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| hey... THANK YOU for all the support and congrats! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here's a Christmas present from me to you. And to think in high school they thought I'd never amount to much. 
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| sorry for the complete absence! I guess i've sorta lost interest in keeping this updated and remembered it today. okay so here's my big news since summer (get ready): I'll be working at InterVarsity's Urbana 2007 as a "Materials Distribution Operator". That means you might get a free bible or pamphlet or autographed photo of Rick Warren from me before entering the main convention hall. I'm rooming with one of my roommates from camp and i'm pretty much getting a free vacation in St. Louis. I'll be moving to Sacramento around mid-August where I hope to re-enter life in the mainland. I'll be finding an apartment and furnishing it for two because... I'm engaged! what? really? i didn't even know you're dating! what? this is so weird! how come you didn't tell me? what? really? Time sure flies by, doesn't it? To answer your questions: 1) Yes, I do love her. 2) Yes, she does love me. 3) Yes, the parents do know AND are happy AND supportive. 4) No, we did not bribe them to be that way. 5) Yes, she did say yes. Hoping to get married early October! | | |
| Family camp! Yikes! Busy during the day with work, busy during night with program. All these people everywhere have definitely encouraged the developing introvert within me since i got to camp. Already the awesome drama and conflict of growing community have come and now we're hitting our crunch time of the summer season. I'm still learning to be a leader and servant in God's kingdom and i've been reminded recently of a few things i've forgotten.
And with new people come new friendships. Please pray for purity and grace in my interactions with everyone around me. Things are changing a little drastically for me and the rumor-mills of community are churning about me. And things will change even more when our Fall season comes. Gossip is not cool.
I'll be back in late August! | | |
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Batman was neat but he falls short of other super-heroes because his mission was guided by revenge and anger. Sure he was a hero but he was also plagued by the hurts of his past and thus could never find the justice he fought so hard to find. What intrigues me most about the X-men is that they chose to fight for the good of humankind even though many didn't really understand what was so worth fighting for. Wolverine is a great example of how the pull of good can transform a monster into a hero. Half the time he was so hot-headed he wanted to just quit and run away from everything. And yet he still chose to stay with the x-men and fight. He never really understands why he keeps coming back but he always does. Somewhere in the mixed stories of the X-men, I think are our own stories.
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Two more summer staff arrived today! Change is extremely dramatic this year. My next door neighbors, the Ribbens family, are moving off the island in 3 days and will take away about half of what I was accustomed to camp being for me. The first week I was here they invited me over for milk and cookies when I was sitting by myself in my cottage. People don't do that in the city. In fact I rarely see my neighbors interacting with each other outside of the obligatory "hello, how are you?". That was the first of the many lessons in hospitality that I learned as well as the first friends I made here at camp.
Yes yes, i know everything's going to be alright. But i'm allowed to miss them. The nice thing is they're moving back to Santa Barbara and that is an absolutely beautiful place to live. Have you been to The Big Yellow House and tried their mushroom omelette with pesto? Delicious.
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Tea party at the Ribbens last week (adriel we wished you were here for it):
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| Tonight we watched the movie, X-men, allowing myself a short trip down memory-lane to my childhood days of devouring comic books on hot summer days. During those summers, my parents opened up our camping trailer in the backyard and allowed my brother and I to use it as our own clubhouse; it was in there that I would dive into the rich world of these super-heroes and indulge in my own dreams of discovering my own super-powers one day.
As i watched the movie, I wondered why I was so taken with the X-men as opposed to Superman or Batman. I think I loved the X-men more than any other story because, while they were super heroes, they were still rejected by mainstream society. I wanted to be important. I wanted to be someone people wanted around. That's why I wished I had super-powers like the X-men. They connected with another feeling deeper within my heart because I could identify with their sense of rejection. Society embraced them when danger was imminent but alienated them in any other setting. They struggled to exist in a world that could not embrace them as equals. I was weird and I struggled to "fit in." And yet the X-men succeeded where I could not. While the X-men were rejected, they proved everyone wrong by continuing to save people and fight for good. I also felt alienated but I could not believe I had anything to offer to the world.
That's why I embraced the X-men story. They were the victory I wanted to win.
Now that I'm older and have Christ in my heart, things are different. And yet they're still the same. I still struggle to "fit in." I still feel alienated by mainstream society (not just because of my gas... and no that's not a mutant power).
And unlike the X-men, Jesus did win. And as His servant, I'm getting to witness the victory that I think the X-men were fighting for the whole time: love. Wishful day-dreaming is becoming gradual reality. | | |
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