Election Day Excitement

I have been yearning for a valid reason to post again. Today is worthy of the few minutes it will take to write this out. I am ecstatic that today is Election Day. I am glad to be alive at this time in history. I am hosting an election party tonight – before that would have been relegated to political geeks, now it seems silly not to have one this time around.

GET YOUR STUFF DONE

I came across this on YouTube.  If you are not laughing by the end of this video, you are not a current (or recovering) procrastinator. If you have never had to battle procrastination, consider yourself blessed.

Question of the day: Is blogging a potentially “constructive” way to procrastinate? Only a recovering procrastinator would ask such a question.

1 CLICK OF FAME

Some of us get fifteen minutes, and others of us get even less. And unfortunately I can’t measure my fame in minutes, but in clicks. One click to be exact.  Just yesterday I blogged about my friend getting a rejection letter from the FBI. Before the day was over I got a passionate response from a random woman. Her response to my comments about their rejection letter being harsh read as follows:

“Harsh? What are you…10? My husband WAS recruited by the FBI and I know lawyers and accountants are top priority. The sun doesn’t rise to shine on you OR your friends so if a circular file letter upsets you, better toughen up. It doesn’t get any easier.”

I think all I had to say to that was “WOW,” and then I did not approve her “comment” for posting. But instead I chose to quote her in here because it made for a more compelling story.

Nonetheless, I have to thank this lady for writing me because it was her rant that led me to investigating how she got to my blog in the first place. I thought perhaps she was blog surfing on WordPress, but that was unlikely because she responded so soon after I posted. The timing of it all was not probable. Then I thought that it was a friend of a friend who subscribed to my blog, but that too was unlikely because I have been so silent in my blogging for months. Silence doesn’t seem like the magic formula for creating a cult following. So then I checked my blog stats, and found the most unexpected data in my research. I saw that CNN.com was a referring site to my blog.  Really? Yes, really.

Here is a screen capture of the web page. It was an AP article entitled “Artworks in NYC collection were stolen, FBI says.” At the bottom of the screen there was a “From the Blogs” section. This blog listing is probably time sensitive, so I highly doubt this older blog post will be listed after today, therefore I had to preserve it for the ages:

(Click on it for a larger view)

So thanks to CNN.com for partnering with Sphere.com to post blogs on their site.  I am not sure if Sphere even read my blog before they put it up there, but I am not too concerned with the process because I love the result.

Am I getting too pumped about something small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things?

Yes.

But lets be for real – don’t you want your blog to appear on CNN.com someday?

“GIRL YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE”?

First there was Milli Vanilli,  then there was Ashlee Simpson, and now we have Miako. I am sure you know by now that the Olympic planners for the opening ceremony tried to get the best of both worlds.  I was curious when I saw the little girl on the left singing during the ceremony because something didn’t ring true about her performance.  I just figured they pre-recorded her song just to prevent a mess up during the real event. Well unfortunately it looks like it may be less benign than that. They wanted to voice of the girl on the right, but the looks of the girl on the left. So what is one to do in that situation?  Orchestrate a lip-sync of course! Reason given: The girl on the right simply wasn’t “cute” enough to be in the ceremony.

Click the picture for the full article.

This may sound horrible, but this is something I would expect from the US, not China.

HOW DO YOU SPELL REJECTION?

Apparently its spelled FBI. A good friend of mine just got a rejection letter from a position he applied for at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The text of the letter reads “Thank you for applying…Your application was not referred to the selecting official for further consideration because you were not among the best qualified…”

Is it me, or was that a little harsh? I get what they are saying, and many letters have said it, but I haven’t seen it worded exactly like that. I suppose all the other rejection letters were basically saying that, but they just didn’t come out and use the language of you are among the less qualified.  Instead, most have opted for something along the lines of “we went with another candidate who is a better fit, etc.” I know it may seem like a nuance, and maybe that’s all it is, but I feel there may be a slight qualitative difference. Given my employment search as of late, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to receive such responses. Just think about the amount of time and money organizations and businesses will spend to reject you.  The resume weeding out process, emails, letters sent in snail mail on official letterhead, etc. What an investment.

I am still not sure if experiencing rejection helps decrease or increase my fear of it.

Nonetheless, these are the building blocks of life.

OLYMPIC FEVER

So I am pumped about the Olympics (even though I think I was more pumped about it a few weeks ago for some reason – maybe I was still living off of the hype of the couple of Olympic trials I watched).  I think its one of those things, its either you care or you don’t.  But I am not really clear on what the middle of the road is between caring and not caring.  So I suppose the whole population by default has to fall into one of those two categories. There is something about getting to watch and appreciate the world’s top athletes compete. I just think its inspiring to see people devote their whole lives to something, and they get to stretch themselves to the limits to see how far their preparation can get them.

Traditionally in sports, the term “choke” is used to explain the inability to perform under pressure. This time around it may refer to the inability to perform under smog.

I am not sure if liking the Olympics makes me geeky, but it is what it is.

A TASTE OF SUMMER?

So my wife and I tried these drinks last night at a Starbucks bookstore location.  I had a coupon from Barnes & Noble (never know if an ’s’ belongs at the end of the store name.  For some reason people often put it there).  They emailed me a coupon (yes, I bit the bullet and became a member) for buy one drink – get the second free, so who can resist such an offer on a summer evening? Especially since the summer is almost over for my wife as she starts teaching in a a little more than a week.

So what is my review of the Vivanno? Well the fruit (banana and mango?) blend is worthwhile.  The chocolate is pretty unexciting.  After getting a half of a days worth of calories from other chocolate looking things from Starbucks, its hard to turn that memory off and consume the chocolate banana Vivanno. But if you are into a blander chocolate drink, this ones for you.  Both are pretty filling, and they claim to be healthy (at least healthier than some other things you can whip up behind that counter of magic).  Check out the nutrition facts on your own, this isn’t a commercial – plus I am too lazy to give you the link.  OK OK, here is one.

I probably should have saved this post for next week to prolong my comeback.

BACK FROM RETIREMENT?

So how do you bounce back from a four month blog silence? Being gone that long is like an unofficial retirement.  I had a short lived blogging career, so I can not even call this post a comeback. Plus a comeback would require me to actually keep coming back.  So I can’t hurriedly put my portrait in the halls of comeback kids the likes of  Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, or Favre (no I am not really a sports follower, but its obvious the media has intentionally tried to keep this story on the front-burner for some odd reason. I am still not clear on how to pronounce his name. I thought it was as simple to keep the ‘v’ silent, but it sounds like people are saying the ‘v’ after the ‘r’ to give it the sound of Farve. Can someone help me out? I am ready to pronounce his name “fa-vray”).

So do you have to explain your absence when you come back?  Can you justify four months of being away from the blogging world? No, not really.  I had a crossroads to face: I wanted this blog to be reflective, interesting, and not really superficial and fluffy.  But writing mini articles of interest takes time, and the last four months has had me making other things a priority.  Nonetheless, since I have been accosted verbally and in online print form (click here to read, pay attention to the end of this linked post), I have come to a new stance.  I will write about nothing, like a lot of other people do, and it will be less pressure to throw something on here at random. I suppose peer pressure does still have its rightful place in society. But stay tuned, you never know when you may need to think and reflect if I put something up here worth pondering.

Thanks for the 2 faithful people who checked this at random (or was it one person checking twice a day?)

THE TRANSPARENCY DILEMMA

Can you relate to this slice of toast? Sometimes we can get burnt while everyone is watching. This is just one of the risks of living a life of transparency.

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I have a burden to communicate openly, honestly, and bluntly when necessary. I like to be a “what you see, is what you get” type of person, and I find that I am drawn to others whom exemplify similar traits. It seems like “tell it like it is” people are really hard to come by. Therefore, we spend a lot of time guessing about what people really mean by what they say or don’t say.

I realize that when you become more transparent you risk being misunderstood and being understood correctly and not receiving favorable feedback can be equally painful. With a misalignment in worldview or expectations, one can suffer losing favor with the people around you (the heat from the judgment of others burns us all at times, see figure above). Yet even with the aforementioned and unmentioned risks, I believe that transparency about who you are and what you think is the most fulfilling way to live. I do believe, however, that honest communication is not a valid excuse to be a jerk. You have feelings, and other people do to.

As a Christian and as one who feels a call to pastoral ministry, there are certain expectations that come with that role. These expectations often cause clergy and “religious” people to hide certain aspects of who they are out of fear of rejection and judgment. Yet in my life I have come to find that being transparent and “putting it all out there” is a very liberating way to live. So don’t be surprised if I bring up things that you wouldn’t expect me to. I don’t think everything I say and do is right, but some things are sure to make for a stimulating discussion. I believe transparency is helpful because admitting where you are gives occasion for life change. It’s often hard for me to determine if another person is wrong, or if I have a misinformed or uniformed perspective. I trust that dialogue with you will bring some more clarity to my life.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

So I decided to name this blog “Journey to Integrity” for a reason. I will explain it in two parts:

Journey

• “Journey” can be used as a noun defined as “passage or progress from one stage to another”
• “Journey ” can also be used as a verb, as expressed in the sentence: “I am journeying to an unknown destination.” I believe overarching life goals ought to be journeys and not destinations.
• With this dual use of “journey” this blog title can refer to what I am on (“a journey”), and it also can be an imperative command to express something that ought to be done (“journey to integrity!”).

Integrity

• Living a life of integrity is my goal. Usually when we refer to integrity, we are merely referring to staying out of trouble in certain areas of life such as business ethics, marital fidelity, etc. Even though this is part of the picture, it does not speak to the bigger picture of what I’m attempting to capture in this blog title.
• The more palpable meaning for integrity I am making use of is its root connectedness with the concept of being whole. We get a better picture of this in the related word “integer” which is a whole number (a number without a fraction).

Therefore what I seek to do is to reconcile all the parts of my being (thoughts, actions, etc.) to bring them closer and closer into a unified whole that reflects my convictions, passions, ethos, etc. No, I am not living some secret life or anything, but there are seeming contradictions that we all wrestle with and I’d like to be intentional about bringing all aspects of my life to reflect an integrated oneness. This is a hard task, but it is a lifelong process, not a destination. I trust we will learn the most if we choose to journey together.

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