When I learned about the Yanomamo a few years back it was in an academic setting. We read a whole book on them and discussed their culture as a way to better understand society and people. Unfortunately, their current state of affairs and our role in that was not part of the conversation.
For a Yanomani, her land is much more than the soil she treads.
Help us to prevent her from being evicted from her land at www.survival.es.
At the beginning of 2006, I joined forces with my friend, Peter, to start an initiative to raise funds to help address the AIDS Crisis that is facing a small village in South Africa (and the rest of the world). The team now includes Josh & David. We are trying to make the needs of these communities available through video, pictures and stories. We want you to be able to see the needs there are and then pool your resources to address it and then see that need met.
It’s an exciting project to be a part of and I’d LOVE for you to subscribe to the Eikon Project Blog. Please visit the site and help spread the word.
At the age of twenty, Benjamin Franklin, partially reflecting on Philippians 4:8, wrote a list of virtues he felt where important to a disciplined life:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
As I’ve been re-looking at my goals and trying to put them in a order and format that I can really keep to and appreciate, I’ve decided to go with a similar format to Benny’s.
I listed these virtues in a quick brainstorm last night, so I’m probably going to change them around at different points.
Moderation: Avoid extremes. Simply meet needs
Justice: Live in a way that is un-oppressive.
Simplicity: Free my life of unneccessaries
Discipline: Live as I plan, not on a whim.
Grace: Allow myself and other’s God’s redeeming grace.
Humility: Remain a follower (of Christ)
Prayer: Submit my life and desires to God
Ambition: Use every minute as if my last.
Sacrifice: Forego worldly pleasures and wants.
Passion: Let my passion fuel my actions.
What are your virtues?
Another quick tidbit for those who are new to soccer and the World Cup.
The clip below is argueably the most famous goal in World Cup history. It’s also one of the most controversial.
I’m still a little unsettled about our sort of naive celebration of “independence” day in this country. We are holding people prisoners unjustly.
Well, fortunately someone out there has the skill to speak the people’s language, through a film. It’s based on true life accounts of these three men. My only fair is that people will treat it like any other movie and do nothing.
Check your city and plan on seeing it today.
Then Take Action.
Mindy and I talked over some Goals we had written a little over a year ago. It was an encouraging activity because we were able to reflect on the progress we had made in the past year. We also talked about ways that our goals have changed or had become more specific.
The discussion really encouraged us both to write our goals and place them in a prominent place for us to be continually reminded of. I’ve mentioned before that through college I had my goals posted next to my desk and they where essential in my making my time at college successful and fulfilling.
I like simple so I’ve summarized my life goals in this way:
ACT. LOVE. LIVE.
I desire to carry out my beliefs in through my actions. I firmly believe unconditional, sacrificial love is what we were created for. Living in community is essential.
Sorry I can’t give more profound or clear descriptions of my goals.
I ran across this article while looking at something else on Newsweek and some of the statistics and stories shocked me. “The Long and Grinding Road” is all about the great rise in commuting that has been happening in our country, even while gas prices go up.
As we’re pushed to the edge of civilization by runaway home prices and a longing for wide-open spaces, the daily rat race is turning into a marathon. “Extreme commuters” who travel more than 90 minutes to work, one way, are the fastest-growing group of commuters, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
They give some other reasons behind the rise in commuting, but more shocking then that was all the acknowledgements of how taxing and harmful the long commutes are:
Robert Putnam, author of “Bowling Alone,” found that every 10 minutes added to your commute decreases by 10 percent the time you dedicate to your family and community.
The result of all these drivers behaving badly: more crashes. A federal study released last week found that 80 percent of crashes are caused by “driver inattention,” up from a previous estimate of 25 percent.
The longer the commute, the more likely the commuter will suffer bouts of road rage, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes and ulcers, says Dr. John H. Casada, a specialist in road stress. And Georgia Tech researchers found that every 30 minutes spent driving increases your risk of becoming obese by 3 percent.
Drivers today eat an average of 32 meals a year in their car, according to the researcher NPD Group. And one in four restaurant meals is now ordered from the car.
And then they go into all the new advances that fast food, car manufacturers and others are making to appeal to your commuting needs.
I took the brief survey Newsweek has about my commute and found the over all results surprising. 50% of the people surveyed spend over $40 a week on commuting cost. 65% of those surveyed commute over 15 miles (I think that’s one way) and spend over 30 minutes in their car. I guess I spend about the same amount of time on my bike, so maybe I’ve got to watch out for some of these things too.
If your into soccer you missed a great game on the Tuesday, 119 minutes of intense, yet scoreless action.
But if you missed those minutes, here are the final two minutes of the overtime that decided the game.
Italy vs. Germany Highlights
In 1999 and for sometime before and after that there was and I believe still is a successful community bike sharing program in my hometown of Madison, WI. It was called the Red Bikes Project and consisted of a bunch of bikes painted entirely red placed for people to use through out the downtown.
I love the community bike program, and I think it would be such a wonderful thing to do here in Nashville, especially with the possiblity of folks using them year-round.
I’ve just heard from a couple of Bike Co-ops in the area, and I’m beginning to think this could become a real possibility out here.
(More bike projects)