Something Catchy

So, it's a new semester. I didn't blog at all last semester. There is now no record of it. It's like it never happened.

But it did happen. It was a good semester. I took my first upper level English class (Intro to Creative Writing). Fun fun. Did you know there's a genre called Creative Non-Fiction? You write personal essays or wacky rants about things. It's fun, but you have to be very careful because if you say the slightest misleading thing, you're lying. You can lie in fiction, but you can't lie in non-fiction. Very tricky.

There are all these rules to learn, about dialogue and characterization, how to set the scene and give telling details without overloading your reader. It's overwhelming. That's the neat thing about this blog. I just throw it down and toss it out into this vast void of the internet and no one sticks a grade on it. No one comes along and tells me how much my words are worth. I like that.

See, right now, if a classroom of writing students were analyzing this post, they would say that I have established a conversational tone by addressing my reader. They would probably also talk about how there was a lack of narrative plot, no dialogue, no characterization. Nothing to tell you who I am or what I want.

Because every character has to want something. There has to be desire, and conflict. One character wants something, the other character isn't giving it to them. At least not at first. If you're following the traditional narrative arc, they'll get it at the end of the story and everyone will be happy. If you're postmodern, anything can happen.

I'm not quite postmodern.

So...what do I want?

To the only guy who reads this...

I'm sorry I haven't posted since forever ago. Thanks for reading, always. And thanks for reminding me to post. This one's purely for you. :)

It's been a while since I've said this...









Love you too.

The Fourth

One really cool thing about my house in Florida is that you can see the fireworks display from our street, so instead of having to pack lawn chairs into our car and fight crowds, we get to step out our front door two minutes before the fireworks are scheduled to start. Yup, we've got it made.

What's even cooler is that in the opposite direction you can see the fireworks from a neighboring city cresting the trees at the end of our street. The view isn't nearly as clear, but it is kinda awesome to be able to see two different firework displays at the same time.

All my piano lessons were canceled for the day, so I got to take the day off! Normally, my grandparents come down to celebrate the fourth with us. However, since my great-grandmother's stroke, my grandma does not like leaving town for long periods of time. We almost went to see them, but when we realized how much time we'd spent in the car lately and remembered that we have to visit the other side of the family sometime this month, we decided we needed a break from all the travel.

The worst part about the July 4th is that the noise terrifies my dog. She starts hyperventilating and following people around and licking their heels to beg, "Please don't leave me!"

My littlest sister was particularly impressed with the fireworks that had specific shapes. Stars, one that might possibly have been a flag, a few flowers, and some smiley faces. I like them too, but it always amuses me what angles they manifest themselves in. Sideways, diagonal, and occasionally one will be upright. Sometimes they are barely recognizable!

Oh, you upside-down smiley face fireworks, what patriotism you inspire in me.

Swift Bird and White Horse

So I got home last night around 11:30 after a very long return trip from a Native American Reservation in South Dakota. All in all, I spent about 70 hours in the car getting up there and getting back down. The ride was brutal.

Still, I want to go back.

We did VBS with the kids up there, each of us at two of five locations. The communities consisted of a few streets each, small clusters of houses, dogs roaming everywhere. But those kids...It was awful telling them goodbye. I didn't want to leave them. I entered a sort of preemptive grieving period while we were still there, but before we left God gave me a sense of peace about it. I can't be everything, do everything, be everywhere. I cannot help everyone and give them all they need. But He can. And in the meantime, I can pray.

I definitely want to go back, and stay longer this time. I want to really have the time to get to know those kids.

I still don't know what I want to do with my majors, what kind of career I want to pursue. But wherever I end up, I want to invest myself in the community. I want to make myself available to help, to encourage, to guide. For the first time, I could see myself being a teacher. I still don't know if that's what I really want to do, but it doesn't seem like such an impossibility anymore. I think I would enjoy it.

During the trip, I traveled through multiple states I had never previously visited: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and of course, South Dakota. It was interesting to watch the terrain gradually change. It was incredible to be able to see for miles and miles all around you, to see the hills rolling endlessly before you, to watch a sea of grass ripple under a gust of wind. I saw buffalo for the first time, as well as prairie dogs and antelope. We stopped by the Badlands on the way up, which was an experience in itself. I saw huge windmills and terraced farm land and wild horses. Life up there was pretty different from life in Florida, or even in Auburn. They were so isolated in such small communities, surrounded by such vast space.

I liked it. All of you praying folk out there, keep those kids up there in your prayers. And keep your eyes open to the needs of those around you. Suffering and pain are ever-present. You don't have to travel 1500 miles to find someone in need.

There. That's my advice of the day. :)

Handmade

So my mom and I made a quilt together. It was a lot of work, and she did most of it, but I'm really glad we did it. It's bright blue and bright green with some brown and beige and stuff. I don't really know how to describe it. We used the Double Irish Chain pattern, for any of you out there who know what that means or are willing to look it up.

So I'm helping out with the Vacation Bible School at my church again this year, as I have for the past...seven years, now (sheesh, I'm old). I've been looking into all the faces of these little kids at my church, and I realize how much I love children. I'm not always very good at interacting with them. I'm especially clueless when it comes to the really little ones. But I love kids!

I've also been teaching piano lessons. I have about 17 students registered, but not all of them have begun lessons yet. It's been an incredible experience so far. I love all of my students, and I'm growing so much as a pianist and as a teacher through this all. I'm so glad I did this. I still don't know if it's something I'll want to do forever, but it's at least one way I've found that I would enjoy using something I'm studying at Auburn.

I spoke with a woman who goes to my church whose family is currently in the process of an international adoption. The little boy's name is Isaiah, and he's currently in Africa. He's about nine months old. She showed me pictures, and spoke of how anxious she is to be able to see him, be with him. "Right now I can't even hold him when he cries." It just amazed me how much love she had for a little boy she'd never met. She has four other children, and speaking with them, they seemed equally emotionally involved in this process. They pointed out which pictures where the most recent and which were older.

I want to adopt. One day, when I'm older. If I'm an old maid all my life and never get married, I still want to adopt. If I have 6 kids of my own, I still want to adopt. Each little face is immeasurably valuable and so full of potential. I want to be that person for somebody: that person who sees and expresses their value to them.

It also reinforces my belief that abortion is the wrong option for women to take. There are families with open arms waiting to welcome these kids. Granted, there are less of these families than there are children in need of adoption. But abortion never even gives them a chance to be loved!

More on this later. It's not that I want to condemn anyone, or tell people how to live their lives. I just really truly believe that each little embryo has a right to life. We can talk about pro-choice all we want, but the truth is, there are millions of unborn babies who never had a choice.

It's storming right now. Thundering something crazy. When my window rattles, it squeaks, too. I love the sound of rain. It lulls me to sleep...

Rant: On Hitler

Okay, so, here's something that's been nagging at me today. Hitler. We all know the story: bad guy, responsible for the cruel deaths of countless people, etc. He was sick and twisted and we all know that. I'm not disputing that at all.

Still...

He was not subhuman. He was not an animal. He was not worthless.

He was a created man, loved by God, valued by God. He was not past forgiveness. If he would have turned to Christ and asked for forgiveness, he would have had it in a heartbeat. So how can we hate him? How can we harbor bitterness in our hearts towards any human being, no matter their past or their sins? Do you understand that the Bible says hatred is equivalent to murder? (1 John 3:15) So if we hate Hitler, or Stalin or Lenin or any other human being who ever did anyone wrong, we're hypocrites. We are murderers too.

We tend to think that Hitler's wrongs are somehow much more terrible than our own. And yeah, it would seem like that. But I'm not so sure. Sin is sin is sin, and it all bears the same consequence eternally. Maybe Hitler was in a position where his wrongdoings had a larger impact globally, but we're not better than him just because we've hurt less people than he did. We've all hurt somebody. Maybe not intentionally, maybe not physically, maybe not fatally. But we've all been in the wrong. We just happen to be wrong on a smaller scale. We're all capable of things we don't want to admit to. Do you know how manipulative you can be? Do you know how hurtful you can be? We're just as vulnerable to the lies of the devil as Hitler was.

I'm not saying what Hitler did was in any way justifiable. I'm not saying I condone it. But it also is not our job to judge, our duty to condemn. That's God's responsibility, and we should leave it to Him.

1 John 4:20-21 also says "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has see, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: whoever loves God must also love his brother."

And so maybe you're thinking, but doesn't the Bible say hate evil? Yeah, evil deeds. Hate the sin, not the sinner. I don't believe that people can really be pure evil. I think the Devil can and is, and possibly demon-possessed people could act purely evil. But we're all created in God's image, we all have souls, and they are all of equal value.

And so maybe you're thinking, so what? Hitler's dead. He doesn't care.

And so maybe you're thinking, everybody hates Hitler. What's the big deal?

This isn't just about Hitler. He's just an example. I'm addressing hatred overall. Christ-followers are called to love, not hate. That applies to Hitler, to terrorists, to our political leader, and to the neighbor who always lets their dog poo in your yard. They are all created and loved by God. We are called on to love them too.

Guess where I am?

I'm in the basement of my dorm, where it is kinda stuffy and which I've never seen before. However, it is much safer down here because there are no windows and we're below ground.

We're hiding from tornadoes.

There's no rain or anything, just some wind. I'm hoping it's an over-precaution. Growing up in Florida, I've experienced lots of hurricanes and all that jazz. Every now and then, you'd hear about a tornado or water spout. We always evacuated during hurricanes, though, so I don't have a lot of near-death stories (thank goodness).

However, one Christmas Eve I was in my room with my puppy already in her crate, ready for bed, when all of the sudden the wind changed tone. I don't know how to describe the sound. It sounded like the roof was about to be ripped off.

My mom burst in and dragged me to the living room. I was yelling about the dog, because she'd been left behind helpless in her crate. She was yelling about how we had to get to my sister's bathroom, which doesn't have windows. My whole family was in the living room, chaotically trying to assess that we were all there and trying to find the bathroom. Of course, then the power went out. Now we were all yelling in the dark.

And by that time, it was over.

It was terrifying, and it was all over so fast. Hardly any time at all to react, especially if your initial reaction is to panic.

So, that's why I'm in the basement. Just in case.

Also, classes are over now. My first exam is on Monday. I can't believe I've almost made it through one year of college...