A Testimonial

Last night at chapel was the Chaplin’s last service.  As such, we have a “God’s Grace” service to give the Chaplin the night off.  It was a lot of music interspersed with opportunities for people to tell what God has done, or is doing in their lives.  I actually got up and told my testimony.  It was pretty much a condensed version of what I wrote in My Plan post.  I’d never gotten up and said it in front of anyone before, but it was a good experience.  Hopefully what I had to say about God’s plan touched someone.

The Art of Manliness and Leaving a Legacy

I’ve stumbled upon a new site called artofmanliness.com.  Now while I don’t think anyone has ever referred to me as a depiction of ideal manliness, this site addresses a lot of concepts that I’ve felt were important for several years.  Ideas like respect, duty, wisdom, and legacy are all things I feel are important and are severely lacking in the modern “man”.  This site is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek self-help-style look at how to become more “manly”.  Some articles talk about what products to use on your hair to get a Cary Grant-ish sheen or about some of the greater “Man Caves” of history.  It does have some interesting articles in it though and a lot of it is thought provoking.

I bring this up because I’ve become more and more concerned about how I’m perceived.  King Solomon writes that everything we do in life, achievements, works, accolades, are meaningless because in a thousand years, there’ll be nothing and no one left to remember you by (the irony being that we’re talking about this guy ~3,000 years after his death, but whatever).  And while I agree with him in principal, that 50 years after my death no one will pay me a second thought, much less 1,000, I disagree that it’s ALL meaningless because my memory will live on in the lives of my children.  Since taking on a fatherly role I’ve had become very aware of my actions and how I am perceived by the little eyes watching me.  The first time it really became apparent to me was when I was doing a little simple home repair, hanging curtains, and I noticed Xander was mimicking my every action, putting the pencil behind his ear, “drilling” holes in the wall, etc.  Granted it was a harmless project, but I just started to think about what if he saw me doing something inappropriate for a 3 year old to be copying.

I’ve oft thought about how I appear to my children and what sort of legacy I want to leave with them when I’m gone.  What actions or aspects do I want them to look back on and have proud memories?  What sort of definitive statements could they say about me when I’m gone?  What kind of sensory inputs (smells, tastes, etc.) do I want to trigger thoughts of their father?  For instance, I’d like them to be able to say, “My father flew the American flag in front of our house every day” and not, “The Windows startup sound always reminds me of him”.  Will I be known as the man who always got the fire going on a cold night and took his family camping regularly (one great thing my family always did/does) or the oaf who couldn’t be bothered with play time because he couldn’t turn off the TV and get off the couch?

While I don’t think I’ll ever be the epitome of “manliness”, that doesn’t mean I can’t strive to be the best man I can be in my own little domain.  I’ve known of some of my flaws for a long time now, I speak way too quickly when I should be listening, I’m impatient, I have a severe distain for high humidity a thus find it very difficult to do anything, work or play, outside during the summer months, I’m stubborn and get irritated by little things.  One of the beneficial aspects of being in the military is it gives your regular opportunities to start over, be it a move or in my case just being a way for a long period.  Holly and I have already started discussing ways we can change some of the things we deem negative in our lives when we all get back.  Now we just need some [a lot] prayer and hard work.

A Little Reading Material

I wanted to try and refocus on the original purpose of this blog, preparing for the eventual homestead and simple living.  I put together a list of books and movies that I think are important to explore to get a good mindset for this type of project.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – This is the book that started it all for me.  It opened my eyes and got me thinking about what I’m eating and where it came from.  Holly and I listened to it on CD on a long road trip (highly recommended) and it opened up a ton of discussions about what we could do with our yard and what we want to do long term with our lives. 

It’s an account of a family that moved to the East Coast and decided to spend one year eating only what they could produce themselves or get locally.  It’s interspersed with recipes as well as statistical data related to the food industry.  Really makes you think.  A lot of the info I’ve passed on in conversations with coworkers to which I usually get the “that guy knows way too much about a mundane topic” look in return.  Eh.

Crunchy Cons – An interesting book about people living the “Crunchy” lifestyle (i.e. Granola, hippy) on the surface but are actually truly conservative beneath.  It’s kind of the way we feel about a lot of things.  When we started talking about our “commune” and Holly making her own dish soap, laundry detergent, cheese, granola, and grinding her own flour then eating organic, free range, grass-fed, natural, local, and GMO-free food, I’m sure people thought we had gone off the hippy deep end.  But really it’s not about fitting into a movement but disregarding what the mainstream (secular and Christian) was telling us we should be doing and look at the “right” way to do things, the way we were designed.

                While I don’t always agree with all of the observations in this book, it definitely made me thing about what it meant to be a conservative, especially the conserve portion.  I used to think of people who were “tree huggers” as total crazies who put the animals above people.  One point this book makes is that you can work to conserve your environment while still reaping what it produces.  Even hunters can be wildlife conservationists.  I highly recommend this book for anyone who calls themselves a conservative.

Better Off – I didn’t get to finish this one do to an *ahem* availability issue and I wasn’t really into it anyway.  However I think it’s a good book to help get a little perspective.  It’s the story of a couple who leaves their home and jobs for 18 months and lives in an Amish-like community.  It chronicles the growing pains of going from an instant gratification, technology-centered society to one that doesn’t even have running water.  It makes some very good points regarding the benefit vs. burden of having the latest and greatest gadget.

The Backyard Homestead – I found this one when I Googled “How to homestead” and followed a few links.  I didn’t really read it as much as skimmed it since it’s more of an encyclopedia than a novel.  It has a lot of great info for the starting self producer.  I didn’t glean too much from it as it’s pretty basic info that I’ve picked up already from various sources, however there were a lot of good reminders that refreshed my memory.  One section that was interesting was Planting Phenology which talked about using the environment around you (flowering plants, size of leaves, etc.) to determine when you should plant or transplant.  The info in the book was for a different climate than ours but I like the idea and will have to research how that would work for me.  This is a book I’d like get a copy of and keep with me when I head out to the garden.  Also of note, you can read a very large portion of this book on Amazon for free!

Food Inc. – Like A,V,M this movie is a mind changer.  It’s a documentary discussing the different food industries, their practices, and how the big companies have changed the way Americans eat.  It will really blow your mind and probably (and hopefully) disturb you.

King Corn – This movie is similar to Food Inc. but focuses on the corn industry and how it’s ingrained (get it, ingrained) itself in our daily diet.

The following books I have not read but come recommended from a very good source [read: Holly].

The Omnivore’s Dilemma – I need to read this one.  It’s referenced in almost all the food-related media I put above.

Possum Living – Similar to Better Off

$64 tomato

The Whole Earth Catalog – Similar to The Backyard Homestead

If anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to pass along.

Deployment Dialog - Day 114

I think there is a very small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  I’ve taken up several ways to count down the time remaining. 

It occurred to me that in 18 days I can say I’m leaving next month.  Semantics I know but still.

I have a daily tear-off calendar on my desk (with not so funny funnies) that has a card holding the place of my last day.  Every day the distance between the card and me gets a little smaller.

Someone previous to us created an Excel spreadsheet that has various counters.  Besides counting down the number of beers left or estimated times I will use the bathroom remaining (204 and 272 respectively) it also counts down the 68 days I have remaining.  There’s also a pie chart that shows percent done thus far.  I’m done with 61.9%, and only have 38.1% left.

Very soon I think I’ll be flying back into the clouds and back to reality.  Can’t wait.