18November2008
Posted by nate under: bike; family; friendship.
At some point Lydia got ‘worthless’ and ‘worth it’ confused. So now on the rare occasion that she gets frusrated (that’s me writing sarcastically) she puts her hands against her temples and utters, “It’s worth it.” Our laughter generally doesn’t help the situation and she’s too much like her dad to admit that she wrong no matter how gently we mock/correct her.
Please don’t read too much into my crappy parenting, that’s not what this blog is about.
Last night I had a chance to hang out with my buddies Justin and Jonathan to get a little music business done. Justin has been exercising. I’m proud of Justin. Jodi has known this for days because she gets up to the second updates on all sorts of ephemera via spacebook, the chain letter of the future. Super valuable. Hearing that Justin is exercising is wonderful, not because I was in the least bit worried about his not exercising, but because it benefits me, and I look for that in all things. How does it benefit me? Inspiration, my friend, inspiration.
So I went running today. With new silver running shoes. A blog unto itself.
Then I rode my bike to get stamps and coffee. I ride my bike just about every day, but usually on short rides so I take out my Schwinn Suburban that my friend Deanna gave me. It’s an old beautiful bike, not really made for speed, though it has 5 of them. Jodi has a matching one with a basket. I really love these bikes and they’re great for going to music classes and church and the post office. Fun old bikes. But today I thought I’d take my road bike out. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s nice and I love it and I usually only take it out if I’m going more than 5 miles or up hills. Or both.
So I put on my pro riding gear (good will pants, socks that don’t stay up, flannel shirt, yellow jacket of inspiration, stocking cap that’s all stretched out, and 4 dollar safety goggles from Menards) and took off looking every bit the part of tour de zaster. I haven’t had time to go for a real ride in about a month or so and holy cow, I forgot how much I love this bike! And how fast and smooth it is. Someday I’ll live up to this bike’s potential.
I also forgot how freakin’ cold it was outside. By the time I got to the Post Office I was starting to wonder about the next leg of the journey, but as I pulled up to the bike rack I noticed a bit of graffiti on the side of the post office wall that read, “It’s worth it.”
Sentimental ending: Maybe this time I was the one that had gotten worthless and worth it confused.
Actual ending: Heck yeah!
15November2008
Posted by nate under: family; health; music; technology.
There’s a lot to be said for regression. Moving back. Getting slower. Turning stuff off.
The Houge house has been busy. Jodi’s a full time student for another 5 weeks. On top of her course work she started a church. Starting a church takes a bit of work. Some would call it a full time job. Jodi’s busy.
Lydia…. Well Lydia’s Lydia and that has and I imagine always will be an all consuming job. This morning she tried to boot me off the computer because she insisted part of her homework was writing a script for the school play. Kindergarden’s not what it used to be.
Elsa is 18 months old and acts every bit like an 18 month old child should be acting. Uber-exploratory. Fiesty. Opinionated. Testing boundaries.
And I’m just trying to keep my head screwed on straight and remember what day it is, what deadline is approaching, what instrument to grab, and who to send manuscripts off too. My to do list for the past week included: Finishing fixing my neighbor’s bike, meeting two different writing deadlines for this Monday, handing over my kid’s CD for layout and duplication at Noiseland, doing a near final mix of the band Floating Bridge’s upcoming E.P., being less and less of a stay at home dad, moving the porter from primary to secondary fermentation, teaching two different preschool music classes, getting an antique hutch delivered to my parent’s town home, and going on a date with my wife. I saved the best for last.
So what does this have to do with being regressive? Well, I’ve learned a few things this week. One, I don’t handle stress well. Instead of dealing with stress I tend to get rid of it. If a messy house stresses me I handle it by getting rid of things. If jobs drive me nuts I quit. If seminary is sucking up my wifes time, I complain about the system.
What it comes down to is that while the rest of the world is multitasking and wading through the work flow, I’m moving toward monotasking as hard as I can. I don’t want to be a stay at home parent and a freelance artist. As a freelance artist I don’t want to think about writing and music on the same day. As a musician I don’t want to think about CD design and a preschool set list on the same afternoon. I want to move slower. I want to do less. I want to be more deliberate about these choices.
I’ve also learned (once again) that I hate writing and editing on the computer. For some of the writing I’m doing right now I’ve been trying very hard not to print things off, but rather to become more agile with my thumb and jump between documents all the time when referencing and double checking information. What a headache. So today I printed off about 50 pages of material. Instantly I was working faster, more efficiently, and with greater satisfaction. I’m moving back to paper and pencil. I regress.
I want less stuff, fewer obligations, and minimal technology.
12November2008
Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.
Last night I was reading Kathleen Norris’s book on acedia and my wandered off. It’s a great book and the fact that I was having trouble caring about a few of the passages may be evidence of my need to read such a work.
So my minds wandering off and my hand touches that place at the base of your neck where they stick tubes for tracheotomies and I thought to myself, “If evolution is so cool why didn’t it cover this up with something? I could totally poke myself here and potentially die. I’ve seen Bruce Lee do it.” Then I thought, “Again if evolution is so great why do our bones still break? Why do we stop evolving?” And then I carried the thought into more practical matters. Who hasn’t dreamed of flying? Wouldn’t it be great to fly? Why haven’t we evolved into flying creatures? Don’t you want to fly?
When posing these questions to my wife she pointed out that humans used to be smaller, hairier, and unable to talk.
Really? That’s what we’re so jazzed about? Over the course of the last billion years we’ve grown bigger, less hairy, and can communicate with words? Us and dolphins.
I’m so unimpressed with evolution at this point. Give me creation any day. Now that’s freakin’ cool. And way more believable. Seriously, I’m so much more likely to believe that God created the world in 7 days than us growing less hairy over a billion years.
Somedays I’m so regressive it hurts. Hurts so good.