Talking Bird
Like your brain can't keep up with your beak.
Papa
Last night, I had a nearly surreal moment. I stayed up until 3am with my roommate Jon and my dad, watching olympic volleyball and discussing everything under the sun. Time travel, religion, politics, mythology, war, peace, works of fiction. Everything. One topic of discussion I hadn’t thought much about.
The world is so heavily divided. As far back as we can remember, there has been a rift between the Judeo-Christian world and the Muslim world. We realized that this began with Abraham, as both religions trace their roots to him. The repercussions of Abraham’s choice to not trust God and attempt to have his offspring come from Hagar instead of Sarah are so far reaching, we don’t even realize it all started because of this. It’s incredible. A butterfly effect of sorts, that if Abraham had simply trusted God, who knows what the modern world would look like.
The fact that Muslims and Jews still have this disdain for each other is a testament to long memories. Memories that we as Americans don’t seem to have. The last time I was in South Carolina, I don’t remember feeling animosity toward these people who seceded from my country and shot and killed northerners. Come to think of it, I didn’t feel any hatred the last time I met a German or a Japanese person, either. Soldiers who literally shot at each other during World War II don’t even have this great divide that the Ishmaelites and Israelites have. Is this simply a cultural divide? One that is so deeply engrained within these two religions? One that would not and could not exist between nation-states like the Nazis and Americans? Or is this more a result of the world not being as good as it could have been had we trusted God? A result of rejecting God’s plan and trying to do things our own way.
God uses our rejection of him to teach us lessons, and in spite of our shortcomings, rectifies the situation, while at the same time making sure we realize that things would have been far better had we simply trusted him. Adam, Moses, and Abraham give us very striking examples of this, but even in our contemporary world, because of the actions of a few, the world has changed completely.
It’s our responsibility to fully invest ourselves to the will of God, to the point it becomes indiscernable to our own. Only then will the world begin to be changed, rebuilt, and fully redeemed, and the divisions that exist between men and men and between men and God be destroyed.
On summer nights the world
moves within earshot
on the interstate with its swish
and growl, an occasional siren
that sends chills through us.
Sometimes, on clear, still nights,
voices float into our bedroom,
lunar and fragmented,
as if the sky had let them go
long before our birth.
In winter we close the windows
and read Chekhov,
nearly weeping for his world.
What luxury, to be so happy
that we can grieve
over imaginary lives.
Allergies
Allergies are stupid, especially the seasonal type. I’d rather have my immune system be in an epic, medieval battle with some sort of bacteria or virus that lasts a day or two, while in the meantime I get a bunch of sleep and have dreams reminiscent of The Magic School Bus about what’s happening inside my body…than to have my body mistakenly start producing white blood cells and trick me into thinking I’m sick. I’m not sick. Seriously, it’s not cool.
What’s worse is that rest doesn’t help. Body, you’re not engaged with an enemy combatant. It’s just ragweed. It won’t hurt me. I promise.
So, I concede and take some sort of allergy medicine. Maybe an antihistamine or a nasal decongenstant. I admit defeat. I cannot control my own body.
Allergies have taken two otherwise enjoyable nights away from me thus far this season. Perhaps there will be more?
Bob Costas or Buck Laughlin?
I watched the Opening Ceremony from the Olympics last night, and it might just be me, but the banter between Bob Costas, Matt Lauer, and “China expert” Josh Ramo reminded me of the ridiculous comments made by Fred Willard in Best in Show. I didn’t know that watching some of the most intricately choreographed stage performances in the history of ever and one of the largest fireworks displays in recent memory needed a play-by-play.
The highlight of the night was, however, Costas’s comment that “Swaziland is like the Switzerland of Africa, and not necessarily just because of the similarity of the names…”
“Bathing Your Dogs…Doing it Doggy-Style…”
I don’t write enough.
I have nothing to do except read.
I have no bike, I have no way of transporting music with me, and this is not good.
I’ve become bored with preseason football. Where’s September 4th?
I could clean my room. Or clean my car. Or go for a run, but I just ate 4/5 of a frozen Meijer pizza while reading The Omnivore’s Dillemma. Irony?
Iron Knee.
Jon’s not here, so I have no one to make word jokes with.
Steve’s not here, so I have no one to clean up after me.
Justin’s not here, so I have no one to see playing video games on our broken futon.
Nina’s not here, so I have no one to force me to get out of my apartment.
And Celia’s not here, and I miss her.
Did I mention I don’t write enough?