Embrace It

Yesterday's Star Exponent Article :

My mom has a lot to do with Highland School’s graduation, so I’ve been reluctantly listening to her ideas and plans for months. Our conversations never cease to remind me of my own graduation day.

I remember not being able to differentiate the feeling of nerves and excitement and I remember walking carefully across the stage praying intently that my wedges would guide me towards my diploma without a haunting face plant.

I wrote a “pretend” graduation speech on a bored afternoon post- graduation. After a quick search through old notebooks, I came across a few messy words dated June 23^rd, 2008.

I wrote, “You are dancing on freedom’s ledge. In just three short summer months you can jump — of course not into familiarity, but into everything you haven’t learned in the past 17 or 18 years.

If high school has only been useful to pass the time, well then it was put to good use. But one day, if it hasn’t yet happened, you will experience education’s power. It may be after that first good book, when you witness the value of words. It may be a math problem you didn’t think you could do: but you did. It may simply be a morning where you walk into class thinking ‘Today I will learn something new.’

You can seek education’s power — or you can wait for it to seek you. You may be 30, 40 or 77 before you even realize that life’s clock is actually ticking, but of course by then you will at least understand not the power of education, but the loveliness of being young.

Yes the power of youth is something you may have learned in high school, its beauty, good metabolism, strong elbows and knees, courage and fearlessness. But of course we probably won’t grasp a complete respect for youth until we are staring into the bathroom mirror at our first gray hairs.

The gray hairs will bring a few moments of reminiscing: Summer days sitting poolside, the loss of a good friend, the excitement of Friday night football games, finding first loves, feeling that first breakup.

And then hopefully you’ll say, ‘Life wasn’t too bad’ or maybe, just maybe, you’ll venture to say it was beautiful, perfect or flawless.

So College Advice: At 21, I still consider myself young, but after two foot surgeries and a few extra pounds, I’m reconsidering the line about “good metabolism, strong elbows and knees.” If I could offer one piece of advice to those graduating high school, I would insist you keep a journal. Jump … fearlessly, and write it all down. You will amaze yourself when you reread what you once knew compared to what you now know.

Don't Bother

Upon my recent interest in the Judeo- Christian religions, I’ve discovered that it’s well… quite ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in the Ten Commandments and the basic moral values that religion has offered me, but the problem resides in everything not preached. The words that are hardly ever mentioned, but clearly stated in the scriptures. The not so “positive” words, the ones that don’t at all display the “all-forgiving” God that I’ve been raised to know.  

I dare not say the following is mentioned to contradict other’s beliefs because actually according to the bible that is punishable by death… yes, death (check it out Deuteronomy 17… while we are on it, “Deuteronomy17; 2-7 also says, “Kill anyone with a different religion.”) So instead, I’m just throwing these quotes out there for thought.

Thought is okay right? Because God did give us a brain which allows us the power to think and therefore leaves us with far too many questions.

Because let’s be honest with ourselves, the first and second testament were absolutely not written by God or Jesus… they were written by mankind such as Moses, and Paul and many Apostles. Each passage written from word of mouth or their memory or maybe God’s word?

Well, we all know men are far from perfect so I suppose we can’t blame these good hearted men for their awkward, disheartening statements that happen to disregard every value I’ve ever learned about God… What we can blame is ourselves... for believing that these words are in no way faulty and are the direct word of God- despite the already stated fact that they were written by men... very normal men.

“But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me.” Luke 19;27

Luke quoted Jesus saying this, which I’m hoping is a misquote, because I thought Jesus was a forgiving kind of guy… maybe not?

Regardless, those “enemies” who chose to not refer to Jesus as their king are actually the Jews. They are idiots obviously, because they deserve death and don’t say they don’t, because those who truly believe the bible is the word of God, should probably take out their shot guns and head to all the banks, law offices and hospitals they can find… PS don’t worry about the 6^th commandment that clearly states “Though shall not kill” It’s totally okay in this situation- Jesus said so.

While we’re on the topic of killing, homosexuality is also punishable by death.

“And if a man lie with mankind as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them”- Leviticus 20;13

Now this proves numerous things. If we are going to take it literally than OBVIOUSLY  man can not “lay” with man like he does with women… it’s physiologically impossible- duh. But if we can assume that God is talking about sexual intercourse in general, than why does he make no mention of women with women…

Two possible reasons:

1.      The bible is outdated! Women at this point did not “lay” with women because they didn’t do anything without their husband’s permission. Lesbians were not prominent, maybe they didn’t even exist! and therefore there was no reason to mention it.

2.      God is just like every other man and well… you get it.

Now at this point, if you are still a firm believer in following the bible’s word, why haven’t you killed a sinner, such as the one’s just mentioned? Well if it’s because you are scared you will have to go to jail for the rest of your life, then obviously you’re not willing to sacrifice for God and well that’s just selfish… Jesus died for you, I don’t understand why you can’t spend a few years eating cold food and sleeping on a hard bed to defend God and Jesus’s words…

Leviticus is full of interesting rules and laws.

“Don’t cut your hair, nor shave.”- Leviticus 19;27

fail.

“Don’t wear clothes made of more than one fabric”- Leviticus 19;19

fail.

“Psychics, wizards, and so on are to be stoned to death”-Leviticus 20;27

Jesus made a dead man come back to life... that's the best magic trick I've ever heard of.

The next one is my favorite. God makes us, yet doesn’t accept our offerings as equal… total dick move.

“No man with any physical defects may make the offering: no one who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed”- Leviticus 21;17-18

I feel awful for all those stuck in a wheel chair or who have red hair... God doesn't want your offerings.

NOW, Just FYI

Paul, who was the one said to see Jesus rise and ended up writing the first 80 some thousand words about Jesus’s teachings based upon his witnessing, was hardly the man I would want to learn from. It is documented that he was a believer in slavery as well as oppressing women… real cool bro.

So after learning that Paul was the sole witness of Jesus’s rising and he was the one to originally spread the word of Christianity I started thinking he was a lot like… well… I hate to say it, Hitler. Think about it. Both very influential and capable of convincing thousands of people that what he knew was absolutely without a doubt… right.

Moving on…

"No man who has been castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord's people.” Deuteronomy 13;1

Dude, sucks if you had testicular cancer- you should probably skip surgery and just die because then you could go to heaven. Does this count for pets too?

"No one born out of wedlock or any descendant of such a person, even in the tenth generation, may be included among the Lord's people” Deutoronomy 23;2

This one totally screws half of my generation… and my older sister… suckerrrrr

So I’ll stop. I get it.

If you're religious you hate me and if you’re not you don’t really care about this. So I’ll leave you with the following- I want to believe, honestly! And I do!

I believe that the basic moral values derived from the bible are absolutely necessary in our current culture. I believe that the bible is outdated, maybe perfect for the time it was written- BUT GUESS WHAT! – nearly 1900 years later we have changed. The bible was written at a time when men were in total control. And sure they may have been preaching the truth, but whos to say they didn't add their own sly opinions?

So many people get defensive when Jesus’s story is compared to the story of the well-known mythological names such as Dionysus, who had an incredibly similar story to Jesus and was oddly written about many years prior to Jesus. Well, I’ve come up with two reasons for this…

1.      People NEED an explanation for everything, so these apostles wrote a long story (new testament) about this guy Jesus (derived from Dionysus) and convinced people that this is why unexplainable things happen.

2.      Or maybe it all did happened! Some guy did live and performed miracles and died and resurrected and now is spending eternity next to his father. The problem here is that there are many similar stories- ever think that maybe it’s the same story and the same hero it was just interpreted differently by different people? Maybe Paul and his gang were just really fucking influential and convinced everyone that the other stories were just myths!

The slight problem with number 2 is that majority of the Christian religion explains the previous “similar Jesus stories” as the work of the devil… yes the devil… (something about the devil knowing it was going to come so he tried to convince people to follow him first and blah blah blah…)

Truth is …we will never know what is right or wrong, what we can do is open up our minds and be willing to learn!

It’s quite obvious the bible is outdated, or maybe it's not!

Maybe it's exactly what we should be following... that would suck big blue balls, but who knows? 

Maybe we can follow what is important, the main purpose of the higher power?

Or maybe we could just not believe at all and just listen to our moral intuition that tells us what is wrong and what is right… Just food for thought.

What I definitely do know is that I am no where near educated enough to alter your opinions, so with that being said, don’t try to alter mine. I interpreted the readings just as your Rabbi or Pastor, Priest or Preacher did, because we are all human so we have the ability and right to do so…

http://www.socollegeblog.com/

Think About It

Dino and I are sitting on the beach making small talk about the random questions, thoughts and ideas people often think, but are not really ever answered.

I write in the vernacular.... which makes absolutely no sense because vernacular is not everrr used in the common language

Why do boys/men wear shorts so long that they resemble parachute pants?...Man capris are fairly popular in Europe and unfortunately with my dad, but im confused on why some males cant clearly differentiate between shorts, capris, and pants... and unless you're four or younger your butt isnt cute.
Baggy pants was so five years ago.

Tattoos of deceased pets ... why? First of all, if you're gonna have paw prints next to Spot's name on your shoulder than your arm better have the names of your great uncle and that goldfish you flushed down the toilet at 13.... Second of all, pets are surely a valuable part of the fam but your next 6 dogs are gonna be awfully jealous if you don't acknowledge the years you spent picking up their shit... think about it...

http://www.socollegeblog.com/

Discovering What I Am

Today's Culpeper Star Exponent Article-

Tuesday night TV is pitiful. Not to judge, but I’m not much of a television or movie critic because I can’t seem to get passed the idea that reality is more interesting than make believe.

Regardless, due to boredom and Tuesday night TV, I watched a movie titled, “That’s What I Am.”

During the movie, a teacher tells his student to stand tall and say, “I am a writer, that’s what I am,” and he himself later says, “I am a teacher, that’s what I am.”

Although this movie hardly ranks on my top 10 list, I felt inspired by its basic moral lessons. I started thinking, what am I?

I write, but am I a writer? A good friend of mine told me, “You don’t have to be a writer to write, you just have to be human. Humans have thoughts and therefore something to write.”

I’m human and I have thoughts so I write, but I don’t know if I would consider myself a writer. I would consider myself a dreamer, a teller of secrets, maybe an outspoken hypocrite, or an obnoxious preacher with little evidence to back up my theories, but nothing seems as simple and confidently put as “I am a writer, that’s what I am.”

As I was walking down the silent streets of Southport, N.C. just a day later, I spotted a sign titled, “I Am Street.” Ironic timing considering I had constantly been thinking of “what I am” since the conclusion of the movie.

Later that afternoon while lying on the beach, I pulled out a few poetry books I had grabbed from my Nana’s bookshelf. My Nana just passed in October, reuniting her with my grandfather who passed a few years back.

I never knew either of them was interested in poetry, but to my surprise as I opened each book, I found a handwritten poem from my grandfather to my Nana.

On Monday Feb. 28, 1977, he wrote in the back of a book titled “Lovely as a Tree,” “You are as strong and beautiful as a tree, may we grow closer every day.”

Not only did I discover their deep love for each other, but I discovered that Nana was a tree.

Weird when I say it like that, but I think she’s a tree in a metaphorical sense. Maybe her branches revealed different parts of her life and likes and all her talents.

After attempting to say “I am a tree, that’s what I am,” on repeat, I came to the conclusion that I am no tree.

I’m too simple in the broad spectrum of talents, but what I do have is this deep sense of curiosity and a sincere desire to soak in all the beauty life breathes. Maybe I’m an artist, a starving artist at that. A starving artist hungry to see the world … that’s what I am.

So College Advice — I don’t know if figuring out who you are is the critical question; perhaps focusing on what you do is more important.

http://www.socollegeblog.com/