Sad

Yesterday, only a couple blocks from where I was volunteering at the Carver Baptist Center Uptown in the Garden District, Guy McEwan was shot and killed around 5:00 PM. The newly-turned twenty-year-old was a victim of a senseless shooting. Supposedly, the shooting is linked to his participation and cooperation in testifying in another murder trial earlier in the week. While I'd only met Guy once or twice, it saddens me to know that this reality exists where I live. While I'm conscious of the issues on a daily basis, I can sometimes easily ignore it because I'm not affected. Well, I am now. Please, pray for families involved, and the 12th ward community. Someone mentioned to me that Guy was worried about this earlier in the week. When I was 20, I worried about not pissing my Dad off, or getting caught drinking. Seriously, how do you not worry about getting shot? What is that?

WWL has the whole story here

I'm Done Quoting Song Lyrics

I'm ready to start writing again. I cannot help feel a bit uninformed though. I have a lot to say, just don't know what to write about. So, this is where you will come in. Faithful readers, in the comments below, ask me random questions you want to know. Anything. Simple or complicated. Or ask me to write about something specific. Ask me what my favorite cereal is or who I will vote for in the upcoming election? Of course these are examples and I have already dedicated space on this blog for that, so please come up with new questions. This is up to you, the reader, however many of you are left. Thanks!

i wrote it down, and i remember

"How I Remember"
by David Bazan
Fewer Moving Parts EP

I go out in public now
More than you might think
But only after several drinks
That's how I remember
And if I see any girl
Ive ever met before
I run like Hell for the door
That's how I remember
Memory records
Selected shorts
And interpretations
Then later plays them back
As gospel fact
That's how I remember

Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest

Life is an impetuous adventure. Sometimes it is a winsome event. Other times, it is filled with nothing but sorrow. I oft find myself walking a fine line between the two. I tend to quote cliches to folk who think my life is a gem. The grass is always greener on the other side, so I say to them. I look at friends who sides are opposite of mine, and tend to think the issues I deal with are less tumultuous than the ones they are dealing with. These past few weeks have taught me a great deal about myself. I wonder if I'll remember the lessons learned. Stick to your guns, so they also say. I'm pretty sure I'm out of ammo at this point. Freeze. Bang, bang. Dead.

"Rejoice"

Wouldn't it be so wonderful if everything were meaningless
But everything is so meaningful
And most everything turns to shit
Rejoice

by Pedro the Lion from the album Control

Spam

I am no fan of spam. Not at all. Neither the supposed meat product nor the kind you get in your inbox. I don't want to be one of these johnny-come-lately bloggers who unleash their thoughts about the trivial, but this concerns all of you, as well as me. Today I was sifting through my spam folder in Gmail when something caught my eye. Sometimes miscellaneous newsletters or emails get stuck there simply because they happen to be in the form of a mass message. Well, one specific message caught my attention. The subject read: "Funky date rape trick." How is that supposed to entice anyone? Is that not an audacious attempt at either humor or shock, but still all mixed in with a dose of trickery? I did not open the email because I thought that we would please the sender too much. Seriously though, and this is really what chaps my hide. Who says funky anymore?

"Dusk and Summer"

She smiled in a big way, the way a girl like that smiles
When the world is hers and she held your eyes
Out in the breezeway down by the shore in the lazy summer
And she pulled you in, and she bit your lip, and she made you hers

By Dashboard Confessional, from the album Dusk and Summer

I'm Writing This To Break Your Heart

I really thought I could get committed to blogging again. Sadly, this is all you will see for another week.

I Guess You Can Call This A Comeback Tour

Re: Re: Singleness Is Bliss (Edited, Expanded, Corrected)

I wrote this blog while in college. I updated a year later. Now, four years later, certain sentiments still ring true. I thought it was appropriate to resurrect this on Valentine’s Day:

Why can't I be happy? Why can't I find love? Why can't I find that one special person for me? These are questions that people often ask themselves when they think about their losses and failures in love. I myself, though I tend to think of some of mine as success stories, often indulge my mind into self-reflection on these very same questions. My answer? I should just not think about it anymore. But, I still do…

The plague of this couple-ridden week is almost over. And yes, I have endured. I sit in my room alone, still, and wonder, “won't this ever end?” While I'm I getting ready for work, I contemplate my relationships of old. I don't usually do much soul-searching regarding my past loves because frankly, I think I've been the one who has messed them all up. Of course, there were equal crimes committed by both, her(s) and I, but I still wonder about them. Yes, I have been the one to break up with a girlfriend before or decided a girl and I shouldn't seek a relationship anymore, but besides that, I know they weren't all my fault. Right? Of course not! It is close to impossible and highly improbable for one person to simply be the entire reason for any failures that his or her love life has ever suffered. Yet, these are the same thoughts that have kept me up so many nights before. But, really, why do we go around and spend time dwelling on who was right or wrong? Most of the time, all we're really doing is seeking to find only one answer to a certain question: what the heck happened? That's the key question to anyone who has ever had an unsuccessful relationship. I'll expound on mine later if need, but the source to all my bent up hostilities and bitterness goes far back, beyond anything you could imagine.

You see, the story of my relationships goes all the way back to the nice mature age of three or four. I was in preschool at Harbor City Baptist Church in my hometown of Melbourne, Florida. It was there that I had my first physical experience with the female gender. Her name was uh...well...ugh... I don't remember her name. Can you blame me? It was twenty-four years ago. Anyway, I remember trying to convince this young lady (and I do mean young) to kiss me in the bathroom. If you recall, old church buildings used to have bathrooms in the nursery between two classrooms that could be entered from both sides because each room had a door into the bathroom. Well, it was my clever scheme to have that girl go in one side of the bathroom and I would go into the other classroom and go in through that door. Then, we would meet in the middle and enjoy a few seconds of kissing pleasure (I swear this was going through my mind). Ok, maybe not all of the detail, but I really did try to make this happen. Yes, even children are depraved. As time and age would allow it, the girl didn't want to have any part of it. She just wanted to be friends. This was the foundation of my life and the beginning of my journey through this crazy thing called love, and as it would be, numerous failed relationships.

I cannot even begin to start and explain all of my relationships past and present. But, I can begin by telling you what I've learned about the opposite sex. While all of the previous rambling was mere humor into the perspective of my love life, I seriously can simplify my thoughts back to the days of my post-terrible-two's. I didn't get that girl then and I my date book isn't necessarily any fuller these days. What it comes down to is this: I didn't understand that girl then and certainly don't understand women now. For example: while in college, some friends at my school wore all black on Valentine’s Day. While I found it somewhat funny, other parts annoyed me. I know what you’re thinking, and yes I was wearing black too. But, why should I have to change my color-coordinating preferences because some girls want to humorously protest the "love-day?" If you are single, that doesn't indicate anything. It just means you are not currently in a relationship. It certainty doesn't constitute you being considered a dork, unsuccessful, nerdy, or some other witty junior high euphemism. You make a day like Valentine's Day mean what you want it to. If you want to act like you are a failure because you don't have a significant other, then so be it. But, you are just as successful of a person with or without a relationship. It's just plain nonsense to see it any other way. I thought we found our confidence in Christ? Not in feeling all lovey-dovey one day a year. That's why I had a problem with those girls at my school. Anyway, as it would be, I still don't understand the ladies.

Like I said previously, I've felt insecure in my past relationships, like I've caused them to fail. Inevitably, it was just one of the unexplainable occurrences in life. Whether it wasn't God's will, I messed up, she messed up, it was by chance, our free agency, predestination, who knows? All I do know is that it ended and caused me to do one of four things:

1. Get sad.
2. Write a poem
3. Get mad
4. Cry

All in all, I'd say the average results aren’t too bad. Those relationships still ended and I can't explain that. I'm sure it's like that for everyone, but at this point in my life, I'd like some explanations. Maybe all I'm looking for is closure? Maybe I'm just trying to find an excuse to rethink and rehash old flames that were extinguished long ago?

Nevertheless, I voyage on to find the 'one for me' or whatever ideals about love I have been brainwashed into me. You know, I don't know if there is one special person for me, or if there are several gals out there who would be a perfect match. I don't know anything. The older I get and the more educated I get, the more I realize that there is so much more to learn and I don't really know that much. Thus, I feel dumber.

I think that is another key to growing up. And for a Christian, realizing that you cannot do anything outside of yourself and you must rely dependent upon God for everything. Whether your job, your love, or you finances. That's the focal point of Christianity and at the least, adulthood. The thing I now have to come to grips with is realizing how inconsequential all those other things are. Passed relationships, failed or successful are still, in the past. We should remember history, certainly, but never let it sit as the center of our attention for too long. If the past is dwelt on for too long, one can become disenchanted with reality. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Regrets don't do any good because you cannot change the things that have already been done. Learn, live, and just it let go.

I know this is a really long post and you're waiting for the conclusion or the point to this. Essentially, you want something significant to take with you. Sorry folks, there are no earth-shattering revelations in this one. It stands a mystery to me, as do some other aspects of life. All I know is, until I seek the Lord fully and until I am only relying on him to fulfill me wholly, I won't be able to understand life or grasp the mystery that is the opposite sex, known simply to us all as women.

"Whether truth is stronger than either wine, the king or woman" [I'll never know.]
- Thomas Aquinas. From his work, Commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle.