know me at all, and yet he roams and owns the same territory, with the same trees, the same houses and some of the same people that I experienced at his age.  But this is now his time, and mine has passed. Myrtle street once belonged to me and was my stomping ground, and now it belongs to this boy and it is his stomping ground.
     It's strange to think that we will each have memories of running up and down that hill, the way the sun cuts through the trees to create that strange light, the smell of the asphalt and that weird plant that always breaks wooden swords.  The difference will be that we each experienced those things over a decade apart. He has inherited my March.  I wonder if he'll find any of those arrows I lost.

Take Care!