Thoughts

We did it again. My leadership class and I put together another event. We invited the school to watch Dispicable Me . The movie was a hit, so much so that one little girl got up to dance with the main character at the end of the movie. It was a wholesome family night, and on a Monday no less! There were very few issues. It was just a relaxing evening. We're going to use the proceeds to pay for our leadership conference in late March and early April. It should make for a meanigful experience. Signing off...

We've all experienced it. Some people experience déjà vu so frequently, though, that they aren’t interested in watching TV or reading the newspaper because they think they’ve seen it before; and still others treat strangers like people they know. Although psychologists don’t completely understand déjà vu, they have found that you are more likely to experience it if you (1) are younger (people who are in their 20’s might experience it three times per year, for example, while middle-aged people might experience it only once every ten years), (2) are wealthy, (3) are educated, (4) are liberal, and (5) have traveled a lot. What do these things have in common? Maybe déjà vu happens to people who stimulate their minds more. The younger you are, the more you need to learn; the more money you have, the more opportunity to do things others couldn't; the more you've read and studied, the more active your mind; and the more you've traveled, the more you've been exposed to a va...

A man with a clear purpose can be the most charitable, benevolent, generous person on Earth; or the most dangerous. In my experience, his purpose must be wholly informed by wisdom, a wisdom that is "first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17). To have clear purpose is a powerful thing, to be sure; but the following example shows, I think, just how destructive an impure purpose can be to self and other. Starting in 1851, a group of Chinese called Hakka started a civil war that ended with the deaths of tens of millions. This conflict partly occurred because the Hakka resented their Manchurian rulers, who had ruled them for two centuries and shown themselves to be poor rulers; partly because many people became frustrated over a lack of jobs; and partly because people felt threatened by pirates, who were forced into China by the British, among other reasons. One of these Hakka was named Hong ...

On October 25th, 1854, during the Crimean War, a British cavalry unit charged boldly into battle against a Russian army. The problem was that the charge was a mistake. The unit was supposed to travel on a hill to the side of a valley, but instead charged through its middle. With fewer men, lighter arms, and in a much weaker position, the men followed their orders, charged through a guarded valley, and were killed in the process (many of them, anyway). While I can't say my mistakes have been so bad that poems have been written about them (see Tennyson, "Charge of the Light Brigade"), I can say that I've had memorable ones. The following is an example. I'm calling it my charge of the light brigade. I was on the track team. It was my senior year in high school. My friends and I had trained for the cross-country portion of track and field. I think it was after we had completed our events for the day, our coach informed us that we had no one to run the one-hundred mete...

Who you idolize says something about you. When I was younger, I revered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My favorite was one whom few other Turtles fans liked: Raphael. I liked him because he was the one whom people expected very little from. He was the one with the smallest weapons, the least liked personality, and the one who generally lived in the shadow of the most popular turtle. I guess that means I like the underdog, maybe because that's how I see myself. I'm not the extroverted, forthright type, but rather I'm reserved and cautious. I think it is these traits, though, that have at times been my strengths, when I've caught others off guard by showing them things about me they never thought were there. With that said, here's to the underdog, the ones who show us that even the least of us can shine.

I really like soccer. I remember when I was sixteen, playing soccer for my high school team. We were playing one of our rivals. I was a substitute, so less was expected of me than many of the others on the team. It was during the first half, and I got hold of the ball near the goal. Already so close, I had merely to tap it in. After I did, I received the greatest praise I believe I've ever received in my life, then and since. My teammate picked my up and carried me halfway across the field. At a different game, I ran up to a player much larger than me. About five to seven feet from me, he kicked the ball directly toward me. It struck me directly on the face. Numb and disoriented, I walked away and was yelled at by a teammate who must not have seen what happened (or who thought it wasn't that bad). I guess we all have our good and bad days!

We want to be happy. Even those who claim they would rather remain angry or lonely or depressed say this because they believe that their current state is a happier (or more pleasurable) one than any other. There is a self-indulgence that comes with those emotions. Look long enough, in fact, and you'll find those whose choices bring them more pain than pleasure. The child who stays in his room after his parents have told him he can leave it, and the lonely man who turns down a party invitation, both refuse to trade away their pain, because their pain nurtures them. Truth, in fact, can be hard to face. It's like a sleeping dragon, fed with rational thoughts laced with the sedative of false hope. So menacing is this dragon to us that we feel if it ever wakes it can do nothing but destroy us. Then, when we find ourselves in those brave moments when we peek closely, we find a knowing smile on its face, as if it is waiting simply for us to linger long enough to see it as it truly is...