Memorial Day

Still recovering from this past weekend...will tell stories soon...hopefully with pictures...

In the meantime, check out these recycled posts about those in the service of our great country!

Here and Here

Houdini in me

My dad used to read stories to the family on random nights of the week, I loved it.

He'd rally all of us (5 boys, 1 girl and my loving mama) into the living room, have us sit down and be quiet, and just listen as he'd bring stories, characters and voices to life from the pages of impossibly large books that couldn't have been more intimidating to me than if they'd had snarling teeth and beady eyes. One of the things that my dad seemed to particularly enjoy was reading stories to us of Human Character. Whether the character in the story was actually human or not (often not), the stories all seemed to share a common theme; Struggle + perseverance = Victory and (sometimes) Redemption.

The Summer of the Monkeys is one book that my dad read to us from beginning to end.

I don't remember much about that book or the story, but what I do remember is that when the end of the story came; it was the first time I ever saw my dad cry.

There was a series of books about a warrior mouse named Matthias that lived in a place called Redwall.

I remember the stories of Redwall very well because I started sneaking the books away from my dads bookshelf so that I could read ahead and find out what happened next before dad could read the next chapter to the rest of the family. I loved when dad read the Redwall stories outloud because he'd try his best to make up individual voices for the plethora of characters in the stories. Here's a visual for you...imagine Grisly Adams squinting at the pages of a children's book and talking like Kermit the Frog, on purpose.

Good times indeed.

When I was a little older my dad and I started reading a book series together.

The Richard Sharpe series. The subject matter was a little more advanced (read: mature) than Redwall and Summer of the Monkeys; mostly because the Sharpe series was mostly about the Napoleonic Wars. But again, the resounding theme was Struggle, perseverance, Victory and (sometimes) Redemption.

From the Sharpe series I went on to read just about anything I could get my hands on...from Historical and Pre-Historical Epics to Modern-day Mysteries, Thrillers and Horror stories and on to Science Fiction that tested the borders of my mind...I couldn't get enough.

So, I love to read, woopadeedoo! Why am I telling you. Right?

Here's the thing, ever since my dad started to read these stories out loud to the family, I've never looked at a book in the same way. I've trained myself to dive completely into the world that I'm reading about and immerse myself in the characters, the times they live in and experiences they are going through. It's cool, and I enjoy it...but I think that I may have become a bit obsessed.

I've turned in to somewhat of an escape artist; a Harry Houdini of Literature if you will.

I've only recently realized this escapism about myself within the last several years of my adult life. Mostly during times when reality was so unavoidably overwhelming that I simply had to escape in order to maintain some control over my own attitude and how I reacted to what was going on around me. Being Irish, I have one major downfall. Temper. It must be genetic. And since I'm not a millionaire with a leer jet at my beck and call; I would escape into the pages of a book and live my life vicariously through someone else who did not have my concerns and trials, my desires and beliefs nor my convictions.

Liberating though it may have been to see life through someone else's eyes; I'm afraid that I may have missed out on some of the adventures and experiences that awaited me had I only opened my eyes and taken advantage of my own life story rather than constantly trying to escape.

But, maybe that's not completely fair...I have lived a great life thus far and I have very few complaints worth mentioning. I guess I'm just saying that maybe I shouldn't be so anxious to escape into the pages of a book when life is beckoning, whatever that beckon may be.

It's not as if my own life is so boring when I sit down and actually think about it, in fact; I've had a great time!

I have set out on my own and spread my wings with no safety net beneath me, I have hit rock bottom and clawed my way back to the top, I've walked for miles and miles and miles. I've been to a far off land made of Fire and Ice and been the foreigner that stood out like a sore thumb. I've fallen from the sky with nothing but a silk sheet in a backpack to break my fall, I've swam in the ocean, slid in the snow, jumped into rain puddles and hid from hail and sleet that flew sideways. I've driven my car until it ran out of gas just to see how far I could go on "E".

I've stood before thousands and bared my soul in heartfelt song and sung love songs of devotion for an audience of one. I have fallen in and out of love and I've felt the pain of betrayal from the closest of friends. I've cried bitter tears and laughed until I cried. I have rescued some and have been rescued by others. I've lost myself, found myself and gotten lost again.

I've found someone I can love that loves me back and I married her.

Now, I'm sure that someday soon I'll sit down with my own children and read out loud to them and pass along the joy of a well told story (with funny voices) and I'm sure that my kids will find their own ways to make ends meet and cope with all that life throws at them. I'm also sure that I won't stop reading and enjoying the tales written out by others, but...I think that I might try and focus more on my own adventures than trying to escape into the pages of a book.

Hey, even Houdini took time off.

Yo = Hi

Hey bloggies, it's your blogger here with an important announcement...

I am really, really, going to try and make this my last Star Wars related post...I've been having a lot of fun with the topic because of all the hype and circumstance right now but I don't want to scare any of my regular blog readers away or make you think that all I'm ever going to write about is sci-fi...no worries;) It's all gooood.

Click here to read the personal blog of Darth Vader. The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster. Or, click here to see something truly amazing...And finally, click here for a hilarious outtake from one of my favorite comedians stand-up shows.

In the meantime, Keep on blogging in the free world.

How Lightsabers Work

Chances are that you have seen a lightsaber at one time or another, whether on the evening news or down at the local cantina. Therefore you know that a lightsaber is an amazing and versatile device that is able to cut through nearly anything in a matter of milliseconds. The big advantage of using a lightsaber, of course, is that you can both cut and toast the bagel in one stroke.

Have you ever wondered how these remarkable weapons work?
Where does the energy come from, and how are they able to contain that energy in a rod-like column of glowing power?

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, you will have a chance to look inside a lightsaber and discover the source of its incredible characteristics.

I have a Purple Lightsaber.
Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity,
independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.
Purple denotes high spirituality and religious
aspiration. Purple also represents Peacefulness
and Purification. It also has a sense of
intuitive understanding and a feeling of
intimacy with the world.

What Colored Lightsaber Would You Have?

The Destiny of TK421 and the Linear God of our Fathers

30 years ago,

In the San Francisco Bay Area,

A nerd-ish type of fellow named George told us a story,

It was a fictional, fantastical, mystical, theological story,

...A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

During the first 15-20 minutes of Star Wars, A New Hope we are immersed in a seemingly endless and immense galaxy where anything and everything is possible; where any choice that is made is not only the correct choice but is destined. We learn that Luke, a simple farm boy on a forgotten planet, yearns for something greater than what he sees before him, he knows that there is more out there for him…but it seems that all he can do is complain about his current circumstances.
Though the story being told to us seemed hugely unbelievable, totally foreign and incomprehensible in any way resembling reality; if we’d been paying attention, we’d have known the ending of the saga from the first feature.

All of the signs were there for us to see what the meaning of the story was in the first place; thru Luke Skywalker the Force would achieve balance; whether Luke liked it or not.
This was, after all, Luke's destiny.
(Insert heavy breathing and James Earl Jones villainous chuckle here.)

The story is just that linear; it could have no other outcome.

Linear is one of those words that is either a comfortable part of your common-day language or is a foreign describer that borders on Latin-based hooey; the division being whether you understand the value of the word or not.

Linear is described in the dictionary as follows…
- Of, relating to, or resembling a line; straight.
- In, of, describing, described by, or related to a straight line.
- Having only one dimension.
- Characterized by, composed of, or emphasizing drawn lines rather than painterly effects.
- Narrow and elongated with nearly parallel margins: a linear leaf.

Luke’s linear life had begun and ended before he even knew what was going on, he couldn’t change his destiny even though he was nearly killing himself to find out what his destiny was.

Sure a lot of little things happened along the way…I.E. His Uncle Owen and Aunt Veru were slaughtered by a bunch of whitey-tightey-wearing-squawk-boxers on a bender, his arm was cut off and flushed down a gigantor-sized funnel in the clouds, and his true father was revealed to be the most evil warlord in the galaxy…oh yeah, and he made out with his sister.

But all of these interesting and terrible things that happened were all secondary and tertiary to the over all story that was unfolding before our eyes…In this seemingly endless galaxy; Luke could no more avoid his destiny than he could have known its ultimate destination from the time that he purchased a couple of rundown droids for his crabby moisture-farming Uncle.

There is something both comforting and upsetting about the linear-ness of the Star Wars saga…Comforting because, out of this incredibly complex story, we know what’s going to happen…
Upsetting because we know it’s going to end, and that the end has already been determined.

I think that if I were Luke I may have bucked at the responsibility that was being thrust on me by the universe that I’d just discovered…I mean, hullo?
So, I have to reestablish a dead religion and save the galaxy one planet at a time? Obi-Wan, one more time…why me? It’s my destiny?!? Damn, you got me there.

I’ve had a real problem lately with the way that I see God being represented by his followers…I actually shouldn’t say lately, it’s been an ongoing kind of pisser for me for about the last 28 years. It’s hard to put my finger on the reasons behind my general crankiness in this area of my life but I’m going to try and nail down a couple of the things that I am becoming aware of, even as I write this.

In much the same way that the Star Wars story is linear and pretty much one dimensional (on the surface); people, calling themselves Christians have turned a multi-dimensional, all-encompassing God and his plan for creation into a confusing, massively understated and often contradictory story of a Human-Thinking-Deity trying to fix something that he created a long time ago that somehow got broken along the way by our selfishly stupid ancient ancestors...Bummer.

You’ve heard the story and have likely been approached by someone on the street trying to cram it down your throat…God creates man, man F’s it up, God dies so that man can go to Heaven.
This story of “God’s plan for Man” is all presented in this tidy little packaged story that’s supposed be Soooo attraaaactive that any random person going about their day will be overcome with a desire to totally rearrange their lives and become completely different people that care about new things and suddenly have a connection to the creator of the universe where before they only had a connection to a bong named Bill…Something is getting lost in the telling of this story.

All of my life I’ve heard a very linear and firm salvation story where the outcome is that if I believe and follow the story to its conclusion I will be “Saved” and will go to Heaven…and from the point of view of those that told me the story; it seems that their chief concern was that I get “saved”, get others “saved” and go to Heaven when I die.

And that's about it.

I think that what's getting lost is the context of the presentation, the presence of mind, and the motivation behind the telling of this story. I think that we could all learn something from the Star Wars story.

I believe that George Lucas understands the principle of telling a story for a reason, a purpose that is beyond the telling of the story alone. I’m also pretty sure that in his own way George Lucas has explained salvation through God (The Force), redemption of the soul (Darth Vader turning against the Dark Side), and the battle between good and evil in the most visual, understandable and all-encompassing model yet presented…BUT 99.9% of the people that have seen this story unfold have missed the very straightforward way that George Lucas has told us a story about an all-powerful, all-dimensional, all-knowing God that wants to know us, move in and around us and wants for us to know Him/Her/It - GOD.

On the surface and taken at face value the Star Wars story is very linear…Farm boy wants adventure, farm boy get sucked into a galactic battle to save the universe, farm boy realizes he’s meant for more and eventually saves the galaxy and restores order.
Underneath this story though there is a story being told that is a virtual parallel of the salvation story…maybe not line for line but it’s all in there.

I know that I’ve probably lost about 80% of my blog readers by this point in the post but stick with me.

I guess it’s just a little bit more than depressing to me that I’ve learned more about God and how he moves from Star Wars than I have from supposed people of God. Well intentioned though they may be.

I haven’t had one conversation with a follower of Christ where I felt like I was being told anything more than the company line…and the company line just isn’t enough anymore to sell this particular bill of goods…in other words, simply being an enthusiastic Satan-proof sales person or professional salvation-merchant just isn’t enough…you’ve got to care as well, you’ve got to know the product, use the product and love the product. You’ve got to give contextual information and background, success stories and failure-turned-to-victory stories. You’ve got to give a reason to yearn and you’ve got to commit to follow-up that is more than just a casual embrace and a “God bless you.”

Please understand that I know my self pretty well by this point in my life and I realize that I am much better at pointing out areas that need creative improvement than I am at providing actual solutions. I just think we can try a little harder is all I’m saying.

That being said; I know that I’m making a stretch here with the whole Star Wars thing, but it’s valid and worthwhile and ripe for discussion…Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side this week and becomes Darth Vader and we’ll all be tempted to watch the whole thing all over from the beginning again…all I ask is that we look to the deeper meaning of the Force and allow God to speak to us through the vision of a prophet/preacher/teacher named George Lucas.

You may now proceed to tear my blog to shreds and tell me why I’m an idiot.

Australians and Shoddy Workmanship

I remember trying to stuff all of my nickels, quarters and dimes into the pocket on my Roos, and running to the corner store to buy Big League chewing gum. (Grape, of course.)

By the time I got to the store all of my money had fallen out of the pocket.

Ben got no gum. Ben sad. Ben still mad at Roos.

A Real Soldier - A righteous Man

My wife was out of town this past weekend with some of her girlfriends...which means that I was at home, with the Dogs, the TV and the Whiskey.

So, I watched a lot of really bad TV over the weekend, like you do, mostly bad sci-fi; one of which was a movie called Soldier with Kurt Russell.

Now I would never get away with watching more than 2 minutes of this kind of movie if my wife were in the same room because she would demand that we watch something with less-of a retardation factor, of course we would then flip over to MTV for a Real World-Road Rules Challenge or to VH1 for yet another re-run of I Love 1982!...and I don't know how this is less retarded than a futuristic Kurt Russell who was raised from birth to be the perfect soldier on distant planets - but anywho, back to Soldier.

Here's a fun fact about the movie that I especially enjoy...Kurt Russell signed the contract for the movie soldier with one stipulation added by his agent; that Kurt Russell would be paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $144,000.00 per word spoken in the film. Sounds like a hell of a deal right?!

Turns out that when the movie was all said and done Russell only speaks about 4 times in the movie and utters less than 3 words each time he opens his mouth...all in all I'd say that Russell took home less than a million dollars total...I will now take this moment to imitate Nelson from the Simpsons and say "Ha-Ha".

The main storyline is pretty Saturday morning cartoon-ish when it comes right down to it...

There's the main character played by stoney-faced Kurt Russell, who is the perfect soldier, trained from childhood in a futuristic world to be everything that a futuristic marine needs to be.

Then there's the villain and his crew who are out to replace Russell's character and his fellow soldiers with some brand new genetically enhanced soldiers that are ten times more efficient and capable in almost every way....anyhow, a battle ensues over the course of the movie and Russell's tired old character ends up prevailing over the younger, more powerful soldiers sent to replace him and his comrades...the reason that Russell's character prevailed over the stronger, faster soldiers was of course that Russell's character had heart, soul and all of the ideals in mind that make a soldier worthy of a salute.

But, honestly, it's just a movie...big deal, right?

I didn't think about that movie or this post until this morning when I got to work, flipped on my computer and checked the news sites to make sure that the rest of the world hadn't blown up while I was sleeping...

That was when I came across this story...

Short story made shorter: A photographer captured the picture you see below after a group of terrorists drove bomb-laden cars through a crowded alley/street where several adults were doing business and 20 or more children were playing...the trucks plowed through the children, set off the bombs and killed almost everyone in the alley.

The picture shows Major Mark Bieger carrying one of the children struck by shrapnel and debris...the photographer said that Major Bieger was one of the the first on the scene and that he ran and started picking up children without any regard for his own safety...the picture shows Major Bieger holding an Iraqi girl close to his chest as he carries her away from the area of the blast...what the photo does not show that the photographer reported was that Major Bieger's eyes were streaming with tears of anger, frustration and sadness and that he was crying out loud as he carried that little girl to a relative safety.
It was reported later that the little girl died in Major Bieger's arms a few hours later.

I told you the story about the movie with Kurt Russell and the story about Major Mark Bieger to tell you why I believe that righteous men will always prevail over evil...

Because righteous men will always place themselves in harms way to protect the innocent, to protect life and to uphold decency...regardless of whether or not those that they are protecting request or desire their protection. Righteous men have heart and they were it on their sleeves. Righteous men have the moral high ground and that moral high ground demands that they deny themselves for the service and protection of others.

Terror comes in many forms and severities and is represented by many nationalities, if not all, at one time or another.

The true test of righteousness is how we will respond to that terror and how we will conduct ourselves in the face of pure evil.

I hope that I am never required to take up arms to protect that which I believe is worth protecting; but I hope that if I am required to do so, I will do it with the example of Major Mark Bieger in mind.

Rock meet Hardplace, Hardplace this is Rock

There are deep rumblings in my life right now.

The ground shaking kind of rumblings that almost require you to reconsider a lot of the things that you've held as foundational and real. Truthfully, I've been here before, by now it's pretty familiar, but unfortunately, my foreknowledge of this sort of discombobulation does not make the dealing with it any easier.

I'm not in a place right now where I am ready to impress on you the details and worries of my present-day-life and the rumblings that are troubling me but I'd like to ask that you read the post that I wrote called "You've got to do something or else" which will give you a general knowledge of why I say that I've been here before.

For now, I can tell you what the rumblings are not, cool?

- Not, my married life...Linds and I are grand.

- Not, my faith...hard quesitons abound but that's par for the course.

- Not, my workaday-joe-job...I don't like it; but it's survivable.

- Not, my friendships...well, not all of the my friendships anyhow.

- Not, my health...the ticker is ticking just fine, cholesterol is a little high though...hmmm.

- Not, my incredible good looks...Brad Pitt who?

So, I'm not being very forthcoming, deal.

I will tell you all eventually what the problem is and how I dealt with it, but I won't be able to say anything specific until the sh*tstorm has passed...for the time being I need to bite my tongue...ouch.

In the meantime, I'd loooove to know that I'm not all alone in this crapbox shakespearean drama-fest...Anybody got any juicy stories they can share that'll take my mind off of how much it sucks to be me right now?

Life Imitates Life

We know the results of certain actions...

We know the warning signs that precede the results, and we know that the results of our actions may be unpleasant...

But we go ahead and do it anyway.