My ¨We are the World¨ post

The other night I wrote a rara ¨we are the world¨type of entry meant for my blog. I´ve decided now not to post all of it. Only a summary. Why maybe I felt it to radical. Maybe I was afraid it could be mushy (thus the sarcasm of my title). Maybe because I am too scared to talk about ¨love and compassion¨ as real things that can make a difference if we actually tried and really (really) did what those driven by the ¨love the neighbor as thyself¨philosphy ought to do.... I don´t know... I am just scared of being scoffed at I guess.

Anyways, the title of my post was goign to be

¨the constricted Mr. President/ my ¨we are the world¨ speech.

note: I think I have to very powerful sides, a very idealistic side and a very sarcastic, cynical and scared to death to be clichéd side.

Anyways - a quick summary- I am very excited about Obama

BUT, I think as president, he has to buy into a lot of things (American ideas or cultural myths or whatever you want to call them) that will force him to act a certain way.

Mr. President has to respond violence with violence. Mr. President always act in favor of us. That´s basically his job I know, but sometimes acting that way will probably hurt others. Mr. President has to be tough. I wrote that he has to push free trade, but I just realized that Obama will be taking a closer look at the NAFTA and the CAFTA. Mr. President can never say socialism even as a republican president does a very socialist thing and bails out banks. Mr. President maintain military superiority (though hopefully he will be reducing out amount of nukes). Has to try to maintain our position as a superpower, as if that´s somehow more important that things like our well being. Maybe that´s not a convincing enough list, but work with me here...

I wrote: I am not saying that he is taking the one ring for his own, I´m just aying that I think the job defines the man more significantly than we realize... possibly even more than the man defines the job.¨

I jump into bashing American society (that´s supposed to be sarcastic because I do believe that in some ways American society is pretty great, how can I not. That´s why there´s this hope thing Obama is talking about. It´s not him, it´s us (¨It´s not your, it´s me¨ says Georges girlfriend, George, ¨Your using the the it´s not you it´s me routine on me! I invented the it´s not you it´s me routine! If it´s anybody, it´s me!!¨ girlfriend, ¨Älright Alright, it´s you¨ snort of agreement from George) And that, the part before the seinfeld quote, is basically the point of what I wrote.

bad things: materialism sort of heads the list (bad for personal happiness, bad for environmet, global warming etc etc). Racism. Sexism. Violence is normal. We live in a society where people commit crimes for which we deem it worthy to kill the perpetrator and in which abortion seems like a necessary evil. militancy. Family problems. Nationalism instead of genuine care for our neighbor (actually Americans have always viewed ourselves as doing our best to help the world, it´s just the actual foreign policy, in my opinion, has not really done that too much). education is not important enough.etc. etc.

I wrote: ¨There are some diseases for which a good president is really just a bandaid. Those of us without th constricting title of Mr. President can go beyond anything politicians can do and attack the reasons why we have certain problems instead of trying to simply treat the symptoms. Only we can actually build a society more strongly based on love and compassion. Politicians have to deal with the problems that arise because we are not so much built on these ideals.¨ Changing our culture would change the presidency far more than any presidency ever could.

I listed stuff we might do especially to do with conservation of energy and investment in our communities were the main things.

I said it, ¨love¨... gasp. ¨does anyone remember the let your light shine song. It´s definately old, and possibly clichéd idea, but the amazing things that may come probably aren´t.¨

As I write I am realizing how classically American what I wrote is.

I end with a disclaimer. Of course Obama could do a lot. But not without us. And I emphasize that I think the L word translates into action and it´s just hard to live up to it most... I mean all the time. And the presidency and governance in general can also have a great effect on our culture, but still, us as individuals and as parts of so many smaller communities are the ones who really make it what it is.

Jordan

ps. watch the Flight of the Conchords song, ¨Issues, Think About it¨the live version. Pure comedic genious. on youtube.

pps. right now I am finishing up The Upside Down Kingdom and am feeling kind of convicted by it. I feel like we all need to read the gospels a little harder and ultimately try towalkas hewaled and do some of the things hewants usto do which we generally do not. And it can take part of the blame for this post.

Anatomy of a blog

To be quite honest, I have rather mixed feelings about starting a blog. My brother Elijah says it is "out of character," Kevin Neufeld wrote back pseudo-derisively to me, "What's next Jordan, a cell phone?" Well, perhaps. I do not think however, that somehow beginning a blog is some sort of turn around for me in regards to the negative feelings I sometimes hold towards things like cell phones and facebook. First of all I have never claimed to be totally against these things (though it seems like sometimes it comes off that way). What I do think, is that we should all be more aware of some negative effects I think these new forms of communication can potentially have:
1. the replacement of face to face communication/relationships with digital ones. What Shane Hipps equivocated with cotton candy.
2. The fostering of insecurity in our relationships
3. wasting my time
4. Making it far to easy to look towards the "then and there" rather than take advantage of the "here and now" (ie. always wanting to know what's going on somewhere else (in case a friend is doing something more fun than you) instead of focusing on what you're doing at the present.

etc.

ok enough of that soap box.

I am beginning this blog for both selfish and unselfish reasons. This blog work kind of like a journal for me (I hope) and will later in life serve as something to help spark my memories of my time in Guatemala. I hope that it will foster real connections and communications with friends of mine. I really like email communication with people. I hope that this blog will sometimes inspire people to write me emails about what and how they are doing. I don't want people to think that somehow comments on this blog can replace personal communication via email. I can be the kind of person who needs positive feedback, so if one enjoys reading what I have to say, I hope they tell me so every now and then, and respond with something about themself. Also I hope everyone understands that I will try to make sure that, no matter how much I miss home, I will always try to make sure that I keep my heart and mind in Guatemala. I do not want to be physically in Guatemala and mentally in the states. Ok, so maybe my reasons are mostly selfish. WEll, I mean, I suppose the enlightening of the ignorant masses is pretty much the height of self-sacrifice... but you know, I guess that's just part of being a servant-leader and "champion of character."
I have really enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and I think it can be a good way to keep up with people who are close to you.

The weird thing about blogging is that, like mass emails, they are generally 100% about the writer. It can start to feel really egocentric (my experience with mass-emails). ANd I guess basically is. The reason is that the only thing that all the people this blog puts me in conversation with have 100% in common... is me. Which means, basically, that me is all I can write about. So, again if you want more personal contact, I suggest emails.

The blog is good because nobody is forced to read it, and so only people who are genuinely interested will read it.

ok, I'm gonna go buy a watermelon with my dad.

Jordan

ps. I am not in Guatemala yet

pps. WHen I was a kid I was really good at picking out watermelons. Right now, I have self-doubt.