The Holtonian

Communism???Democracy??? Who cares... lets have lunch

I'm wanting to maintain some sort of consistency in my life on many levels. I realize a lot of things I used to do and have passion for I don't anymore. I used to run fairly decently regularly. I'd make it out to the trails of Covenant at least three times a week, especially while on campus. So far since I've been married I think I've run one week. I tried getting a routine started but when I get home, its near dark, when i go to work it's totally dark--all the day light is wasted at work. Its truly frusterating, the best hours of the day wasted in a cubicle. So tonight I started doing situps while watching TV. Its nothing big but I figure if i can maintain that and my round of pushups then I can at least same I'm doing something, even though it is by far so minor.
So I guess you can say I've been more and more convicted about my inactivity. Another thing I've also been convicted of is my faith or at times lack there of. Another thing I had established at Covenant was a fairly regular devotional time> school helps so much in keeping your life structured and the more structured it is the smoother it can go. While real life seems different. You go to this job where you bust your but, work real hard, and come home completely wasted and just want to veg out. So thats what Americans do, they're mashed potatos by day, couch potatos by night. That analogy doesn't make any sense but you get the point. And its not necessarily that Americans work so hard at work, its just the thought of hard work makes us feel that we're working hard. At least thats what it feels like sometimes for me. I know what I have on the agenda for the year and it boggles my mind how I'll ever get it all done, truth is it comes in small pieces and is really just a bunch of small miniscule tasks that come at me one after another, if I look at them from the big picture stand point my job is enormous and drastically important, but from the day day to view, its just a task driven day where i go in, do my part, and clock out at the end of the day. But as usual I digress from what I'm getting at. So i had this structured devotional life, it was cool, I learned a lot, fealt good about myself, the whole self righteous thing can really make a Christian feel like a better person. And since I was at Covenant away from the real world of crime, corruption, politics, and general mucky muck, I seemed to have a pretty good grapple on this crazy world that had so much order and sense to it... ahh the naivity of a college student.

I thought I was pretty smart back in college, it took graduation and the real world to show me I don't know squat. Foreign affairs, politics, and global events aren't these black and white issues that can be figured out with a "Bush Sucks" statement or a "Bush is the next Hitler" these statements made by so many of today's protesters are so far from unfounded that they're almost as funny as they are insulting. To compare President Bush to one of history's infamous men of seemingly pure evil is a little unfounded, heavy handed, and just plain rude. It seems the people making these statements never stepped out of the classroom and took a look at the world adn realized, "Hey that textbook didn't have it all figured out, and frankly just because i believed that textbook doesn't mean i have the slightest clue what the heck is going on in the world" What am i arguing? I dunno know, i'm not that bright, I kind of just ramble on and hope I reach a point by bed time. I guess a point would be its easy to hide behind a wall of ignorance. Do i think the war in Iraq is a good thing or bad? I dunno know... yes and no and I don't want to get into that.
One thing I realized while at the books a million the other day is how reactionary and arbitrary the media can be. Right next to each other you have Al Franken's book 'Lies, and the Lying Liars who tell them a fair and balanced book at the right" which sits next to a book similar in title about the left. The only thing I get out of looking at these books is that these people both have their head up their butts, basically of their respective parties. Fraken is so blantly left that he can see anything good on the right and what good on the right he ignores for fear of actually vindicating them, while the right is doing the same thing to the left. When in actuality they have i think redeemible qualities on each side. I've often gotten into arguements, lost them usually, with people at covenant about government programs. I don't think they're all that bad. Do i think some of them are bad, yes, but then again some of them are very good. The government helping the arts and sciences in my mind is a good thing. We need to develop the art of our country and the science that propels our country forward, that is a government program funded very intensively by tax payers money. Do i think welfare is a bad thing, not necessarily. This often is rebutted with "thats the church's job" well my friends da church ain't doin it. I don't get too peaved when i have to pay a 10% sales tax, or when i have a smaller paycheck because i live in Georgia and have to pay income tax, and I don't get too frusterated when it costs 4 bucks to buy a pack of smokes (mainly cause i don't smoke heh heh heh). I figure we have a good country, my taxes are keeping me quite comfortable, why not help out the guy who's out of a job or the single mom who can't afford to pay the rent. Its no real skin off my nose. I'm not saying let the robbers and crooks rip off the system, and I'm not saying i'm a fan of the welfare state. I just think that everyone needs a little help now and then, just like the western union add used to say. I don't know its late, and i'm rambling and i can't back any of this up. Who knows maybe in the morning i'll be a die hard conservative and be on my way to alabama to storm the courthouse and force the 10 commandments up someones nose. We'll see what happens when the sun comes up... i most likely we'll just go to my cube and sulk.