Greater Omaha

I’ve been reading around several other blogs the past couple of weeks, and there is some really good stuff out there… 

http://aaronivey.wordpress.com/ 

http://restlessmindsyndrome.wordpress.com/ 

http://mothballer.learnerblogs.org/

http://underthesylvanmoon.wordpress.com/

http://www.cfssquared.com/

http://bittersweetblue.blogspot.com/

            This was the hardest blog I’ve ever written.  I had several weakly developed ideas, but none of them seemed adequate.  So I took a quick shower with my iPod on shuffle, hoping for some sort of inspiration.  None came.  I heard mostly music that belonged to my sisters.  Like “G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)” by Hannah Montana.  I hope Dad didn’t hear it coming from the bathroom…

            Anyway, I was reading over some of my past blogs when I noticed that a couple of them place something of a negative spin on our generation.  However, I was greatly encouraged this weekend when I attended a Student Life Conference at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN.  A band called Spur58 played throughout the weekend, and it was during their performance of “Give Us Clean Hands” that I began thinking that maybe we aren’t in horrible shape.  There is certainly room for improvement, but we’re doing pretty well.  But I suppose I can only speak for the 4,000 of us that sang “…and God let us be the generation that seeks, seeks your face oh God of Jacob…” together that afternoon.

Below are some videos that are related to this post—

Spur58 performing “Ready to Love” at Bellevue last weekend.

Spur58 performing “The Wonderful” at Bellevue last weekend.

Chris Tomlin’s “Give Us Clean Hands.”

            As the summer of 2007 was coming to an end, my youngest sister and I were on our way home from one of her basketball practices when she pointed out that the potholes in the road that leads to our house look so much bigger when we drove over them slowly.  Later that week my friend Kevin and I walked down the same road (at around 2 a.m.).  My sister was right, the potholes were HUGE (I hope our county judge reads this…), but it wasn’t the fact that our road wasn’t in the best condition that shocked me; it was the realization that I’d driven the road—or at least seen it from the car I was riding in—probably thousands of times, but I’d never really looked at it.

            How extremely strange is it that I barely know the places I pass through on a daily basis?  Since my “outer-car” experience that night, the road to my house doesn’t feel real when I’m driving over it.  It’s exactly as if I’m staring into my windshield sized living room TV screen, watching a fictional character maneuver the bends of an imaginary road in a car that doesn’t exist.  No other road or highway or interstate is any different.

            I can’t be exactly sure why driving feels this way.  It could be the mass number of adventure video games I’ve devoted countless hours to mastering.  Another possibility is that the culprits are the hundreds of action movies I’ve watched with my dad since my early years (…and reenacted when I’m home alone…).  The average American youth devotes 900 hours of their 8,760 hour year to school; he also devotes 1,500 hours to watching TV.  (Check out these statistics and some more here.)

            Whatever the reason, I don’t like it.  It is undoubtedly a huge factor to automobile accidents.  Teenagers make up 7% of our population, but sadly are involved in 14% of car accidents.  (Click here if you want a reference.)  I’ve been involved in two accidents, and it obviously feels almost too realistic.  That shouldn’t be a foreign feeling.  It makes me nervous.  I begin to think that maybe our generation is unbelievably desensitized to the real world and real life and this is the reason we are known for so many horrible trends—not that there aren’t just as many great acts.

            Maybe the reason behind our sky high record for car accidents is that it is difficult for us to realize the very present and very genuine danger.  Maybe the reason behind our school (and mall and street) shootings is that it is harder for us to feel the presence of other people’s lives and other lives’ worth.  Maybe the reason behind our obsession with music that uses such strong language and has such intense content is that we can no longer feel the softer touch of meaningful, purpose driven emotions instead we require an adrenaline pumped, forceful attack of lyrics.  Does anyone think this is a possibility?  Or maybe is it just a normal trial that every generation just has to trudge through?

            Dictionary.com defines divorce as a “total separation” and a “dissolving of a marriage.”  For anyone that has experienced this “divide,” it wreaks havoc on not only families, but also on the way one lives.  Everyday actions such as thinking, speaking, listening, reacting to sadness, reacting to anger, reacting to grief are all hugely affected.  It isn’t a radial fracture that you wrap a cast around and wait for your body to heal from; it is a type IV radial fracture that requires surgery and post-operative treatment, but still leaves a scar.

            Just as any other tragedy, it is unfathomable that anyone could make a joke of a disease that is “dissolving” almost half of America’s marriages and families.  According to Time Magazine, “40% to 50% of first marriages…break up.”  They published an article (“Bye Bye, Love: Divorce is sad. But some folks are finding humor—and profit—in it.”)  Angie Schmidt, divorced after seven years of marriage, created a website to make light of the tragedy.  She sells items such as the Exorcist Gift Collection: Knife Block and Voodoo Doll and a miniature casket to store old wedding rings in.

            I’m not suggesting that trying to make yourself feel better about these horrible experiences is wrong at all, but it seems like something of a mockery is being made of divorce.  How can our marriages become more successful and sincere if we don’t take it a bit more seriously?

About fifteen minutes ago a friend and I were talking about the importance of education. Earlier in the week he had an “epiphany” about what it would mean in the not-so-distant future.It makes me extremely mad that the majority of our school doesn’t care about doing homework, studying for tests, listening in class, or even showing up. Some settle for a low C and spend their classtime complaining about how challenging and time consuming classes are. To others, grades are almost as important as discussions concerning the worst audition on American Idol a week ago. When we get out of school and have families to support and love and care for, its going to be about two billion times harder and it will consume all of our time (…or so I hear). Very few students understand how huge of a deal it is that we do the best we can in school. If anyone cared the slightest bit about their future, their future wife or husband, their future kids, they would try hard for them now, while education, the only steps leading up to advancement through and betterment of society, is being served to us for seven hours, five days every week.Most people my age, who haven’t even thought about how their high school education will affect them later in life, would say that they aren’t all about good grades and going to college and landing a good job.  They would rather invest their time and effort in other things (not that other things aren’t important too).  Which is the same thing that I thought until some classes I took this year changed the way I thought. (AP English Language and Composition and US History, if you were curious) Just because academic success isn’t a priority in my life doesn’t mean that it won’t be a priority in my kid’s life. Maybe my kid will want to go to a very prestigious college. If I didn’t care enough to succeed in a career that would support my family financially, then that is another enormous obstacle between my child and his/her goals. Or suppose that my wife is in an accident that permanently disables her, costing the rest of our family a lot of time and money. I want my family to be in a position to absorb that blow, not just suffer through it. There’s tons of other examples we could come up with, but the point I’m trying to make is that my generation hasn’t thought about the future. We’re too selfish and lazy and sheltered and conceited.

            As a huge fan of The Office, an NBC sitcom knee deep into its fourth season, the writers strike has had quite an affect on my nightly routine.  Upon learning of the disaster, I just wanted the corporations to give in or the Writers Guild of America to forget their cause; however, now that I’ve researched and given a bit more [unselfish] thought to the issue, I want the brilliant writers of the shows most of us enjoy to hold out as long as it takes.
            According to www.unitedhollywood.blogspot.com, a blog run by WGA strike captains, the main reason for the strike is the lack of a “fair deal on the internet.”  A “fair deal” means 2.5% of the money made on the internet—through downloads and streaming.  As of now, the writers make absolutely nothing when their creation is distributed and viewed on the internet through video streaming and 0.3% of profits from downloads.
            Why does this even matter?  It seems like as long as the writers are being paid for their work that is aired on television, it should be enough.  But this isn’t the case.  Many analysts believe that television and internet are soon to merge, not unlike mail and electronic mail, books and ebooks.  The writers know that if they don’t demand the retribution they deserve now, they may never be able to reclaim it.
            As of January 16, 2008, the strike has lasted 10 weeks and 2 days; the last strike lasted 21 weeks and 6 days in 1988.  Tim Goodman, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that after the strike in ’88 the networks had lost 10% of their audience and still have not regained that tenth.  I hope the damage sustained by this blow isn’t any worse.
            I suppose that I can find something else to do one night a week for half an hour, but only for the sake of the laudible writers of the series I love.