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InherentlyAlive
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Name: Clint
Country: United States
State: New York
Metro: Brooklyn
Gender: Male
Interests: Hockey, Music, Traveling, Reading, Wandering, Big Cities, Wandering in Big Cities, God, Postmodernism, Old Things, Other Cultures, Nature, Movies...
Expertise: Procrastination, Miscellanious Audio and Video Stuff, Ball Hockey, Wandering...
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
1/7/2006
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| It's been a while since I've been on here. No particular reason though. So to celebrate my return I'll turn to a random musing I had earlier this evening. While sitting in a Philly Cheesesteak place in Union Square with my wife I overheard a conversation between the two guys sitting at the table next to me. They were discussing the flat screen TV which was showing the baseball game and one of them referred to that particular model as "old school". I couldn't help but wonder how old something has to be to be considered old school. It struck me funny that something as new as a LCD flat screen TV could be considered old school but maybe it just shows the speed at which our culture runs at. | | |
| I have been wondering recently how it came about that there exists a type of Christianity in which what one does has been almost completely divorced from what one professes to believe. I find it so frustrating to encounter people who profess a faith in Christ but have accepted along with it a twisted worldview that requires nothing more than either sitting back and waiting for God to destroy the world or one which sees the ultimate purpose of following God as converting people into people who want to convert more people thus fulfilling God's purpose for them of converting people to believe what they believe. There seems to be such a huge disconnect between what people do and what they say they believe. Somewhere along the line people have accepted a false gospel which presents an appealing offer of grace minus discipleship. The more I look at some of the basic beliefs that characterize people of faith who I respect, beliefs about things like forgiveness, confession, discipleship, the gospel, etc... the more I see a faith much different than is so often preached, and just as importantly, lived. | | |
| So I'm sleeping last night when I wake up to the strangest noise. It sounds like a construction crew noisily banging away on something. I didn't think much of it since they are building an apartment complex a few blocks away and in my groggy state of almost consciousness I concluded that it must be six or seven in the morning. After all it seems to be very light outside my window. So I roll over and try to go back to sleep. But the noise continues and I finally come to enough of my senses to realize it is not a normal noise and decide to go downstairs to investigate. I look out the front window and see two firetrucks parked right out front and five firemen running down the street towards some yellowish light. I also notice the faint smell of smoke. I get dressed quickly and run outside to discover the building on the corner completely engulfed in flames and about 60 firefighters out in the street. It turns out it is actually 3am and the Chinese Food place along with the apartments above it burning are what gave the bright light shining into my room. So for the next two hours I stand out in the street along with pretty much everybody on the block and watch the firefighters but out the blaze. The fact that the burning building was attached to the building that was attached to the building I live in made me want to make sure this fire was out before I went back inside. But the fire is out, the building is gutted and everything smells like smoke now. Nobody is hurt but quite a few people are without a home right now. So you're probably thinking this was a pretty wild night. Well with all this going I really didn't have time to think about the cop that got shot about five blocks away earlier on in the evening. I noticed the police tape and officers everywhere on my way home from the subway station but didn't find out what all that was about until I woke up this morning. I had heard that somebody was shot but didn't realize it was a cop. What a crazy night. I hope tonight is a little more peaceful. I could use the sleep. Here's a video of the fire. Sorry it's sideways, my camera sucks and I haven't had a chance to change it up.
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Big Fish
By Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillard, Matthew McGrory, David Denman, Missi Pyle, Loudon Wainwright III, Ada Tai, Arlene Tai, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito, Deep Roy, Perry Walston, Hailey Anne Nelson, Grayson Stone
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It is a weird feeling to be chaperoning a birthday party and find yourself able to let your guard down and relax. Yesterday I helped chaperone a friend's daughter's sweet 16 birthday party which was primarily made up of middle class suburban kids from New Jersey. This is a far cry from the kids I run into in Brooklyn everyday. After almost two years of youth ministry in New York City, you learn not to take anything for granted, not to leave anything valuable out and to always be on high alert. So when I found myself not having to worry about the stereo system being messed with, electronics disappearing, fights breaking out, weapons being present, stuff being stolen, kids from gangs venturing in, every kid rushing the food table and grabbing as much as they can or anything of that sort, I didn't really know what to do. It was nice but oh so strange. It's amazing how much of a difference having certain elements of stability in a kid's life can so dramatically change even the most basic of life skills. How is it that such gaps in culture and class have been created and sustained in our society? It's just wrong. | | |
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