It's True!

I'm hungry like the wolf.

Du-du-doo-doo du-doo-doo du-doo-doo da-doo-doo

The End of Things

Ever since I was a little kid, I've wondered if certain things will ever actually come to an end. Gimmicks, story lines, characters, will these things even close? Allow me to give an example. I have often wondered: What if Trix cereal is finally discontinued? Will the add campaign finally allow the rabbit to get those Trix? Will anyone ever finally say, "No more, Star Wars is over, quit adding stuff,"? It sounds silly, but think about it: how would hose kinds of things end? Will all Spider-Man story lines finally wrap up? Blah, blah, it all sounds geeky, but those are just my examples.

This whole idea has changed since the internet. Let me ask you, is there ever a day when you think you will get rid of your facebook account? Think about it. Is there a point when you'll close it down, turn it off? Maybe we'll use it less and less as we get older, but maybe we're a new generation that will keep it up. Now think... one day, we will have had our facebook accounts for years. Five years. Ten years. Twenty years. And the internet will have frozen pictures of us and our friends in progression for the past twenty years. When will we shut them down? Will our kids log onto our accounts and see these progressive photo albums of our teenage and adult lives?

I'm just curious. Goodnight.

Moments of Clarity

There is a time of the day, it is early, when the light from the sun moves like grey water slipping by under the ice of a frozen stream. Amber light begins to sneak out growing cracks, lifting into the air, causing you to realize that the only thing you have any peace with in this world is with God and it is a comforting and terrifying idea all at once. The inky night knows that it is being erased, washed away by light the color of fruit, and I realize that I am thirsty as I look at it all and realize that in this moment I am not tired. I will be soon, once the day is no longer being born, once I've had that glass of juice, my body will remember that I am tired. Where are you? I'm here, watching the morning. How do you feel? I am at peace, and it scares me. Then you are not at peace, are you? Drink this sky, and try to feel stress. It is impossible. I feel God here in this moment. My knees are shaking. I understand you. I get you. Others say I don't but I do. Swim in this sunrise, and feel joy. Dip your fingers in these colors and wash the contented feeling out of your fingers. You can't and you don't want to. This is the morning. You get me. This is the morning and the light is decided it will stay. This moment will change, but my fingers will stay stained with color, and I'll never get the smell of peace out of my clothes. Not that I would want to.

Gladly!

God's Gender

Oh no. I'm going to get in trouble with this one. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, it's one in the morning after all.

So this is something that I've been thinking about for, well, years to be honest with you. I am sure that all of us have heard the term "God the Father". I'm also sure we've heard plenty of people shaking things up (read that with sarcasm please) by calling God "her" or referring to God as a woman.

Can I throw my hat into the ring? Let's get one thing out of the way: Jesus has a gender. Jesus has a gender because Jesus has a body. He had to be a man (unfortunately) because cultures past and present would not have listened if he were a woman, blah blah. Trust me, men and women are one hundred percent equal in God's eyes. But the main point here is that yes, Jesus has a gender because Jesus has a body.

When I was a little boy, I would make fun of the girls in Sunday School and say that since we are made in God's image, and "boys were made first, the God is totally a boy, duh." Other people, Christians and non Christians alike tend to image God the Father as male, or at least assume that Christians see God as a male. Please allow me to address this.

Can you imagine God walking around? Does he have a beard? A mustache? Some killer biceps? Does he enjoy knitting or playing football? Or maybe the other way around: Is God beautiful? What shade of lipstick does she prefer? Does she prefer dresses or skirts? Is this sounding ridiculous to anyone else? Are we, as people, so ignorant that we believe that that God has some form of biological gender?

That's absurd. It's stupid. It's closed-minded and silly. I think that some people get hung up on the term "God the Father". Yes, it is powerful, it is true, but don't limit the semantics of it. People tend to freak out if anyone ever says "God the Mother," but you know what? Read scripture, it's true too. The truth of the matter is that God is not just the perfect father, God is not just the perfect mother, what it really comes down to is that God is the perfect parent.

God created both man and woman in his image. God contains perfect masculine attributes (whatever those are) and perfect feminine attributes (whatever those are. I don't even pretend to have those answers guys.) Let us not get hung up on the idea that God is one half of anything. He understands us, man, woman, and anyone else because God can relate, God can understand, and because God created us. Don't be afraid or offended if God is referred to as "He" or even "She" unless the speaker honestly believes that something as grand as GOD is limited to physical plumbing. If that's ever the case, well smile and nod to yourself. You know better.

A Model of Masculinity

So I've been thinking a lot about masculinity lately. That sounds weird.

Well I'm too lazy to hit the delete key so I'm rolling with it. I think that masculinity is mostly defined by character, you know. Wisdom and the ability to make good choices. An education doesn't hurt either. (Okay, so let me clear this up. I think that having these traits improves upon masculinity. How's that? Does that sound better? So those things are not masculinity in themselves, but having those traits... well I'm about to repeat myself. I hope that's better.) So to sum up, masculinity is really just Atticus Finch. Or Gregory Peck. One and the same. Oh, and John Adams. He was a man's man.

Anyway, I did something that I felt was pretty masculine today. No, it wasn't breaking a moose's neck with my bare hands, though I've done that before.

I fixed a bike!

My friend gave me an old busted up bike for free ninety-nine, and I took it home and looked it over with my roommate Brian. We snapped the rusted chain off with sheer brute strength. We found and adjusted the problems with amazing mechanical dexterity. The next day I found replacement parts and brought them home. And so, spending most of the afternoon on it, we created my new bicycle. It works fantastically!

It is very pretty and red. It felt so good riding it today, knowing that I didn't have some pro fix it, that my friend and I went at it on our own. That I was actually riding the fruit of my labor. I set out to do something and get my hands dirty, and benefited greatly. It is my new favorite thing! I take this space to formally thank Tori, for giving it to me, Steven, for buying the parts with me, and Brian for helping me put it all together.

My bike, she has a name, but you have to ask me what it is in person. Maybe I'll put a picture or two up tomorrow!

Next on my masculinity to-do list is learn to ride a horse, preferably a bareback mustang. Then declare myself an independent nation.