A Child-Like Blog

When it comes to blogging I have always operated on the principle that if I don't write and publish it now, it will never get published. I am amazed by those of you who have the patience to write drafts, edit them, and then later publish them in their polished form, drawing a wider readership and generating a more interesting blog. I am trying to change, but do not yet know if this is what I want my blog to be. Many thoughts have crossed my mind lately, and honestly the things that I can see more concretely in day-to-day life take precedent over anything digital. This is why I still write checks, why I enjoy basketball officiating, why I go running and made the 70-mile bike trip two days ago (updates still to come, I am also lazy when it comes to these things). And I guess it was this need for visible accomplishment that sent Mike and me to Iowa to pollinate corn. There is something satisfying in spending your day working on something concrete and tactile, and to at the end of the day be able to look back at your progress and feel satisfaction at what you have accomplished. Digital technology provides little of this, though there are some small points of satisfaction when someone writes me that something I wrote on my blog struck them, and caused them to think in a different way, but I have a hard time disciplining myself to adhere to the blog and create any sort of schedule or order to my posts. I first created this as a creative outlet, and this blog will always be just that, "the thoughts of a simple Catholic man."

I would like to expand though and ask the question whether there is something to be learned from approaching all of life this way. First of all is it possible to approach every day as a child, to see everything as if you are seeing it for the first time with all the amazement and learning that comes with it? Can we approach deadlines as we used to approach dinner-time, as a point at which we need to go if we want to eat, but do not have to go if we do not want to eat what is offered? How much do we hold ourselves down to standards and rules that someone else created and assures us will bring us the most success? I remember translating a story in which Miguel de Unamuno states that success in this world is the man who best grovels in the dirt, and pays homage to the powers in the world that be. But I see a different way. John Francis, author of Planetwalker, a book (http://www.amazon.com/Planetwalker-Change-Your-World-Step/dp/0976019205) and a non-governmental organization for environmental awareness (http://www.planetwalker.org/) one day decided that he was not going to ride in any form of motorized transportation anymore. Twenty years later he is known nationwide and is a recognized advocate on the environment, having worked with the US Coast Guard and the UN, and it all began with the simple choice to walk anywhere he needed to go. Oh and another thing, he did not talk for seventeen years either. But he survived somehow.

I think that we are capable of much more in this life than we have ever imagined, and perhaps we need to embrace the imagination of a child to reach the outer limits of possibility. Anything is possible, and in my mind every boundary should be tested, every question asked, and every rule or regulation brought under examination, for I believe we too often live beneath standards that are not of our own making and serve only to extinguish the flame of life that is inherent in every one of us. This is not to say that we should all stop talking and start walking everywhere. Each one of us must find what the child inside each of us desires, and perhaps our answers will lead us right back to where we are, and we can thank God that we are indeed where we want to be. If not however, as long as your responsibilities are covered and your dependents provided for, dream big, cast far and wide. Run toward your setting sun and chase your dreams beyond the rainbow. For our time is short and no man wants to live the life of quiet desperation. Let us seek the life we yearn for in the deepest, most imaginative part of us. Let us tap the dreams of our childhood for our passions and follow them. For these are what transform our lives into meaningful stories that change the world. We cannot start out seeking to change the world, as John Francis has illustrated by his simple decision turned world-movement, but we can only follow the spark of inspiration that lies inside each one of us until it becomes a signal fire to all others, so that we all together may lead glorious and fulfilling lives!

Thank you to John, to my good friends Jane and Peter, who have specifically inspired the words of this post. And thank you to all of you who have inspired me every day of my life, and at all difficult points in between. May God bless and keep you all, and continue to inspire you to live the dreams that lie inside you.

"Make a commitment to make the journey. Each one of us has that inside of us." --John Francis (30 Minutes interview)