So, over the last little while I've had it in my head that I'd like to help develop sustainable financial systems in Africa. That sounds like a big task, and I think it probably is, but my perspective on such an idea was adjusted a few weeks ago. The link below is a great video supporting an organization called Water Harvest International. My church played this video a few weeks ago, and through it I realized (or was reminded) that as wonderful an idea as is self-sustaining finances, the best system imaginable is useless if people's basic needs aren't first being met.

"These moments of inspiration, for want of a better word, are moments of transparency, really. The thing that gets in the way - in our lives, not let alone in creativity, most of the time - is our brain, which steps in as a sort of editor of what we're seeing and receiving from our senses, and adds sort of consciousness to it, and we become aware, and it obstructs our progress in certain, sort of spiritual ways. So, there is a spiritual element to making music. When inspiration comes, you somehow have disengaged your consciousness just a touch. The flow of images comes, and it comes so quickly and so freshly that you know it's just a transparency, really. You've managed to remove the barrier, and you're just reaching straight in to the good stuff. And then, all you're using your brain to do is, as the process plays itself out, you arrange, like a collage type way; 'Oh, that image would be better there, or maybe I could use that in the chorus'. 

This morning, I arrive at Starbucks to write, and Unnamed Man is sitting in my writing chair. I can't tell you how disappointing this is. He's reading the newspaper, so I figure, hey, I'll wait him out. I've been here almost a whole hour, and nothing. On and on he turns the pages. I think he's reading through the whole thing a second time. ...I hate him. 

Ok, so I don't hate him. I just disapprove of the direction his life has taken over the last 63 minutes. Maybe I should say something. Make a stand. Maybe I should snatch his newspaper and run. I can't do that. The newspaper is an endangered species, and my fellow writers are scraping for their inkly lives. In the same logical thread, it's like he's saving the whales. Does that mean I'm gutting their blubber to make perfume? I don't want that on my tombstone. I should just stay in my seat, let the man read his precious newspaper. 

WHY??? Why can't I just walk up to a man and reason, you know, like grown men. I could just say, "Excuse me, sir, but I have a Mac, and I need to write, and this chair… you see what I'm saying?" Somewhere in there... Really, I just want him to stop inconveniencing my life. Is that so bad? Maybe I can convince him that his seat selection is crap, and he'll find a greater threshold of happiness elsewhere in the store, or maybe China, or the Isle of Man. I hear cruises are great places to catch up on your reading - you know, the whole tranquility thing. One thing I know, if he doesn't get up soon, I might just place his ship in the Gulf of Aden. Maybe his Somali pirate captors will give him a cell that faces the morning light, and then he can read whatever he wants, and he won't unknowingly bother me any more, and I think, ultimately, we'll both be happier that way.  

Just a quick note to get the blogging habit reformed...

wow..

Hey friends,

I must go through this at least once a year, but I'm sorry for not writing more often. I have the mother of all excuses, and her name is Cara, and she's not a mother... that I know of...

I submitted my first graduate school application today. What a nerve-wracking process. The application asked for four essays, and I'm sitting here amazed at the emotional toll it took to write them. It's not like I wake up each day thinking, 'you know, I feel like being judged today.'

Anyway, nothing flashy with this post. I just wanted to let you know what I'm up to, and celebrate that I actually finished an ambitious writing project. There's a first for everything.