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A touching and insightful post by an intelligent friend from High School who has the poise and grace to lovingly differ from her husband in politics. An interesting discussion in the comments ensues, including my own two cents.

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Some interesting thoughts from my friend Sunny-D, which I for the most part echo. Kudo's to him and an encouraged read.

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An interesting set of thoughts from my friend Sunny-D... Take a read if you have time.

 Translation: I think, therefore I am.

Like awakening from the sleep of one who is completely exhausted, I am reviving my mind and thoughts. I had forgotten the satisfaction of thinking and thinking hard about a subject. Some people don't understand how thinking and discovering are satisfying. It boils down to a difference in pleasures. Not like the difference between a roller coaster ride and a first date (2 entirely different experiences), but like the difference between a 5 year old enjoying a lollipop and someone with a cultured palate enjoying a glass of magnificent wine(The same experience, taste, but on one hand a sweet tooth and the other a sublime appreciation of a wondrous complexity). It's not that its more expensive (the wine could be home-grown in rural California and the lollipop from a NY boutique) or just because its "high culture" (some of the most thoughtful men rejected most of society), but being thoughtful, having a philosophical approach, literally being a student of thought, knowledge and wisdom causes every pleasurable moment to be even better, more complex. Jokes are funnier when they have multiple layers of meaning; epiphanies and discoveries that much more sublime when they tie together not just 2 concepts but intertwine with the answer to 20 questions (while provoking 40 more) and experiences immensely more rich when highlighted and contrasted with the vast array of human experience connected by the critical thinking mind.

So I reverse Decarte's argument for the moment and broaden it to my entire audience who reads this - "You are, therefore THINK!" Only then is life more than a collection of years, but rather your interjection and comment in the great dialog of ideas from those who have thought before and those who shall think after.

"Alcohol; the cause and solution to all the world's problems." –Homer Simpson

The more time that I spend at the bar the more I begin to see the social lubrication that alcohol provides. I once talked to some friends about how ever culture has its social activity that its community revolves around – coffee shops in Seattle, hookahs in the Middle East, chai in Central Asia and Yerba Mate for South American cultures. I think when we were talking about it, at a conservative Christian school that didn't allow alcohol; we underestimated the culture and society that revolves around booze.  It seems to transcend geographic boundaries as well, making me think that the "dive" bar is a ubiquitous social fixture in most alcohol tolerant cultures. Be it ales in the pubs of England, vodka shots in east of the Urals, ouzo in Greece or soju in Korea, ever geographic locality has its "poison" of choice.

Wikipedia mentions that "Intoxication frequently leads to a lowering of one's inhibitions, and intoxicated people will sometimes do things they would not do while sober, often overlooking social, moral, and legal considerations." A major factor in the social lubrication aspect of alcohol, as the first inhibitions to go by the wayside would be the loosely held fears of social rejection. Admittedly, the further you delve into "liquid courage, " the more you begin to sacrifice more solidly held convictions until moral and legal considerations with their attached ramifications soon find themselves  going out the window. Case in point, guy drinks until his social inhibitions decline to the point that he no longer fears rejection from the pretty girl at the bar, but soon drinks so much that he no longer fears the legal ramification of lewd conduct in public. The first portion could be seen as having a positive effect on society in a day and age in which our self-esteem and perception is frequently compromised by the media continued injection of what men and women are "supposed to be", there is something to be said for lowering our fear and feelings of inadequacy which are in large part artificial. However, I think that we also see the negative backlash, due to the freedoms we seemingly develop while intoxicated, leading to a cyclical process of divorce of ourselves from our convictions and, at least in our drunken brains at the time, the consequences which underpin those convictions. All too soon we forget the legal and physiological results of our activities, including the primary activity, drinking. I think this cyclical effect is partially to blame for the rapid increase in binge and underage drinking. Very few sober people would suggest drinking until one passes out is enjoyable, but yet it happens. When in the midst of the moment, your inhibitions based on the fear, pain or legal consequence are overcome by the substance that your imbibing to lowering your inhibitions, you should be considered and consider yourself drunk.

If you haven't looked at Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007 yet, you should. I completely disagree with the conclusions of section one, but two and three are very interesting if you can keep an open mind. I still don't buy the conclusions that the writers/directors of two and three, but they at least raise some interesting points that should be explained and haven't. It is a film and therefore is fundamentally one sided, but I think the raw events portrayed sequentially put them in a veiw that the regular public doesn't see.

Toss that in with a bit more legitimate, though Hollywood-esque, "Bones" on Fox has a running story arc of a serial killer, who kills members of the Knights of Columbus, thinking they are an ancient secret society. Togather, I have been contemplating how secrecy works. More to come on the implications of secrecy and truth.

When was the last time that you took a deep look at your friends list? Looked and remeniced about when you may have first met these people... In my case, I moved in the middle of high school and left behind a lot of friends that I had shared laughs, birthday parties, Science Fairs, classes from first grade through sophmore year and far too many other special experiences to list. I joined a group of friends who had shared that and I felt deprived and didn't know what to do or how to compensate for that "lost time". Knowing myself the way I do now, I have never been a "social" person. I have always been hindered by an inability to understand my peer's thoughts and feelings implicitly. I am what some call "mind blind" and for some of you who I hope read this, that little fact may fill in some of the blanks of our shared youth (the books, the scientific exactness, the vocabulary and complete lack of social understanding).

Back to the friends list; being that I am mind blind, it is tremendously enlighting to see what makes you, fair reader, come alive in life. Many different people have choosen many different paths. To be blunt, I am jealous of so many of the opportunites that have, travel, marriage, kids. Some of you have chosen similar paths to mine, including the military and moving out of CA, others have choosen traditional routes and are now entering sucess as post-college student young adults with careers, lives and loves.

Now I know there is a falicy endemic to my observation in that I am observing MySpace and we only post things we want to on MySpace resulting in only an understanding of the "gloss" of one's life, put out for the world to see. Transparencey is a a hard thing to ask for in an face-to-face relationship, let alone posting your own hurts, wants and tears on a website.

All this to say, friend, I am proud of you and the person you have become. Continue to push forward and embrace it for all you can get. Strive to see, feel and know the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.

Yep, thats right... I am getting married.  I proposed to Janie on the 26th of April on the beach at the West Point Lighthouse here in Magnolia at sunset. (Me= hopeless romantic) Looks like December 15th for the wedding, bring on the choas and anarchy of wedding planning!

On a humorous note, I think God had something to tell me after I proposed. In my Tues., Thurs., and Friday night Bible studies, we've been focused on Eph. 5 for the last 2 weeks. Yep that 6 Bible studies, in a row, on the role of the husbend and wife... the week after I get engaged. Providential anyone? Read Eph. 5 if you haven't recently or don't understand the sheer magnitude of the events unfolding around us.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during this time as we seek God's will in our lives and enter the choas that is wedding planning!