October 27, 2005

Migration toward lower-tech, lower-information environments containing a lessened emphasis on consumerism.
Generation X, 173


So I had to get pants tonight. I've been riding one pair of pants for almost 3 months now. Not one pair of jeans. One pair of PANTS. Do you know how hard it is to make it on one pair of pants when you're working full time?

"Is that what you wore yesterday?"

"No, this is what I've worn every day since I started."

So I had to get a pair of pants tonight. Determined not to sell out to the Gap, I've scoured half a dozen thrift shops and found nothing. But I can't wear my jeans to an interview tomorrow, right? So I hopped on my bike and began moving my legs ever so slowly down Euclid towards Route 66.

I walked in the Gap a little nervous. I'm uncomfortable in these consumer driven establishments. I always feel like I'm suddenly thrown into the ring of a popularity contest.

I ran through the sale rack. Nothing. I twitched over to several pants racks and grabbed the very size that drove me down to one pair. Damn weight loss.

As I ran out the doors, I felt relieved. I had a pair of pants and 33 more miles towards a flight on United. I later added 9 more miles from a store I won't admit to setting foot in.

Two pair of pants. 42 United miles. A short bike ride. And losing another popularity contests?

Priceless.

October 23, 2005

We started at 8pm off Highway 18 (free parking) and hiked by the moonlight for 5 miles. It was incredible! We went to sleep (on our comfy PILLOWS & EXTRA LONG sleeping pads) at around 10pm. We woke up just before hiker noon and spent the next 6 hours walking 15 more miles. Yes, that's right *name* - 15 MILES in 6 hours!! The PCT near Big Bear Lake was unbelievably EASY...huge switchbacks!! We kept laughing because every time we came to a turn in the trail, our natural instinct was to take the hard way - straight up...instead we'd take a sharp turn and continue on our lazy stroll in the woods! And best of all? The PAY-OFF was incredible!!

We decided that for any LA Patagonia-clad yuppies that we met, we had been hiking since Mexico and were well into a month on the trail. :) One lady yelled, "WHAT? You've been hiking for a month?!" Yep, and we've lost some weight too.

The bad news is two-fold. First, since our hike together in recently drenched NH, I've had a re-occuring sharp pain on the left side of my stomach (closer to my waist). Since the AT hike, it becomes painful after a long walk or a hard work-out. And after 20 miles, the pain kicked in hard core. So we walked to the nearest road (a dirt track at best). After an hour, the first car drove by, stopped, and drove us all the way back to our car. Typical, right? Second, a winter storm came in a few hours later!! The snow and 30 degree temperatures would have made us stiff. We had shorts and a t-shirt for clothing!

So we headed to Big Bear Lake for some thrift shops and a sports bar. We crashed in the car, woke up to giant flakes of snow and drove back down the mountain to 75 degree sun.

It was perfect.


October 4, 2005

The tendency in one's youth to avoid traditionally youthful activities and artistic experiences in order to obtain some serious career experience. Sometimes results in the mourning for lost youth at about age thirty, followed by silly haircuts and expensive joke inducing wardrobes. Generation X, 106

Any of you in your 30's, 40's or 50's experienced this? I'm doing my best to avoid the silly haircuts and embrace life as it is now! Though, I do grow the occasional beard...does this count as sillyness?

I do wonder what role Christianity plays in this...always trying to improve and get better and become mature. Good INTENTIONS, no doubt. But I often think of my college years as a time of trying to be a 40-year old...wise man - I.E. always asking what the wiser thing to do was - instead of being the young, passionate punk I was. Sure, learning the art of wisdom is important...but so is reality. I wonder if it would have been freeing to hear after a mistake or bad decision: "Hey, your barely legal to vote, you just left your parents house, you hardly have any experience in life - of course you made that decision. But hey, YOUR 19. It's okay to mess up every so often."

I remember a conversation I had with three IWU kids while I was in Australia. They wanted to come for the summer and serve at Crossroads and "do ministry." I suggested they spend one month working at Crossroads and one month traveling around the country. I think I even said, "Mine as well live it up if you're going to come all the way down here!" They seemed shocked and disappointed in my suggestion. One finally responded, "All of our lives are ministry. We wouldn't want to travel." I wonder...did the good intentions of Christianity lead to this...and will they be the thirty-year olds who start growing mohawks?? I guess they were young and crazy and 19...it's "okay to mess up every so often." :)

They never did make it down under.

Cheers to being young WHEN YOUR YOUNG and to being wise WHEN YOUR OLD and maybe a little of both for a lifetime.

October 2, 2005

HISTORICAL SLUMMING:

The act of visiting locations such as diners, smokestack industrial sites, rural villages - locations where time appears to have been frozen many years back - so as to experience relief when one returns back to "the present." - Generation X, 11

(Sense the sarcasm here, or the tone of a used car salesman)

Are you looking to boost the morale of your current life? Something that will give you an ounce of dignity as you forge ahead into the future? Something that, when compared to, will give you hope that things "really are better?"

If this is you, why don't you give historical slumming a chance? Go back to your parents house and relive the decade when they last updated their house! Can't find a computer? Imagine life without one! Or how about visiting the neighborhood you grew up in? Notice the people living in the houses - yes, your old neighbors all still live there! Imagine what it would have been like to not leave your hometown!

If your down about life, try historical slumming. You will get the perspective and strength you need to construct a satisfied present and preferred future!

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