Blogs are the Devil

 
 
 
  

That time has come. My head has been shaved.

This is my weirdo brother-in-law on the right. And cousin-in-law on the left. They are gay. 

This is me right before I left for the trip. I'm very excited to spend the weekend with Phil.










Phil loves everything and everyone. P.S. That's Bassett and Mandy.







Phil is happy. Bassett is handicapped. Mandy is drunk.
There we are at "Ned Devine's." It only took us about 45 minutes to get our table there. I promise you that they have the world's worst hostess.

This is Phil on the computer whoring himself out to his beloved corporation.








I put this picture out of order. This is the incredible Clam Chowder that I had at Ned Devine's. It won some "Best Chowder" award in 2004 and 2005. Although we all agreed that they made up the contest.






This is our view from outside the hotel. Thanks to Phil, that's the nicest hotel I'll ever stay in.

Smokers go to hell. It's really a logical next step.









This is where Phil and I had some half-way decent pizza on our way to Boston Commons. Some of you may remember that as the place we played frisbee at my bachelor party.
I believe Phil is whistling "We are the Champions."




This is at a very famous graveyard (also on the way to the Commons). All of the men murdered in the Boston Massacre (which is sort of a misnomer since only about 4 people died) were buried here as well as Paul Revere. This guy was a tour guide of sorts explaining all of the historical inaccuracies of Longfellow's "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." Phil is terribly impressed.

We watched a sweet little league game once we got to the Commons. Strangely enough, this was the second little league game we've watched together in our lifetimes. It was the Cardinals vs. the Tigers. Intense.







The view of the Harbor right outside the hotel.







This is where Phil and I read Eddy's post on the forum about all of us somewhat moving on from one another. It was nice that we were together when we read that.

"Today is the greatest day I've ever known."
- Me, on the last day of school

-I think there's a natural tendency we have to preach to the choir. The choir is much more sympathetic. Sometimes I doubt the sincerity of people when they listen to someone with the exact same views as them and then say, "Wow, that was really convicting. I really needed that." Maybe they're being honest, but usually those statements are reserved for when someone tells you something you really are not comfortable hearing. So I'd like to assure you of my sincerity when I tell you that the following list written by a guy I tend to agree with was very convicting. If I agree with this stuff, why won't I act on it? My comments are included here, but should not be compared with the prose of Mr. Berry.-

"How can a sustainable local community (which is to say a sustainable localeconomy) function? I am going to suggest a set of rules that I think such acommunity would have to follow. I hasten to say that I do not understandthese rules as predictions; I am not interested in foretelling the future.If these rules have any validity, it is because they apply now.Supposing that the members of a local community wanted their community tocohere, to flourish, and to last, they would:

1. Ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to ourcommunity? How will this affect our common wealth?

2. Include local nature - the land, the water, the air, the native creatures- within the community.

3. Ask how local needs might be supported from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbors.

-I've had the desire for a long time now to make the overwhelming majority of my purchases from local businesses and farms. Tiffany and I do that, to an extent, but I especially haven't been proactive enough in terms of food. We buy all of our food from Shaw's and none of it from local farms.-

4. Supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting theirproducts, first to nearby cities, and then to others).

5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of "laborsaving" if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.

6. Develop properly scaled value-adding industries for local products in order not to become merely a colony of the national or global economy.

-What does this mean? What kinds of industries would that be? And how would we develop them?-

7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farmor forest economy.

8. Strive to produce as much of their own energy as possible.

-I don't produce anything. Absolutely nothing. I don't grow anything. I don't make anything.-

9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community, and decrease expenditures outside the community.

10. Circulate money within the local economy as long as possible before paying it out.

-I would say that 99% of the things I purchase ship money out of our local economy. How does this affect my decision even to purchase books from Amazon.com? In that instance, I feel somewhat justified because we don't really have a local bookstore. Maybe opening my own local bookstore would be a start?-

11. Invest in the community to maintain its properties, keep it clean (without dirtying some other place), care for its old people, and teach its children.

12. Arrange for the young and the old to take care of one another, eliminating institutionalized "child care" and "homes for the aged." The young must learn from the old, not necessarily and not always in school; the community knows and remembers itself by the association of old and young.

13. Account for costs that are now conventionally hidden or "externalized." Whenever possible they must be debited against monetary income.

14. Look into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programs, systems of barter and the like.

-Where would I go to look into this?-

15. Be aware of the economic value of neighborliness - as help, insurance, and so on. They must realize that in our time the costs of living are greatly increased by the loss of neighborhood, leaving people to face their calamities alone.

16. Be acquainted with, and complexly connected with, community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.

17. Cultivate urban consumers loyal to local products to build a sustainable rural community, which will always be more cooperative than competitive."

-Wow. What would a "cooperative" economy look like? Competition is how we've been taught to think of economics.-

>From a speech delivered November 11, 1994, at the 23rd annual meeting of theNorthern Plains Resource Council.

9 days 'til Tampa 2006. I can't wait.

This past weekend Tiffany and I drove 2 1/2 hours down to Sturbridge, Mass to visit Nate and Lauren. It was a sort of foretaste of Friend's Week. The funny thing was that Tiffany had planned this cool surprise and didn't tell me until Thursday night. What she didn't tell me was that Phil "that's right" Storer was also going to be there. Very, very exciting. It was one of the best weekends I've experienced for some time now.

Highlights:

- Friday night. Just the five of us sitting around the living room of the Hand's sweet, sweet house, talking, listening to Nate, Phil, and Lauren play the guitar (Lauren busted out a bunch of Beatles tunes...awesome), sitting on the rug in front of the fire. It was peaceful. Everyone was comfortable with long silences. There was good conversation and friendly banter. It was everything I love about our friends group.

...Saturday morning stunk. I had to drive 3 hours back home to go to Graduation for an hour and then drive all the way back. However, the highlight was getting to listen to the first 3 cds in N.T. Wright's "Romans in a Week" series from Regent.

- Saturday night. Phil and I had a really good talk outside of Enrico's brick oven pizza. We talked about his lack of desire for academic study and my triple desire for kids, a house, and grad school. And then of course when we got back to the house Nate and Phil played the guitar and sang songs about each other's moms.

- Sunday morning. Nate skipped church and we hung out on his porch for most of the morning with the sun on our faces, overlooking the lake and Nate's septic tank.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the weekend was that we weren't always together the whole time. Sometimes it would be Phil and I, other times it would be Nate, Tiffany and I, sometimes just Nate and I. And for most of Saturday I wasn't around at all, so Tiffany got to hang out with all of them.

Alright Friends Week, bring me some more of that sweet friendsy goodness.

In other news, we hate our digital camera and are going to have to figure out a way to return it to Andorama.com. Should be interesting.

Oh yeah, and this week is Finals week, so if you want to contact me, I'll be sitting on my porch, grading.

And thank you to Tiffany for suprising me not only with a weekend at Nate's, but also for organizing a little birthday gettogether at her parents house on Sunday. What a lucky guy I am...

 

Today was a nice day. The seniors are gone and this makes me very happy. I wish that it didn't, but it does. Not only do I not have to deal with their attitudes, but it means that I don't have to prepare for 4th period and so, of course, I have an extra period free. Only two more weeks of school left!

In other news, Tiffany and I have been giving some thought to grad school for me. There's so many difficult questions, though. If I did go to grad school, would we have to move? Would we go to Boston, etc. or would I just take correspondance courses? Or could I possibly pull of one of those 'go for the summer' programs? That seems only possible if Tiffany were a teacher and had the summers off. If I went to grad school, would I go back to LCS afterwards or would I want to go somewhere that could actually pay me a living wage (we do want to have kids sometime, after all)? Do I need grad school to have a financial payoff for it to be a wise decision?
Then there's the whole question about kids. I really don't want to wait much longer, and if we actually moved for me to go to grad school, then we'd be looking at at least another 3 - 4 years or more before we could think about having children. That almost makes up my mind right there. And what about commitment to place? Am I just going to give that up because I want some more education? Of course the point would be to better myself in a different place and then bring those skills back here, but still... I know I want to teach, but I think the small, Christian school is exactly what I want and if I spent all that money on grad school, wouldn't I need to have a better way of paying it back?...especially if I ever want Tiffany to be able to stay at home with the kids. Decisions, decisions...

My night tonight: creating the final exam for Philosophy II...and watching the Red Sox/Yankees game.

Why haven't I posted this stuff earlier?!

This guy right here is my friend Ryan. He's a good person. I'd like to learn to be like him someday.

Currently reading this book. My Mom bought it for me. It's in that Emergent church genre, which has it's upsides and downsides.

Here's some stuff I wrote to my Mom about this movement:

So yeah, I'm really into the various kinds of things involved in the movement - an emphasis on social justice (which a lack of seems to me to be almost the primary indictment on the Israelites in the Prophetic books), honest concern for people's physical needs (as well as spiritual needs...we don't want to overreact, of course), the reestablishment of community and geographical proximity, etc.

Although, part of me is quite leary of the Emergent movement. I always have a fear of reactions. It seems rare that reactions, at least corporate reactions, don't become over reactions. I have an overall distrust of movements, anyway, I think. And yet, paradoxically, I find myself longing to be part of a movement of people (and not just young people, which may be another reason I'm leary of movements) passionate about bringing Christ's Way to the world.

Here are my initial thoughts about some of the fears you have about this movement:

1. Concerning the fact that the majority of this group seems to be made up of post-college folks: This also concerns me. It seems to me that any "community" movement that leaves behind both the old and the young is not truly establishing community. If the youth are not informed by previous generations, they are living hand to mouth, so to speak. My guess is that most of the people in the movement would agree with these sentiments, but if they all leave behind their traditional churches, I'm not sure many from the older generations will follow them.

2. Regarding the fact that the majority of this group seems to be made up of "intellectuals": It seems to me that no real revolutions have come about in society except by those labeled "intellectuals." An exception may be the occassional peasant/slave revolts that occur in societies, but in general it seems as though REform is brought about by those who have an idea about the correct FORM. In other words, it seems like real change usually rests on the shoulders of those who have greater knowledge concerning the way things ought to be. I don't know a way around this.

Plato believed that philosophers should be kings because they were the ones who could see the truth the best. Would we want to be part of an unintellectual movement?

You said this: "I just like to love people and do good not evil all the days of my life. Not that heady. I like to learn theology and I like to learn more so I can know what is good and what is destructive i.e. evil..."

This is exactly right, I think. Any reform movement that isn't intellectual runs the risk of acting without understanding, which is the most dangerous combination.

However, I do see the strong need to not alienate those who are not "thinkers." But this actually seems to me to be one of the strengths of the movement. There seems to be a desire to reach everyone - the young, the old, the poor, the dirty, the intellegent, the uneducated. In fact, the universal nature of the mission is part of what attracts me to these kinds of folks. They're willing to get their hands dirty.