Thursday, April 29, 2010

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads".

Like silly putty, the mind and its precious imagination are capable of being stretched. In fact, just this week, I caught an episode of Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking about time travel. Yes, I’m a big geek – but Hawking’s genius and creativity stretched my imagination to its limits.

Hawking explained that time travel isn’t only possible, it happens all around us – every day. Time is relative; the speed at which time unfolds is impacted by both mass and speed. Heavy things, like the Earth, make time slow down. Really heavy things, like black holes, make time even slower. Similarly, speed slows down time, too. If we had a vessel that approached the speed of light, the occupants in the ship would experience time much slower than those earthlings back home.

All this talk about time travel got me thinking. I don’t need a time machine. I still don’t even fully appreciate the main course that is this present moment – the last thing I need to do is jump on a spaceship and skip to dessert.

But wait! On second thought, even if I did land a ticket to future Earth, there would still only be the ever-eternal now. My now would just be a different now than if I had stayed back home. In this way, it’s never really possible to escape the present moment and truly experience the future. There is always only this moment – skipping to dessert, to extend my misguided metaphor, isn’t really possible.

There’s a reason why you cannot escape the present moment: time isn’t real. Clocks are. We’ve come to rely on time so heavily since birth, it feels real. But I can promise you that it isn’t.

There is no past or future; there is only now.


(Honestly....what would this post be without a throw back to the 80s? Enjoy the video below.)




Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Play!


Backyards: Available for play since your childhood.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Say Hello to My Little Friend

I recently posted that I am developing a softer spot in my heart for life's creepy and crawlies. The next day I discovered this guy:




My yard has always a a few snakes here and there. I have a creek running near my backyard that drives them up to my yard when it rains. But this little fella is currently living under the steps to my front door. And he isn't alone. There is one other big snake and four or five little guys. I don't mind them right where they are, but you should have seen me last night when I tried to see if they were getting into my basement. I entered my basement with a big stick and a hot cup of coffee...I don't know what I would have done if I saw one down there...but it would have been a very hot, caffeinated, ticked off snake.





Thursday, April 22, 2010

It Ain't Easy...

If you knew me in college you would be very surprised at one of my current interests/passions. Back then I could be heard saying things like, “What? Heck no I don’t recycle. I’m a Republican.” I wasn’t kidding either. I didn’t see the need to recycle. Our planet’s resources and the method we inhabitants use those resources could not have been less important to my young and invincible mindset.


But today I find myself collecting, sorting, and recycling everything I can. I even try to purchase products that come from eco-minded companies that are packaged in easy to recycle materials. And it isn’t just recycling either. I support the Living Wage, I buy Fair Trade Coffee, I’m interested in alternative energy, donate to advocate organizations, and I’m even starting to have a bigger heart for all of nature’s creepy and crawly members. All of that is a leap and a giant bound from the “not my problem” personality of earlier Andrew.


Last night I found myself in a conversation with a person who I trust and respect very much. This person, like my own family, has been treated very well by coal burning energy production companies. We were watching a show that was describing how Americans can reduce their dependence on coal. This person’s comment was, “I can’t believe these people are wasting their time on this crap…we’re never going to not burn coal.” And as true as I believe that statement to be I asked, “But why shouldn’t we use this new technology to better our environment as much as we can?” I didn’t receive much of a response.


I will admit that the “Going Green” craze is a bit over the top. Retail giants are even using the theme in an attempt to lure customers who might otherwise not enter their doors. While I encourage everyone to do their part it is important to realize the limitations of such a movement. We will never stop burning coal or refining crude oil. There will be polluted water ways as long as there are people, and landfills will continue to, well, fill. But there is no excuse for not doing your part. I’m not asking you to collect rain water for your house plants, or switch to high efficiency appliances tomorrow. But we can all do little things everyday to make our community a little better than it was yesterday. And it might not hurt to open your mind to bigger movements that will help our planet.


What about you? What are your thoughts and opinions concerning our responsibilities as citizens of local, state, national, and international communities?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

List Your Love

Karen Porter Sorensen, author of Love, believes:
“When we name what we love, we actually make something happen. What we love becomes charged with our energy. We activate a relationship and, by doing so, we create a new kind of existence for it. When we list all the things in our life that we love, we learn something about ourselves by the relationships between those things, and also become aware of all that has not been named.”

Skeptical, I took the challenge and verbally answered the question, “What do you love?” As I answered the question, my entire existence seemed to catch fire. It was magical; Karen Porter Sorensen was right.

Beyond the obvious, here are just a few of the things that I love:

1. Being in airports.
2. Making footprints in fresh snow.
3. Watching someone’s expression when their dreams come true.
4. That first day of Spring when it isn’t quite warm enough for shorts, but I wear them anyway.
5. Crisp juicy apples.
6. When the sunlight turns orange and glows, 15 minutes before the sun sets.
7. Laughing until I cry.
8. Encouraging others artistic ambitions.
9. Fun underwear.
10. The smell of old books that have been shelved for years.
11. Rainy nights with my windows open.
12. Epic thunderstorms.
13. Coffee.
14. Listening to football games from my front yard.
15. The company of loved ones.

What about you? What do you love?

Saturday, April 17, 2010

But Thanks for Sharing

I love opinions. I love to hear them, talk about them, expound them, analyze them, and discover their origin…if any. As much as I encourage an open and honest repartee, I believe that a little discretion is necessary. For example, I would never approach an artist and say something like, “I’m sorry, but I find your work to be weird and creepy,” or something as simple as “I don’t like it.”

Artist, in the case, is a pretty slack classification of what I am when I do what I do. At least I think so. I see something in my head and then I try to capture that particular situation. More often than not I don’t even come close to what is in my head. But I’m trying. I’m new. I’m still growing. I’m pretty insecure about what I’m putting out there in the first place, so the criticism, seldom it may come, is not helping one bit.

While I may not hit the intended mark, everything that I do is intentional. I have no fear of perfection, for I know that I’ll never reach it.* So I don’t need you to point that out to me. This is one reason why I hesitate to do anything too extreme that will be seen locally. Just as soon as I do it…I get torn down. But I will remain attentive to my own vision and move forward with vim and verve. When I was six I wanted to grow up to be a trash collector. When I was eight I wanted to be Napoleon, and my ambition has been growing steady ever since.

So, go ahead, share your opinion as you feel appropriate. I might listen…

Monday, April 12, 2010

It Isn't What It Is

The world is a lot of things. Grand. Mysterious. Infinitely beautiful.
But it’s also a mirror. That is, whatever you experience on the outside is a reflection of your beliefs, thoughts and character on the inside. Likewise, the faults you see in others are often your own.


This weekend while I was on a wonderful bike ride I slowed to a more leisurely pace (rare for me) and decided to take in the neighborhood. There were a thousand things going on. I couldn’t possibly take in the full scene; so instead, my mind applied a selective filter. I noticed the two older people holding hands while walking by the swimming pool. I noticed a woman changing in full view with her windows open. Two birds landed on the mail box at the corner fighting over a large chunk of birdseed. Of the thousands of things going on around me, I can onlyfocus on just a few.


The filtering system isn’t arbitrary; there are reasons why we notice what we notice. Our beliefs, thoughts, character, etc. serve in powering (at least to some degree) the selectivity we experience when filtering the world around us.


If we go through life with anger and hate, then it is anger and hate that will determine our experience of the world. If, instead, we hold love in our hearts, our life experience will be all the more joyful. I recently spent some time with a friend and was shocked at then negitative attitude. Had this been there the whole time? Are we growing apart faster than I first perceived? This person’s attitude was bringing down my own mood and I didn’t like it one bit! So, I encourage you to adapt your outlook and focus on your life, your surroundings, and your relationships and try to make the best of everything. It is never as bad as you think it is. “Whatever”or“It is what it is,” are two phrases that express nothing more than your defeated and complacent attitude.