The Beaten Path

The Beaten Path
Current mood: confused
Category: Religion and Philosophy

What is wrong with the world? Or maybe more specifically, what is wrong with most middle age-baby boomer conservative Christians?

It's a question that is, I believe, a hotly debated topic. At least among the programs I watch on television and podcasts I listen to on my iPod. For example, people like Bill Maher like to poke fun at the Christian Right (or Christianity in general) to a get a laugh out of his audience and push his agenda to boost his ratings on HBO. Some of the things he says are funny, other points I could not disagree more with him. Bringing on guests like the stuffy Christopher Hitchens, generally irritates me to no end. If you don't know who Mr. Hitchens is, do some research after you read this entry, and you'll see why the guy sort of bothers me. Like most people, I see his points and agree with him on some of his theories. However, people with not a single humble bone in their body also bother me to a degree of irritated not measurable by human means.

All tangents aside, I want to talk about an issue that hits a little closer to home than people that don't care about my opinion, nor do I care about theirs. Listening to people like I mentioned above is for entertainment purposes only. Over the weekend an 18 year old girl who just graduated high school within the last month was kidnapped and murdered. It is receiving a lot of media attention because she is a) white and b) lived in a middle to upper middle class affluent neighborhood here in the Kansas City Metro. They found her body in another part of town yesterday. It was all over the news and even CNN. The story about the actual kidnapping and murder are not what I want to make a point out of either.

What I want to do is go back to my initial question. The second I walked into my office this morning and over to my desk, people were already talking about the current events in this town. Great water cooler fodder for 8AM. Normally, I pay no mind to these peoples' conversation. I usually go on about my business and get to work. Today was a little different in regard to my morning ritual. Let me give you some background first. I work with a former police officer, a former FBI agent, and a middle age woman. She isn't really a former anything, not that I know of anyway. Two of the three, the cop and the woman, are "devout" Christians and even go as far to post scripture passages on their walls. The cop even believes we should have prayer in schools. I don't take any issue with this, except for when they open their mouths and contradict what they preach.

All three of them, decided that when the culprit is found guilty that he deserves the death penalty. Whatever your position on the issue, I do take particular exception to openly Christian people deciding the fate of another human being. When they claim to have faith in a higher power, yet still have the self-given authority to pass judgement on someone, I see this as a glaring incongruity in their "beliefs." There is something that all Christians follow, and that is called the Ten Commandments. One in particular is addressed as "Thou Shall Not Kill." Last I checked, the Ten Commandments did not come with any provisions about when it was ok to kill. I could quote you many a scripture passage dealing with not killing another man, eye for an eye or not. Jesus spoke and taught of forgiveness, and most people seem to forget that fact. If you follow the story of Jesus, he even let a killer go free so that he may be put to death to save the souls of the men and women who followed him. This killer and kidnapper, by the theory of Christianity, must only atone for his sins and accept Jesus as his savior and he will be forgiven. That's all it takes. The people in my office seem to forget this fact. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not remember Jesus, who is the way in to heaven according to Christians, condoned or mentioned the idea of a penalty by death for any criminal action. I remember quite the opposite.

In any event, I see the point of view of these three and in their conversation. Saying he deserves to die? I don't think that is up for us to decide, or any judge or jury. I believe dying for your crimes is almost an easy way out. You may disagree with me, and that is fine. If you do disagree, this is just where you and I differ. That doesn't make me right and you wrong or vice versa. What it does make us is people who follow our convictions and stay consistent with our beliefs. People that don't recognize the inconsistency in their arguments and beliefs bother me. People that deal in absolutes or with ultimatums also bother me. I could ask all three of these individuals how they feel about abortion, and I would almost guarantee that their Republican votes would be cast towards Pro-Life. I have never understood condoning the killing of one group of people yet the crusade to save another. You may argue that a baby is innocent and unable to make a decision on whether their actions equal if they live or die, and that a killer made a conscious decision to kill, therefore the punishment fits the crime and killing murderers is somehow justified. To me, dead is dead, no matter how you try position it. The end result is still the same, despite the circumstances.

I am not saying that if you believe in anti-abortion, the death penalty, and being Christian makes you wrong. I'm saying that having a blind belief in something without studying why you believe is wrong. Having faith because you have faith is different than having faith because you are told to. Knowing you are right is different than letting go and letting faith take over. If this is what you believe, then stick to it. Don't tell me you are a person of faith and that God will judge all properly, while you kill on Earth. For any reason.

Added after orginal post: Would you like to see how hate breeds more hate? Events have progressed throughout the day in regard to the Kelesy Smith kidnapping and murder. If this person did in fact commit these heinous crimes, then he will be judged. However, rather than letting the justice system and nature take it's course, people take it upon themselves to spew their hate. I'm not defending this persons aledged actions either. I would only click on this if you don't mind looking at the profile of an accused killer. Pay special attention to the replies he is getting on his one blog entry to see what I am talking about. Days like today are why it's hard to not think the world is a sick place.

Currently listening : Sabbath Bloody Sabbath By Black Sabbath Release date: 25 October, 1990

Ladies and Gents...I Present the Holy Trinity (+2) of Blogs

Current mood: horny
Category: Blogging

In the near future, I will be doing this.
I will continue to keep up with this, and this.
When it's not baseball season, I write in this.
And I will always do this.

Huggs and kisses to all,

Z

Currently listening : Here Comes the Indian By Animal Collective Release date: By 17 June, 2003

11:23 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

	Stephanie	Zacheriah! haha! Like the new blog though. Posted by Stephanie on Thursday, June 07, 2007 at 7:14 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Big JC

I to am heading back to school, going to get my Bachelor's in Business Administration...I guess I want to be the man. Good luck with everything. Posted by Big JC on Thursday, June 07, 2007 at 7:26 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Just A Few Random Thoughts

Current mood: tired
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

-Do any of you watch Comedy Central with any regularity? I do, and I'm seeing something that is truly disturbing me. It's a new cartoon entitled "Lil' Bush" and am I the only one when I say this seems like a dumb idea? How shocking, a parody of our President. It looks like it has all the originality as a "Knock, Knock" joke. I like to make fun of the President's mastery of the English language as much as the next person, but is this really what we want as television viewers? Is this what the ratings from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" is reaping? I hope it's cancelled after it's first run of episodes.

-Do you ever stand back at watch all your friends find something funny and you don't share in the same humor? I know this is a little vague, but blindly following something because it's on a channel that has produced some funny shows doesn't automatically make every show thereafter a guaranteed hit.

-I've read "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri in it's entirety before, however for some reason I always get drawn back into reading it or stumble across the occasional random website that some graduate student made a virtual tour of. I think I'm attracted to the dark artwork of Gustave Dore that follows the book in most prints, more than the actual poem itself. Sometimes I wonder if I listened to too many Black Sabbath records in middle school and smoked too much pot.

-Does going to see John Mayer diminish in any way my ability to love good music? Stephanie would really like to see him live (again), so I justify it that way. I like that he's trying to erase the sins of past albums by getting a little more "blusey." That's fine, if you like Johnny Lang-esque blues. Anyway, I'm in it more for Ben Folds, whom I still very much like and is opening for Mr. Mayer.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Goodnight.

Currently playing : Mario Party 8 Release date: 29 May, 2007

Humbled

Current mood: calm
Category: Games

This past week or so, I haven't been able to really keep up with either of my blogs. Work has been kicking my ass and I'm helping out my manager because of a billing statement sanfu at work. It's long, complicated and boring. The bottom line is that I haven't been able to write anything because I worked almost 60 hours last week. Here are some things that happened since the last time I posted.

1. I worked a lot.
2. Stephanie's car broke down (ignition switch/tumbler issues) in a really bad neighborhood while picking up a cake Saturday.
3. Stephanie's Dad had his 50th birthday party Saturday.
4. Boston dropped their second strait series to the New York Yankees.

I want to talk about something else tonight. Video games. That's right, video games. I don't want to talk about anything new, even though I did buy Mario Party 8 for my Nintendo Wii last week. The games I'm playing are games from my past when I was a kid. We're talking single digits here. The games I've downloaded to my Wii are from when I was say seven, eight and nine. For those that don't know much about the cultural phenomenon that is the Wii, you can play brand new releases and you can download old school Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and Turbografx-16 games to the Wii and play them. Even with all the orginal slowdown and glitches.

To filter this beyond the premise of Virtual Console, I played two games from this service just tonight that I used to flat out own. The first was Ninja Gaiden from Tecmo. If you missed it, I posted a big feature on this blog and on my 1up.com page regarding the entire Ninja Gaiden franchise and how much I love it. In my youth when I was still playing this game on my old Nintendo, I could beat it blindfolded. Now, I suck about as bad as I would have expected an adult to suck at it when I was nine. I can't even get to the final stage any longer, I am that old school video game impared.

What's worse is that I decided to move on to another classic that I could have beaten with one hand tied behind my back, Castlevania by Konomi. I couldn't even make past the second level in a game that doesn't even really get challenging until level four. "What the hell happened?" I thought to myself. Has it really been that long? Then I thought, yeah, it has been that long. I probably first played this game 20 years ago. When I was that age I couldn't even fathom what it would be like to be 20 years old, let alone 20 years in the rear view mirror after my first experience with it. Then between my walk of shame from my couch into my office in my apartment something occured to me. Nintendo has plagued my life.

Don't get me wrong, video games contributed to my will to do well and succeed. It taught me not to quit and to see things through until I accomplished them. Passing a difficult video game was very gratifying to me when I was young. Here lies the quandary. How could you see Nintendo ruining aspects of your life when you say that passing a game taught you important life lessons on not giving up and gave you a sense of accomplishment? Some games, like the games I listed above, took a lot of time, a lot of controller tossing, and mountains of frustraition. I was so willing to not quit and give up that I nearly gave myself a heart attack several times while in elementary school. I was willing to put up with a huge amount of bullshit, much to my own detrament as a child and later in life.

I carried this willingness to accept bad situations over in to adolescence and then in to adulthood. It's affected me in a negative way in relationships (both romantic and friendly), with my family and internally. I've put up with a lot of BS from a lot of people that didn't deserve my time and energy. So, I blame you Nintendo, just as the cancer ridden 65 year old blames Phillip-Morris for his or her lung ailment and ultimate date with death. I can't say that it hasn't been fun, because it has. I'm not even really going to quit you, even though some days I wish I could. Somewhere down the road (soon) I will have a family, and Dad will still be trying to act cool by keeping up with the latest technology. I guess that's not all bad, at least I'll have something to relate to my kids with, and I think that will be important if video games is something they pursue as a hobby.

In the end, I still do credit some of my tenacity in life to playing video games in my youth. Some credit must also go to organized sports. Then again, I also still blame some of my faults to be too subborn and not setting people or issues aside for good or at least to catch my breath and reassess cetain situations. Then there is the nestalga factor. I still love the memories of sitting around with kids from my neighborhood when Nintendo made it to middle America circa 1986, and later with my crew from Sioux Falls I still keep in touch with. We all spent hours upon hours beating as many games under the sun and as many as reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) time would allow. I remember staying up all night at Travis Jamison's 10th birthday party taking turns trying to beat Double Dragon II and Mega Man 2. I remember staying up all night again at Derek Snelling's 13th birthday party trying to beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past before the sun came up. I remember riding my bike downtown at the age of twelve to pop quarters out of my allowence to play Street Fighter II: Champion Edition at 7-11.

They were all fun times, even if they did contribute to a lot of situations I stuck around in for too long because of the person they molded me in to. Now that I've come to this realization, maybe I can avoid repeating some of the same mistakes and not travel down the same roads as I did in the past. Here's to progress in life and hoping that Nintendo gets the Mega Man franchise up on Virtual Console soon.

Currently playing : Castlevania

9:26 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Derek

I thought two things whill i was reading this blog I wish i could quit you, hahah funny shit, and Ahhhhh memories...... Posted by Derek on Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 8:11 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Back, Back, Waaaaay Back!

Current mood: nostalgic
Category: Music

Keeping in the same vein as my entry from earlier today, I'd like to talk about something else that invokes a different kind of feeling. It's also a subject that I like to write about quite often, and the subject on deck for the moment is music. I know a lot of people who think music is fun, enjoyable, and nice to have on in the background. That's ok, if you only like scratching the surface of life. People that fall into this category are mostly people that are non confrontational, not necessarily with others. Mostly themselves.

So what does music do for you? Of course listening to new music doesn't bring back any memories, and I like forging new territory as much as the next dude. Right now, I'm talking about music from your past. Does it make you remember? Does it make you feel a certain way about a certain someone you used to know? Someone that got away? Do you remember certain aspects of your childhood? Do you see still shots in your mind of your old house, your old block, or your old friends in your old neighborhood?

"Take Me Home" by Phil Collins reminds me of playing on the living room floor of my old townhouse when I was 4 or 5 years old while my Mom vacuumed. I was in my own world like most kids that age should be. The carpet was brown and the brown matching furniture were items we had until we moved out of the house I spent most of my childhood growing up in.

"Shane" by Liz Phair reminds me of sitting in Sara Keyman's room with new friends from Patrick Henry Middle School while I was dating her (Sara) for a weekend in the fall of my freshman year of high school. I think I signed my name on her wall or chair that hung from the ceiling or something. We also watched Arachnophobia that weekend, and I hate spiders. Man, I would do anything for a new chick when I was young.

"A Girl Like You" by the Smithereens reminds me of driving around aimlessly listening to 80's music with my friend Matt the summer before our junior year of high school. He never took his baseball crap out of his car so it always smelled like leather and hot sweat.

"Us and Them" by Pink Floyd reminds me of sitting in my college dorm room as a freshman thinking how awful can my roommate smell? My roommate that year sucked. I also thought of new and creative ways to stay with a certain ex-girlfriend I should have left that year.

"Basket Case" by Green Day reminds me of me and my friend Travis pretending to play guitar on my crutches before we really knew how to play the real deal in my basement in the summer after 8^th grade. Our other friend Joe would sit and watch. My basement was the only basement in my neighborhood that didn't smell musty. My Mom was a clean freak. See my first song I listed.

"Myage" by The Descendents reminds me of screwing around and sometimes breaking stuff in my friend Mike's Blazer along with any other assortment of friends from that part of my life. A lot of destruction happened either by my hand and that group of buddies from about 1995-1998.

"23 Beats Off" by Fugazi reminds me of the last few months my parents were together before they separated, adding me to the long list of kids that were screwed up in a minor or major way by their parent's divorcing. It also reminds me of going on debate trips all over eastern South Dakota with my debate partner Ryan.

"A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" by Dwight Yoakam reminds me of moving out of my ex-girlfriend Mandi's house, broken and up against the wall in a lot of ways and living with my friend Cory. I was hurt and lost, but I was on my own and never felt better. I loved Cory's house. It was old, had character, and an awesome tube amp stereo system where you could put on music you've heard a million times and get lost in it all over again like it was the first time.

The song selection was calculated. These songs all represent either people, times in my life, or places that I miss dearly. And a lot of the time when I hear these songs it makes me somewhat sad. Sometimes I hate being a nostalgic person.

Currently listening : After The Gold Rush By Neil Young Release date: By 25 October, 1990

5:00 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Derek

For me, whenever i hear AC/DC, it always brings me back to when we'd sit in Jason's room playing Rock N Roll Racing. Offspring makes me think of debate trips. Green Day and Bush were the first bands i ever 'really' liked, so they make me think of just about anything we did around music. I agree that enjoying listening to music is more about the memories it brings up than what the lyrics say or how cheesy the music may be. New music just seems to be missing something, maybe its just that we are experiancing less now than we did as kids. Or maybe its just me... Posted by Derek on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 6:47 PM [Reply to this]

Rattled and Stunned

Current mood: sore
Category: Life

You ever have one of those days where you feel like the walls of your life are closing in around you? I'm sure most everyone does, however do you feel like this happens more often than you would like and there is seemingly no escape? I don't feel like I'm not meeting certain goals in my life, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. However, some days it feels like I'm missing a part of me. This is no fault of anyone that is currently in my life or has been in my life in the past. It sounds cliché, but I believe the problem may be me.

For no apparent reason, I feel very small today. I can't really get past that sentence or thought and I'm not sure why. It's been my roadblock since about 6:45 am. Sometimes I wish I wasn't as in touch with my feelings as I am. Then again, would I be feeling these same types of emotions if I didn't know how to label or quantify them? I would think that a certain amount of frustration would come in to play. This year is housing one of the happiest and most anticipated events that most people experience, next to having a child, and that is marriage. Well, on the personal side of anticipated events anyway. I moved to Kansas City last fall, as many of you know, to be with my future wife. It was something that I had to work towards because of certain people in my past that affected my future at the time. That was very vague, I know. So it was in a sense an accomplishment to finally get out of Sioux Falls and into a city where I wanted to be. Not that I don't love my friends and family in SF, it was just time for me to move on.

In the midst of this accomplishment, I find myself to be lacking something in my own mind. Did my expectations fail my sense of better judgment? Did I build up living in Kansas City, Missouri as the end all be all of human existence? To a certain degree I believe I did. I enjoy being here and I am starting to love this city. As I've said before, for some odd reason this place always did feel like home to me even when I did not live here. Now, it's not so much "an odd reason" and I know it feels like home because Stephanie is here and she always has been. To me, that is the most important factor in all of this.

It could be a shocking coincidence that certain outlooks are changing at the same time of my move, than again when a man prepares for a lifetime with a woman it may tend to change his overall perspective on life. That same perspective I have spent the previous years of my life trying to figure out. I just edited that sentence from second to first person. I've noticed that in my writings that when I don't understand something or dislike something about myself I always label myself as "you" rather than "I." Just an observation. I'll try to not separate my perceived self from myself in reality. I'm trying to change my narratives from "you" to "me." We'll see how many times I catch myself perpetrating this act of passive self story telling.

People have certain personality traits. Some people are good at acting, some are good at athletics. Then there are the people that have traits that require a closer inspection. They have an ability to talk in front of crowds, the ability to draw you in and make you pay attention to only them. I'd like to talk about my ability, something that I think skips a generation in my family, sort of like male pattern baldness (to which I also suffer from). My Grandmother has had (and this has been told to me by countless family members and friends of the family) the uncanny ability to assess a person after about 10 minutes of meeting them. A simple way to label this would be that ability to judge character. It's a very dangerous sort of game to play, if you are an extrovert and like to broadcast your findings like my Grandmother. You can end up hurting a lot of feelings in the process of your life. Back to what I was saying... There are other factors that will contribute to my theory I'm about to divulge, however I feel like the main piece in my Grandma becoming a bitter person in her old age is her being hyper in tune with how people are. She is very akin to people are capable of, whether that be good or bad.

In her own way, she has been able to predict the outcome of most of my relationships when she has actually met my companion. She's been able to tell me, before things went sour, how they would go sour and what to watch for with some of the girls I've dated. What's that you're asking? Of course I didn't listen. Would you chalk this up to experience? I'm not so sure. The people that I know are generally all good people and put others before themselves. If you are reading this it means you are my friend and someone I've chosen to spend time with at one point or another in my life. Of course there are certain selfish aspects to each one of our personalities, but for the most part all of you are good people. Really, I mean that in the nicest way possible.

The roadblock I eluded to earlier is that this "ability" to read people either protects me from people that would do harm, or is harming me from meeting people that may do good. I sit back in my desk and watch people mill around my office interacting every day. I hear their problems with customers and with each other. Then I will see them interacting, never even coming within spitting distance of solving their issues with each other. Just silently gritting their teeth behind a smile and a common bond of working with one another. In the meantime I get to know exactly none of them because I see the folly and hypocrisy in their ways. I'm not trying to act holier than thou and as if I am not of the same ability, however the degree that most people practice this art is highly disturbing to me.

So am I on my way to becoming a bitter old man? Am I destined to be cynical and only find the bad in people? I've struggled with the thought for the past few years about this being a blessing or a curse. While it helps push people out that are potentially bad, it also has pushed some people away that are very good. Most days I feel like I'm hopping from one foot to the next with my personal makeup. It's very tiring and most days I want it to just stop so I can see the good in everyone.

Currently listening : So Tonight That I Might See By Mazzy Star Release date: By 05 October, 1993

5:08 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

	Derek	This is just my personal opinion mind you, but if eveyone out there just said whatever they felt then sure alot of things would get resolved, but i dont necessarily think the world would be a better place. Posted by Derek on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 1:30 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Zach

I would have to disagree, too many people would get their feelings hurt and have to turn to Dr. Phil. And we just can't have that, now can we? Posted by Zach on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 1:33 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Happy Thursday!!

Current mood: cheerful
Category: Sports

Yeah, I meant to do that.

If you have not visited my Red Sox blog in awhile, maybe today would be a good day to correct that mistake...

Currently playing : Elite Beat Agents Release date: By 06 November, 2006

7:56 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

	Stephanie	nothin like a little shameless self promotion! Posted by Stephanie on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 4:16 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Zach

This coming from the girl who's default pick is in her bikini...Also, who said anything about it being shameless? I feel very shamed I have to stoop to this level. Posted by Zach on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 5:48 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]