Category / Uncategorized

by Greg

Marveling

I was listening to a podcast from NASA the other day that described a recent photo session from a satellite in a synchronous orbit around the sun, 1 million miles behind the earth. They had captured the moon passing in front of the sun, except, since it was 1,000,000 miles away, the moon was a lot smaller, and did not cover the entire disc of the sun as it does from Earth.

As they were talking, I looked up at the sun, not far above the horizon in the early hours of the morning, and I thought that it is so cool that the sun being 93 million miles away and the moon being a lot closer (don’t remember that distance!) look about the same in our sky. That was a pretty cool plan by the Planner. 🙂

We were just talking not long ago also about how cool just the moon is. How it’s cycles are so regular (people used to plan around the lunar month) and how neat it is that moon always faces the same way? Doesn’t it? It doesn’t rotate. Does it? I’m not putting a lot of research into this… just taking a moment to marvel at the universe God has created. The precision of all of the elements within it working together, and this is the “fallen” state. Romans says creation “groans” to also be set free.

It’s a pretty amazing world. Just wanted to share some of my recent marveling.

by Greg

Group Think

If you know me in the slightest, you know that I am not at all the political sort. When I was at Michigan State, almost 15 years ago now, we lived in suites (two rooms shared a common bathroom). One of the guys in the other suite connected to mine was a super, duper, dee-duper Republican of Republicans. He had a full-size, cardboard statue of George Bush 41. He meant business. And I didn’t necessarily think he was weird… I think I just didn’t get it.

So as I have lived life as an adult for a time, I have understood a bit more the role of politics in our country, and to a degree in my life. But see, that’s just the thing. It has become such a game that it basically has no role in my life at all. To me, everyone involved in politics on any level – not just Washington – is just playing some childish, meaningless game. And that’s too bad, because it shouldn’t be this irrelevant.

I’m just completely irked by the comments leading up to, and now especially following the most recent election. “The Democrats have taken control of both houses of congress…” and, “Americans sent George Bush a message in this 2006 election…” There were many incarnations of that last one, spoken by many media folk and especially the victorious Democrat candidates. The real evidence that it is just a game though is that everyone says the same thing. Everyone is playing by the same rules.

I said to Jen last night, “Our government is not supposed to be two people, who always choose the same way.” That’s what it has become. You either vote for one, or the other. We do not have one president with his cabinet and staff, along with 100 senators and 500-something representatives. No, we have Republican and Democrat. Now that the Democrat controls congress, the Republican won’t be able to get anything done. And, please tell me that when I clicked those 15 or so levers in the polling booth Tuesday night that I was actually voting for individual candidates in individual races… not just “sending President Bush a message…”

GRRRRRR. It makes me so mad! People!! Think for yourselves!!! If you don’t like what George Bush is doing… TELL HIM. Tell someone. SOMEONE should listen. Don’t vote for the “opposite party”, regardless of who that sends to represent us. Pay attention to the individual candidate!!!

OK… now that I have said that, I also understand that mostly the people who really think that Americans “sent a message to George Bush” via the election are the crazy media who live in a made-up world and the politicians, who also live in a made-up world. I just really hope that Average Joe American does not think like they all think we do.

You don’t, do you?

We are individuals. We are not Republicans or Democrats or Independants or any other brand name. We are not blacks, or whites, or hispanics, native-americans, or any other demographic. We are Americans, because that’s where we live… but that does not remove or absolve us from making individual decisions. We don’t all think the same way just because we’re American (that should be obvious!) … we each get to choose in every situation, every time.

The other problem we have in this country is reflected in something Senator Clinton said following her lop-sided victory over the token Republican challenger. She said, “The people have spoken… and we will give you a government you won’t be dissapointed in.” (Something like that.) That revealed to me what she thinks of government. She thinks it should be something. I don’t. I think government should be invisible. I don’t even think it should be a full-time job sometimes. I think people should be allowed to live their own lives, as they desire, and government only represents our country to the world and maintains order/communication between the various states. Any other form of government is something I will either be dissappointed in or not… because… it’s SOMETHING. It becomes its own entity. In a tiny way, it’s like the church actually. When we make it a thing, rather than just a reality, we have gone too far. And then, enter the politics.

So… nothing I can do really. That’s just what we do. We play games. Politics magnifies the scale and the stupidity of that, but it’s all the same on every level. Politics involves playing games for power, so it’s intensified there too. One more example of how we have a totally wrong view of what government is. Government should not be about power. Our government is supposed to REPRESENT us, not lead or “govern” us. At least, not in America. But those days are loooong gone. And here we are.

The only way I could think to fix things would be to actually run for office. I have that notion every time there is an election, or politics is heavy in the news. But then I remember, it’s all just a game, and no one is real. One real person, trying to actually change the way government thinks… not gonna happen.

Who knows. Maybe I will run for president some day.

by Greg

They

I was privy to a conversation recently where a very benign little pronoun grabbed my attention.

They. Simple enough. Harmless enough. But something about the way it was being used was bothering me. The context of the situation was quite harmless itself. The conversation had turned to a young college graduate who was embarking on a new career helping people who are deaf to learn sign language and other ways to communicate and function despite a loss or lack of hearing. When asking questions regarding the people she would be working with, a few curious inquirers employed the pronoun “they” to refer to anyone who was deaf. A simple, time-saving allowance the English language offers us. Or, any language for that matter. A routine application of such a term, with absolutely no other implications. All that was being done was simplification of the conversation by using the word “they”.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was completely harmless.

As I listened, it seemed that though completely accurate, and appropriate, the term “they” acted as a separator. A segregator. Obviously, that is its purpose. They is the pronoun referring to a specific grouping of people. But somehow, as it was being used, the “they” seemed not a temporary application, but a more overarching, permanent sort of separation. They did not replace the words “the people you are working with who can not hear”, but rather, it assigned to them their value. They were “they”, and nothing would change that. And “they” implicitly implies a “we”, creating a more drastic level of separation than if the pronoun were applied as a temporary way to make the sentence more efficient.

Though in this instance, no malice or negative thinking or perceptions were held or intended, the thoughts that followed in my head dealt with what I perceived to be the root of the issue: classifications.

We are so good at classifying. We are good at looking at other people and saying, “They” are (fill in the blank). “They” could be people who are deaf, or it could be people of a different religion, or denomination, or other spiritual distinction. Or, it could be homosexuals, democrats, republicans, right-wing, left-wing, Elvis impersonators or Apple Computer users. It is also applied to ethnic groups.

“They” is the great separator of “Us”.

I realize this is pretty deep into semantics right here. But I think it’s more than that. The conversation I was listening in on does not merit such scrutiny, but the greater underlying principle is the real issue. We really tend not only to group people and assign them labels, but then we have to treat them according to our pre-affixed labels. We have already taken a step backward in treating all people equally when we already have a classification (or two?) for them.

I am certainly not immune to this, but it was another moment of seeing life from a different perspective. For a moment, I think I felt what it would be like to be the “they” that a small group of friends were discussing. Where my whole being was lumped in with a larger group of beings because of some external trait I exhibit. Why must we classify? Why must we organize?

I suppose for the expedience of the situation, “they” was the proper word to use. Perhaps I would have not condensed the people to “they” or added “deaf” to their description as often as was added. Perhaps I would not have used the plural, and just spoken of one person, and individual, that the college grad would be assisting. Not sure what sat so wrong in my heart that night. But whatever it was, it was a good reminder that we are all unique and individual people who deserve such treatment.

You are you, not a they.

by Greg

Motivated

I’m sitting on my front porch right now, with a cup of Chai, and my PowerBook, getting ready to write a basic enews and do a few updates to the basic website, and I am currently being entertained by the elementary kids trying to run a mile around the track that is across the street from our house. It’s hilarious. There’s a girl who is probably younger than me (didn’t you always think your teachers were way old? Guess they weren’t…) shouting out encouragements as they kids go at varying speeds down the track.

As I watched them, I noticed several stragglers… the walkers. The encouraging girl would shout out, “No walking! Keep it up! Let’s go!” and the kids would give half-hearted effort to go just slightly faster than a walk. And I am sitting here thinking, “Dude, if it was me, I’d be out there pushing myself to do my best!” There are a few people out there doing that, but certainly the majority do not seem to share that inner motivation.

Why is that? Am I so different from the majority of the population? Is motivation a rare commodity?

The other day I was playing basketball with a friend, just one on one, and it was very evenly matched. I was shooting pretty well, even hitting my underneath stuff, and he was dominating on the boards. He’s a good 6’4″ I think, so rebounds and defending the underneath stuff are quite a challenge to be sure.

Well, in the third game, he had it all going. I was actually playing quite well, but I just couldn’t do it. Even my best stuff was not enough. That can be frustrating.

But that’s when I noticed a difference between me and my son Alex.

Alex LOVES to play. Sports, games, video games, anything. So when we’re playing football (one on one with older brother, Ian, with Dad as the all-time QB) he does well, but usually not well enough to beat Ian. At some point when he realizes his best is not good enough to emerge victorious… he just cries. He breaks down and says through tears, “I really wanted to… [insert goal to achieve here]” And I tell him over and over, “Alex, just get up and go again. Give it another try. You get to try again!”

My mind can not understand just giving up. I mean… I just keep going. I keep trying. I am super motivated to do the best I can do. Sometimes you have to take a break from that, but in general… I just get up and try again.

What is it that makes the difference? What is it inside us that, instead of giving up, pushes us to get up and try again? Sometimes it’s external “motivation” (like, the Encouraging Girl across the street yelling at her students). But when does the motivation come from within?

I was talking with Jen about it last night as we played a board game together. We were just having fun chatting, but you know… we were playing a game. Why play a game if you’re not trying to compete. So, when something would not go my way, I’d give a short “Grrrr!” and then, just move on. Try again. She thinks she is not competitive at all (which I would disagree with… 😉 so when she sees the momentary “grrrr” she thinks I am mad, done, it’s over. I am not. I think there’s room for a momentary frustration, but that motivates you to get up and try again?

Doesn’t it?

I actually have no idea. I’m not sure why self-motivation seems so obvious and perhaps “easy” to me. And, why does it seem to be missing in many others? If y’all reading this have any thoughts, I’d love to read them. Just post a comment below.

What does it take to just “roll with the punches” and be motivated enough to give your best at everything you do, just because you want to do your best?

I look forward to reading your responses.

by Greg

Look out!

I think there might be a blog explosion today. Just wanted to warn you. It’s been quite around here in blogland, and that’s because there have been a multitude of other things going on… which will likely be the content of several posts today… but anyway, just wanted to let you know 🙂

Stay tuned…

(Right now, I have a meeting with a new client/partner… might blog about that, too) 🙂

by Greg

Alex Campbell: 5 on the 5th

Alex is 5 on October 5th!Today is Alex’s 5th birthday. Yup, he’s 5 years old on October 5th! Aunt Melissa calls this his “Golden Birthday”. I turned 30 a couple years ago on the 30th. I spent the entire day with my family… driving. 🙂 We were on tour, heading home from the west coast.

Well, today, we’re going to celebrate Alex’s “Golden Birthday” right!

It started last night with a free Birthday Burger at Red Robin. Fun! Just Dad and Alex. We had a blast!!! We played loud music in the van on the way there and back, and just sang and played and had a great time together. The food was fantastic, too! And Alex got the customary Red Robin birthday song sung to him by a bunch of RR waitresses. Very nice.

TODAY, being his actual birthday, here’s the planned line up for celebrating 5 on 5.

The party starts precisely at 5pm. That’s when we’ll head out for some fun. We’ll be doing 5 main things for the night.

  • Dinner will be one of Alex’s faves, a 5-piece chicken nuggets at Wendy’s. (With fries, of course)
  • Alex will get to play $5 worth of games at Chuck-E-Cheese (another Alex favorite!)
  • We’ll make a stop at Wal-Mart so he can get 5 Hot Wheels cars (yet another Alex favorite!)
  • Krispy Kreme will be on the list, where we’ll get 5 donuts (one for each of us, and again, an absolute Alex favorite!)
  • And the fifth thing for the night? A visit to the APPLE STORE!!! (no five here, just, the fifth thing, and something Alex wanted to do on his b-day.) 🙂

Should be a really fun night, with a really fun boy. If you haven’t met Alex, I really hope you get to. He’s one of the most fun people I know. Everytime I see him, he makes me smile. He has a great heart, and is super multi-talented. We’re definitely glad God chose to put Alex in our family.

Happy Birthday, Alex!!! We love you!!!

by Greg

Falling On Deaf Ears

Saturday morning I had set my alarm for somewhere around 7:55am, which gave me just enough time to wake myself up and head out the door by 8:30am to help a friend with his home remodeling project. When I went to bed (and even moreso when my alarm went off in the morning) I really didn’t want to do it… it had been such a tiring week. But, on the other hand, I really did want to do it. Our schedule for the rest of the weekend only allowed for a few hours of helping in the morning, so I was happy I could help. Even if only a little.

Well, being a bit groggy myself, I didn’t get out of bed till 8:30. I got a nice hot cup of chai to take with me, which I hoped would wake me up a bit (as well as just be super awesome… who doesn’t love chai???). I stumbled out the door at about 9:00am, and headed for my friend’s house. It’s about 25 minutes away, so I was kinda late.

On the way there, some other friends came to mind who live right around the corner from where I was going. They had popped into my consciousness a few times this week, so I figured maybe I could sneak out about 30 minutes early and go visit with them for a short time, if they were home.

I kept driving, and finally got to my destination. It’s a bit of an interesting place to park (as in, there are not many places to do so), especially when there are visitors. There were two cars in their driveway, and another parked around the side in their yard. Looked like a decent crew was starting off the morning. I found a spot for my van, and headed to the door.

I knocked on the door, but since there was no response, and I was already late… I figured they were upstairs and couldn’t hear me. The door was unlocked, so I just opened it and went inside. I said the customary, “Hello….” as I walked in, since it’s kinda weird to just walk in to someone’s house. Strangely, as the sound of my voice faded away, there were NO other sounds. I found that quite odd… so I headed upstairs to see what they were doing that was so incredibly quiet.

No one was there. Very strange. Well, I looked around a bit, checking out the work he had done over the past week. It was looking good. I was reminded of our attic project as I looked around. I actually considered just getting to work putting in the insulation that needed to still go in, or stripping electrical wires and connecting them to the outlets and such. But then I remembered, I have no idea what I am doing with all of that.

So I waited.

Actually, I walked downstairs, and said “Hello?” one more time, walking from room to room to see if they were working on some other project at the moment. I opened their kitchen door and checked on their back deck… I looked everywhere… no one. I even called out my friend’s name down to their basement (where they sleep) and there was no response. Now, granted, that was a quieter voice than the other times since there was a possibility they were still sleeping, (though… I have NO IDEA how… I was not quiet before that). But, I used a normal to loud voice… and… no response.

I figured I had two options. One, my friend and his father-in-law were out getting supplies or something. But, what were all of the cars doing there in the driveway? Two, they were both dead in the basement or something.

I really hoped it wasn’t the second one.

Actually, there were three options, but I couldn’t believe the third was true. They really could be just sleeping, but they would be the world’s soundest sleepers, hands down.

So, at about 9:45 I sat down at their computer to type up a quick article for my BuffaloBills.com page that had come to mind on the way to their house, and another friend was online, on their buddy list. Just for kicks, I sent her an IM and told her my funny story. She suggested I call his cell phone. So I finally found their house phone and dialed his digits. Straight to voicemail. I left a message – in a normal to loud speaking volume – and continued writing my article. It was short, so I was done in 5-10 minutes. I closed down my windows and, having seen or heard no signs of life in the house, I decided to go visit those friends I mentioned earlier.

It was just after 10:00 now, and I figured that I could go visit our other friends for 20-30 minutes, and then head back and join the work force which would certainly have returned from running errands, or maybe be awake by the time I got back! 🙂

Well, the story gets even more interesting but it’s getting rather long. So, the rest is condensed.

I showed up at my other friends’ house, and knocked politely (not too loud since I was visiting unannounced on a Saturday morning) and was about to leave following no sign of life in their house. I was heading to the van when their garage door opened. After an initial startle… my friend welcomed me and invited me in. The cool/weird part was they both were just thinking of our family that morning too! (We really haven’t seen each other in months, so that’s really cool and weird that we were in each other’s thoughts…)

Well, we got to catch up on stuff, and got to talk about life in God’s kingdom, and various manifestations of the church. It was great. And long. 🙂 Ended up chatting for well over an hour, and by that time, I figured it was just time to call the morning a wash (as far as remodeling goes) and I headed home.

I got home just before noon and called my no-show friend on his cell again, to chide him for not being there when he told me to be there. No answer. Right to voicemail. Now, I didn’t really think they were dead… but the thought almost seriously crossed my mind at this point. I left a message and hoped to hear back from him soon.

Thankfully, he called back within 5 minutes or so, and we laughed about the events of the morning. Option three was correct… they were ASLEEP in the basement. Neither of us could believe what happened. Dude. That is super, duper, incredibly sound sleeping. I could have robbed him blind! Maybe I should have… 😉

Anyway… let this be a lesson for you folks. Never leave your doors unlocked when you invite your friend over to help you with remodeling in the morning if you go to sleep at two in the morning and don’t plan to wake up, even if your friend comes in and makes a decent amount of noise.

Or something like that. 🙂

by Greg

I’m Back

Well, after seven days out of the office, I am back here, sitting at my desk with a dozen or so voicemail messages and 100 emails to answer. I already weeded out the spam, newsletters, advertisements, etc…

Isn’t that the fun part of going on vacation?? 🙂

No, that’s not. But I must say that playing football any time of the day with my boys, or reading books with them, or playing anything with Kirstie, or just having fun with Julia or going out to Skyline as a family, or staying up till 1:30 in the morning chatting with good friends, or spending some relaxing time (mostly) with my parents and other extended family… it was all great.

When we got home Monday night, we hosted Wayne Jacobsen for a couple nights, and invited a few “out of the box” friends over to have dinner and just get to chat about our various experiences with God in his kingdom. It was a PACKED house, but tons of fun… lots of good conversations. Great to spend some time with Wayne (especially before and after the little soirée). We have many similar experiences I think, so it was cool to share stories and thoughts on life with God together.

Now I’m back, and I must say that although there was SO MUCH great stuff we did… do you know what was the most amazing thing I did on vacation?

Ate at Skyline Chili a record FOUR times in one trip? No…

Played hours and hours of football and soccer with the boys? No….

Learned a lot about the Spanish-American war? No…

Polished off several pounds of chocolate? No…

Four blog posts in one night (after 2am, no less…) ??? No….

The MOST AMAZING thing that I did was…

I fixed our toilet. Seriously. Like… just me… with Wayne coaching from behind… with a couple wrenches… (and only a minor leak through the ceiling below… but we’ll just pretend that didn’t happen…)

I actually fixed our toilet.

Amazing.

Alright… time to get crackin on those emails…

More as the week progresses…

by Greg

Vacating

I have been on vacation since Tuesday of this week and let me tell you, it has been fantastic! We came down to Dayton, OH area to visit with my parents, and attend our 10-year college reunion in Cincinnati. I also made sure to tell me clients I would not be in the office till next Wednesday, nor would I be available for any work on their projects. I have kept to that, and have so totally enjoyed the down time.

Especially the time with my boys.

We have played soccer, football, frisbee. We have drawn on the sidewalk, read books together on the swing (among other vacation-like spots), eaten great food, played with cars, video games and other toys. And I have seen how much they have loved it, maybe especially Alex, our four (almost five) year old. He just can’t get enough Dad.

We are taking one more week of vacation this year at the end of October and I already CAN NOT WAIT.

So, being on dial up, and also just mostly staying away from my regular routine, I have posted a fury of pent up thoughts and writings here today. Be sure to scroll down today as you visit the site. More to read than usual in a blog update. 🙂

Vacation will continue even though we leave Ohio on Monday. We will be meeing a friend for the first time (have emailed, and had severa phone conversations together). He has been through some similar stuff in his life to where we have gone, and we are looking forward to spending the day with him on Tuesday next week.

I’ll be back to a more normal routine on Wednesday, but untill then, I will likely maintain radio silence…

I’ll just be enjoying the break, as much and as long as I can!

Happy reading!