Bolivia

Well I got in last night. I am not going to be doing much today, because I need to get acclimatedwith the altitude. While traveling yesterday I had some time to talk with a few people, one lady I had diner with was from Bolivia and we talked about the problems within the Bolivia government. Its a sad thing and one can´t help but feel helpless. There are really no simple answers to these problems.

On a different note, I started reading some good books including one hat is a Historical overview of the New Testament and Travels with Charley. I don´t have too much to say at this point, but I will be talking to you latter.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
Mark Twain

Another chapter opens, or maybe only another turn of a page. I am glad that some can share this time with me.

So I was walking to get some ice cream when I ran into Richard, well it was Richard until he trusted me with his real name, that being Dick. He was a rough 60 year old man from Henesey, Oklahoma. He was wearing a dirty black leather coat. He asked me for some change and so I told him that we could go and get some food, if he had time. While we were walking to McDonald’s, I made a few attempts to talk to him. I prodded about his childhoods, some about his past and so on. He really did not want to talk.
As we stood in front of the register, he pointed down to the menu and told me that he would like a Big Mac. I asked if he wanted some fries or a drink, he said no. He looked up at me and asked if I was going to order anything. I told him “no”. His response was rather interesting as he looked at me, then down once more, as if I had declined a dinner invitation. Then I turned around and order and double cheeseburger. We sat down at the booth and enjoyed our food. I once more tried to start some kind of conversation and he was reluctant to remain silent or answering rather quickly to anything that I said. I made an effort to get him a job at McDonald’s, I even had the manager there talking with us about what was needed in order for him to get a job. My efforts proved useless as he had virtually nothing to put down for education, past jobs, home address, or even a phone number. I looked at him after a short while and asked if he even wanted to continue trying, he looked at me and said “no, let’s go.” So we did, we headed over to the gas station next door and I bout him some cigarettes. We sat outside on the curb and each rolled a cigarette, after a while I looked up at him and said “isn’t life strange?” he looked at me and smiled and said, “Yes, yes it is.” As we sat there I opened up my journal and ripped out a page that quoted a few lines from Brennan Manning and then I wrote down my phone number. After a while we headed back to our original location, we sat down on the bench and exchanged a few words. I then told him that I needed to go, but asked if we could pray first. I thanked God for him and then asked for strength on his behalf. After I prayed he looked at me with some of the most honest eyes I had ever seen and said “thank you” as I said your welcome, I could not help but feel rather strange for accepting a thank you after a prayer.
There are times when words just don’t cut it. No gospel pitched, no pointing fingers, just passing time with people. I am beginning to thing that this is what people need more and more.

good quotes from current books you have read.

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning”
Tuesdays With Morrie

It’s Tuesday, and I am sitting at my home in Tulsa. My dog is sitting to my left and the outside birds are singing. School is over and the normative feeling of busyness is begging to where off. Over the past few days I have spoken with friends and enjoyed the company of my family. I read Tuesdays With Morrie the other day, and my feeble words should not even try to reduce such a book to a few words.
I am leaving for South America in about two weeks (I can hardly believe that I just wrote that last line). People have asked me if I am ready to go back. Honestly, I don’t know. I feel little emotion at the moment. I often wonder if I have made things to difficult or to complex. What does it mean to love God with my mind? What does it mean to love God with my heart? These things seem so simple. There is little that my heart desires more than to help people who are in need, to live a life freedom and adventure and to share life with those I love.

So I feel like a complete jerk

Over the past two weeks, I have been working on a paper for one of my classes. It is a common and expected thing that I write lots of drafts and often times I find myself rather frustrated. Over the course of a semester I generally develop a good relationship with my teachers, because I end up meeting with them several times before I hand anything in. This past assignment has been no exception, I had been bugging my teacher to meet with me, so that she could look over my essay, but for some reason she was canceling on me. I found this very frustrating and was complaining a lot to my friends. My only chance to sit down and talk with her came this morning. Entering her office, I had this “you own me one” type of attitude. As I sat down I noticed that she had been crying, at that time the paper really was of no consequence as I recalled all the things that I had said about her over the past week (she is so lazy, she is a bad teacher, she doesn’t care and so on). After she finished we talked a little about the paper, then I apologized for being so pushy. I asked her how things were going and she responded with, “actually things have been really crazy” she then preceded to tell me that she had recently found out that she was pregnant and sick and now had to quit smoking and drinking on account of her child. I sat in the chair knowing that nothing I could say could make things better, I tried a few times to say something tactful, yet I stopped in mid sentence. I was reminded once more that, the world does not revolve around me. There are reasons why people do what they do, even if I don’t understand them.

OK, so I am trying to figure out this dang blog thing. But, I am glad that I have something other than xanga.

Into the Wild

“I’d like to repeat the advise that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have though of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiatives to change their situations because they are conditioned to a life of security conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is has passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no grater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, of each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

Alex McCandless

Into the Wild

“I’d like to repeat the advise that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have though of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiatives to change their situations because they are conditioned to a life of security conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is has passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no grater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, of each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

Alex McCandless