Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Life hurts.  That's all there is to it.  It's not easy and it's not always fun.  Of course, there are times when it has you dancing around to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.  Other times it leaves you standing in the rain, blue eyes crying with Willie Nelson.  Part of its charm is its unpredictable nature.

The past few months have not been the sunshiny type.  But I'm seeing some rays break through.  I'm taking a Chinese proficiency test this Sunday, and my friend was over helping me study this morning, when we got to talking about the holidays.  She asked if I was going to invite people over for Christmas, which has become a daily question lately.  I don't really know how to explain how difficult the holidays are going to be for me this year.  They suck.  I wish they weren't happening.  No I'm not inviting my friends over, because I don't want to see anyone.  I'm probably going to be in my room with the door shut, and if I'm not then I'm going to be a groucho extraordinaire.  Which I don't really want to subject my friends to.  Rather than looking at me as if I have some kind of disease when I told her I didn't really want to throw a party that day, she was remarkably understanding.  See, her brother died suddenly a few years ago and she said that the first Spring Festival without him was awful.  She hated it.  She said it took her a year and a half to be able to talk about him without crying.  At least I know I'm normal.  It was really nice to talk to her and realize that I'm not crazy.  That it would be weird if I didn't feel like that.  A lot of my friends around here react to crying with the following encouragement, "Don't be sad.  Tomorrow is another day.  You can do it!"  Which usually produces the opposite reaction from what they intended, by inspiring in me a sudden urge to punch someone.

So the point of all this rambling is, I'm really grateful for my friends.  I have the best ones.  And I'd like to thank our Father for blessing me with the right people at the right time.  He knows I need them.  The end.

Obama in China!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/china-town-hall

Matthew 19

Poverty

is so hard to see

when it's only on your TV

or 20 miles across town

Where we're all living so good

that we moved out of Jesus' neighborhood

where he's hungry and not feeling so good

from going through our trash.

He says, More than just your cash and coin

I want your time

I want your voice

I want the things you just can't give me

So what must we do?

Here in the West we want to follow you

We speak the language and we keep all the rules

Even a few we made up

Come on and follow me

Sell your house, sell your SUV

Sell your stocks, sell your security

and give it to the poor.

Well what is this?

Hey what's the deal?

I don't sleep around and I don't steal

I want the things you just can't give me.

Because what you do to the least of these

My brothers you have done it to me

Because I want the things you just can't give me

"Perhaps there is no more dangerous place for a Christian to be than in safety and comfort, detached from the suffering of others."
-Jesus for President

brilliant propaganda

anyway

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothing
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This worlds gone crazy
And it's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
And in a moment they can choose to walk away
love em anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway

"The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway."

-Mother Teresa's wall in Kolkata

the life you can save

I tend to irrationally think that marketing is of the devil: convincing people to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like. But an idea has been nagging at me recently that it can be an incredible tool for something besides consumerism. I'll let you read Nicholas Kristof's opinion about improving the world. Part of me is wishing I'd studied marketing in school instead of the waste of time I did study for 4 1/2 years. But who knows maybe I'll find a worthy use of knowing how to fluff pillows someday.

All jesting aside, the gist of the article [in case you don't feel like reading it] is that several countries are disturbingly far behind in meeting humanitarian aid pledges, and he proceeds to explore the reason we are so willing to save people we can see and recognize but remain coldly indifferent to the suffering of people far away. Kristof deplores how poorly aid groups advertise, "Any brand of toothpaste is peddled with far more sophistication than the life-saving work of aid group."

The problem seems to be that the more people die, the less we care. For example, in one study, people donate generously to Rokia, a 7-year-old malnourished African girl. But when Rokia’s plight was explained as part of a larger context of hunger in Africa, people were much less willing to help.

Anyway I could continue to give you a breakdown of the article but I'd rather encourage you to read it yourself.