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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My Family


What I love about each of my family members:
My mom is so talented and she gives of all her love and talent so freely to us and to everyone she knows.
My dad is very intelligent and works hard at every thing he does, but what I admire even more is that he loves very deeply.
My brother Chris (CJ) cares about people a lot too. He is a deep thinker and I admire how much he is able to learn by observation.
My brother Zander is very intelligent, but he also never lets anyone feel left out.
My sister Sophie is a great example of service to me.

A note about nationals

So I was running in the national NCAA cross country meet. It was cold and wet. I was trained for this kind of thing. I was ready. Everyone was fast. I was fast. (I had to remember that one.) The course was hard. I was almost 3K into my 6K race. This was where I planned to serge. My heart was willing. My legs were trying. But I was falling behind. I could hear someone coming up behind me. "Right here, Mike." I heard my teammate Rachel say. All I had to do was stay with her. Here comes the hill. "This is my favorite part." She reminded me. Draw from her strength, I thought. I remembered why I was doing this crazy thing: it was for them. The six other runners our there battling with this race. They who put their whole heart into this sport that we love. It was because there is something so real, so raw, so...well right now it was so painful. I finished that race, turned around because I thought I was in dead last. I wasn't. I kept walking because that was all I could do to keep from falling over. Sure I have raced better, but I wasn't disappointed. That race had created me - like every race does. And I had crossed the finish line while giving everything I had left. That is racing.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Spilling Thoughts


I think it is important to pull truth out of literature. So, what if I know more truth, understand something, have more insight than the author? I am not to try and assume what the author did and didn’t understand, how he did or didn’t see the world. I have eyes. I see the world. However wrong I am, it is the only way I know and no one can prove anything otherwise. So I am to understand literature, and through my eyes, see truth — out of something written from the pen and through the mind of someone else. . . But can every human recognize truth? From my experience, it speaks to the soul. We can all recognize love. . . and love is truth (how different are they anyway?). So the beauty is that there is a piece of something shared in literature. That piece of truth. Which may be the only untainted line of communication between two different eyes on paper. . . But if this not true — for I admit, at least right now in this train of thought, it is speculation — then I must still seek the truth out of literature — and raw human to human communication continues, a little occluded, but as close as I know for this time now.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Do you ever feel like this?

"Once I ordered a sirloin steak and a chocolate sundae, but everything was so cunningly disguised on the table that I mistook the chocolate sauce for gravy and poured it over the sirloin steak."
-Tennesse Williams "A Streetcar named Success"


Such is life
Is this chocolate or a rose? Neither. It is a picture on this blog.
Is it real? What is the definition of real anyway?

A Streetcar

I don't know if you have ever read "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennesse Williams. I am not recommending it. It is a horribly tragic and depressing play. I didn't enjoy reading it at all. But, I could not put it down. I was so intrigued by everything that was going on between these characters - what they were thinking and feeling and why and how they were living. After finishing the play, I read an essay by Williams called, "A Streetcar to Success." I must say it was equally intriguing, but after reading it a few times, I cannot say I agree completely. But I can relate and understand his crisis of identity. (Sometimes I wish some of these authors just had the Gospel because I think it would make them so much happier) Anyway, Williams does have a few things right:

"That time is short and it doesn't return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, Loss, Loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition."

Life is hard. But is that way for a reason.

I think Williams and I would agree, we don't want it any other way.


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Our Kitchen

I absolutely love pita bread, and after this weekend, I found out how much fun it is to make. It is quite exciting when they pop open. Each one is hand rolled and each is a little bit different, but they are all loved and all delicious.

How do you eat them? Just like a sandwich - turkey, cheese, lettuce, cucumber - whatever floats your ferry. You can also put chicken (or lamb or steak), olives, fetta cheese, and cucumber sauce inside to make a Greek lunch. Or try it with peanut butter and jelly.

Why am I blogging about this? Basically because I love pitas and think you all should too.