Time Travel

So I am reading "The Time Traveler’s Wife" again, because it is a sweet/sad/beautiful expression of life. After the preface of the book there is a poem that I seemed to linger over. I did not do this the first time I read the book, because I was super-interested in finding out what happen. But as I read the this book for the second time, I will allow myself to sit back, relax, enjoy and linger over every word that seems to "spark my interest." Anyway here is the poem (think about...it...linger...and...allow yourself to understand the deeper meaning behind the words that are typed on the page):

Oh not because happiness exists,
that too-hasty profit snatched form approaching loss.

But because truly being here is so much; because everything here
apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way
keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all.

...Ah, but what can we take along
into that other realm? Not the art of looking
which is learned so slowly, and nothing that happened here. Nothing.
The sufferings, then. And, above all, the heaviness,
and the long experience of love,--just what is wholly unsayable

~from The Ninth Duino Elegy
Rainer Maria Rilke
translated by Stephen Mitchell

Oh, the Joy...

Since Saturday, yours truly has rollebladed a combined total of almost 30 miles. There is nothing better than putting on the blades and listening to a little Matt Chandler while going as fast as you can against the wind for the first half of the ride. Then on the way back the wind seems to push you on. A little help for a weary soul, if you will. It has been wonderful and stretching and wonderful. I have been somewhat afraid to go to Fort Fraser Trail, because of the closeness of the trail to US Hwy 98 S. But my worries were suppresses with the realization of the fact that there are a couple of people who drive, in a golf cart, up and down the trail. The most amazing part of the whole thing is being able to smile at each of the people I ride past. In my mind it is like you are saying to each other, without words, "Hey, good for you. We are doing this. We are taking care of ourselves; improving our health. You can do this. I believe in you." They may even be thinking that that I am crazy for smiling so big on this hot, windy day, and that they just want to smile and pass quickly so I will stop looking at them. The thing about that is I don't really care. In my head we are encouraging each other, and nothing says community more than that.

I just got tickets

As it turns out I got pretty good seats at an amazing venue, Ruth Eckerd Hall, to see what will be a great show. I have seen Motion City Soundtrack once before, a few years ago, when life was peaches and people really didn't know that much about Motion City. They were doing a campus craw tour with The Matches and From First to Last and Matchbook Romance and a couple of other bands. I went with my brother, Josh, to the show in Tallahassee at FSU. My brother somehow got into contact with the band manager and we were able to listen, on their tour bus, to their then newly master album, "Commit this to Memory." Anyway, I am super-excited to see them again. They are going on tour with The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet. Oh, and Panic at the Disco is headlining. And this is my exciting news for today.

Oh, also, did anyone know that Wal-Mart sells a rake that you have to assemble? I didn't even know that it should ever be necessary to assemble a rake. Well, I guess that is what you get when you shop at Wal-Mart and spend $6 on a rake. Fact: I took it back today and was schooled about the whole rake assembly thing.

Fact #2: Jason Schwartzman was the former drummer for Phantom Planet. He chose to leave the band to peruse his acting career. I can't be the one to say that he made a wise choice, but I will say that I enjoy his acting ability immensely.

Questions that must have answers, but are there any definitive answers?

My heart is heavy as I sit here at Panera Bread in Lakeland. I am about to travel that two hour journey to my hometown of New Port Richey, which has been delayed because I have been reading blogs all day. It struck me in the past couple of days how utterly confused I am in regards to our government. I live in America and enjoy its freedoms, so on one level I feel somewhat unjustified in the opinions that I have. Yet on another level my freedom is to have opinions and to voice them. This is the reason I am grateful to live in the country that I do. I think that one of the most important things somebody can do is to question? For how else will one know the reasons one believes what she (or he) actually believes? Now, I do have legitimate questions in regards to the nation that I live in. As I got kicked off the internet at Panera because you are only alloted one half hour to use the internet during peak hours, I thought about all the legitimate questions that I have:

• Can you truly support the troops and be in opposition to the reasons that we are fighting the war?
  

• What about the people who acquire financial gain as a result of many people dying (i.e. Halliburton, Blackwater...etc.)? Is is not morally criminal to make even a cent off of war-- off of the death of any person?
  

• Is it America’s job, or right even, to police the world? Are we fighting someone else’s battle?
  

• How about during the 80s and 90s when we knew that Iraq (Saddam Hussein) had used chemical weapons on Iran and the Kurdish people? Why did Rumsfeld not mention that when he spoke to Suddam back then (29 November 1993)? Why were we on Saddam’s side then and not so much now?
  

• How do you legitimately fight a war against “terror?” When can this war end if we are not fighting a "war on terror" against a nation itself, but in a nation of people who are not all terrorists?
  

• If we were fighting a group of people, why did we not just attack them (i.e. terrorists)?
  

• What is the desired outcome of the war (for both the Americans and the people in Iraq)? Do we want to fight terror or do we want Iraq to be a democratic society or is it both?
  

• What is America gaining as a result of the war?
  

• Can we even pull out now? What would be the repercussions of doing that?

• Who are we becoming indebted to (China?) as a result of the war (over $9,371,546,240,411.65 so far)? Is it possible to even get out of that much debt? Who will even pay for this debt?

• Are we over there so we will not be attacked again? If so, are we any safer now (by fighting a war over there) than we were before?
  

• What if we sent aid instead of war and attacked just the terrorists?
  

So there you go. Those are the questions I ask, and I encourage whoever reads this to answer to the best of there ability, with the understanding they possess at the present time. Or at the very least, how about think them through...

If you do not want to comment, you can just to e-mail me your answer at nemni01@gmail.com

Learning Lessons

It's interesting how everyone has stories. This weekend my friend had a birthday party, and it was amazing just talking to the people that are there. Lesson learned: you may be taught a thing or two when you are least expecting it. I was just on digg.com, and I saw a video. I have seen Randy Pausch's lecture before. However, I just saw him speak on Oprah. He spoke of his father, and my eyes got somewhat watery. Lesson learned: true humility is a man (in 50 years of marriage) never telling his wife he had received the Bronze Star of Valor during WWII, because it never came up.