Of Gods and Men.

Of Gods and Men, my favorite movie from 2011, is the true story of a band of French monks living in an Albanian community subjected to terrorism. It is a still and quiet film that looks at what it means to live life with conviction, freedom, and love, set to beautiful cinematography and haunting music. My friend, Lauren, initially recommended this movie to me and after watching it twice this year, I must commend it to you as well.

Early in the movie two of the monks are speaking with a government official about whether they should stay or leave. The official tells them "It is not cowardly to want to leave. It is about being free". When faced with death that man saw freedom as independence and the ability to protect one's self.

Freedom is not merely an ability to leave, but also a means to stay. Freedom is living your life according to your conviction and not in fear of another. It is knowing that which truly matters and clinging to that and not your life. All of this reminded me of something I heard a while back: courage isn't about being strong and fearless, it is operating out of an even greater love.

Suggested pairing: Red wine to enhance depth or chamomile tea to draw out delicacy.

Lessons we can learn from dogs.

Molly joy riding on a boat. 

Last Christmas I regrettably had to say goodbye to my childhood pet, Molly. She was my loyal companion since the 6th grade, greeting me whenever I walked through the door, laying by me when I was sick. I was one sad kid when we said good-bye, and I'm going to be honest, still today whenever I see a little westie it tugs at my heart strings and i miss my old friend. 

Last year my parents heard this reading on a favorite news program and have adopted it as their own. They included this in our family Christmas card this year as an ode to Molly, and I would like to share it with you:

"Lessons We can Learn from Dogs"

-Author unkown

Always run to greet loved ones when they come home. 

Never pass the opportunity to go for a joy ride. 

Recognize the ecstasy of fresh air & wind in your face.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising. 

Run, romp, and play daily. 

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

On warm days, lie on your back in the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and find the shade. 

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Enjoy long walks.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something your not.

If what you want is buried, dig deep until you find it.

And, when someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

We'd be better off, better people, if we acted more like dogs. 

Merry Christmas Friends!!

The cost of pleasure.

"...all pleasure must be bought at a price. The difference between illegitimate and legitimate pleasure is this: For legitimate pleasure, the price is paid before it is enjoyed. For illegitimate pleasure, the price is paid after it is enjoyed. Turning aside from instant gratification is one of the most difficult things to do. But this is where the battle is often won or lost."

-Ravi Zacharias
for the full article: rzim.com

just dance.

The most inspiring dancer I know: Collin Malaney

Your song comes on, your hips start to move with no coercion. The question goes through your mind, should I let loose & dance or play it cool? There are a few circumstances were the rug should be left uncut, but this isn't it, you should dance. 

My friend told me a story about an older gentleman who decided the first thing he would do every morning was dance. If that man was anything like the rest of us, he probably had mornings that dancing was the last thing he wanted to do. But if we let days like that steamroll us, we will always live life with a sullen disposition. Instead, why not meet the day with a few good hip shakes and a shimmy or two? 

Dance because there is a song that won't let you sit still, dance because you have a body to move and a life to celebrate, dance when no one is watching and when everyone is watching. Just dance. 

If you need some help greasing your hips and an oldie does it for you check this out, for top-40 click here, or if you like musicals this might be more your flavor. 

You may be alone in your room, busting a move when lo and behold your roommate bursts in. Is this the moment to freeze and in utter embarrassment mutter something about trying to shake a cracker out of your shirt? No! This is not the safety dance, we are not leaving our friends behind. Turn the music up and just remind them: friends don't let friends dance alone. 

a snowflake.

A light dusting of snowflakes greeted me this morning as I got into my car. I almost passed them by without noticing, but today I leaned in a little closer and this is what I saw. As the cold chill of winter sets in I tend to forget that each mound of snow I pass along the street contains millions and millions of these lovely, delicately intricate marvels. 

And to think, this fell from the sky today. 

playing at work.

I get the joy of working with creative and fun people. Together we have conversations that provoke thought and weirdness that induces laughter. In the last few months we started the friday ritual of going out for lunch and Friday Funnies before end of day. Friday Funnies is pretty simple: someone pulls up a funny YouTube or Hulu video to share. Then we laugh.

Maybe laughter isn't the best medicine, but it certainly is good medicine. I didn't work today (three cheers for Thanksgiving!), but it is still Friday and I would like to share some of our recent funnies with you.

SNL Hidden Valley Ranch Taste Test:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/284927/saturday-night-live-taste-test

A little work place bonding: 

One more video for you from my mini-friday funny with my mom and sister, Sexy Sax Man:

 Cheers!

how much?

A few weeks ago I was trolling Google to answer a work query. I started typing: How much...before I could finish Google populated a list for me. This is what Google thought I (and the general public) would likely be looking for. Some of it is minor, some major. 

But this is it. This is what a lot of people are counting the cost for. 

What about you? When you ask how much, what comes next?

baby love.

Babies are the sweetest, softest, most helpless things there are. They amaze me - they are so little but will someday become full grown adults (how does this work!). As babies, they are wholly dependent on people outside themselves - a beautify vulnerability. 

My college roommate, Lauren, asked me to take pictures of her little girl Grace, I couldn't say no. She pretty much slept the whole night, and let me just say it, she is cute as a button! As sweet as it was to meet miss grace, seeing my friends as parents for the first time was even more amazing. They are still the same people, but something is a bit different. The joy and struggle of parenthood has been placed upon them, and will be with them for the rest of their lives. I saw a different love coming out of them that wasn't there before. They displayed the sweetness of parenthood with grace...no pun intended :)

I also saw how much work goes into caring for a baby. My friends honestly shared the struggles that come with having a child for the first time. I was so grateful that they let me into their lives and allowed me to see the full spectrum of their experience, especially the hard parts. But nonetheless, of this I'm sure, they will be great parents to little miss gracie. 

hugs please.

I love Shel Silverstein (author of above poem), but I love hugs even more. At my kindergarten graduation we sang a song called "Four hugs a day". The gist of it goes: "Four hugs a day, that's the minimum. Four hugs a day, not the maximum". What profound advice for such little people. My teacher was preparing us for life. The lesson probably could have gone something like this: "Okay kids listen up. I know you are only 6, but life is going to get really hard some day. Harder then you know now. So you guys need to give lots and lots of hugs, and not just on special occasions but everyday. Got that kids. Don't settle for a life filled with tug o' wars, those are never hard to find. I want you to be different, I want you to love and hug and care for others." I honestly don't remember a ton of things from kindergarten. But this song stuck with me, and probably for good reason.

 I'm sure I could quote you statistics about the benefits of physical touch between humans or what happens if a baby is not held enough, but I think we all know that sometimes we just need a hug. Hugs are great for all occasions: when we are happy, sad, excited or disheartened. Hugs let us show our love for each other, share in the excitement of life, and know we aren't alone. 

Most of the time we get the normal, "hey" hugs. But sometimes we get those great, all encompassing, wrapped up in the other person kind of hugs. Those are the best. 

We can all find reasons to have tug o' wars with the people in our lives, I know I find them on a daily basis. Frustrations and shortcomings never seem to be short on hand. But I like this other kind of war better, it is a war I can get behind. So more hugs are in order. 

Hug someone today. Because you need it, I need it, we all need it. 

Collaborations.

What happens when a few musical geniuses get in a recording studio to make music? A thing of beauty.

The Goat Rodeo Sessions, a collaborative work between Yo-yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile, is a mingling of classical, folk, and bluegrass styles. It is lovely and great reading music - as  most of it is instrumental. Two of the songs do have vocals, which brings me to the reason for today's post.

The whole CD is terrific, but I've been a wee bit manic about one song in particular: Here & Heaven. Beautiful harmonies set to a cello, fiddle, and banjo — need I say more?

Not all those who wander are lost.

Okay, so I wasn't lost in the Tolkien sort of way, I was actually following my GPS. But hear me out.

This past weekend I did myself a favor and headed north. Just some time to get lost in the woods, or something like that. I was traveling to a familiar part of Minnesota, but still needed help getting there. I punched the address into the GPS and off I went. I thought I knew which roads would take me to my destination. I'm happy to report there was a better way.

The usual route, well it's a bit boring. This new path, oh it was beautiful. There were twists and turns, roads lined with forest, quiet country ways with only one lane in each direction. The newness of it was charming.

It was like I was a modern-day cowboy - driving off into the sunset, with the city behind me and no schedule before. Except I was driving a Pontiac and am clearly not a boy. Well, maybe if John Wayne was 24 and a woman and living in 2011...let's be honest here, it really wasn't that epic or romantic. In fact it was just, pleasant. It was a pleasant three hour drive north, but with a few hidden gems waiting to be found along the way. I didn't need to know my route, my only job: enjoy the ride.

The other side of the coin: hope.

This week it is the other side of the coin of last week's post. On this subject matter I am merely an observer, so I'm going to let someone else say it better: Read this article (from the Wall Street Journal) on the life and death of Steve Jobs. Thought provoking stuff. (I found it through this blog)

Your technology doesn't just change the method that you communicate, it changes what you talk about and how you do it. Not only that, but technology also shapes our society and culture. So, whoever is shaping our culture and technology is shaping your world in someway, whether you know it or not. Steve Jobs wasn't the master of the universe - clearly - but he was one of the idea leaders of our day, so understanding his ideas (and the many other thought leaders that are vying for space in our lives) actually matters. 

I'm not an expert on Steve Jobs, the author of this article likely isn't either, but it will get your thoughts turning at a minimum. One of the more powerful sections was a comparison of Jobs's Stanford commencement speech (see last week's post) and a Martin Luther King Jr. speech:

"Mr. Jobs's final leave of absence was announced this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And, as it happened, Mr. Jobs died on the same day as one of Dr. King's companions, the Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, one of the last living co-founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Dr. King, too, had had a close encounter with his own mortality when he was stabbed by a mentally ill woman at a book signing in 1958. He told that story a decade later to a rally on the night of April 3, 1968, and then turned, with unsettling foresight, to the possibility of his own early death. His words, at the beginning, could easily have been a part of Steve Jobs's commencement address:

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now."

But here Dr. King, the civic and religious leader, turned a corner that Mr. Jobs never did. "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

Is it possible to live a good, full, human life without that kind of hope? Steve Jobs would have said yes in a heartbeat. A convert to Zen Buddhism, he was convinced as anyone could be that this life is all there is. He hoped to put a "ding in the universe" by his own genius and vision in this life alone—and who can deny that he did?

But the rest of us, as grateful as we are for his legacy, still have to decide whether technology's promise is enough to take us to the promised land. Is technology enough? Has the curse truly been repealed? Is the troublesome world simply awaiting another Steve Jobs, the evangelist of our power to unfold our own possibilities?

And, correspondingly, was the hope beyond themselves, and beyond this life, that animated Dr. King and his companions merely superfluous to the success of their cause, an accident of religious history rather than a civic necessity?

For people of a secular age, Steve Jobs's gospel may seem like all the good news we need. But people of another age would have considered it a set of beautifully polished empty promises, notwithstanding all its magical results. Indeed, they would have been suspicious of it precisely because of its magical results.

And that may be true of a future age as well. Our grandchildren may discover that technological progress, for all its gifts, is the exception rather than the rule. It works wonders within its own walled garden, but it falters when confronted with the worst of the world and the worst in ourselves. Indeed, it may be that rather than concealing difficulty and relieving burdens, the only way forward in the most tenacious human troubles is to embrace difficulty and take up burdens—in Dr. King's words, to embrace a "dangerous unselfishness.""

Lessons from the life of a genius.

Steve Jobs, the man everyone is talking about today. All day I was amazed at how much chatter his death received, in the media, with my co-workers - we spent a good 15 minutes at the end of a meeting discussing Job's visionary approach to technology and how much he impacted the design community and technology on a whole. I never really gave Steve Jobs too much thought while he was alive, but clearly he made massive contributions that have not gone unnoticed.

You can read this obituary of Jobs and if you have 15 minutes watch the commencement speech he gave to Stanford grads in 2005, the title of it "How to live before you die."

Here is what I learned:

Do what you are passionate about, even if it seems frivolous. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy course at his college, calligraphy! Learning calligraphy would be sweet, but I would likely think: Calligraphy? Really, I'm probably just wasting my time, I should learn something more practical like economics or math. Guess what, Jobs said that calligraphy course gave him a love for typography which later impacted Apple. It was the first computer with beautiful fonts, giving them an edge. Crazy!!

It is okay to fail. In fact, your greatest failure could be the best thing that ever happened to you. When Steve Jobs was 30, he was fired from Apple. Fired. It was a heavy time for him. He even considered leaving Silicon Valley, but being ousted from the company that he formed pushed him in to "one of the most creative periods of his life" and on to create two companies: NeXT and Pixar. And guess what, years later Apple acquired NeXT and Jobs returned to Apple. Looking back Jobs said this "Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me...it was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it."

When all is said and done, Steve Jobs was just a man, but when I read what is going around the web it's crazy how some seem to think otherwise.

I don't think one man's reflections on life or eloquent platitudes are what are going to save you or give you the life you've always wanted, I don't think he even had a full picture of what is truth is. (and contrary to the growing belief, technology isn't going to save us either.) That doesn't eliminate the fact that he was a genius in many ways. There are still nuggets of inspiration and truth in what he had to say and gave me food for thought. Cheers.

The pursuit of meaning.

How do you find meaning in life?

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What puts fire in your belly and a skip in your step? We are all living for something, no human can escape this. Some live for pleasure, success, passion, intellect, do-gooding, the list could go on and on.

Recently, I listened to a great podcast by Ravi Zacharias. Ravi is a tremendous communicator. If I were hosting a dinner party and could invite any five people in the world he would likely be on that list. Ravi is intelligent, interesting, a charming story teller, eloquent speaker, and lover of people.

This particular podcast was the third in a series on the pursuit of meaning. Ravi proposed that two of the elements of a meaningful life are Truth & Love.

1) Truth

We all believe certain things, in every areas of our lives: faith, science, thoughts on self, how the world works, etc etc. But is it true? Do you believe what you believe because it is easy, seems nice or is what you have always known? This is what Ravi had to say:

“If a man believing a certain religion looks at me and says “It makes me feel good”. My question to him isn’t whether it makes you feel good, LSD can make you feel good. My question is: is it true!”

1) Love

Ravi's second point: “You can not have meaning without love.”

"Ladies and gentlemen, before God I beg you to believe me - of all the thrills of lucrative benefits that the business or the preaching world could have brought to me, of all the wonder that comes from preaching at a conference with such great names, of all the joy that comes from meeting other people at conferences or what have you, reading some great books, and studying philosophy that can dazzle your mind. All of them have paled for so long into insignificance as I realize in that one minute I learned more about the meaning of life then in all the books in philosophy that I had ever read. Meaning comes from relationship."

That one minute: coming home to his young daughter.

Neither of these things stand alone as the meaning of life. If one became your meaning you will be crushed, no one will ever find all the answers we are looking for and human love doesn't solve all of our woes. Even so, how amazing are both of these things?! Neither are easy to come by, but I think they are worth fighting for. Who's with me?

Click here to hear what Ravi has to say about it

truthy fun.

Or is it funny truth? A lot of things are humorous simply because they are all too true.

Such as this Onion article. By way of preview:

"In the coming weeks and months, people will have to make some really important decisions about some really important issues," Columbia University historian Douglas R. Collins said during a press conference, speaking very slowly and clearly so the nation could follow his words. "And one thing we can do, before making a choice that has permanent consequences for our entire civilization, is check real quick first to see if human beings have ever done anything like it previously, and see if turned out to be a good idea or not."

"It's actually pretty simple: We just have to ask ourselves if people doing the same thing in the past caused something bad to happen," Collins continued. "Did the thing we're thinking of doing make people upset? Did it start a war? If it did, then we might want to think about not doing it."

A song in the key of free.

I love music. I love good deals.

iTunes has a good deal every week: a few free songs to legally download. What!? They can often be duds, but sometimes they are magical and lovely and introduce me to new artists I wouldn't have met otherwise. iTunes has gifted me music from The Civil Wars, Owl City, Robert Earl Keen, Bon Iver and Patty Griffin. Awesome.

Might I recommend this week's Indie Spotlight: Atlas Hands by Benjamin Francis Leftwich. I have never heard of this band before, but I think I like them now. Deep lyrics, interesting sound, I like it. And for free, why not give it a go? If you are interested, here is how one would obtain said song.

1) Open iTunes

2) Scroll all the way to the bottom. Look for "Free on iTunes"

3) Click the Indie Spotlight song

4) Voila. Hit the free button and you now own a shiny new song all for the low, low price of free. Rock on.

fall is folk.

Grab your scarf, a mug of hot coffee, your flannel, an engulfing book and settle in - fall is almost here. I'm pretty sure I heard warm, deep sighs all across Minneapolis as I drove to work this morning. In Minnesota, we take our summers seriously. But the fun has been had and fall is upon us. Deep breath, time to relax.

There are many things I love about fall. A few of which are noted above. One of the charms of fall: it is the perfect time of year for folk music. The warmth, nostalgia, and depth of folk music are best appreciated in a warm sweater, probably while watching the leaves change colors, maybe while journaling deep, wistful thoughts or reading some soul stirring novel. Did I warn you that I can be dramatic? I'm a closet romantic - and fall brings her out.

Here are three pandora stations to get you started, one old, one new, & one commercial. And a few great artists, (some only dabble): The Wailing Jennys, Allison Kraus, Bob Dylan, Eva Cassidy, Patty Griffin, Tallest Man on Earth, Damien Rice, Brandy Carlisle, Avett Brothers, Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, Gillian Welch, & Mumford and Sons.

Cheers!

living with less rules.

"Oh my soul and body!" CoraLouise exclaimed as she looked out the window onto a bush that spilled over with hydrangeas. When she said it, I knew she meant it - she loved those flowers. CoraLouise has what we call Chutzpah. She is who she is, through and through and doesn't let anyone tell her otherwise. She is not afraid of who she is and throughly enjoys her life in all that she does.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of enjoying her company and fiery personality at the lake. At one point she was wearing the baseball cap of her granddaughter's husband, all of course while laughing and telling us the story of the 80 year old springs that she has under her mattress. If you knew Cora you wouldn't need any evidence of the ferocity with which she lives life, it is written all over her at every minute of the day. But, by way of example: Cora has squirrel paraphernalia all over her cabin and apartment. Why? Because a few years back Cora single handedly killed a squirrel, with a double edged axe. Chutzpah.

When I was spending time with Cora this weekend I couldn't help but think of a line from a poem that the Red Hat Society has used as a battle cry of sorts:

"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me."

The poem goes on to talk about all these things she will do in her old age, because she can't do them now. Now she must be responsible, adult like. She has rules to live by. But it ends with the thought that maybe she should do them now. Miss CoraLouise inspired me to do that just by the way she lived her life.

What if I didn't wait for old age to free me from the bounds of expectation and rule?

I want to live like Cora does, with passion and vigor and life. Not to go Paula Cole on you, but I don't want to wait for my life to be over, to live it the way I've always wanted to. I think CoraLouise would agree with me in this: let's live life today without the silly rules and pretense that so often holds us down.

Gather up your courage and go live the life you actually mean to live, today.

beauty in the blue.

“And then out of the blue, there it was - the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen”

Often we go along in life and are suddenly struck by beauty. Beauty makes us stop and wonder, stand in awe, have hope. Beauty adds to our lives in countless ways, but how often do we miss it? That is the purpose of this blog: to find beauty wherever I go, in whatever life brings me. If beauty is coming out of the blue, why not go in & find it for myself? I believe, if we all just look for it, we will find beauty everywhere, because it was placed there for us.

This is my second foray into blogging. It might take, it might flop. I hope I don’t add to the clutter of information and voices already out there. What I hope for most: discovering reasons to be thankful everyday & that in seeing beauty it would cause me – and you – to climb out of the rubble of despair and sadness that the world often thrusts upon us to see that we have real reasons to have hope and joy.