It’s hard to believe that only two hours ago I was in the mountains of Pinetop; enjoying the forest, cool weather and lots of fishing. Now, I seek refuge from the blazing inferno that is Phoenix, Arizona. It’s 107 degrees and I narrowly escape dehydration as we unload our vehicle and all of its contents.

Holed up in my brother’s house, I lounge here with my laptop pondering the birth of my country. It’s a serene moment as Ross and I are watching public television and their endless barrage of documentaries surrounding this holiday weekend. My other brother, Brian, comes in and out of the room asking for updates as he works to mop the floor. We are a captive audience enjoying sanctuary from the Arizona summer. There is nothing on my mind save that of the past week and the great time I had with my family on vacation. My mind is clear.

In the past, I have written a lot about our nation and my fascination with its conception, birth and legacy. In reality, I tend to ‘geek-out’ around the 4th of July. Hearing the stories about the birth of our nation stirs in me such excitement. It’s an epic tale that seems so mystical and untouchable.

Our American ideals have always been lofty. We have fallen short and exceeded our best intentions at various times throughout our nationhood. Right now, it seems like tough times for many of my fellow Americans. But, things are looking up.

Uncle Ben always said, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” I’m not quite ready to declare my intentions relative to this as an American, but I do embrace this responsibility. All I know is that there’s a reason for everything and I can see a path unfolding before my eyes.

It is my hope that this holiday finds each of us in reflection about the value of our freedom; recognizing our individual involvement in the projection of the legacy that began in 1776.

My brother Brian says to me, “I wish I had something to fight for.”

That’s a start.

It’s been some time since I actually had the time to sit down and ponder an idea for a post to the /afk blog. I’m so damn busy. There’s an idea…the word ‘busy’. It can mean so many things to so many different people. It’s all relative, but it’s funny that our society places value on the idea of being busy. I’m sure that we can all reminisce about running into an old friend and after they ask us how we are doing, we say, “not much, been busy.” Are we so full of the trivialities of our daily lives that we can’t articulate a better response? Surely, we have something to report. Maybe we don’t want to brag or boast about our lives. Modesty is a good platform, but it’s rather phony to those who really want to know about you and your world. Perhaps, ‘busy’ is the conversational shotgun approach.

But, why is ‘busy’ good? Does this go back to our ancient roots? My ancestors would have been barbarian savages from the West Germanic tribes. Perhaps being busy to them meant that they had been killing boar preparing for the harsh winters ahead. “Ich bin besetzt.” After all, what would you really be doing with your spare time back then? If Mjolnir approached Bjorn and asked about his day, would he have said he was busy? No. He would have said, “We killed an oxload of deer today, come on over and bring the kids if you’re hungry.”

SEGUE WAY – I like to think that it would have been fun to live such a simple life. Although I have thought about this before and without access to corrective lenses, I would have perished as a near-sighted adolescent.

That brings me back to my point. We should aspire to be productive, not busy. Busy-ness is just that, being busy doing worthless activities without purpose. True, I have been busy, but have I been productive? This is where my mind should stand and this will be my first challenge. Second, I challenge myself that the next time I see someone who asks me about my day, I will make the time to answer them and I will offer them a glimpse into the reality of my life.

My friends…

A friend of mine, Liz Danforth, has been preparing an independent research study on skills acquired in World of Warcraft that may transfer to real life.  The survey is now LIVE and ready to go. 

If you play WoW or if you have EVER played (even if you don’t play now) – please take the survey.  Some of you don’t play, but I have reason to think you may know someone who does or did. 

The research is being conducted under the auspices of Dr. Chris Johnson of the 21st Century Learning Group LLC. 

Here is the link to begin the survey: http://s-692ke-48878.sgizmo.com/i/17374e3361108p20842

The survey is open until the end of April 2009, so check it out and help my friend.  I took the survey and it was really interesting.

Greg

Do we ever stop to think about what we did today?  Do we ever take a moment to think about how our actions today will affect or have affected our lives?  Nope.  And that’s part of the problem with the world.

Each day is life itself and it fills me with its breath

Nothing more can come of it, that’s just what it is

So each new day passes quicker than the next

A life so full of rhythms awaits the kiss of death

What are we going to do today to embrace our world?  Who are we going to touch today?  Where can each of us make a difference?

When virtue sings the song of spring and angels are replaced

The world as we know it shifts while unseen

For honor and glory and passion thrive amidst this cardinal change

Our lives are given purpose when meaningless is erased

I woke up today and found myself staring at another morning spent driving around my neighborhood looking for parking. You see, there are limitations for every parking space in my area; 2 hour limits, except Sunday, Not on Wednesday, Not on Friday. Blast.

BUT, as I lumbered into my kitchen (well, it’s not really a kitchen but it sounds more like a house instead of an apartment if I use the word ‘kitchen’), a smile came across my face because I remembered I had brewed some coffee yesterday and the pot was sitting in the fridge, now ice-cold.

So, in the end I had to observe the daily ritual but it was made less painful thanks to an ice cold cup of coffee. Life is about such simple things sometimes.

I think I will write a song about it. “An Ode To Life’s Little Pleasure”

Greg

No, I am not talking about simulated breast milk; which, for the record, is not that good for kids. It’s kind of like giving Diet Coke to your infant. Not a good idea. But, then again, my mother was a leader in La Leche League so I may be biased. Kids need what we men are thankful that God gave to women. I hope that was vague enough.

Back to my train of thought before it was so easily derailed. Formula, ah yes.

Formula. A recipe for something powerful. I used to see FORMULA written on the sides of early 90’s Pontiac Firebirds in high school and think, “that car probably hauls ass!” The word seems to evoke a successful and possibly secret concoction, as if the GM engineers spent years pining away at what they could do to be able to slap that word on the side of one of their vehicles. In truth, it was just a big V-8 with some fancy ground effects and maybe an exhaust kit. It was like finding out Santa Claus was fake all over again.

In Tucson, Kyra and I used to cook all the time and I was amazed at how different flavors seemed to work together to create a taste sensation. I will admit I was usually the one without faith. “You want me to put that into the pot?” In the end, it was always a perfect combination that worked well and tasted great.

I see this patten in life. There are things that we can add to our lives that will create happiness, success, health and well-being. There IS a formula. These things exist and we can choose how we embrace them. Do we want the logo on a sports car for the world to see? Or, do we want the pot of soup, jumbled and chaotic, that tastes fucking delicious?

I realize now that I have chased superficial happiness in the past. I was the DB driving around in a Pontiac FORMULA Firebird. But, I just traded that bitch in on a set of Farberware.

Greg

Progression is the key to life. I always want to be moving forward in some way. Perhaps, moving forward is the only way that I can truly measure my life outside of the standard unit of ‘years’. It’s not enough to say, “I’m 33 years old.” I want to say, “I created /afk.”

But, is it ok to move forward in one area of your life and be stagnant in another? Does paralysis multiply if left alone to its whims? This is an interesting question that I will try my best to answer.

Let’s set the stage. I see myself as someone who wants to continually evolve. I want to learn more, experience more, meet more people, etc. But, at times, I am in stasis. Tonight I was hanging out with my friends and while everyone was having a great time, I found myself thinking of the things that I have neglected, the things I should be doing and the drinks I should not be having. This inevitably leads to a moment where I need to get away from the madness and be alone.

Is this behavior healthy? I definitely enjoy being with my friends, but I acknowledge that I have an inability to be present sometimes. My mind wanders, not often, but when it does, it is gone for some time. These moments are an opportunity to regroup; a chance to focus on what is important to me, /afk.

I think it important to make some declarations. There can be no more stasis in my work life, my /afk life or my personal life because it spreads itself too easily. The most successful people are those who are on point at all times. This is where I need to be. I need to choose my moments, choose my time, choose my creativity and choose where I invest my energy. In short, it’s all about me and my decisions and nobody else.

Greg

I often like to say to myself, “live for the moment.” It sounds great, in truth. A mantra that is designed to inspire an embrace of the ‘now’ at the cost of the ‘later’. There is a certain comfort in being a part of this belief, if that is what we will call it. For, it can allow room for wild abandon. After all, who are we to control and constrain ourselves if we are to live in the moment.

But can we always ‘live’ in the moment? Don’t we have to think about tomorrow, or someone else, or our car insurance, or driving home drunk or making a fool of ourselves? At some point, living in the moment could be destructive to our lives.

Then again, what if we were without the ability to explore the limits of our own lives. If we knew no extremes, no highs, no lows, no crazy stories, no near misses and no food for the appetite of our lives. For me, this path is more destructive, because it leaves behind a barren wasteland without a sign of our own character. We need peaks and valleys to be whole.

This is not to say that a traditional life is anything sub-par. We all know that people, children, experiences and the process of sharing all of these things with friends and family is an adventure in and of itself. But it is a life full of adventure and living in the moment, a combination of blatant disregard and patient participation, that I seek.

I guess these thoughts presuppose that life is a storybook. I would like to think so, and I want my story to be fucking awesome.

I told myself tonight, “Greg, it’s late, you need to go to sleep, so take only five minutes and do your writing.” So, here will stand my testimony for all to see what I can do in those few minutes. There will be no corrections and no time to edit in the brief amount of time that I have dedicated to this task. Perhaps, someday someone will find value in my productivity during this time and write their own book about how I inspired them to be more efficient with their time. I can only hope. Meanwhile, I must stay focused on the task at hand. Five minutes is not long and it will surely pass before I know it. I am already secretly cursing myself for the audacity of the challenge. What good could be served to the world if I only had five minutes to write? What would a bold man attempt to communicate with only five minutes?

Perhaps humor…sadly, my time is up…

I had an interesting experience at Guitar Center today. But, first…

FLASHBACK – 1 month ago…

I went to Guitar Center and was thinking about buying a guitar. After years of telling myself that learning to play guitar was either too hard or that I did not have the dexterity, I decided to chart my own course. So, I went to the local guitar bazaar and took a look at what they had to offer. But, when I was given a recommendation and handed a guitar by a sales rep, I must have looked like a virgin about to have sex for the first time. I had no idea what I was doing. Sure, I had fooled around and played a guitar here and there, but there was this feeling within me where I felt like a phoney.

CUT TO: Today

I went to Guitar Center. Only today, I sat down with a Taylor, a Martin and a Gibson and was able to sense their individualities and their different strengths and weaknesses. Now, I am in no way a skilled guitarist. In fact, if you called me a hack, I would be honored. That being said, today I felt as if I was progressing towards my goal and that sense of accomplishment was real satisfying. I was able to hold the guitars, play some chords and actually interact with the instrument. Simply amazing.

Greg