“Twilight” Crazies Need to Read This. Now.

http://psa.blastmagazine.com/2008/08/16/twilight-sucks-and-not-in-a-good-way/

Best review I’ve read about this book series. It really is awful literature and is actually pretty poisonous for the impressionable age group that it targets.

The Dying Farmer’s Ode

It’s not that I am afraid to die,
I hate to say goodbye.
To all my family I love so much
and to all those friends who kept in touch.
My time is up and I must go,
where I go I don’t know.
It’s not for me to decide, the choices are few,
there’s only two.
If by the love of God and his grace,
we meet again in another place,
it will be great to celebrate with family and friends.
There will be some old and some new
If you look closely, one of them might be you.

Birds that sing,
gates that swing,
wire that’s tight,
coyotes howl in the night.
Corn that grows tall until it’s done,
wheat waving in the breeze, hay curing in the sun.
Green grass growing
by a stream flowing.
A sky so blue
with a few fluffy white clouds, too.
How could I be so blind, why could I not see?
That maybe it’s a little bit of heaven God gives to you and me.

-Paul Pierson
August, 2008

RIP Uncle Paul.
July 25, 1926 — November 21, 2008

Focus On the Being.

“So much in this world is focused on doing some action. What do you want to do with your life? What classes do you want to take? Do you think you’d be happier somewhere else? Do you want to move to Hawaii? Do you want to be a politician, or a priest, or a whatever? Those actions are all a part of something bigger though: who we are. And it’s not that the actions determine who we are, it’s the other way around, who we are determines our actions. So instead of asking yourself those action questions, focus on the being. Who am I? And then, Is that who I want to be? Even better yet, Is that who God wants me to be?”

-Father Peter Musset

Dear President-elect,

This is a letter I wrote tonight immediately after Barack Obama’s inspiring acceptance speech (seriously, whether you voted for him or not, the man can give a speech. In fact, if he can lead half as well as he speaks, we’re gonna be ok for the next four years). I am sending it to the Senator’s office tomorrow morning.

Dear Senator Barack Obama,

Hello, my name is Mark Westhoff. I would like to start out this letter by saying that I am a 20 year old two-time voting college student, that I live in probably the bluest city in a blue state, and that I did not vote for you. This was mainly because of certain moral issues, mostly abortion. At the same time, I did not vote for Senator John McCain either, but for other reasons. I am, however, extremely concerned with and involved in politics, and I was long before your historic race against Mr. McCain. In that regard, I planned on writing this letter to whoever won this year’s election, because I feel we are entering one of the most important times in our world’s history, as you have also made very clear.

I bring all of this up because I want you to know where I am coming from with my message. I believe that the two-party system is one of the greatest current injustices to the American people. Why should we be so divided at a time when standing together is the most important thing we can do? Why should we be limited to two candidates for every race with a viable chance of winning? Especially when both candidates are very likely to become partisan and stubborn in office, ignoring the near 50% of their constituents who did not vote for them.

It is with all this in mind that I sincerely ask you to take my plea into mind. In the next few months you will be selecting your cabinet, arguably a task as important to the future of our nation as your election was. This task gains even more importance with the knowledge that your party will be in control of both houses of Congress. When one party can rule unchecked, our nation is at the greatest possible risk of corruption. In your acceptance speech tonight you called upon fellow Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. I urge you to follow the great President’s lead and select for yourself a bipartisan cabinet. You have also been compared to another uniting figure in United States politics who surrounded himself with players from both sides of the aisle: President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy famously weighed every option possible before making his most difficult decisions, some of which had the greatest consequences the world has every known. I ask you to take into mind the examples of both of these great men, one a Republican, one a Democrat, in selecting your advisers.

The differing viewpoints can only help you become a great leader and a righteous man! You get to make the ultimate decision no matter what advice they give you, and you will gain the perspective from the other side of your original stance, which is the first step to making great decisions. You must know how millions of people in your own country are going to react to your choices before you can make them, otherwise you are blinded to their important and merit-filled opinions.

I firmly believe you have the amazing potential to be a President with a positive legacy, one who left this nation better than you found it, as long as you don’t try to do too much. Having trusted members of your staff who differ with you on certain points can help you achieve both of these things.

No matter who we voted for, come January, you are our President. I pray that you will lead by example and with caution. We, as Americans, are firmly sitting before you asking you to lead us with prudent discretion and careful forethought. No single man or woman in the world will have the possibility to wield as much power as you will, especially with an undivided Congress that would do your bidding without much question. All I ask is that you are willing to admit that that power has the potential to destroy as well as build, and that the greatest opportunity for that growth lies in a bipartisan approach by our leadership.

You truly have my prayers. For the next four years.

God bless you and God bless America,
Mark William Westhoff, concerned citizen

Collapse.

Isn’t it funny, that it seems like when life isn’t quite going the way I want it (or not the way I want it at all, for that matter), I seem to write on here a lot more often. Anyway, I felt the need to put this up even though it’s not mine. I’ve been listening to this song pretty much all day, so you could say it’s how I feel right now (if not exactly, at least vaguely).
Collapse The Light Into Earth by Porcupine Tree     (By the way, check this band out. Amazing.)

I won’t shiver in the cold
I won’t let the shadows take their toll
I won’t cover my head in the dark
And I won’t forget you when we part

Collapse the Light Into Earth

I won’t heal given time
I won’t try to change your mind
I won’t feel better in the cold light of day
But I wouldn’t stop you if you wanted to stay

Collapse the Light Into Earth