This post has actually been a very long time in the making. These are thoughts that have been going through my mind over the past year, and I have been trying to figure out a way to best explain them. I feel like I have a hard time really explaining it in person, so I am not sure if it will work any better in writing, but here it goes.
In a nutshell it is becoming more apparent to me that the more I grow in my faith, the less I think religion has a role in politics at all. Or, to be more specific, Christianity has no role in politics. I am in no way an expert in any of the other religion, or for that manner in Christianity, so I will not talk about any of the other religions but curtain my thoughts to the role of my faith in politics.
To me, Christianity is about a relationship between me and God. I talk to God, God talks to me, and in my life I try to do things that are pleasing to God and represent my life as an act of worship. But considering all this, I do not think that passing laws based on the Bible is the right thing to do. Jesus did not die for our sins to institute a worldly set of laws based on biblical values. Instead it seems to me that He stressed a strong separation of the rulers of the world and the ruler of your soul. I'm going to try to explain why I feel this way the best I can, but I won't promise that it makes much sense. And while I do not expect to lead a movement and have tons of people following my way, I just think it might explain why I sometimes vote the "non-biblical" way.
We try to behave "biblical" because we attempt to make our lives pleasing to God. We try to live godly lives, in order to honor our God. But what is the result of forcing actions that we consider to honor our God unto people that do not follow our belief? Will it lead them to have a relationship with God? Will they know Jesus simply by being forced to act according to values that we consider pleasing to Him? Will people know God, simply by acting godly? Shouldn't our focus be on evangelism? To spread the good news of our Savior to others, and to help them have a relationship with Him? But instead of spending our time and effort on helping people actually know God, we spend all this effort on making people simply act like we think God wants them to act.
I also try to consider that when it comes to creating "biblical law" and expecting people to follow that law, the Bible itself is a pretty good example of the futility of that effort. The old testament is full of examples of laws that God send to his people, expecting them to be followed. And the old testament is also full of examples of the people being unable to follow these laws. The very reason we rely on Jesus for our salvation is the fact that we are unable to ever follow the laws that would make us good enough. If God had to send His own son to die for the sins created by our inability to follow His laws, what makes us think that we can do any better by passing these laws of our own? Do we really think that when it comes to forcing people to act more godly, we could actually do any better than God himself?
I honestly don't know if any of this makes much sense, but I have been meaning to share my thoughts.
This little clip reminds me of swimming in the Adria in Italy. Mrs. D-USA is not a big fan of the Sealife, always on the lookout for craps, jelly-fish, and little parasites that could float in through her ear and drill into her brain.
Earlier this year we upgraded our phones and got our first "official" Verizon phones since Alltel was purchased by the V. Being the Technology loving geek, and opponent of anti-freedom corporations, I was happy to purchase me one of them fancy Droids. I really like this phone, it feels like a solid piece of equipment (fancy talk for it's heavy as a brick), and it has some really nice features. One of the most fun features of the phone is the fact that I can listen to the radio on it. This feature is made even nicer by the fact that the radio in my car has been on the fritz for quite a while. It doesn't do FM or AM, but connects to the webcast of the station. Which means that I can listen to any station that actually features a webcast. Any station, anywhere.
So naturally I am now driving around in my non-radio-entertained car, while listening to German radio stations on my phone. My #1 station is Antenne Bayern, one of the local stations from where I grew up. Most of the songs that are popular there are the same as here in Oklahoma, but I do enjoy the local flavor of having British and German songs in the mix. I also really like the German morning shows and the afternoon program. The only problem is my work hours, and the fact that Germany is 7 hours ahead of the local time. So when I drive to work at 7 pm and listen to the radio, it is 2 am in Germany and the middle-of-the-night program is not the most entertaining. For the ride home at 8 am I listen to the 3pm afternoon show, and for the rare ride to work at midnight I actually get the true Morning show. Another fun feature is the local news, the local weather, and the local traffic report. It is important to know that there is a stalled vehicle on the side of the road of the A9 by Schwabach Sued while driving down I-35.
Another interesting phenomenon I was reminded off while listening to the radio, both here and while in Germany, is the "Geisterfahrer" or "Ghost Driver". In Germany you frequently hear the broadcast interrupted with the urgent news that somebody on the Autobahn is driving the in the wrong direction. I don't know if that particular phenomenon is really that much more common in Germany than in the US, or if it just doesn't get as much attention over here. But as soon as there is any info on the Ghost Driver the local radio stations will stop whatever they are doing, ala the "BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP" of severe weather warnings in Oklahoma, and let everyone know what is going on. The people driving on the Autobahn will then slow down, rank up single file in the right hand lane, and try to give the Ghost Driver a free lane to be along his merry way. Germany does not have open medians like we do here in Oklahoma, even though most Oklahoma Interstates are getting the cable barriers installed. So it is not really a case of people skipping over the median and then driving the wrong way, they have to go down the off-ramp to make it on the Autobahn in the first place. Also, I have no idea how they came up with the name "Ghost Driver".
What a crazy month it's been. Germany had a great run during the World Cup, and the team that I was telling everybody would do badly ("Our Captain is out, every 1st string player is injured!!!!!") just clicked and is playing for 3rd place on Saturday. Our flower bed is doing very well, and except for the sunflowers that are looking like death it is a colorful playground for the butterflies. It also seems like everybody on my Blogroll suddenly sprung to life, so I can no longer blame my lack of writing on the fact that everybody else is taking the last 6 months off as well.
In case anybody is watching the news, we are not floating away at this point. The area around our house has not really flooded yet, and our particular house is sitting on a slight elevation and all the roads are draining downhill from us. The backyard is however growing some tall grass, since I am still waiting on a dry day to mow it. We'll see what this weekend brings.
I also just realized that I did not create a new banner for the World Cup 2010. So I will just put up the old Euro 2008 banner in support of the German team until tomorrow.
It's April again, which means that next week will mark the 13 year anniversary of my big trip across the ocean. 13 years ago my family sold almost all our belongings, packed what we could in a few suitcases, and left our home in Germany for the great unknown in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma. I normally have a tendency to get pretty sentimental during this time of year anyway, but I think last year was probably the worst year for me. We went on Vacation in Germany in 2008, which was the first time I had been back "home" in 11 years. The fresh memories of being "home" together with my annual attack of being home-sick just made April 2009 a bit more depressing than normal.
This year is already feeling better. Part of the reason is probably the fact that we are about to embark on the 2010 Edition of "The Kesler's Do Europe Tour". Despite the risk of renewing my sentimental thoughts with a fresh visit, I feel like the reality is setting in that I am now in a time of my life where I am able to visit "home" on a regular basis. It doesn't feel like "wait 10 years between visits" anymore, and we are still considering the viable option of moving to Germany at some point in the future.
To help prevent the case of “what if I hadn’t moved halfway across the world” that normally comes with this time of year I have also tried to take stock of the positive things that did in fact happen because I moved halfway across the world.
I better mention Mrs. D-USA as the #1 positive result of moving across the world, especially if I want to live long enough to ever see Germany again. I’m sure that there are plenty of nice German gals in the Old Country, but Mrs. D-USA brings wonderful purpose to my life. We met 1 year after I moved to the USA, and this year we will celebrate 7 years of marriage.
My original plan in Germany was to become a Chef after I graduated school. While I still maintain a passion for cooking and baking, my education and eventual career took an unexpected twist and I ended up as a nurse. In addition to becoming an RN I have spend time working as a medic on the ambulance and volunteering as a firefighter.
So during the last 7 years I have seen people die, and I have seen people survive despite the odds. I have seen people in horrific accidents that we worked up thinking that maybe they survive long enough for family to see them and maybe donate organs, only to see them walk through the door of the station a few months later to thank us.
I was able to be part of a team that kept houses from burning down, and I was able to walk through a house that we lost and save an old Bible. I got to chase after huge grass fires cowboy style while standing on the back of a brush truck, and I also got to make a stand in front of a grass fire with nothing but a shovel and a rake (mostly because the truck was stuck in the mud….).
I came very close to being deployed to Haiti to help take care of victims after the earthquake, and I had the honor of being a part of a military funeral. I worked my way through collapsed houses after a tornado hit our district, and tought 10 year old boys CPR (I honestly don’t know which one was harder there).
In non-work/volunteer related activities I have been able to travel across a decent part of the United States. I spend the weekend in a tent in the dessert at a rock concert, took road trips through New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. I was chased by wild mules on Route 66, and was scared by UFO’s in the desert of Cali. I made many many friends and found a great church.
I passed a test which made my awesome level of smart official :p.
And we finally bought a house. I think in Germany home ownership is not very common, and many people own an apartment instead of an individual house. So now I am spending time trying to coax our sod from the brink of death, digging through clay, convincing Mrs. D-USA that an outdoor brick bread oven would be a great addition to the house, and trying to avoid the big pile of boxes in the garage that still need to be unpacked.
So all things considered, I don’t think there is much use thinking about the “what could have been’s” considering the eventful and rich life I have been able to enjoy here. And if my past is any indication, I think there are still many surprises left.
Since I hate writing about not writing, I will just admit that this site has been dead for a few months. I am sorry.
I have put my photography on hold for the last 4 months, just like this Blog I have been busy with work, a new house, Pirate Party business, and many other excuses. And it has also been freezing out there. I have driven by many places during the day and thought to myself, that would make a great picture! But as the full moons came and went, I just never made it out there. The last time I took pictures was right after Halloween, when I went to an old abandoned car wash just north of Edmond.
I had driven past that carwash for the last 4 years, it has always been there and I finally decided to spend some time there and photograph it. I think that this has been part of the reason why I have not had much urgency to go out and shoot, these places are old and abandoned. Nobody messes with them, they will be around forever. If I don't make it there this full moon, there will always be next month.
This week I drove by that car wash. The same car wash that I have driven by for the last 4 years, and where I finally spend a few nights five months ago. The car wash is gone. Torn down and burned down, with a "For Sale" sign for a commercial plot. Just like that a relict of the past is lost. No longer visible to the present, and forever lost to the future. A big part of the pictures is the sense of movement: the star trails in the sky, the cars driving past in the background, the trees and clouds moving. Time passes on, but the past stands still. Until the past gets torn down.
Seeing the empty lot makes me want to go out again and explore these places. It was a bit of a wake-up call, and a reminder that these old abandoned areas are not guaranteed to be around tomorrow. Now I have to make a list of places that I really need to visit...
I spend way to much of my free time over at IcanHasCheezburger, which is basically just a collection of funny pictures with funny captions. Every now and then I see a picture and a perfect caption comes to mind.
Sure, I have been slacking in the posting department. And my fans keep on telling me that they miss my witty commentary (ok, so some of my family is missing my witty commentary (ok, so my mom is missing it)).
But just because I have hit a little slump, it does not mean that this Blog is dead. I don't know of better life support than an Okie Blog Award! Nominate me, vote for me, let me win, and my creative juices will start flowing like the OU Sooners Football Season.
But seriously, even though I have never even been nominated (maybe we need an award for Best Blog on Life Support) I do think that the Okie Blog Awards are lots of fun. I always find some more blogs to read, and it gets the Oklahoma Blog Community up and running.
So everyone, read up on your Okie Blogs, and get the nominations going.
Seeing how we were already embracing the European lifestyle lately with our trip aboard the train, we decided that we should embrace European concepts some more.
We took an impromptu trip to Dallas this week in search for some furniture, more specifically a coffee table. Now why would we go all the way to Dallas for a coffee table when we have umpteenth furniture store in the greater Oklahoma City Metroplex area? The answer lies with the fact that I have been bugging Mrs. D-USA for the last 12 months to embrace sleek Swedish design.
That's right, we took a trip to the nearest IKEA store. After breakfast and a long walk (1.5 hours) through the store we left with a nice quality and cheap coffee table. I do believe that Mrs. D-USA had a good time at the store, and I think we will go back with a rental truck after we buy our house. Mrs. D-USA has a more traditional/classic taste in home decor, and my taste is more modern. I am sure we will pull off a nice mix of classic/modern when we are done decorating the new house.
After the trip to IKEA we made a stop at the German Deli store. I have ordered from them online a couple of times before, so I figured if we are in the area anyway we might as well drive by there. Mrs. D-USA was nice enough to give me free reign throughout the store as an anniversary present (6 years on the 27th). So with a Swedish coffee table in the trunk, and German food in the backseat our European adventure came to an end and we made the long trip back to Oklahoma.
