Freshman year i went to somersworth high school.
i learned a lot that year.
More than anything, i was able to put into perspective how "regular" teenagers see themselves, their surroundings, their friends... it was really my first time being able to watch people go about their lives around me.
One thing you begin to realize when you watch teenagers in action is that most of them are absolutely stupid.
The numbers for kids who drink on a monthly basis are pretty high... suggesting that a majority of teenagers think it's alright to go partying once in a while. And why not, right? Their parents probably did the same thing when they were kids, and don't see anything wrong with living a little. Heck, if you live in rochester, a whole boatload of parents still do dumb things.
Sometimes, just for fun, i like to imagine some of the adults i know as teenagers... but that's a completely different story.
Anyway, at somersworth, and most schools, the "popular" kids are always the ones who do the craziest stuff. They're the ones who aren't afraid to take risks for the sake of saying, "i did that... yes i did". But as a teenager, most of the "risks" we're talking about aren't the same risks that they told us to take on the 8th grade team-building ropes course. You know, all that stuff about "stepping out of your comfort zone" and the like. Those aren't the healthy risks that teenagers take. The risks that popular kids take are the ones like, "how many people can sit on the driver's seat at the same time before i can't reach the steering wheel anymore?" and random other stuff that i'm too exhausted right now to think up.
You have people who end up going to every party that anyone ever tells them about, because they have nothing else to do and because it makes them known around. People see the kid and go, "man, he goes to every party... i wish my parents were that dumb/i wish i didn't have a life/i wish i didn't care about my grades like he doesn't"
And eventually, you have a whole highschool full of kids who look up to people who do stupid stuff. And once again, we're not talking stupid as in, "think i can break through the ice on the salmon falls river?", we're talking stupid as in, "let's go find new drugs to try"
king David had something to say on that... psalm 52 says:
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!" [1-4, NIV]
Anyone in highschool can tell you that there is this social norm of bragging about the worldly things people have done. Be it girls, drugs, or assorted traffic violations, people see it as an accomplishment.
But it's not.
And people generally figure that out a few years after they graduate college and settle down... but hey, everyone does it, right?
what a shame.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
On Landfills
Landfills pretty much sum-up human existence.
Nothing shows our society's hypocrisy and blatant neglect for what we depend on more than a several-mile-long mound of dirt hiding everything we don't want.
I'm sure the concept of the landfill came about at a time when it actually worked; you have poop, foodscraps, and other early-human-type waste that you don't want to carry around with you, so you leave it lying around, or bury it in the ground so you don't have to deal with the smell. Over the years it either biodegrades and ends up fertilizing a tree, or fossilizes and becomes the subject of archiological debate for several decades.
However, ever since, say, the industrial revolution, landfills have stopped working.
All of a sudden we're dumping harmful, concentrated chemicals into the ground. Our excuse? Because it costs too much money to dispose of them in a way that's environmentally sound.
So we bury it and let future generations deal with it.
New York City disposes of 11,000 TONS of garbage... EVERY DAY.
It takes 9 miles of semi trailors to haul this trash away from the city... 550 trucks.
And where do they go?
Well, obviously there isn't a landfill in NYC. They go to, you know... VIRGINIA, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey... these 550 trucks travel up to 300 miles (and back again) EVERY DAY just to get rid of New York's garbage.
Do you know how ridiculous that is?
As evidenced there, we go to great lengths to bury our trash; to put it out of sight and then eventually built baseball fields on it or use it to heat UNH.
I'm surprised you don't hear more environmental groups making noise about landfills... probably because few people have come up with better solutions. The gist of it is, though, the earth is at the end of its ability to support our waste, let alone our resource demands.
What is my point?
The fact that we have a glorious industry of curb-workers, spikey steamroller operators, semi-drivers, and corporate management dedicated to hiding away what we don't want. If we pay Waste Management to deal with our waste, we don't have to think about it.
Think about that.
Landfills are an excuse for our garbage. We can't see it anymore, so it's no longer our problem. In terms of daily life, most people don't give a thought to the amount of garbage that they use.
...almost as if we forget it exists.....
For centuries, Science has made a point about objectivity.
You need to have proof, hard evidence, etc in order to make any grounded scientific claim.
But just because you can't make a legitimate scientific claim doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.
An alien could walk the surface of the earth and not see any open landfills, and he might come to the conclusion that humans don't throw away our waste, because we hide it so well. Little would he know that we bury millions of tons of it every week.
That alien would be ignorant of the environmental disaster that our society is.
Can you think of anything else that we can't see, and therefore doesn't exist?
of course you can!
In Romans 6:23, Paul says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."[NIV]
That's right... death!
from what?
Sin!
Our society does an excellent job of pretending that sin doesn't exist.
Nay, we glorify it!
We pretend that it doesn't have any consequences, because, well, we can't exactly see it. It's not particularly tangible.
That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, however.
It just means that it's easy for us, as a society, to forget that it's there. It's easy for people to ignore the Truth and live as if New York City isn't spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to prevent itself from drowning in its own waste.
Maybe its time for people to take environmental action.
Maybe its time for people to wake up, stop being ignorant, and lose the hypocrisy.
Nothing shows our society's hypocrisy and blatant neglect for what we depend on more than a several-mile-long mound of dirt hiding everything we don't want.
I'm sure the concept of the landfill came about at a time when it actually worked; you have poop, foodscraps, and other early-human-type waste that you don't want to carry around with you, so you leave it lying around, or bury it in the ground so you don't have to deal with the smell. Over the years it either biodegrades and ends up fertilizing a tree, or fossilizes and becomes the subject of archiological debate for several decades.
However, ever since, say, the industrial revolution, landfills have stopped working.
All of a sudden we're dumping harmful, concentrated chemicals into the ground. Our excuse? Because it costs too much money to dispose of them in a way that's environmentally sound.
So we bury it and let future generations deal with it.
New York City disposes of 11,000 TONS of garbage... EVERY DAY.
It takes 9 miles of semi trailors to haul this trash away from the city... 550 trucks.
And where do they go?
Well, obviously there isn't a landfill in NYC. They go to, you know... VIRGINIA, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey... these 550 trucks travel up to 300 miles (and back again) EVERY DAY just to get rid of New York's garbage.
Do you know how ridiculous that is?
As evidenced there, we go to great lengths to bury our trash; to put it out of sight and then eventually built baseball fields on it or use it to heat UNH.
I'm surprised you don't hear more environmental groups making noise about landfills... probably because few people have come up with better solutions. The gist of it is, though, the earth is at the end of its ability to support our waste, let alone our resource demands.
What is my point?
The fact that we have a glorious industry of curb-workers, spikey steamroller operators, semi-drivers, and corporate management dedicated to hiding away what we don't want. If we pay Waste Management to deal with our waste, we don't have to think about it.
Think about that.
Landfills are an excuse for our garbage. We can't see it anymore, so it's no longer our problem. In terms of daily life, most people don't give a thought to the amount of garbage that they use.
...almost as if we forget it exists.....
For centuries, Science has made a point about objectivity.
You need to have proof, hard evidence, etc in order to make any grounded scientific claim.
But just because you can't make a legitimate scientific claim doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.
An alien could walk the surface of the earth and not see any open landfills, and he might come to the conclusion that humans don't throw away our waste, because we hide it so well. Little would he know that we bury millions of tons of it every week.
That alien would be ignorant of the environmental disaster that our society is.
Can you think of anything else that we can't see, and therefore doesn't exist?
of course you can!
In Romans 6:23, Paul says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."[NIV]
That's right... death!
from what?
Sin!
Our society does an excellent job of pretending that sin doesn't exist.
Nay, we glorify it!
We pretend that it doesn't have any consequences, because, well, we can't exactly see it. It's not particularly tangible.
That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, however.
It just means that it's easy for us, as a society, to forget that it's there. It's easy for people to ignore the Truth and live as if New York City isn't spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to prevent itself from drowning in its own waste.
Maybe its time for people to take environmental action.
Maybe its time for people to wake up, stop being ignorant, and lose the hypocrisy.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
On Mediocrity
My Latin teacher today went off on a bit of a tangent during class.
We are beginning to delve into the land of straight translating, as we have gotten to the end of our book's grammar and vocab lessons.
My teacher told us a story:
when he was a teenager, he played baseball, and one day he had been invited to a league all-star game. He was set to be starting pitcher, and had to get to the field 45 minutes before the game started.
Before he could leave the house, however, he had to finish his chores, which included washing the dishes after dinner. So he scrubbed the pots and plates and other such eating utilities and was on his way out the door, when his dad called him back inside:
"you need to do the dishes."
my teacher was taken off guard, seeing as how he had just done the dishes.
His dad proceeded to wipe his finger along the inside of a pot and showed him that it was not thoroughly clean. "wash the pots," he said.
So he did.
three more times, before his dad was satisfied.
By the time his dad let him leave, he had wasted a good 20 minutes or so washing the pots, angry, and his coach was ticked. He wasn't allowed to pitch.
Upset, he confronted his dad at the end of the game.
All his dad said was, "wash the pots right the first time, and you won't have to do it again."
A good story.
He led this on to a soliloquy on mediocrity.
It's easy to be mediocre.
Most people in America strive for it; the struggle to be unnoticed in a crowd, the desire to not stand out. Americans, teenagers especially, have a tenancy to surround themselves with a buffer. We don't want to be the best, and we certainly don't want to be the worst.
The problem with this is that, sure, anyone can be mediocre.
But being mediocre doesn't impress anyone.
It won't get you a sweet job, won't lead to a high quality of life, and will guarantee that you'll never rise to the top.
But that's okay, right?
why should we want to rise to the top?
Before Jesus left his disciples for good, he told them this; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20, NIV]
This is known as the Great Commission.
It's what Jesus charged christians with before going back into heaven.
Let me tell yah... no one is going to make disciples of all the nations by being mediocre.
In Titus 3:1, Paul said, "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."
Does that sound like someone who's mediocre?
absolutely not.
That sounds like someone who would stand out in a crowd as someone who's going to rise to the top. You'll go far in life by being obedient, being ready to do whatever is good, and not slandering... being considerate and showing humility to everyone. That's not mediocre. That's exceptional.
And what better to be exceptional about than that Great Commission that we've been charged with?
Let's not be mediocre.
Let's show the world that we want to stand out- for good, for excellence, and for Jesus.
We are beginning to delve into the land of straight translating, as we have gotten to the end of our book's grammar and vocab lessons.
My teacher told us a story:
when he was a teenager, he played baseball, and one day he had been invited to a league all-star game. He was set to be starting pitcher, and had to get to the field 45 minutes before the game started.
Before he could leave the house, however, he had to finish his chores, which included washing the dishes after dinner. So he scrubbed the pots and plates and other such eating utilities and was on his way out the door, when his dad called him back inside:
"you need to do the dishes."
my teacher was taken off guard, seeing as how he had just done the dishes.
His dad proceeded to wipe his finger along the inside of a pot and showed him that it was not thoroughly clean. "wash the pots," he said.
So he did.
three more times, before his dad was satisfied.
By the time his dad let him leave, he had wasted a good 20 minutes or so washing the pots, angry, and his coach was ticked. He wasn't allowed to pitch.
Upset, he confronted his dad at the end of the game.
All his dad said was, "wash the pots right the first time, and you won't have to do it again."
A good story.
He led this on to a soliloquy on mediocrity.
It's easy to be mediocre.
Most people in America strive for it; the struggle to be unnoticed in a crowd, the desire to not stand out. Americans, teenagers especially, have a tenancy to surround themselves with a buffer. We don't want to be the best, and we certainly don't want to be the worst.
The problem with this is that, sure, anyone can be mediocre.
But being mediocre doesn't impress anyone.
It won't get you a sweet job, won't lead to a high quality of life, and will guarantee that you'll never rise to the top.
But that's okay, right?
why should we want to rise to the top?
Before Jesus left his disciples for good, he told them this; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20, NIV]
This is known as the Great Commission.
It's what Jesus charged christians with before going back into heaven.
Let me tell yah... no one is going to make disciples of all the nations by being mediocre.
In Titus 3:1, Paul said, "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."
Does that sound like someone who's mediocre?
absolutely not.
That sounds like someone who would stand out in a crowd as someone who's going to rise to the top. You'll go far in life by being obedient, being ready to do whatever is good, and not slandering... being considerate and showing humility to everyone. That's not mediocre. That's exceptional.
And what better to be exceptional about than that Great Commission that we've been charged with?
Let's not be mediocre.
Let's show the world that we want to stand out- for good, for excellence, and for Jesus.
Monday, April 14, 2008
On Serving
Every summer for school we have summer reading books. Usually there's one required book, and then a selection of books that you have to choose from for others.
This past year, the required reading was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In the book, Quinn suggests that humans society is on its way to destruction. Not because the world is living wrong or because of corruption, but rather because human society shouldn't exist.
The idea is that our ancestors (think: african tribes before europe divided it up like a pie) lived in harmony with nature, following the natural laws of only taking what you need to survive, letting death run its course, etc.
Then he re-interpreted Genesis to be the point where humankind ceased being hunter-gatherers, and became agrarian (farmers). When this happened, we stopped being at one with nature because we started doing things like hoarding food, cheating death with medicine, reproducing wildly due to our ability to grow surplus food... eventually we built society, and now we ravage the earth's natural resources and are on our way to oblivion.
Now, i liked some of the issues Daniel Quinn brought attention to, but his whole extrapolation is more-or-less ridiculous.
I don't think that humans were ever "in harmony" with nature, other than in the garden of Eden. And i don't think that, under our societal coverings, we're anything remotely like our animal friends.
See, i was thinking a little bit, and i think that one thing that separates us from them wild animals is this: The need to Serve.
You could change the name to the need to have a purpose. But i like the need to serve better.
Think about it. Everyone serves something.
Slaves serve their masters.
Peasants served their dukes and earls by working their land to the bone.
Communists serve the state.
Workaholics serve their jobs.
Students serve their schoolwork.
Americans serve themselves.
Perhaps the only people who don't serve anything are the 20-somethings who still live with their moms and have no jobs, and whose entire existence consists of getting up at 1:30 and watching old episodes of Lost until they get tired, and then going back to bed again.
And that's just depressing.
See... people without purpose get depressed. They get restless... they find that they have a need to find that purpose and go serve something.
That's what separates us from dogs and cats and 3-toed sloths.
Sure, you might say that dogs "serve" their masters.
But that's not true; dogs are only capable of existing.
They might have emotions, they might be capable of reasoning, but they still only follow their instinct. Which is to survive.
When you train a dog, you teach to its instinct. It learns to do things that get it doggie treats or pats on the head, because food and interaction are part of existence; part of survival. So it does what its trained to do, because of the natural instinct to survive.
Humans, on the other hand, are more than capable of going against that natural instinct.
We have all sorts of eccentric millionaires that break the mold on purpose; we insist on living in new england and canada and alaska even though it goes entirely against the natural instinct to not be freezing cold in the winter. Birds migrate; we don't.
What i'm trying to say here, is that we're different from animals; one of the ways that we differ is in this need to serve.
And that's one of the reasons why Christians are, generally, happier, more content, and more at peace than nonchristians. We have a purpose; we have someone to serve who is infinitely larger and more important than anything on the earth.
This past year, the required reading was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In the book, Quinn suggests that humans society is on its way to destruction. Not because the world is living wrong or because of corruption, but rather because human society shouldn't exist.
The idea is that our ancestors (think: african tribes before europe divided it up like a pie) lived in harmony with nature, following the natural laws of only taking what you need to survive, letting death run its course, etc.
Then he re-interpreted Genesis to be the point where humankind ceased being hunter-gatherers, and became agrarian (farmers). When this happened, we stopped being at one with nature because we started doing things like hoarding food, cheating death with medicine, reproducing wildly due to our ability to grow surplus food... eventually we built society, and now we ravage the earth's natural resources and are on our way to oblivion.
Now, i liked some of the issues Daniel Quinn brought attention to, but his whole extrapolation is more-or-less ridiculous.
I don't think that humans were ever "in harmony" with nature, other than in the garden of Eden. And i don't think that, under our societal coverings, we're anything remotely like our animal friends.
See, i was thinking a little bit, and i think that one thing that separates us from them wild animals is this: The need to Serve.
You could change the name to the need to have a purpose. But i like the need to serve better.
Think about it. Everyone serves something.
Slaves serve their masters.
Peasants served their dukes and earls by working their land to the bone.
Communists serve the state.
Workaholics serve their jobs.
Students serve their schoolwork.
Americans serve themselves.
Perhaps the only people who don't serve anything are the 20-somethings who still live with their moms and have no jobs, and whose entire existence consists of getting up at 1:30 and watching old episodes of Lost until they get tired, and then going back to bed again.
And that's just depressing.
See... people without purpose get depressed. They get restless... they find that they have a need to find that purpose and go serve something.
That's what separates us from dogs and cats and 3-toed sloths.
Sure, you might say that dogs "serve" their masters.
But that's not true; dogs are only capable of existing.
They might have emotions, they might be capable of reasoning, but they still only follow their instinct. Which is to survive.
When you train a dog, you teach to its instinct. It learns to do things that get it doggie treats or pats on the head, because food and interaction are part of existence; part of survival. So it does what its trained to do, because of the natural instinct to survive.
Humans, on the other hand, are more than capable of going against that natural instinct.
We have all sorts of eccentric millionaires that break the mold on purpose; we insist on living in new england and canada and alaska even though it goes entirely against the natural instinct to not be freezing cold in the winter. Birds migrate; we don't.
What i'm trying to say here, is that we're different from animals; one of the ways that we differ is in this need to serve.
And that's one of the reasons why Christians are, generally, happier, more content, and more at peace than nonchristians. We have a purpose; we have someone to serve who is infinitely larger and more important than anything on the earth.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
On Love
Today dec’s youth pastor talked about John 21. He spent a lot of time talking about fishing and what it must have been like to be there...and near the end he touched on the final conversation between Peter and Jesus.
John 21:15-17 reads:
"When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son og John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep...""
Now, one of the deals with that passage is that Peter had denied Jesus three times before the crucifixion, even after saying that he would die before he would say that.
What you typically hear about this passage is that it makes more sense in the Greek.
See, the first two times, Jesus is using a different word for "love" than Peter is.
Jesus’ "do you truly love me?" uses the word, "Agapao", which is taken to mean a complete, total, absolute love. Its noun form is the word used in 1 John 4:8, when John says that "God is love."
Now, the word that Peter uses for love, and the one that Jesus uses the third time, is the word "Philia". This is typically taken to be more of a "friendship" type of love.
The gist of it is, Jesus asked peter, "do you love me?" and Peter replied, "no; i really like you."
Anyone who goes to church more than twice a year will know that 1 Corinthians 13 is that part of the bible where Paul talks about love: (verse 4) "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It us not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs..."
Here’s something that i want to stress to you.
Paul, to the Corinthians, describes "love" as a noun.
In all those statements, Love is the subject, and it’s followed by a slew or predicate nominatives: "Love is..."
Sometimes, people describe love as an emotion.
I think that this is completely ridiculous.
Here are a few emotions: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Happiness, Disgust...
Emotions are something that you feel; they pertain to your mind’s chemical balance.
They are intangible; you can't hold happiness in your hand.
Outside of what we feel in our bodies, emotions are just abstract ideas that have a feminine gender in latin.
Love, on the other hand, isn’t anything like an emotion.
Paul describes it as a very real, concrete entity.
Remember, God IS Love. It is something that exists outside of the human condition.
It has substance, meaning, and lasts forever: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."[1 Corinthians 13:13, niv]
Here’s something else that i think about love:
I don't think we should use it as a verb.
Sure, we say, "I love this" and "I love that".
But i think in modern times, we’ve confused the verb form of "love" with the word Like.
Notice the greek word Agapao, the verb, and the noun, Agape.
They are very similar.
But a lot of times, we get verbs from nouns, nouns from verbs (gerunds), adjectives from verbs (participals)... its often hard to figure out which word came first.
But i think in this case, the noun has to be the root form.
Why?
Because of the nature of Love.
If love is a tangible, secure idea, that exists as an entity on its own, you can't acutally turn it into a verb.
It's about the same as the verb "google".
We say, "google it", and what it -actually- means is, "search for it on google".
The word has come to mean an action, much the same way "to hit" is a process of striking one object with another.
Do you see what i’m trying to say?
Love is an entity; the opposite of apathy.
One of the reasons we are so confused with "love this" and "love that" and so on is because of the way we use it as a verb. People say love and think of "like", because they have no idea what love actually is.
Love is the essence of need; it is completely consuming. Without love we have nothing.
Friday, April 4, 2008
On Bears
proverbs.
solomon wrote a lot of them.
He seems to talk a lot about fools and wisdom... and money.
I just read proverbs 17:12, and was surprised to see that my study bible didn't have an entry on the verse:
"Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly."[niv]
think about that.
What do we associate with a mother bear, who has just realized that her cubs are missing?
rage... destruction... panic... insanity... mutilation... that bear goes nuts until she finds her bearlings.
so why is solomon saying that it's better to experience that first hand, than to see a guy who's being dumb?
I guess it says a lot about the need for wisdom.
He'd rather risk getting mauled by a bear than meet a foolish person.
In Ecclesiastes 7:12, he says, "Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor."
everyone dies... a lot of freakishly wealthy people use their money like a security blanket. But in reality, they die just like the rest of us, and they're better off becoming crazy eccentric philanthropists than hanging on to it... because its wisdom that ends up saving you in the end.
solomon wrote a lot of them.
He seems to talk a lot about fools and wisdom... and money.
I just read proverbs 17:12, and was surprised to see that my study bible didn't have an entry on the verse:
"Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly."[niv]
think about that.
What do we associate with a mother bear, who has just realized that her cubs are missing?
rage... destruction... panic... insanity... mutilation... that bear goes nuts until she finds her bearlings.
so why is solomon saying that it's better to experience that first hand, than to see a guy who's being dumb?
I guess it says a lot about the need for wisdom.
He'd rather risk getting mauled by a bear than meet a foolish person.
In Ecclesiastes 7:12, he says, "Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor."
everyone dies... a lot of freakishly wealthy people use their money like a security blanket. But in reality, they die just like the rest of us, and they're better off becoming crazy eccentric philanthropists than hanging on to it... because its wisdom that ends up saving you in the end.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
On the Original Match.com
am i the only person who gets sick every time a commercial for an internet dating site comes on tv?
eHarmony, match.com... others.
Like, that right there is prime example of "leftovers" from the dot-com boom.
You know, when the mid-’90s came around, commercials for websites were abundant. People over in Palo Alto were making gobs of cash without spending any effort; it was the heyday of e-commerce, and TV ads were just another way to increase business.
Flash-forward to post-bust and the line is a lot more blurred between "internet business" and regular business. Sure, there’s "free credit report.com", which isn’t free, but other than that and other exceptions, eHarmony and match.com are pretty much the only TV ads we ever see anymore that are for exclusively browser-bound businesses.
So why does it make me sick?
It’s like the pinnacle of what technology allows us to do.
For so long, "getting hitched" has been one of the most important life decisions you can make. And we can find people now effortlessly. Not to mention the stigma of meeting up with someone you’ve never seen before. You’re just paying money to talk to a picture of someone’s face.
weird.
and lame.
But amazingly, the internet dating site has become rather successful.
You have those people in the commercials talking about how "perfect" their meeting was, people getting married... there’s no problem at all with forging relationships over the internet. All you have to do is ask a kid who’s addicted to runescape or WOW, and the only difference between IRL and internet friends is the face and the voice... which can even be a nonissue with skype.
Then there’s the people who do like, "meet-ups" with their MMORPG friends, where people drive/take the bus for miles just to meet some of their in-game buddies in a cafe or somesuch. And they come back with tales of a grand time.
Personally, i’d find it a little creepy...and unnerving... especially when you’re with a bunch of people who know you by your username and not your actual, legal name.
Weirdness aside, the internet has proven what pen-pals have known for ages: it is not necessary to see, hear, smell, touch, or taste someone in order to have a relationship with them. (as in friendship) All that is necessary is a form of communication. The rest is just enhancement.
Sherman, set the WayBack machine for the middle 1st century AD.
Jesus is talking to his disciples; things are winding down for his ministry before the crucifixion, and Jesus is telling his followers to trust in what is going to happen.
John 14:6&7 reads:
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. no one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus answered, "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father, And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.""[NIV]
The Disciples were a unique group of men. On the one hand, they had the once-in-forever chance of being face-to-face with Jesus. On the other hand, they had to carry the incredible truth of salvation onwards and spread the Gospel. Which comes with a whole long list of opposition, oppression, torture, the like.
Anyhow, re-read the passage and realize something.
For the past few years, these guys have been through everything together. They’re tight. Like, imagine a size small t-shirt on the fattest kid you know... that’s how tight. Circulation-destroyingly tight. Sweat-producingly tight.
And the words Jesus uses are "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?"
Sure, Philip and the rest of the Gang knew Jesus. But they didn’t entirely grasp everything he was all about.
Which we can’t blame them for... it’s a pretty ridiculous concept: "I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me"... like, unless you’ve grown up in a church, that’s a pretty weird statement right there.
And none of these guys grew up in a church.
But realize at the end, what he says to them: "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
Those are the words of a friend.
The disciples were standing face-to-face with God himself, the creator of everything, the essence of Love, pure power... and he’s their friend. That’s pretty overwhelmingly awesome.
Jesus and his disciples obviously had excellent relationships.
But as a Christian, the notion kind of bubbles on the back-burner of how, with our physical inability to be face-to-face with Jesus, we can still have a similar relationship to him.
We don’t need to talk to him, we don’t need to watch him make a ruckus in a synagogue, don’t need to see him snap fish into 5,000 pieces... all we need is that simple communication. The internet has shown us that.
eHarmony, match.com... others.
Like, that right there is prime example of "leftovers" from the dot-com boom.
You know, when the mid-’90s came around, commercials for websites were abundant. People over in Palo Alto were making gobs of cash without spending any effort; it was the heyday of e-commerce, and TV ads were just another way to increase business.
Flash-forward to post-bust and the line is a lot more blurred between "internet business" and regular business. Sure, there’s "free credit report.com", which isn’t free, but other than that and other exceptions, eHarmony and match.com are pretty much the only TV ads we ever see anymore that are for exclusively browser-bound businesses.
So why does it make me sick?
It’s like the pinnacle of what technology allows us to do.
For so long, "getting hitched" has been one of the most important life decisions you can make. And we can find people now effortlessly. Not to mention the stigma of meeting up with someone you’ve never seen before. You’re just paying money to talk to a picture of someone’s face.
weird.
and lame.
But amazingly, the internet dating site has become rather successful.
You have those people in the commercials talking about how "perfect" their meeting was, people getting married... there’s no problem at all with forging relationships over the internet. All you have to do is ask a kid who’s addicted to runescape or WOW, and the only difference between IRL and internet friends is the face and the voice... which can even be a nonissue with skype.
Then there’s the people who do like, "meet-ups" with their MMORPG friends, where people drive/take the bus for miles just to meet some of their in-game buddies in a cafe or somesuch. And they come back with tales of a grand time.
Personally, i’d find it a little creepy...and unnerving... especially when you’re with a bunch of people who know you by your username and not your actual, legal name.
Weirdness aside, the internet has proven what pen-pals have known for ages: it is not necessary to see, hear, smell, touch, or taste someone in order to have a relationship with them. (as in friendship) All that is necessary is a form of communication. The rest is just enhancement.
Sherman, set the WayBack machine for the middle 1st century AD.
Jesus is talking to his disciples; things are winding down for his ministry before the crucifixion, and Jesus is telling his followers to trust in what is going to happen.
John 14:6&7 reads:
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. no one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus answered, "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father, And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.""[NIV]
The Disciples were a unique group of men. On the one hand, they had the once-in-forever chance of being face-to-face with Jesus. On the other hand, they had to carry the incredible truth of salvation onwards and spread the Gospel. Which comes with a whole long list of opposition, oppression, torture, the like.
Anyhow, re-read the passage and realize something.
For the past few years, these guys have been through everything together. They’re tight. Like, imagine a size small t-shirt on the fattest kid you know... that’s how tight. Circulation-destroyingly tight. Sweat-producingly tight.
And the words Jesus uses are "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?"
Sure, Philip and the rest of the Gang knew Jesus. But they didn’t entirely grasp everything he was all about.
Which we can’t blame them for... it’s a pretty ridiculous concept: "I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me"... like, unless you’ve grown up in a church, that’s a pretty weird statement right there.
And none of these guys grew up in a church.
But realize at the end, what he says to them: "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
Those are the words of a friend.
The disciples were standing face-to-face with God himself, the creator of everything, the essence of Love, pure power... and he’s their friend. That’s pretty overwhelmingly awesome.
Jesus and his disciples obviously had excellent relationships.
But as a Christian, the notion kind of bubbles on the back-burner of how, with our physical inability to be face-to-face with Jesus, we can still have a similar relationship to him.
We don’t need to talk to him, we don’t need to watch him make a ruckus in a synagogue, don’t need to see him snap fish into 5,000 pieces... all we need is that simple communication. The internet has shown us that.
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