Crash and burn

So I crashed really bad today on my bike. Going like 25 mph, my wheel fell off the pavement and swung my handle bar into my stomach. I came out on my feet but it still feels like I got punched by Ivan Drago in the stomach.

I guess I really have a lot on my mind and I was just a bit distracted. The other day some coworkers and I were talking about Tom Cruise and Scientology. They didn't believe that being strange affects a career all that much, so I pointed out Ellen or Sinead or Boy George.

Then someone said something that I should have stuck up for. They didn't understand why "church folk" would boycott gay or lesbian actors. I calmly said that it is out of love that they do such things. It might be a self-righteous or perhaps misguided love at times but it is in fact love that drives them. They believe that there is something that will tear apart society, rip it to shreds and throw away all they have tried to make it be. To stand up and fight against what seems popular is a beautiful thing. But the same could be said for Osama Bin Ladin.

It just drives me crazy, these people determined that church folk are ruining America because their ways. I think they are ruining America for their blindness (not really talking about this issue per se). But when does the passion of activism become insanity, or how can we tell if our causes have lost their meaning?

But as my new favorite band says "I've been looking for a Ghost, I've been searching now forever and finally found it behind the door, And its changed its meaning but is still feels the same." ... maybe this is what people call maturity.

Yosemite photos

So we went to Yosemite National Park this past weekend. You can see some pictures on my webpage. It was great, I think Yosemite is probably the prettiest place on earth. I really enjoy being out in "God's Country" even if I fell into the river while attempting to fish.

On another note, I know that I can never live in California. My father-in-law was looking at prices on property near Yosemite. $300,000 for .3 acres and a trailer house, which is more than an hour and a half to the nearest hospital. Real estate is unreal out here.

Finding the speed

I swallow my dragon fly and get on my bike
pedalling with Erika and Bastards screaming in my ear
I find a solution traveling through a valley of debris
Everything clearly is coming to me

Some days I bike to commute, some days I bike to be free
but the speed I have been searching for, the speed that the skinny girl had
came to me on a day when she wasn't there, all alone in my valley of debris
a long way I did come to find this solution just behind my door.

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I really like this new album I got All This Time by the Heartless Bastard

Book Meme

Okay so Patrick has issued out a meme for me. So here is goes.

1. One book that changed your life: I would have to say the Euthyphro or the Apology by Plato. I guess it was the first time I fell in love with solid reasoning, not necessarily the conclusions but the reasoning.

2. One book that you've read more than once: Umm besides the answer for number 1, ... I really don't reread books all that much but I have read Erewhon by Samuel Butler several times.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Hmm ... I suppose a good encyclopedia. I would want a way to spot food, bugs, and good trees for building rafts.

4. One book that made you laugh: Okay so Patrick took the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so I will pick Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency also by Douglas Adams. That man is just funny.

5. One book that made you cry: Slave by Mende Nasar. If you want to tell me that slavery isn't a problem in the world today, I will tell you to read this book. In fact I still say read this book.

6. One book that you wish had been written: The Art of Abstraction. It would be a book that takes all the greatest abstractions in science, mathematics, and other fields and tracks them to their origins. Also shows how they challenged the thinking of the time. One example is the photoelectric effect abstracting away light as a particle.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: Wow just one! I would say anything by Jack Chick. Or better yet anything by Ayn Rand, I'm not too sure who upsets me more weirdo fundamentalists or objectivists.

8. One book you're currently reading: The Evidential Power of Beauty: Where science and theology meet by Thomas Dubay. I like Fr. Dubay, and I got this book because it is something that I would write, although not nearly as well.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: Oh there are way too many... I guess just to pick one Les Miserables. I would like to read a lot more classical novels but yet I haven't had the time.

Alright as tradition holds I now give out the invitations. So I challenge you Cheryl, Stephanie, Borja, Jason, Charli, and Marcel to take up your keyboard and start blogging on your books.

A Beautiful thought

I rode up onto a hill with a bit of time to kill
Looking out over the valley, with smoke coming off the mountain
I thought about a thought and what makes it beautiful

Beauty in mathematics or science, that I know
the simple answer that opens a door of new understanding
like the keys to an important room

The beautiful novel is a bit harder, but still understandable
Characters that flow, scenes that tell, and truth to the plot are all there
making you believe that you are one with the book

And beauty in the particular can seemly always be found,
whether it is work or God, there seems to be beauty abound, except my thought
The beautiful thought seemed to elude me

I mount up while watching an eagle swoop over the lake,
wonder whether I should go forward or back, when with a fall I learn anew
that one beautiful thought at a time for me

This makes me happy.

Is Peace Possible?

As I came back from a social for my workplace, several coworkers scoffed at the idea that there would be demonstrations of an event 61 years ago outside our gates. This event was the dropping of the nuclear bomb. While I am not sure I agree with the protestors, I am certain I disagree with my coworkers.

America built the bomb at the request of scientists in order to prevent the use of such a weapon by fascist governments who were also using the newly discovered physics phenomenon to develop weapons. The dropping of said bomb was a decision that will shake the fabric of morality until the end of the human race. What could be more devastating than this? Even the holocaust required the decisions of thousands, whereas the bomb is the exercise of one man's authority over a powerful nation. Perhaps the most comforting thought is that America in its sincerest actions, has tried to contain and reduce the number of nuclear weapons throughout the world ever since that first bomb was dropped. Nevertheless, the protestor outside our gates serve a very real reminder of America's role as the birthplace of nuclear weapons.

Maybe today I feel a little bit more melodramatic as I reflect on my nice condo, comfortable student stipend, and new car. But watching a video on the press and the Middle East conflict has sparked maybe the deepest parts of my heart; a longing for peace and love to prevail throughout the world we live in. If you have the time, watch the video maybe then you will understand the mind of a suicide bomber, or you may scoff at wimpy liberals. I have felt that America was on the wrong side of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for years, but it seems to be one of the only issues that both democrats and republicans are firmly together on.

I end this post on a reflection of the title. I once spoke with Sister Emmanuel in Medjugorje about peace. A brave and profound woman who survived the wars in former Yugoslavia. Her words were simply this, peace is never the removal of something. It is always the filling of something. When violence is to be removed, its cause must be uprooted and mended. Every person should seek peace not as the removal of hate or anger but as the filling of love and truth.

Good issue, bad video

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