Appalled

As you probably know, I typically do not comment on politics on this blog.  This was a decision I made almost as soon as I started writing regularly as I found that politics tended to fog people's ability to actual discuss and listen to certain issues.  (I found other outlets to put those comments into).  As a result, for at least seven years the fate of political world has gone virtually unnoticed if you just scanned the contents of what I write about.

That is not about to change with this post either; instead, I want to comment on the reactions to a particular political situation and the impact I have seen in the social media.

The situation:  The ongoing soft invasion (I do not see how you can define it any other way) of Ukraine.  The Social Media:  Facebook. 

I admit that am an international relations junkie - so much so that sometimes I find it difficult to disengage my regular life to not follow events.  And I admit that I am perhaps more conscious of such things that the bulk of many people I know.  But it is with a great deal of sadness and shame I conclude that we as a group have become almost completely narcissistic and perhaps useless.

Facebook, as you may know, trends things.  They have also "helpfully" put little news blurbs on the main page now.  The listings?  Social updates:  Bieber meets Selena in Starbucks, death of such and such, someone wins an Oscar.  Not once since the situation started in the Ukraine would anyone have an idea that something was going on somewhere else in the world.

And the postings?  From an otherwise highly interactive and vocal group about this group's rights or that party's failings, nothing.  It's as if the whole situation never happened.

It depresses me deeply.

Why?  Because it is indicative of a malaise that runs through the body social and the body politic.  We have become so trivialized and so focused on us and our little part of the world and what we believe should be going on that we have lost the ability to look at the larger world around us and realize changes there affect us as well.  Oh, many people will argue that we need to be globally active for something like climate change, but we miss the fact that political systems and regimes can have as much impact on our here and now as anything climate based.

Not one person I know has posted anything.  Not one person I know has posted anything indicating solidarity with the Ukrainian republic, the same group that will fall over themselves to post graphics for their own chosen political or social cause.

It saddens me.  It depresses me.  I admit that I am an anachronism, someone that holds that people should living under governments they themselves choose and should be free from inconveniences such as the fear of invasion or economic blackmail.

I admit I am an anachronism.  I am just a little shocked that I should find myself to be so alone in my beliefs.

10 Years Ago

10 years ago I was at the Shepherd's Conference in Southern California.

10 years ago I had just quit my job and was going into business myself at The Firm and was never, ever going back to my last industry.

10 years ago I had decided that we would be moving to a different house.

10 years ago I only had two clann.

10 years ago I lived in Old Home and had no intention of leaving (ever).

10 years ago I was sure I understand God's plan for my life.

BUT...

10 years ago I did not have Nighean Dhonn.

10 years ago I did not throw cabers or stones.

10 years ago I did not practice iaijutsu.

10 years ago I had not written a book (or even a blog post!).

10 years ago I did not know half of the people I know now and my life was not the richer for it.

10 years ago I did not have a dog, rabbits, a guinea pig, a hamster, and a bird.

10 years ago I had not been married to The Ravishing Mrs. TB for 10 more years.

10 years ago I did not realize that I could do almost anything that I put my mind to.


It is funny the difference 10 years can make.

Crazy Weather

Summer and Winter
are wonderful as seasons,
not two days apart.

Lent 2014

Another season of Lent is upon us.

The workings of Lent are always a mystery to me.  I feel as if I should be getting more out the experience than I ever do.  Sure, I give up something and take in something else and perhaps add a little bit of extra Scripture and prayer to my daily rounds, but it scarcely feels like something which is impacting my life as radically as I think that it should be.

I know that there are those - especially among the evangelical community - that consider Lent in particular, and the concept of a church calendar in general, as something that is constructed by man instead of inspired by God and therefore a hindrance.  I personally disagree with this:  we have a normal calendar that follows the seasons of the year.  It should be no different for our religious life as well.

And Lent is a good thing.  A time of subduing, of consideration of our sin, of denial of pleasures and luxuries is something that the church often claims we need to do more of.  Lent, that commemoration of the great denial of Christ in the desert 40 days without food or water, gives many a vehicle to do that in a way that is regular, planned, and helpful.

But that still does not help me with the fact that I do not get everything out of it I should.

Should I deny myself more?  Should I seek longer hours in prayer and more time in Scripture?  Certainly none of things are bad in and of themselves, but do they really get to essence of what Lent should be? Or do this just (as seems likely) add another set of traditions and works where they do no good?

If Lent is about repentance and meditation on our sin and unworthiness and Christ's great suffering, what can I do that actually makes this more meaningful?  The answer, at least for me, is as staggeringly simple as it is difficult:  be more like Christ.

Be more like Christ.  Seek to root out the sin in my heart.  Look at the Beatitudes and truly ask "Is this my desire?"  Look around me and say "Am I loving my neighbor as myself?"

Am I denying myself, taking up my cross, and following Christ?

Because here, it seems to me, is the unusual part:  If I would simply do this, I would find that focus is truly on Christ and becoming less of a sinner and more like Him. 

And that, really, is the point of Lent in the first place.

Not Feeling It

Not feeling it today.

We had the potential of a "wintry mix", which could mean that the roads would be iced over.  Na Clann's schools are all delayed two hours.  And so, hoping against hope, I looked at the computer and phone.  Nothing. Work is on as usual.

I feel completely demotivated.

It is like I am in school again, hoping against hope that something intervenes to keep me from going to work today.  Because I really do not want to go.

I have to, of course - meetings are scheduled, deadlines exist, and of course there is that minor thing about salary that needs to be dealt with - in other words, the realities of life do not yield to my minor kvetching about things.

But there is something here, something that I need to latch on to. Something that my brain is trying to tell me - or maybe heart.  Because this feeling is becoming more and more common as I rise up in the morning, knowing that on the other side of the door lies a day which has come to be like almost every other day. 

Ah well.  Delay or no delay, the phone calls and documents await.

Sigh

Job Search 2014

So I am in the market.  This is about as public a declaration I make about such things.

The fact that I state this is not really the point however.  The point - really more of a tip - is how I am going about it.

The idea actually originated in a discussion with Bogha Frois as we were talking about different ways to job search and how it never really felt like one was making any progress.  We always found ourselves nagged by a sense of guilt that somehow we were not "doing enough", even if we could not find anything at all when we looked.

"Why do we not schedule it?"  I suggested.

The core of my idea is this:  there are only a finite number of jobs in any one industry and those are only ever listed in certain amounts - for example, in my industry most jobs tend to get published on Sundays (probably true for a lot of jobs).  There is not really any point in looking every day for the one or two that will get published in that time; instead, better to conserve one's efforts.

But the world is changing as well.  Depending on the state of the industry (and mine is a little shaky, to be honest), one should be expanding into other areas as well.  And what about those independent areas, those part time interests or hobbies that we would like to see pay for themselves rather than cost us money?  Where do those fit in?

And so I came up with the idea of the schedule, a fixed time where I would look or support different areas.  Mine currently looks something like this:

Sunday:  Current Industry
Monday:  Other Industries
Tuesday:  Hobbies/Self Developed Business
Wednesday:  Other Industries
Thursday:  Current Industry
Friday:   Hobbies/Self Developed Business
Saturday:  Hobbies/Self Developed Business

I have left my hobbies/self developed business to coincide with both my Iaijutsu on Tuesday nights (learning to someday possibly, maybe teach), Fridays (when my energy tends to be lowest and thus doing something interesting to me is helpful) and Saturdays (when I can carve out several hours of free time).

What will I do?  For my current industry it is pretty easy:  search the appropriate sites.  This will perhaps take an hour on Sunday, much less on Thursday.  Other industries are more difficult initially as I have to put together a revised resume and start seeing what is out there.  Hobbies/Self Developed Business is the true undiscovered country at this point - when I understand it, I will let you know.

The thing I like about this is that it is a schedule.  Every day I am taking action.  I can now never allow myself to point at myself and say "I did not do a job search today.  I did not not do enough."  Did I do what I was supposed to do that day?  If so, I can happily tell myself to shut up.  I am making progress.

I cannot rely on simple events or the help of those above or around me to make my current situation better - as I have to remind myself almost daily, No One Is Coming.  If there is to be change in my life, I will have to go to it - and go after it with regular, practiced action.  It will not come to me.

Send In The Clowns

Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground, you in mid-air
Where are the clowns?

Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around, one who can't move
Where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns

Just when I'd stopped opening doors
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines, no one is there

Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here

Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year

- Stephen Sondheim