One of the thoughts that have been going through my mind since I joined facebook is the college years. I reconnected with many people I haven’t seen or heard from in almost over eleven years. Man the memories are still fresh though. I remember the hill to Henderson Hall, the cafeteria, late night adventures to Perkins, the grease pit in town (the name slips my mind now), even the classes and the discussions I had there. Man, life has been so different since then. I have never regained the sense of family I had there. The large group of friends that did everything together. The few that held the group together. I have tried in church, work, and other ways but the comraderie is not there. I have found other ways, though, that are just as good and even better. I have a beautiful wife I love greatly. I would not exchange her for a hundred friends. I hope though that I can maybe recapture some of the spirit from that time. The late night discussions with Bryan, and Bryan, and Brian, and Chris, and Chris, and Scott, and all the others that enriched my life. It is partly why I started this blog, in hopes they would find it and think the same way, I want some of it again. I think it can only enrich our lives. I know we are all in different places, and any interaction will be shaped by the new lives we have, but to find a new balance would be wonderful. So, if we ave a glass, here’s a toast to the friendship of the past and a renewed friendship for the future for all those that wish to join me. Cheers.
In the Moments
We live a new life
In the moments.As we laugh,
As we cry,
These times
Make us new.
Looking deeply in the eyes
Of your destined bride,
That is a new life.
Holding your new born
Fresh from the womb,
That is a new life.
Kneeling beside the bed
Of a loved one dying,
That is a new life.
These moments
Forever change us
Creating a new life,
In the moments.
I just recently picked up one of my Calvin and Hobbes books and began rereading it. Calvin and Hobbes is one comic strip that has held up through the years. There is little to no dated material in the strips. I think that is because Watterson wrote about universal themes of childhood and humanity. I do believe the strip was way ahead of its time as far as the themes he used in his strips. Ten, twenty even a hundred years from now the strips will still be fresh and relevant.
3/1/09 Yukon Ho by Bill Watterson: A Calvin and Hobbes collection.
I finally took the plunge and joined facebook. I immediately found several friends from college. I also started a game with my friend Jeremy and my brother Gene. So in about 30 min I found 10-15 old friends and began socializing. I guess it won’t be long before the naughty pictures start going up…wait, I wasn’t supposed to mention those.
3/1/09 Mars Need Moms by Berkeley Breathed. One of Breathed’s children’s books.
Many people have argued that U2 is really a christian band that has achieved the ultimate crossover success. Others say they were a christian band that have fallen away from their faith. I argue that they are a band that express their whole lives in their music, faith, love, dirt, everything. It shouldn’t surprise people when someone who has a lot of faith then expresses it in their music. Many people see the Joshua Tree album as the defining moment in the argument, particularly the song I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Critics point to this song as U2’s declaration of faithlessness (This was a hot topic when I was younger and one of the reasons my mom didn’t want me to listen to U2). I say it is only a natural response to the difficulties of maintaining faith. I consider myself a very strong christian but I struggle at times. I believe C.S. Lewis’s metaphor of faith as a journey around a mountain, in A Grief Observed, is the best analogy. If you start at the top of a mountain traveling to a village in the valley, as you wind your way down the trail you sometimes reach points you don’t see your destination anymore. Sometimes during these times it seems hard to travel on but when you see your destination again you receive renewed energy and pick up the pace. I think U2 in …Looking For are describing one of those moments you find yourself on a particularly long stretch of road were you can’t see the village below. The point is, though, you keep walking and you will reach it eventually.
But as to the idea of christian lyrics in U2 songs check out this site compiled by Angela Pancella. And this quote by Bono
“We’ve found different ways of expressing it, and recognized the power of the media to manipulate such signs. Maybe we just have to sort of draw our fish in the sand. It’s there for people who are interested. It shouldn’t be there for people who aren’t.”—Bono on faith, quoted in “U2 at the End of the World”
“All I Want Is You”
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
But all the promises we make from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
You say you’ll give me a highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night
You say you’ll give me eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
But all the promises we make from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
You say you want your love to work out right
To last with me through the night
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold
All the promises we break from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
You
All I want is you
All I want is you
All I want is you
U2 is still putting out music thirty years after they began in 1978. Here is an article about the new album. I have heard the first song and it is good. I still haven’t gotten Atomic Bomb (2004) yet but the music there is really good. I am falling Behind on my U2 collection.
I know there are bands and artists that continue to make music well into their careers but how many can still grab the conscience of the youth and also maintain a loyal fan base. The only albums I have a hard time listening to are Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Some of the songs on those albums were good They are starting to grow on me though. I think the music they make is very universal. Especially songs like One and All I Want is You. They capture a person where they live. It is one of the struggles I have with my writing. I am almost too scared to delve too deeply at times. U2 has no trouble with that though. Here’s to a and who wears their hearts on their sleeves.
After listening to a Taylor Swift song, Love Story, in which she uses Romeo and Juliet as a metaphor for eternal love, I begin to wonder if I misunderstood the play. I have always viewed the play as an example of teenage infatuation that gets out of hand. I think it is more about lust than love. Am I wrong?
I am curious about James Clyburn’s assertion that southern governors who refuse stimulus money are harming black people. Why did he single out southern governors? I know there is a history of racism in all the states that he named. It is well documented. But, the four states he mentioned, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, are not the only ones thinking about rejecting the stimulus money. So why these states? It is because of the history of racism. There is an assumption that all white southerners are racist.
I have been accused of racism solely because I am from Georgia and am white. I know I will never understand what blacks have gone through in many cases, but an accusation against me, by someone who doesn’t know me, is just as harmful. From an early age I have been taught to respect all people. It has been emphasized in my family because I do have family members who are not as tolerant. Many of them have changed, but some have not. Because of these elements in my family, my father and mother have taught me not to judge. I try not to judge also. It does become hard when people do accuse me of racism solely because of the place I was born. I begin to wonder what the fight is for when some blacks only see my heritage not me.
There has been a phrase “The New South” used to describe the increased industrialization of Southern states. But, it also means there are new people with new ways to see race, mostly not to see race. I am from this generation. I chose to continue to fight against bigotry. I chose not to let cynicism come into my heart because of peoples prejudice against me. I chose, none else, me. My only wish is that others will join me and begin to drown out the old way of thinking. Looking forward is much better than looking back. I believe Martin Luther King would agree today that his proclamation of “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last.” should apply not only to equality of the races but also the unshackling from past thought processes and stepping forward to a new way where all people are free from racist beliefs. A place where it is just as wrong to stereotype whites a it is to stereotype blacks or asians or hispanics. Let us free our minds so we can free ourselves and this nation.