Proud to be an American?

I began to wonder about how patriotic I am (or maybe not) these days when I was watching the fireworks on the fourth of July. Now, the picture here is much grander than what we experienced in Mogantown, from our place standing on the Westover bridge in the rain. Still, I do love fireworks. Never knowing what will be next, the color, the sound, it is just exciting. But I digress.

While I was watching, I began to think about what that day meant to a lot of people, even those standing around me. Some of you know, and many would not be surprised to find out, that I am not really the most patriotic of people. Never really have been. And kinda would get mad when my grandma would inevitably have red, white, and blue paper products for our July birthday celebration every year (of which I was one of the birthdays). Not to mention always having fried chicken. Double yuck.

I would always tell people that I was NOT patriotic, not because I disagreed with the sentiment, but because I did not want to be lumped in with the large amount of people who were blindly and often ridiculously, patriotic without thinking about what they believed.

I think I can trace a lot of my anti-patriotism to my senior year of high school/freshman year of college, when I took Honors History/English with Dr. Ruff and Ms. Blomgren. Oh I hated it to some degree back then, but it ended up being a class that changed the way I viewed life more than any other. You see, it taught me the value of critical thinking, and knowing why you believe what you believe. Well, I was very disenchanted with the US as a whole at that point, a majority of which was probably unfounded and just as backwards as people who are blindly patriotic. Maybe I was just as blind as they were though.

But I have continued on that path to this day. Now I am not anti-American, or against any of the people, so don't get me wrong. In fact, I think that as Americans we have been given a great gift. The problem is how we use it. We are typically arrogant, loud, obnoxious, and covetous. We never get enough, and we don't know how to say no to our own desires.

Over the past week I read another book (I know, shocking that I have made the time). This one is called Jesus for President, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. you see, all too often we get caught up in being American, and in politics, being liberal or conservative, republican or democrat. It kind of reads like a deep picture book for adults, and is full of fun graphics that make the point of whatever the topic is.

"The danger is that we can begin to read the Bible through the eyes of America rather than read America through the eyes of the Bible. We just want Jesus to be a good American. "

I think that sums up the way a lot of us view things. WE separate church and state to such a degree that we no longer even think about what the bible says about politics, or how we should interact with others. We just want Jesus to fit in our nice little box, to come out and magically forgive our sins. We don't really want to consider how he lived his life, in a bizarre and creative fashion of loving people no matter what. No, that would be very difficult to actually do, so we take the easy way out and just think about politics in its own box, school in its own box, work, church, friendships, you name it. We keep it all separate.

What would it look like if we instead allowed Jesus to color all we do?

Would we be fighting a war on the other side of the world? Would we be allowing people in our own country to live in poverty? Would we allow extreme poverty to exist worldwide? Would we continue to allow the heinous things the government does be seen as ok?

Take a moment and think on that. Now, I'm not asking you to become less patriotic. But think perhaps of pledging allegiance to the Lord instead of to the flag.

I'll end with a little bit from the book. (Again, if you have any time and can read- which since you are reading this I'm assuming is a yes- please pick up a copy of this book. It will definitely challenge you, and even if you don't agree wholeheartedly with it, it can make you think about things from a little different perspective.) One of the authors (Shane) wrote this while he spent some time in Iraq (during which he was working with others to bring aid to those in need, even though they were from a country we were fighting against). Apparently he had been asked about being a traitor since he was "supporting" the people in Iraq.

"Traitor?

If this bloody, counterfeit liberation is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If depleted uranium is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If US sanctions are American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If the imposed "peace" of Pax Americana is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

But if grace, humility, and nonviolence are American...

I'm proud to be American.

If sharing to create a safe, sustainable world is American...

I'm proud to be American.

If loving our enemies is American...

I'm proud to be American."

Death Hike: Day 1

And so begins the narrative of the death hike.

Sarah and I started off our day by having lunch with our friend Megan. (Our last meal in her words, before heading off to die.) After lunch we stopped by the store to pick up some last minute things (like 8 gallons of water) and off we went to the middle of nowhere in WV. That's us on our adventures before everyone else joined us!

After a couple hours we were in Seneca Rocks, WV. I have never ventured to this area, and I must say it is beautiful. I look forward to going back and getting to explore some of the other areas nearby! Back to the story though...

Sarah and I somehow volunteered ourselves to make a water drop along our 24 mile trail route at an area where the trail intersects a public road. Now the only issue being that we didn't know where we were going, and there weren't really clear directions on how to get there. (I do believe part of the directions were something like, "after you are on 220 for a bit there is a road, that isn't marked really, that goes through two mountains, that goes by a magic bus, and up to where the trail is". Right.

So after getting lost once (only about 8 miles out of our way) we found our way to the trail.We then found a place to hide the water, which isn't as easy as it sounds when the landscape is kinda open... and then headed back to meet the others and leave our cars at both ends of the trail and begin our hike.

We met up with our other 4 friends (Brittani, Josh, Curtis, and Ricky), and made our way to the south end of the trail where we would begin our journey. As we arrived, another car pulled up beside us, and to our surprise it was our friend Billy and his dad, who were there to hang and help us set our camp that evening. At this point I think it was about 9:30 or so, and we began our uphill climb in the dark. After just a few minutes we found a nice area to set camp, but about half the group decided that it would be best to continue further uphill to get it out of the way.

Well, we were already exhausted from a day of travel, and let me tell you, a consistent uphill hike in the dark after driving all day is not too good. Also... its best to have dinner on a night like that. Sarah and I got so busy that we forgot entirely to eat, which did not help us at all. After about 2 miles uphill we finally found a suitable place to set camp. It was sometime around 12:15 by then.

It was a LONG day and a rough way to start the hike....

The End of Poverty

So I had a big accomplishment this week... I finished reading The End of Poverty.

Now, to a bunch of my friends that are currently reading it, or have recently read it, it may seem like an accomplishment just to get through it. (There was a lot of talk about how it was a difficult book to get through before I started on it, which made me kind nervous.) BUT, the accomplishment for me was that I actually found time to read a whole book, start to finish, in a relatively short period of time!

Now, I will say that there were portions of the book that dragged, and when there was a lot of economic jargon I was less than entertained, but overall it was an incredibly interesting read. A huge chunk of the book is dedicated to telling the specific stories of countries who have had some level of economic crisis, and how they have come out of that, some with great success, and others with more difficulty.

If I had the book here with me, I would probably put some great quotes from it here, but one of my friends is already borrowing my copy. Needless to say, it was eye opening for me. I may have realized that poverty existed in the world, but I did not really know to what extent, and what can be practically done about it. I am by no means an expert in economics, but I will say that this book has piqued my interest, and makes me long for a greater understanding so that I can better make a difference.

If you have the chance, and are maybe ready to read something that is a bit outside of what you would normally read, I would really suggest giving this book a try. Even if it means you just skim through it and read the highlights, I'm sure it can profoundly change the way you view things.