Potent(ial)

I should sleep but can't.

Spending 10 hours of my everyday lulled by the humming of air conditioning and tick-tacking of computer keys is taking its toll on me.

I should sleep but can't.

I hate that the best parts of our days, the times in which we are most awake and alive are spent attempting to organize and contain ourselves, processing paperwork and propelling some distant mechanism that generates paychecks. I realize that work is work, I do. And I'm not complaining.
In the midst of such economic uncertainty I'm thankful that I have a decent job,

I want to dive into Life is Epic, I truly believe it's worth it. I think God's asking me to take a risk.

To move from "potential" to "potent."

Here's to hoping I trust Him.

Easily Pleased

I feel uninspired and uncreative, so I'll let a much better man do the updating.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. "
--- C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory

Update from the office

I am officially "Ryan the temp."

:(

Manifesto

For the past few weeks we've been trying to carve out a short mission statement/manifesto to be printed on the inside of each shirt. It lets the wearer know who we are, and who they're supporting. Hopefully a little encouragement as well.

Please comment and let me know what you think.

We are not political. We are not businessmen. We are not black. We
are not white. We are no nationality. We simply want to breathe deeply the
breath of life. We understand that there is none more important than our
neighbor, and as long as our neighbor is suffering, we are suffering.


Life Is Epic was formed by a group of artists with a common cause: to
create apparel that means more than the fabric it's made of. We support the
relief effort for the increasingly serious Malaria epidemic by donating one
insecticide-treated net for every one shirt purchased.

We believe that a T-shirt can be more than clothing. We believe that living
can be mean more than being alive.

We are passionate.

And we believe that passionate people can change the world.


Life is Epic was born out of these convictions and we hope that it can
excite and inspire people to come alive and to follow their passions. To live
for something bigger than ourselves.

We believe that a world full of passion is a world full of love - full of
change - full of Life.

Come Alive. Life is Epic

The Road Less Traveled has Weeds and Thorns

Each day I wake up, face the day and begin.

Each day, I satisfy the pain whispering in my stomach and I walk out into a world filled with hard surfaces, with sharp objects and angry people. Each day I avoid these things.

It's like best hours of my everyday is spent giving my best effort to avoid pain. That's it really. You try to have times that feel good, but for the most part we're drowsily pacing through the day with the sole mission of avoiding pain.

At work, you make sacrifices given the nature of your job, but pretty much, all we're doing is biding our time, avoiding pain.

It's understandable, of course. Pain hurts for a reason; generally-speaking it's our biological way of saying something is wrong, a situation needs remedying, but I think we're missing out sometimes by sterilizing every situation. I think we're missing out on living.

I'm not pointing the finger, arguably I'm the best/worst case study in awkward-situation avoidance. Most of the time I'd prefer to pretend a high-school peer doesn't exist than talk to him/her doing the old "what's new with you" song and dance. But I'm realizing that in most situations, I'm missing out on so much because I'm choosing the road-most traveled.

So now, as a sort of personal experiment, I'm going to agree to almost every reasonable invitation I usually defer. I'm going to talk to people I normally wouldn't, I'm going to make plans and keep them, I'm going to honor people by telling them exactly what I'm thinking rather than stepping around an issue. I'm going to engage in conflicts, I'm going to confront people and allow myself to be confronted.

I'm going to apologize.

I'm going to get hurt.

Because I believe that our stories are better told with a straight face. I believe the our rising action needs conflict, and the greater the conflict the greater the resolution.

I believe the best songs are ones that combine minor chords and major chords.

I believe in a better story, and I believe God wants us to breathe deeply.

Fantastic Article

If you ignore the language and the questionable terminology THIS is an amazing article.

It's long but very worth it.

Obama's running mate?

Hillary? Webb?

I have to admit, when I was thinking about this earlier, I suspected that whoever he chose would need to be white. After all, a double-minority ticket might be a bit aggressive and alienate some of Obama's white voters.

So you have to choose a white guy (or girl) because you need the white voters.

I moved on to thinking about Obama getting the hispanic vote, and how he would need a hispanic candidate in order to dillute the longstanding black vs. hispanic turbulence.

But then, I started thinking about how truly racist that thought pattern is. In making that leap, I'm assuming that blacks will vote for someone because the candidate is black. A latino for a latino.

Even if, statistically speaking, cultural groups are more likely to elect a member of their cultural group, it's a racist mentality.

I'm basically saying that these groups are just simple-minded enough to simply vote for the guy who looks most like them. True, the candidate might be sensitive to issues facing the certain cultural group, but it's the assumption that's racist.

To me, assuming or predicting the motives and actions of someone (or worse, an entire group of someones) strips them of their humanity and perpetuates a racist formula. It reduces people to mechanics and predicts a certain outcome (voting their race) based on a given stimulus (their race.)

I pray that America votes by principle rather than a fixed cultural common-denominator.

For better or for worse, I think it would be unpredictable. And I think that would be perfect.

Change

With the school year winding down, the light at the end of the tunnel is bright and blinding.

More later.

At church tonight we talked about Cain and Abel and how the descendants of Cain, because of Cain's murdering and lying to God would be cursed.

Cain pleaded with God, telling him that those who knew of him would surely kill him, but God marked Cain ensuring that those who saw him and wanted to kill him would not, now understanding that they would "suffer a vengeance seven times over" for their murdering.

Today, I feel like a descendant of Cain.