My youngest first cousin, Austin Winters, died last Thursday, and I've been having a rough time with it. It seriously breaks my heart to know that he was so young with so much ahead of him.
Here's a little more information about Bacon Boy & Fry Guy and the merchandise he created with the Children's Healing Art Project, or CHAP.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
When will it end?
"...And a little child will lead them."
(Isaiah 11:6)
As if 20 years of war isn't enough, now involving three different countries the LRA strikes again. This breaks my heart so, so much.
After being in northern Uganda and spending time with children who have experienced the death of their parents and being child soldiers themselves, I can't imagine why this is still happening. I hate that life is taken for granted like a sick game...
I know that I don't have a complete grasp of their culture, but I still don't understand how children can have their innocence stolen and made to do things that most people would never dream of: killing (both partaking and watching), ravishing, raping, taking drugs, maiming. It's just so cruel...
And it's funny that both sides think that they are right, that they should win, but in all reality, everyone loses.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Fashion Police
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Rwanda, Rwanda
Finally a country that's making some progress.
Please note this:
"'The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves,' voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa. 'You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better.'"
Does anyone see the power and the conflict in that quote?
Please note this:
"'The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves,' voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa. 'You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better.'"
Does anyone see the power and the conflict in that quote?
Why it pays to "Go Green"
I love that this is an Oregon-based company. We will forever be an environmentally conscious state. Read how Kettle is saving money, and not to mention the environment.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Articles worth reading
I spent some time reading news online today and I came across these two articles that are of interest.
1. Haiti is the poorest nation in the world and now 1,000,000 people are homeless because of Hurricane Ike.
2.Raja Petra Kamarudin has been detained in Malaysia because he wrote against Islam on his blog.
It seems that the same issues are rising all over the world. What will be done to fix them?
1. Haiti is the poorest nation in the world and now 1,000,000 people are homeless because of Hurricane Ike.
2.Raja Petra Kamarudin has been detained in Malaysia because he wrote against Islam on his blog.
It seems that the same issues are rising all over the world. What will be done to fix them?
Friday, September 12, 2008
Abandoned & bruised awaiting a cure
In my current stint of being unemployed I have been doing a lot of reading, which isn't anything new or different for me. But this particular day (yesterday), something I read really made me think. I was lying by the pool of my apartment complex with some younger girls from church when I picked up Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and began to read.
I'm not really sure how long I had been reading, but it was long enough for the girls to migrate to the other end of the pool to discuss life, while dipping their pedicured toes in the water, and for me to read 140 pages. Once you get past the fact that this book was written by a lawyer, a senator and a politician, you realize that this book is about identity, about a son, a friend, a husband and a father. It made me stop and think about my own identity and my passions.
One of my passions is civil rights and African-American history, which first prompted me to read this book. Don't get me wrong, I support Obama more for his politics than the fact that he is of mixed race and struggled during one of the more fascinating time periods of US history. He just makes me think.
At one point in the book his grandfather's friend tells him, "But your grandfather will never know what that feels like," in reference to being black, experiencing the hurt of racism and trying to find your identity living as a black man in a white family. I stopped there and began listening to the girls' chatter. Being further than an earshot away, it was mere whisper in the late afternoon wind that was beginning to blow. They were talking about being orphans and meeting their birth parents, and for the first time it struck me that I will never know what that feels like. That should be an obvious, but when you really look at the implications and what it means it's mind blowing. I will never experience what these young girls have no matter how hard I try. I began to think of other disparities: we grew up in different areas, we are all of different ethnicity. I realized what a role that played in the depth of our friendships and in the depths of our souls and our identity.
I will never know what it fees like to be black and to come up through the struggles of the last 100+ years, but then again, they will never know how it feels to be white. It was completely chance or luck depending on how you look at it, and this effects our friendships. I've come to the point in my life where I don't want to hide my true self any longer, but I'm beginning to wonder what I hold back from people because of our differences...
I'm not really sure how long I had been reading, but it was long enough for the girls to migrate to the other end of the pool to discuss life, while dipping their pedicured toes in the water, and for me to read 140 pages. Once you get past the fact that this book was written by a lawyer, a senator and a politician, you realize that this book is about identity, about a son, a friend, a husband and a father. It made me stop and think about my own identity and my passions.
One of my passions is civil rights and African-American history, which first prompted me to read this book. Don't get me wrong, I support Obama more for his politics than the fact that he is of mixed race and struggled during one of the more fascinating time periods of US history. He just makes me think.
At one point in the book his grandfather's friend tells him, "But your grandfather will never know what that feels like," in reference to being black, experiencing the hurt of racism and trying to find your identity living as a black man in a white family. I stopped there and began listening to the girls' chatter. Being further than an earshot away, it was mere whisper in the late afternoon wind that was beginning to blow. They were talking about being orphans and meeting their birth parents, and for the first time it struck me that I will never know what that feels like. That should be an obvious, but when you really look at the implications and what it means it's mind blowing. I will never experience what these young girls have no matter how hard I try. I began to think of other disparities: we grew up in different areas, we are all of different ethnicity. I realized what a role that played in the depth of our friendships and in the depths of our souls and our identity.
I will never know what it fees like to be black and to come up through the struggles of the last 100+ years, but then again, they will never know how it feels to be white. It was completely chance or luck depending on how you look at it, and this effects our friendships. I've come to the point in my life where I don't want to hide my true self any longer, but I'm beginning to wonder what I hold back from people because of our differences...
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