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Name: Zach
Interests: Distinguishing between what is worth living for, and what is a grand waste of time. Life in general. People in general. Homelessness. Language(s). Alternative cultures. I love cities and people in them.
Expertise: Expertise shmexpertise. Here's a quote instead.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." (George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950)
Occupation: Student
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  asifforx
Yahoo:  asifforx
Member Since:
10/9/2004
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| The time has come for me to leave Xanga. Sort of. I'm still keeping
my account so that I can read all of my beloved xanga friend's entries
and thoughts on life, and so that I can comment and share in their
lives and jokes and whatever zaniness you all produce. I'm just going
to stop writing entries here.
Here's the link for my new blog home.
http://www.from22on.blogspot.com/
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| Last
night I slept at a friend's house far away from my car. Come morning
though, I needed some fresh clothes for the day out of my stash in the
Jeep. I found this card (?) under my windshield wipers.
It
gave me a good laugh and warm fuzzy feeling. Thanks, whoever you are,
for remembering. Using pieces of gum as glue (and the extras on the
paper there) made for an interesting touch I must say.
http://www.from22on.blogspot.com/
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| I spent this afternoon with a Korean girl, Jin Soon, who I tutor at
ACE. Since I had to bail on her one Tuesday a couple weeks ago, I owed
her an extra hour of English time and suggested we make it up over a
field trip to the Ballard Locks. The engineering of that place remains
impressive no matter how many times I go. The bonus this trip offered
was the salmon jumping up the river to spawn. We spent many minutes
watching them through the sub-water observation glass. Neat. After a
quick meandering around the park and through a museum that showed
pictures of the 1914 construction, we walked across the street to my
favorite milk shake place. Totem always has a unique season-related
flavor. My all-time Totem favorite was pumpkin last October. Today
their special was blueberry and I was not disappointed, even during
laborious periods of sucking fresh fruit chunks forever clogged in my
straw. As we sat outside burning our mouths on hot french fries, I
asked her, "What is the most interesting question you've ever been
asked?"
She looked back blankly, then smiled. I explained to her
how much I enjoy meeting new people. Waned though the practice has, I
used to spend a good deal of my time in local non-corporate coffee
shops getting to know whoever I came across. Well, realistically, it
was more a one-person-an-outing kind of guy and less like that
eccentric maniac who lurks at every table harassing folks (unwittingly)
at the top of his lungs. Coffee Shop Engagement Protocol goes something
like this: "Hey, I'm Zach. Could I take a few minutes of your time?"
Thus far, not once has a person been void of hesitation. I don't blame
them as solicitors, Bible-thumpers, creeps, and cigarette moochers
abound. I explain that people baffle me, and it's a treat to meet new
folks. This must be rather flattering sounding because I've never had
anyone decline me after that, and I'm not even good-looking. I then ask
them questions such as:
- What is your favorite memory?
- Who has had the most impact on your life, who was it, and what was the nature of this "impact"?
- What do you value? What is indispensable to you when push comes to shove?
- What are your quirks?
- What's your favorite story?
- Who do you respect, and why?
- What kind of dreams do you have?
- What is the question and answer I would never think to ask you, but that is also so much a part of the individual you are?
These conversations have been some of the most worthwhile times of my life.
With
my explanation done, I looked from the red trees next to the bus stop
back to a horrified Jin Soon. "Why do you talk to them?" She by no
means approved of my hobby. She told me that if I tried to talk to
strangers in Korea, they'd probably call the police. I told her I
figured I could wiggle my way out of that situation by playing the
ignorant foreigner role and that it in fact seemed like a good
adventure. I told her that she ought to try it sometime because people
are amazing. I also told her that her homework was to go ask three
questions to the large sleeping man sprawled on the grass across the
way, his thumb still on the last page he read before the Snooze Monster
got the best of him. She faked to hit me, then smiled.
I'm not
sure I can explain my interest in people. Part of it is rooted in a
conversation I had regarding marriage with a man I deeply respect. He
told me that even after living with his wife for over two decades, he
is still getting to know her deeper every day. From that moment on, I
saw people not merely as simplistic objects also habitating and
complicating my world, but as unique, dynamic reservoirs of life,
experience, personalities, and thoughts, each made in the image of God.
I don't even know what "in the image of God" means, but do I really
need to understand to know that it is profoundly significant? People
(all people) are rad and that I believe that in some way each
individual does indeed reflects the image and the glory of God. I
especially want to emphasize the "each person" bit. Even that guy who
never stops poking us, or that girl who tells the same joke every day
coupled with that dreadful squeal-laugh with every round. If God looks
at that person and cherishes them, I know that as beings also cherished
and created to love and be loved, we can love them too... Anyone and
everyone. I will not believe that there is no person on this earth who
I cannot love.
I'll leave you with a quote from the ever eloquent C.S. Lewis relating to the mystery and value and respect due of persons:
It
is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,
to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk
to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be
strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as
you now meet, if at all, in a nightmare.... It is in the light of these
overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection
proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one
another, all friendships, all loves, all plays, all politics. There are
no ordinary cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal and their
life to ours is as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke
with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.... Next to the Blessed
Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your
senses.
PS. I apologize if this title led you to expect tales of
police encounters with human-shaped extraterrestrials... I intended the
other "arresting" meaning.
http://www.from22on.blogspot.com/ | | |
| To fumble along expressing and elaborating on this title would cheapen the whole experience, I feel.
Compare it too a scrumptious meal, perhaps. To look into the eyes of
its maker and gush, "This food is fantastic" would be much more
meaningful than your inarticulate detailed culinary analysis. What a
bore, what a yakker. There's something beautiful and powerful in
simplicity, is there not?
In short, I have learned in a substantial way that God is close,
concerned, and involved in our lives when we ask and allow him to be.
He blew all my expectations out of the water, and worked things for
good in ways I did not imagine. He gets all the credit for this.
At the risk of deviating from my
often-too-cautious personality, I'm looking to extend this adventure to the rest of my life... risking venturing from my
safe-place-clinging.... dipping my toes in the lake of letting God be
God.
http://from22on.blogspot.com/
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| < I have a new blog. The following post is copied from there. I've
been writing both on xanga and myspace (sometimes) but its frustrating
when people who have neither accounts can't respond. Thus I made an
account with blogger, who does not discriminate and allows all to
respond freely. Yay for equality blogs. In the future I may disable comments from xanga, and
eventually just stop posting here altogether to push the traffic all to
one place. No more copying and pasting the
same stuff three times.... sounds nice Feel free to visit the new site any time. All are
welcome for sure, even those of you rad people who I have never met.
The new blog should be my primary outlet from here on out for writing.
The URL is http://www.from22on.blogspot.com/ >
In less than 11 months, I will graduate from college, barring an
unforeseen tragedy or three. I started college with much anticipation
knowing that after four years of studying, meeting new people and
making "old friends", discovering God more fully, working through
challenges of all kinds, etc, I would be a new Zach in many ways. Not
knowing exactly how this transformation would manifest, or what kind of
product (me) it would produce, made it only more intriguing.
I
started writing journals the winter before I started college. I'm
thankful now. Journals are worthwhile. Looking back through these
journals from Freshman Orientation to now, I see that I have indeed
been changed. Some changes have been drastic, others more subtle. Some
changes hurt much(like recently), others were refreshing. Some seasons
of change took years, others took less than a summer (like recently).
There is still much redemption to be done. I rest easier knowing that
God doesn't plan on retiring from the restoration business in the near
future. God knows I need it more every day and he does indeed bring
change on the rare days when I surrender my stubborn pride.
College
has also become a bit of a crutch. After 11 more months, no longer will
I be able to lean on the luxuries of being a student. I will soon have
to deal with my student loans, making a living, finding a place to
stay... survive in a way that is meaningful, fulfilling, a tad
adventurous (and then some), and obedient to God's calling (what that
means I'm still trying to understand). I wouldn't say I'm worried. I
would say I think about it too much.
Here are some
post-graduation options I'm praying about right now. These various
paths are not necessarily mutually exclusive in my mind either.
- JET Program (teaching English in Japan).
- An intentional community in an urban setting.
- Staying in Seattle with the brother, friends, city, culture, and volunteer opportunities that I love so much.
- Do a Discipleship Training School with YWAM.
- Join a couple in Thailand starting a ministry similar to the homeless youth shelter I'm volunteering at currently.
- Going through an intensive year-long Christian men training program in Colorado. Long story.
- Go through SIL training and eventually join Wycliffe in Bible translation somewhere around the world.
- Stay open to yet undiscovered possibilities.
Some values I have devloped as I consider who I am and where I want to go:
- I want to be in the minority in some form or fashion.
- I want to be involved in community development.
- I want to be in a place that I'm uncomfortable.
-
I want to surround myself with God-fearing people of great faith who
choose to be in the scary places. I'm beginning to understand just how
moldable people are, and the value there is in surrounding yourself
with people who will influence you for good and help you become whole.
While
the lure of JET and consequently paying off my student loans quickly is
appealing, it seems rather unfulfilling as well. Knowing that I'm not
even gaurunteed the end of today, I'm not sure I want to sacrifice a
whole year to an involvement void of Zach passion. But oh to be debt
free.... Another con to joining the JET program: I fear that following
the money will birth an unfulfilling habit. Money is slippery and
messy. Allowing the financial criteria to take precedence over the
other factors in the decision making process seems like it might lead
to a habit and a rather empty life. I'm alive to live, not to make
money.
I believe the Holy Spirit is involved in the process too.
A friend suggested I pursue all options simultaneously all the while
praying that God would cause applications to be lost, plans to fall
through, and doors to open and close according to his great wisdom and
plans. I laughed. But this seems good, too. God is big enough to help.
Why is it scary trusting God?
Is it not interesting to consider
how many different directions my life could go? Or how any one of those
decisions could so drastically alter the trajectory of my entire life?
Or how I will look back on this post in a few years down the road to
see where I was and how I came to be where I'm at? Fascinating.
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