The Smell Factor

As I make personal choices about how to live my live by my values I am wary of the slippery slope I’m on. Whilst I aim to live my life in such a way as to empower the marginalised, promote equality and diversity, love others, protect and sustain the world and it’s peoples; the more hard core I get, the more I smell.

No offence to people like Ghandi, Jesus and Mother Theresa; their contribution to the world was monumental, but we all know that the very acts of changing the world for the better are often opposed to personal grooming.

Here’s an example of some thing that are good, but make you smell: Riding your bike instead of your car, avoiding aluminium deodorants, mulching manure, etc. I put together this sliding scale of ‘normal’ to ‘smelling’ people, I’m still pretty close to the ‘normal’ end, but am heading further down:

note: spelling in this may be ‘near-enough-is-good-enough’, also, the order of events may differ from individual experience.

Anyway, I’d rather smell and live in the world I hope for. You know, that is if I can’t have both. I’ll just take more eco-friendly showers. How far are you down the list?

Cars Go Fast

Life isn’t fast all the time, that’s just perception. Maybe we should relax a bit and try lose momentum. I think it’s in times like that that we’re best able to see where the car is going, who we’re going with, and what we have to do to get there; if we want to truly get ‘there’ at all. Funny that the thing that slows us down can be going too fast. This was fun to draw.

Hungry People

Right now I’m pretty hungry. But I guess that’s not really anything compared with the way millions of people living in poverty feel. People in my city, people in the world. Right now there’s serious famine starving Africa in a destructive way.

 

It’s difficult to imagine what we could do to change that, but the truth is we can. People have already jumped onboard to make a difference to the needy. These great and inspiring people work for organisations that see and (try to) fill the needs of the world. No one joins an NGO or not-for-profit for their own gains, these people are paying a great cost so others may live/eat/marry/grow. Spare a thought and a prayer for those people. Maybe you’re one of them, maybe you could be.

So what do we lack? Well that’s where everyone comes in: people are acting to help those in trouble, but their financial resources are not up to the task. You could change the world for real people, make a difference in the lives of our human brothers and sisters. You could be a hero, and all you have to do is click your mouse a few times. Or you could think about how your lifestyle affects those on the other side of the world, think about how you could live your life to give others a better chance. You could be one of those people, living a call to help others.

Change is possible, but it always costs us. Then again, not changing costs us to. You don’t have to take a vow of poverty, but you can think before you buy “Do I need this? Or could I be a hero instead?”

If you want to make a difference right now, do it! I recommend TEAR Australia as a personal favourite. But there’s obviously World Vision, UNICEF and Oxfam and countless others. I thought I’d do a little for sharing what I thought with you, may be you can share it with others. The world is full of problems that you have the ability to solve, be empowered!

What to do…

I spent some time on this week’s comic. It’s supposed to be encouraging really. See, it’s about the ingenuity and achievement of people, who do amazing things, but are stumped when it comes to solving problems. We can use our creativity and smarts to solve the worlds issues, we just have to fight the fear and want it. i think that’s where faith comes in, at least for me, and where hope for something better is so important.

Flow Chart

I have this stupid survival instinct that makes me try and be perfect all the time. It clearly doesn’t work.

Technology will kill us all! …Probably

The most pain my computer can give me is if it doesn’t work. Based on this, I’d say the Robot Apocalypse is a long way off of it’s full realisation. Still, Jess and I have become more aware of the devastating impact our technology has.

I had heard a long time ago that for each mobile phone there’s 80 garbage bins worth of waste in the manufacturing process. That’s to say, a lot; I reckon I probably don’t produce 80 bin loads in a year!

It was one of those vague, ambiguous, possibly non-true type facts that you never really check up on to see if it’s accurate, but keep you scared none the less. Well the other night, Jess and I were looking into maybe getting a new phone for Jess. Her plan had expired so we thought we could get one for practically free, and besides that’s what you do right? Jess and I try to be conscious of the human and ethical implications of anything we buy, so she did some research into what brands were ‘ethical’. Forebode….

Saturday for Christ’s Return

I'm a big fan of unity, and so I don't like to take up a negative stance against those who believe much of what I believe as well. Still, I think that we should be able to think independently and disagree on many things, constantly trying to find the truth and broaden each others minds. That said, I find it rather amusing that yet another Christian group has picked the date of Christ’s return. Guess what, it's this Saturday!

More accurately, Jesus' return to earth is Saturday, with the subsequent destruction of the Earth on the 21st of October. My sister is miffed that she'll miss her 25th birthday this year.

Wecanknow.com makes the argument that 'Noah knew, and so can we' but their site is so bulky that the actual details of their reason for believing this, and their reason for picking this Saturday, are well hidden. Never-the-less, they invite you to pour through the data and pray for a revelation of the truth.

focussing on the destruction of the world is dangerous. We begin to live as thought the planet and our lives don't matter. It's like the old hypothetical 'What would you do if you had only a day left to live?' Provocative perhaps, but I think a way more challenging and telling questions is 'What will you do if you don't die tomorrow?' 'What will you do if the earth doesn't burn?' 'What if we have to lie in the bed we made for ourselves?'

Maybe we'll make a better bed. Maybe we'll treat the earth better. Maybe we'll live our lives more like we'd hoped. We have to put in the effort to heal and transform, because there's no reset button. I hope my life can be different because I have hope for the world we have. How about you?

In the Shade

We’re told so often to shine and grow and lead and be the best.

Recently I’ve been very pleased to let go a bit. Not try to run all the activities and groups I’m involved with. I think I’ve always desired to be the leader of the group, and that’s a stressful position to constantly take. I’m getting the message that it’s healthy to let others do the work, let others take charge and make the hard calls, the decisions and mistakes. I hope it’ll be good to live in the shade, under the tremendous effort and inspiration of my peers and leaders. When I feel healthy, maybe I’ll come into the sun again.

How to Crucify a Rabbit

Symbols get really messed up and thrown around by the pseudo-religious/secular holidays we keep having. I think the confusion will continue to grow as each invested party (ie, the market and the church) get more forceful and more extreme. I can't help but wonder if we're all just getting more confused.

Who is this Easter Bunny? What's his motives? Why would he give us candy for free? Can we take chocolate from strange bunnies? Is he in cahoots with this Santa figure who lures us in with the promise of free gifts? There's aksi a dead body in this story, did they kill Jesus to keep it a secret? Being God's son they must have figured He knew too much and hired the Judas to silence him. The Tooth fairy probably funded the thirty pieces of silver, he's pretty cashed up. And where are all those teeth going I wonder...

It's hard enough to pass on accurate information let alone all the hype. And now that I've got a daughter the prospect of telling her their's a bunny that lays chocolate eggs seems creepy. In a non-Christian sense even the new-life and fertility symbols of Easter have been forgotten for chocolate and excess. What does a hunt for chocolate eggs really symbolize? Do we really need an excuse to eat chocolate or give each other gifts? I'mlooking forward to focusing on the symbols that matter to me, and stripping away the rest. Easter is about freedom and victory, sacrifice and gain, Hope and rescue. For me, Jesus shows the world a way to find the freedom they've been looking for. I think symbols are important, they inform who we are and what we do. Think about whether your symbols are the ones you want guiding you, and if not, look for the ones that will inspire you.

Some cool links I found: Matt Stone Blog: Easter Fail Godspace: Resurrection Life - Christ or the Easter Bunny

The Hard way out.

Perhaps it’s hard to remember that hanging from shackles is painful too, when we see the dynamite come out. In the long run you’ll be better off if you grab the bull by the horns, and deal with the source of your real pain. I’m sorry it’s hard. You’re totally up for it. May God be with you.

Overstated

I once worked for a power generation museum that educated school groups on how electricity was made and transported to our homes. One of the team working there was quite keen on educating students about the long term effects of burning fossil-fuels, and he used to regularly tell groups, “Every time you turn on a light switch, a little fish like Nemo DIES!” (Finding Nemo was a pretty big deal back then).

This was all good and well for a long time, until one day he said this to a group of students who were maybe a bit to young to cope with his poetic description of everyday pollution. A gasp went throughout the room, some tears were shed, they asked if they could turn off the lights in the museum and, needless to say,  they were more than a little traumatised.

Exaggerating is fun, and enhancing stories with near-facts is a raw and creative poetic licence for our often routine lives.  But in a world where so many causes compete for our attention (global warming, morality, human issues, marketing, relationships, Facebook) it seems that everything is blown out of proportion. My life is so larger than life, that it no longer all fits in: it’s bursting at the seems.

The world will end in 2012! If you eat your crusts your hair will turn curly! Your Ipad is ‘Magical’! Nine out of Ten Nutritionists recommend…! Certain unspeakable acts will make you go blind! If you litter a Kitten will get axed! All of these extreme messages, all of the time.

And do we believe it all? Or do we come to expect that things are less satisfactory than they present. After all, marketing must be based on convincing people that their experience of a product will be completely satisfying, life-alteringly so! And to convince you that those needs are actually met after you do purchase the product, they reduce your expectation of what a satisfying, life-altering experience is.

So here’s my thought, let’s start to talk about the world more accurately. Not the worst, not the best. Just is. And then let’s raise our expectations of what satisfactory is. We’ll strive for more and love even harder and ironically, I think we’ll be more satisfied. Thanks for reading, I love your comments!

Boxing

Bono feels like he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. I think a lot of us can relate; a feeling like we’re not quite there yet, or there’s something more, a general dis-content. Maybe we are all coming short, or perhaps we’re just hoping for a brighter future. Either way we’d best know what we’re looking for, and then probably where to find it.

I don’t want to get stuck, I want to keep looking. I don’t want to avoid finding what I’m looking for. It may be hard to cope with, but I’d rather die in the right place than avoid it forever. Then I think we’;; have found what we’ve been looking for all along. Just a thought…

Queuing...

One of the conversations I keep having lately is about whether our big goals actually line up with what we want. For example, someone might say that they want to be a police officer, but what they really want is to protect people. These aren't mutually exclusive, but they're not the same thing either. They get so caught up on the idea of becoming a cop that they don't even realize that this isn't what they really want, and when they end up behind a desk they're unsure why they feel unsatisfied. I think we should assess our goals and be aware of what they are and mean, why we want them, and how we'll know when we've achieved them. 

There's plenty of goals placed on us by advertisers, social expectation, parents and peers, goals that we don't even really want; buy this, be the best, look sexy, impress your friends, get a good score, work harder, shut up, etc. 

Are we on track to achieving real and meaningful goals? The goals we want?

Same Old Story

Why is it that I never seem to see the signs before it’s too late? And then I climb back out and brush myself off. It’s not that I want to avoid all the holes, it’s just how can I be falling into them again and again, same as last time.

I guess I’ll have to keep my eye closer on the path, these distractions are annoying. Also, I’ll build a barrier at the edge of the whole. maybe I’ll tell some friends where I ‘m going, and they can watch out for me. Or I could get busy doing something useful, a goal could keep me from wondering. I don’t want to see this hole again.

Pivotal Moment

I find that I say this to my self often, and then fail to free myself from my chains. I need a real change that will mean something real. Let’s hope this is it. This has to be it.

Waiting………….

Life isn’t a race, but why wait to get started. I’m often so scared that things won’t work out, but when I try things I’m always proud and excited. There’s still things I want to start, so maybe I should get them underway. If the right moment doesn’t come, I’ll have to do with the moment at hand.

What are you waiting for?

Being Right

I’ve hurt a lot of people by trying to be right all the time. I create a little space where I control the rules and make everything I do right and everything others do wrong. I think it’s all about acceptance and worth; trying to be right or righteous. I was told one that ‘Righteousness isn’t about being right, it’s about relationship.’ While there’s a few layers of meaning there, the intended one is this: relationship is more important than being right. So now I apologise to all those I pushed down so I could be on top, I was wrong.

Underutilised Hero

I’ve never really liked Super Heroes, which people tell me is pretty weird. I think the deal is that they inspire and impress people, but my natural reaction is “So what if you saved the world, you can leap a building in a single bound!” Anyone can save the world if they have superpowers, I’m more impressed when someone average saves the world, or sacrifices their dream for the sake of raising their kids, or gives blood, or donates to charity. The fact that someone as average as me, maybe even more so, could make a difference is what inspires and impresses me.

I'm pretty sure we’ve all got super powers of some sort. Probably not flying or mind-reading, but everyday superpowers like being a really good listener, or being able to make your brother feel good by letting him beat you at scrabble. And because we can’t fly or read minds we think we can’t change the world, that’s why superheroes let us down. One really good listener could change the world. One loving brother could heal a broken heart.

What’s your superpower?

Absolutes

Hazel is a lovely girl who is very sure of herself. She must live in an inconstant yet very exciting world.

It struck me yesterday that every development she makes allows her to explore her world more. First she began to see, then she began to reach out and touch things, then she began to put everything in her mouth. Soon she’ll start to be more mobile; rolling, crawling and then walking. Then she’ll begin to communicate more effectively… and so on and so forth.

I wonder now if that remains true of us as we get older, I wonder if I keep being able to interact with this world in new and exciting ways. I wonder if I can do it at the pace that Hazel can. Maybe there’s just something special about her youth, or maybe I can learn something new this week.

All’s fair in love and war

 

This is a result of an ‘Ends justifies the means’ thinking. I’ve been reading some Lee Camp, and am reaffirmed in the need to teach more creative ways of achieving our goals and resolving conflict than violence.