Thoughts to Think About

People...

2007-11-29T10:38:00.001-05:00

You all know that you can mute your cell phone ringer, right? Like, even if you aren't answering a call, you don't need to let it ring all 4 or 5 times (or play that song that you think makes you seem cool, but it's a really annoying low-fi version of some crap pimped by record labels).

Push the little button on the side of the phone.

Good grief.

$200 for the best party you've ever been to

2007-10-04T14:07:00.001-04:00

Click above for more info.

Past events can be seen here: http://www.charityis.org/events/

This group is phenomenal. They've raised over $1M in one year of existence. Some cool video of recent work: http://www.charityis.org/september/

I'm tired of trying to be cool

2007-09-28T21:33:00.000-04:00

but the thought of being uncool is so... awful.

This is from a recent "6 Posts in 60 Seconds" email newsletter from Brewing Culture.

--------------
The concept of countercultural rebellion and its elusive twin—cool—have resulted in a status competition that has driven consumption to unprecedented heights. It's not conformism that leads us to spend, spend, spend on the unnecessary and the ephemeral, but its opposite: the quest to distinguish ourselves from the masses through our enlightened, hip, or just plain rebellious consumer preferences. And marketers of products ranging from cars (the Volkswagen Bug) to computers (the Mac) to shoes (Doc Martens) have been reaping huge harvests from the countercultural seeds that were sown in the 1960s. The point was never underlined more heavily than when Kalle Lassen, editor of the ragingly anti-capitalist Adbusters magazine, came out with the Black Spot sneaker: a "subversive" running shoe that Lassen hoped would "uncool Nike" and "set a precedent that [would] revolutionize capitalism." As Heath and Potter point out, there is nothing "subversive" about trying to beat Nike. "That's called marketplace competition. It's the whole point of capitalism...."

Free Public Transportation

2007-07-09T23:57:00.003-04:00

Yeah yeah yeah... it's against a lot of my personal macroeconomic theory, but I want to learn more about the idea of free public transportation for all. On the face of it, I think it is a great idea. Just think of the issues of parking, environment, getting places, exploration, exposure, saving money, and more.

"Saving money!? We'll certainly have to raise taxes to pay for free public transit..."

Well, I might just go to a few more Orioles games and buy taxed tickets and taxed food if it were easier to get ther (i.e. not travel hassle and parking expense). So maybe revenues would increase w/o a rate hike. I don't know much about this stuff.

Worth the experiment? Please let me know.

I've never been on an MTA bus.

Grace and Freedom

2007-02-21T13:32:00.000-05:00

here's an email exchange I had recently from someone (adult) after a Young Life Bible study with some high school kids. I was able to clarify if only for myself some of the ideas of grace and freedom I've been having. The person who wrote the original email gave permission for this post.

-------

I love those verses you included there. Great stuff. Yeah- and last night was great. I'm more stoked that it got people thinking and talking than anything else. I would rather be wrong than have an impotent and safe faith. All this is somewhat new to me... not the words and the language and the teaching, but what it actually means to me and in the lives of believers. I'm glad that your house is a safe place to discuss all this because it's nuts.

I'm reading a book right now called "Scandalous Freedom" but I'm not nearly done. The author Steve Brown is a really smart seminary dude and I'm interested to see where some of his ideas go.

Call this overly radical, but I'm currently thinking that we are really and completely free. Free "from" - certainly. But also free "to" - and free + any other preposition (of, with, to, from...). I see this as a complete abandoment to the obligation of the law and a complete dependency on Christ. And I hate it because I want rules and a measuring stick. I WANT TO FEEL LIKE I AM GOOD AND DOING GOOD - therefore I want law. But that, I think, does not honor Christ. To find any righteousness apart from him is dangerous. The tricky part is if that is true, how do I rightly view the good things that I do? It's tough.

Regarding the fact that we are slaves to righteousness - EXACTLY! - how else could we have freedom? If we are not absolutely and completely righteous in Christ by HIS doing and HIS will and HIS security, then by no means are we free. We would still have to earn. The beautiful part is that none of this is about us. It is all about God if this is true. Because we are slaves to righteousness we are free! I love our slave master! So that's where I might disagree with
you a little bit - we do not and cannot choose to be slaves to righteousness. I think that is actually impossible. Because we are taken slaves to it, and only because we are taken captive and we cannot leave, there is where we can be free. We cannot escape the righteousness that Christ has secured for us! AND, therefore, it is impossible for us to live up to it - we cannot live up to it, and we should not try, because it is already completely done.

So, how do we live? I have no idea... but what I'm learning now is to live more by desire than by obligation. To replace the word "should" with "want". I want to be more disciplined, I want to know God, I want to be with kids in ministry, I want to obey. If we put the word "should" in to each of those phrases, I don't know about anyone else, but I am going to feel completely inadequate and guilty because I accomplish none of of them. But if it is an honest desire, I think
that honors God, and when we fail we can claim the fact that Christ didn't fail instead of finding ways to succeed. But, now, I WANT to (not should) find ways to "succeed" (and I define success by faithfulness and not result) and maybe when I shed the guilt and the burden that might just actually happen.

I believe this is more than just a semantic difference in how we understand these things. I believe that this strikes at the very nature of how we define grace and how we live by grace. I think it has to do with the character of God, the work of Christ, and the role of faith. I think freedom and grace are to inform every bit of how we live.

May I encourage us to read these verses slowly...

Galatians 2:15 - 3:5, 10-14, 4:1-11, 5:1-6, 16, 24-25, 6:7-10

"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is
not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So
we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified
by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing
the law no one will be justified.

"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that
we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin?
Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a
lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live
for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set
aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through
the law, Christ died for nothing!"

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes
Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn
just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the
law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After
beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by
human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was
for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you
because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is
written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything
written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before
God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law
is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things
will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is
hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to
Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by
faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no
different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is
subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So
also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic
principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent
his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law,
that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls
out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and
since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by
nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by
God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable
principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are
observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for
you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and
do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be
circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare
to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to
obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have
been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by
faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which
we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself
through love.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of
the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to
the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They
are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with
its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will
reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the
Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good,
for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,
especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

---

A couple highlights from that:
-Just as we are saved by grace (we tell people "it's not what you DO"), so do we live and become sanctified by GRACE. After "beginning with the Spirit" I want to acheive righteousness through my works - and this is wrong. I need to understand that no where in this process is my salvation and growth acheived though merit.

-the memory verse Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified w/ Christ and I no longer live..." is misunderstood out of context. That's why I don't like memorizing individual verses sometimes. I/We teach it to mean "You must live for Christ" - when I think it's saying more "Christ must live for you because he has died for you and has cleaved himself to you. Our standing before God cannot change because we have bee crucified with Christ - by his choosing to do so!" A dead man is free. There's nothing to live for when we have been crucified! - all our goals and desires change when we are already dead. So let's get death out of the way and start living!

-I often feel enslaved by following Christ, or at least by the expectations I feel I'm supposed to live up to as learned from other believers. This is no one's fault - we're sinners. It's funny though, that Paul says we must stand firm in these ideas of freedom, almost like he was expecting it to be controversial. Again, I WANT LAW and OBLIGATION - I WANT TO THINK I AM GOOD when I live up to it. But it really gets scary when we say I want freedom, because it says for me to be righteous it must be on account of another - I CAN'T DO IT. Freedom is not natural for us. When we lost our identity being found in God at the fall, we chose to desire law over the freedom found in having our security and identity in Christ alone.

-Lastly, AND THIS IS SOOOO COOL, when Paul writes of "falling away from Grace," he is referring to those who are trying to live be law - the ones who might look more obedient from the rest of us. WOW! Falling away from Grace means that we are not living in freedom, that we are not living by grace, that we are TRYING to be good! WOW!

I want to live by faith and live by the Spirit. I want to sow well. And I think a lot of that happens when I stop trying to be a good Christian. I really do. I'm failing even at this. And I'm finally ok with that.

With sincere love,
Brody

On 2/20/07, ******** <*******@comcast.net> wrote:
> Brody --
> How awesome was the banter last night! I felt so blessed to have been a
> part of a conversation where young people are truly wrestling with some of
> the deep mysteries of our faith. I woke up thinking about our conversation
> last night and was continuing to contemplate our freedom in Christ. One
> aspect that I was focusing on is instead of thinking about what we are free
> to do or not do, thinking about what we are free from. Galatians 5:1 : "It
> is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
> yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Christ died to free us
> from the yoke of slavery to sin. We are no longer enslaved to sin if we are
> in Him. But if you read on in that Romans 6 passage I read from last night,
> you will see that though we are no longer slaves to sin, we are slaves to
> righteousness. (v. 15 - 23) So what does that mean? What does that say
> about our freedom? Are we really totally free? Yes, we have free will, but
> that free will gives us the power to choose our master -- either we choose
> to remain enslaved to sin, or we choose to be slaves to righteousness with
> Christ as our Master. Either way, we are still a slave, still not totally
> "free" in the true sense of the word. We have been bought with a price,
> therefore we are "owned". Its all a matter of whether we live up to that
> reality or not. Your thoughts on that spin???
>
> Galatians 5
> 13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to
> indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
>
> 1 Peter 2
> 16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live
> as servants of God. 17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood
> of believers, fear God, honor the king.
>
> 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.It is no longer I who live,
> but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the
> Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the
> grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with
> God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
>
> Just some more fuel to the fire...
> Very interesting debate!
>
> --*******
>

Songs up...

2007-02-11T03:11:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone still might check out this blog after a few months of not posting, but if you do, I finally have some songs up on myspace that are rough and incomplete mixes of some stuff we've been working on for the last several months.

www.myspace.com/brodybondmusic

When will the EP be done? I don't know yet.

Not For Sale - campaigns against slavery

2007-02-11T01:56:00.000-05:00

amigos-

tonight I did a fair amount of learning about some of the stuff that's going on w/ modern day slavery. It's a hot-button issue right now b/c of the release of 'Amazing Grace', the movie about Wilberforce's work to end the slave trade in the UK empire. The movie's producers were hoping it would spark a larger conversation and movement about modern day slave traffic, and that it has.

There's so much good being done right now, and it's sort of overwhelming to know where to spend our time and our money. But, I just wanted to let you know of a few resources and media pieces I found regarding modern day slavery and human trafficking.

- http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ - a central hub for news and action. You can be emailed news and updates (http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/Subscribe.aspx).

- http://www.concerttoendslavery.com/ - 2 videos here, a trailer for International Justice Mission and for the Not For Sale Campaign.

- www.ijm.org - International Justice Mission. Totally legit. Gary Haugen=stud. Among many other things, IJM goes undercover and documents illegal activities and then runs the evidence up the political food chain until someone deals with it. Secret cameras and stuff... kinda cool.

- http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/ - make sure you see the movie. Trailer is on this site.

- http://www.theamazingchange.com/ - You can sign the petition here.

Various associated myspace pages:
http://www.myspace.com/tremolomusic
http://www.myspace.com/notforsalecampaign
http://www.myspace.com/amazingchange
http://www.myspace.com/internationaljusticemission

Mike Metzger w/ TCI is also doing a series on Wilberforce in his weekly commentaries:
http://www.claphaminstitute.org/commentaries.html

This email will be posted to my blog if anyone wants to check it out over there. http://brodybond.blogspot.com

May we become more and more a part of not letting where we are born decide what is acceptable.

Brody

love wins.

To start a conversation

2006-09-02T21:03:00.000-04:00

Check it out and spread the love. Art is upstream. Get to the source of character and ideas and see what the mills turn when the water gets there:

Photos from Four Horse Shoes

2006-09-02T11:41:00.000-04:00

If you don't know, I'm working on recording an EP. I'm sure we'll be talking about this later, but in the meantime, I just wanted to get some photos up:

Found a reason to root for the Yankees...

2006-08-29T18:50:00.000-04:00

BusinessWeek magazine recently had their "Competition Issue." I didn't read all of it. I did read this and I liked it, especially in light of the "Someone Has To Lose" post:

Joe Torre On Winning
Don't be afraid to fail, encourage your talent, and use your heart. And never be unprepared.

Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It's about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result.

To emphasize the importance of preparation, I make my players recall a painful memory from the fourth game of the 2004 American League Championship Series. We were up three games to none against Boston, and carrying a one-run lead heading into the last inning of the fourth game at Fenway. Mariano Rivera was pitching when he walked the leadoff batter. Boston decides to put in a pinch-runner, a guy named Dave Roberts, who would change the tide of the game and the entire series when he steals second. Bill Mueller comes to the plate, hits one through the middle. Roberts scores to tie the game. The Red Sox would go on to win it 6-4 and fight their way back to take the championship. Roberts hadn't had an at-bat all series, but he was prepared to do the job being asked of him. As tough as that game was, I use it and Roberts' performance as an example to my players. You may be frustrated by not playing -- that's my decision. But you have to understand when I put you in, you had better be ready to play because everybody in that clubhouse is relying on you. There will be a time when everyone on the team is going to contribute to winning a pennant.

As a member of a competitive team, you want to make sure you have yourself ready to play. You don't control anything but what you do. As a manager, you are responsible for everybody. You're the final decision-maker. It's tougher to do what I do here, but, I will tell you, hitting with the bases loaded is no day at the beach either. After 25 years of managing teams, the last 11 with the Yankees, I have learned not to live in the past and dwell on something that failed. The great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden told me once that you can be prepared and have the best talent there is, but you can't necessarily control the outcome.

I believe anybody who is not afraid to fail is a winner. I remember seeing my older brother, Frank, playing for the Milwaukee Braves in the World Series in 1957 and 1958 against the Yankees. I look back and admire him so much because he never seemed to worry about leaping to that next level. He just seemed to thrive in the pressure, never asking himself "what if I fail?" That's why having perspective is so important. If you talk about game seven of the World Series, it becomes so enormous that it scares the heck out of you. If you take it to a level that it is a baseball game and that one of two teams has to win, all of a sudden your chances are better.

These days it is so important for a CEO, or any manager, whoever it is, to be aware of his or her personnel. We are in an age of computers, and everything is so damn impersonal. But in the end, it still comes down to people. You have to make people feel necessary. Even if their contributions are minor, it adds to everything else. That's what makes the machine work. I love players with heart, not necessarily emotion, but those who deep down are driven by something more than mind and body. I don't play favorites. The 25th member of the squad is just as important as the first guy. And I can't let my own emotions get in the way of competing. I have had to release guys I loved, and keep players I didn't necessarily care for.

I played and managed in more than 4,000 big league games before I ever got to a World Series. But all that experience without a championship helped me prepare for what I needed to do when I came to the Yankees. When I first accepted the job at the end of 1995, my brother Frank said I was crazy. Others were writing about how I wasn't capable of doing this. All I knew was that George Steinbrenner was the guy who was going to give me the tools. Then it was up to me. I wasn't afraid of the challenge. I saw it as a big opportunity. Still, even with all the talent and resources we have here, having heart is what really makes a difference. As a manager, or if you're running a company, you want to know that you can ask somebody to do something and that they are going to find a way to get the job done. That's the essence of a competitor.

The toughest decision for any real warrior is deciding when to step away from the fight. I always think to myself that if February rolls around and I'm not excited about going to spring training, it's time. It never happens. A few weeks ago we won a real nail-biter down in Texas and afterwards my stomach was burning. It was the first time in years that my stomach burned like that. One of my coaches, Larry Bowa, said to me, "See? You still want to do this." I do love the feeling of a big win. But again you don't have to have a World Series ring to be a winner. A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most from their ability. That's what characterizes a winner.

Copyright 2006, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_34/b3998401.htm?chan=search

Awake on a tiring day in DC (which is a COOL town - NW anyway) and about to do fantasy football draft #3 (/4 for 2K6),
-Brody

Bela Fleck

2006-08-15T01:01:00.000-04:00

Bela Fleck's performance last night was a glimpse of the divine, and I doubt this performance stands out from any other of his.

Victor Wooten, one of Bela's Flecktones, is one of the most talented and accomplished bass players of all time. The sounds, energy, and music he can create on the bass is spellbinding. When he performs you are amazed at his talent, the nature of the performance, and how he expresses himself through the instrument. We hear that a lot, that good musicians express themselves through the instrument.

I got a different take on Bela, though. He is so good at playing the banjo, I ought not try to describe it. While others express themselves through their instrument, Bela is his banjo. His banjo is himself. There's no attempt at expression. It is as though they are the same entity. A person cannot not communicate. That link between personhood and communication is like the link between Bela and his banjo.

He has mastered it.

Bela is the most unassuming guy I've ever seen on a rock stage. His jeans and tennis shoes seemed like they may have been bought from Walmart before Walmart tried to be cool. His untucked shirt from a distance seemed like something a man driving his family across the county in an RV might pick up at a truck stop... with something like a "spirit wolf" from Montana screen printing design (3/$10 style).

And then the virtuosity begins. Like I said, he is so good and he has so mastered his realm of ability to create that his creation almost becomes secondary. Whereas most artists and musicians esteem the creation and progress of their art so highly, Bela's surpassing mastery has freed him from even that obligation. And his attention is turned instead to people, mostly the people on stage with him. There was little attention paid to the actual performance and the desire to entertain.

Because Bela was able to execute (dare I say) perfectly, his attention was instead on making sure everyone got his own solos during the jam session the Flecktones had w/ the opening acts. He enjoyed the members of his band and the other musicians on stage with him. Everyone was valued, heard, engaged, and fraternalized.

It says something for practicing a lot.

Brody

[sit down] {STAND UP}

2006-08-15T00:04:00.000-04:00

Ok- I saw Marc Broussard, Umphrey's McGee, and Bela Fleck tonight. Pretty great. Maybe more about that later.

A brief story from tonight:

There was the expected awkwardness where some people started to stand while others, like myself, were still sitting, rocking sideways to see the source of our audio enjoyment. As the rocking became more like threading a line of site through shoulders and heads, a voice meekly shouted, "sit down!"

Not a second later there was the response of a small chorus of people: "stand up!"

I thought that was beautiful and heeded their advice.

What are you and I shouting?

-Brody

Funny enough...

2006-08-14T11:29:00.000-04:00

Did you read this week's Monday Morning Memo? One of the best things I've done is subscribed to it. Roy H. Williams is brilliant, and I would recommend reading everything he's written.

John Steinbeck:
"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, I don't improve; in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself."

Comment by Roy H. Williams:
...In one of his Paradigm videos, Joel Barker explains how Pioneers differ from Settlers. According to Joel, Pioneers are they who plunge ahead into uncharted wilderness and blaze trails for the more cautious settlers to follow. Wisely waiting in the security of town, the Settlers watch from a distance until the destination is reached, the enemies are subdued, and the beckoning trail sparkles westward in the morning light. The sensible Settlers raise cupped hands to their mouths and call down the trail, "Is it safe out there?" And the Pioneers call back, "Yes! It's wonderful. Come on."

Then the Settlers in their canvas-covered wagons follow the trail cut through the wilderness by the Pioneers.

There is much wisdom in being a Settler. A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.

Let me tell you plainly, friend, the money is in being a Settler.

But the fun is in being a Pioneer...

Is this one way to be a river instead of a tidewater? Leave a note.

Awake on a normal day wishing it weren't so normal,
-Broderick

Why I Love Fantasy Football

2006-08-14T02:46:00.000-04:00

Fantasy football is an immaculate waste of time. Over the last two years, I have spent an aggregate of (literally) days (i.e. 24-hour periods) looking at stats, offering trade deals, creating spreadsheets, preparing for drafts and the like. And it helps no one.

I love it. Here's why:

I guess it was a couple years ago when on a Saturday I witnessed my dad performing the normal weekly lugging in tons of stuff just purchased at Sam's Club - paper towels, food, bottled water, etc. Certainly, people need this stuff and effective households have effective shopping trips. I wish in no way to belittle Sam's Club, shopping, the need for paper towels, and certainly not my dad.

But here it was, Saturday, and what was my dad doing? Spending money. After an entire week of working to earn money, the first moments we have away from work we likewise go "work" to lose what we just worked to gain. It's almost like we work to get the paper towels, but that just creates more work because we need to go get them. Further, why do we get paper towels? To make life easier, right? But if we didn't get paper towels (to make life easier) we wouldn't have to go pick them up and we wouldn't have to work the portion of our week that paid for them. In the end we work harder for a guise of ease.

Sidebar: Are our traditional notions and expectations of retirement just a guise of ease? If so, what degree of our lives are spend subsidizing something that isn't even real?

After thinking about this for a little while I came to realize that when we are not working, we are usually spending money one way or another.

And, of course, we go to work to make money. Our lives serve as a financial tidewater. (Please see the larger point of this post, otherwise I will seem like a judgmental ass. I understand that Saturday is a great time to get paper towels if you need them.)

So...
M-F, 9-5 = make money.
M-F, 5 PM - 9 AM = spend money or sleep.
Sat. & Sun. = spend money.

And that's our lives. We are either making or spending money. And we are productive because of it. Make, spend. Make, spend. Work, shop. Work, mulch. Work, eat. Work, go out. Work, renovate the house. Work, impress your friends. Work, "it's for the kids." (Another disclaimer: I know all of these can be used for far greater things than I am making them out to be.) Talk about a vicious cycle. I'm in it to a large degree.

But one place I break free from this is fantasy football. I do it for the intrinsic value of itself. I do it because I enjoy it because I do. It's fun. For me, it is outside the make/spend cycle. I need to find something other than fantasy football to accomplish this for me but I love that all the time it takes up is unproductive.

I'm tired of being a productive tidewater. What's the alternative? I want to be a ravaging, boulder-moving, ragged edge-softening river. I'll leave it up to your comments to see what that might look like.

Awake really late on an cool night with a conference call in 5.5 hours,
-Broderick

...

2006-08-11T02:13:00.000-04:00

The only thing that is worth winning is a game. I tend to like to win at Taboo.

When we try to win at other things - important things - like justice, schools, business, MINISTRY, family, friends, life... all we do is turn them into games. And they are so much more important than that.

(The last two times I played Taboo, I got the word "flaccid." That one was difficult, but I was vulgar, and still got the point for my team.)

Someone has to lose

2006-08-11T00:23:00.000-04:00

A political ad came on tv recently. The candidate said something to the effect of, "Maryland students deserve a great education. I will make Maryland schools second to none."

Let's disregard, for now, the claim that people "deserve" this or that. Let's also disregard, for now, the haughty claim that this candidate is invariably destined (and, thereby, has the capacity) to drastically affect schools. As an extension of the last blog post, I want to comment on the phrase, "second to none."
Second to none means, simply, first. If my fried chicken is second to none, then based on some standard it is better than all other fried chicken. Of course, this also means that some fried chicken is worse. As soon as we develop and implement this standard and as soon as we start to judge by it, statements such as "well done" or "well attempted" are lost to "it's better/worse" or "you win/lose."

Another way to say this is that we stop caring about adverbs, and focus on adjectives.

Here's the point: making Maryland schools second to none might seem like a caring endeavor. But the fact that Maryland's schools are first means that someone else's aren't. In reality, trying to make Maryland schools first could mean trying to make other schools bad. While that is not the goal of the candidate, neither is equal education for all. Rather, winning is the goal. Maryland schools must be best in order to judge them as a success.

I'm quite serious. If we are to be steadfast in making Maryland schools first (even assuming the standard to gauge that is legit), we're also saying that Maryland kids are better and deserve more than other kids. Otherwise, it wouldn't be ok to try to make our schools first. If we say that all men are equal, we can't try to give unequal opportunities by making our tribe of schools or hospitals or courts second to none. The best we can do is to do the best we can do. And somehow I find that to be a little more motivating than making us better than Nebraska.

When a standard is judged by adjectives, one must evaluate the ends to make the judgment. The ends can only be evaluated by comparison through competitive means. But when we use adverbs to describe a standard, we are able to look at the means and the heart and the motivation of the issue/person/goal.

We don't need a loser in order that we can win. But only if we redefine winning.

How about this as a campaign line: "Maryland citizens and students are well-served by a great education. I will try to make Maryland students feel valued and make them smarter in the process."

What's your campaign line?

Awake late on a night where I have to wake up soon,
-Brody

Of Darwin, Machiavelli, and Jack Welch

2006-08-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

I've been watching the X-Games a little bit recently and have been intrigued by this: competition while seeking the benefit of one's competitor.

It's like competition gone right: using yourself and the other to make progress.

In other words, me winning is not as important as having someone, anyone, completing a double 720 ollie grab super grind flip thing that's totally the rad sick nasty, brah.

And I love it.

Can this attitude carry over into other areas of life (business and politics, most notably)? It's so hard to revel in the success of another, but why is that? Well, we are all certainly insecure (when was the last time you didn't want to feel cool - by some standard?). Social Comparison Theory (wikipedia) would tell us that we find our identity in relation to others. My hypothesis is that a lot of the competitive spirit in us comes from the fact that everyday in school as we develope into our selves, our "success" is tied to our grades, and our grades are merely a measuring stick as to how we compare to our peers. Grades are a completely arbitrary standard.

We don't measure success by the means, but by the ends. I'm not sure this is ideal. One sports team practices longer and harder than another team who wins, but the losing coach still gets fired. Or, a salesman makes more calls than another who got one fortuitously large account, we look at their bottom lines to declare the former a worse salesman. I just have a hard time accepting these win/lose parameters as standards of "success." Naturally, someone HAS to win the game. Someone WILL sell more widgets. So how can an inevitable reality be used to judge someone's performance, especially when their performance does not completely affect the outcome (the best pitch in the world can still be hit as a homerun... this doesn't make the pitch bad). I'm not really sure of a better standard, per se, except that the means are important, and maybe more important than the ends.

This is another reason why art is so cool. Competition doesn't set the standard for assessing the quality of what has been created by the artist. My song can be evaluated independently of your song. Our same businesses often can't, though. And we both can't be elected to the same office.

So let's make business, politics, and sports more like art. The only way I can think of right now on how to do that is to love each other - seek the best for the other while doing your thing. Take conversation over arguments and common goals over agendas. Who knew that flipping dirt bikes in mid-air would one day be judged for style?

Thoughts?

-Brody

On one of many squibbles...

2006-08-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you, Matthew Smith's blog is the finest I've seen. There I found this great article written by Tim Keller on musical worship during church and its role in the service. Like most polarized dichotomies, the seeker-sensitive entertainment vs. the high-church impotency is a false one. It's long, but meaty, and very interesting if you find this stuff interesting.

I recently tried to find a suitable synonym for interesting that was still somewhat benign (i.e. "intriguing" wouldn't do) and found none. Interesting.

Therefore, the one basic message that both Christians and unbelievers need to hear is the gospel of grace. It can then be applied to both groups, right on the spot and directly. Sermons which are basically moralistic will only be applicable to either Christians OR non-Christians. But Christo-centric preaching, preaching the gospel, both grows believers and challenges non-believers. If the Sunday service and sermon aim primarily at evangelism, it will bore the saints. If they aim primarily at education, they’ll bore and confuse unbelievers. If they aim at praising the God who saves by grace they’ll both instruct insiders and challenge outsiders.

Your comments are welcome.

Awake on what will be a busy afternoon,
-Brody

Truth is Relative (Because it is Absolute)

2006-08-05T01:02:00.000-04:00

E Unum Pluribus.

Imagine you are staring at a coin, like right at Abe Lincoln's dome piece. What shape is the coin? A circle, right?

Now turn the coin 90 degrees on its axis (so the dome piece is facing a wall parallel to the direction you are facing). What shape is the coin? A line, right?

Yet it is the same coin.

I'm learning to not get all bent out of shape when people see truth in a different way than I do. If I start to presume I am exclusively right (and I see the coin as a circle), then I'm missing out on learning from someone the beauty of seeing a coin as a straight line.

We can't experience everything, so the best way to learn and grow and learn more (about) truth is to devise means to clearly communicate with those we trust. I need to stop trying to convince people of what my reality says is real. It's just as distorted and steeped in experience as anyone else's.

Rather, my voice needs to be one in a collaborative effort to figure out this joyously amazing f'ed up redeemed sinful beautiful life. There is absolute truth, but my eyes can only see so much of it, and my mouth can only express even less of it. If I can give and receive love (which is damn hard, by the way), live humbly, and resist my fears (mainly of not being right), there might be hope that I can build a community that reflects a more holistic view of truth than what I know. Thus, this larger truth becomes bigger an more relative to a more diverse audience since it is perceived an reflected in more ways than I could ever reckon.

We are a body. We are a band. I can't drum and play guitar at the same time. Put us together and the music might be good.

The pundits of "absolute truth" should realize that in their attempts to glorify truth, they limit its scope and impact by assuming that one person can know it fully; or, they assume that someone who might not see it the same way is wrong. Truth know no lines or boundaries except those which it draws for itself, and we have no right to say that truth is a circle and dismiss those who see the same truth as a straight line. It is not ours to judge. It is not ours to judge.

There is absolute truth. We are not it. Therefore we can't know it fully. This, thereby, demands humility on our quest to learn more of it and bring others to see it. Unum > Pluribus.

Feel free to send me your thoughts!

-Brody