Back to Monday

I have realized that I need to Blog on Mondays for consistency sake.

This past weekend was spent in the mountains of Idaho. I am not sure if it was the Sawtooth range or another. Regardless, it was a fun time. I was with youth from church at camp (along with another chaperon and the pastor).

But that is not what I am going to blog about. Not exactly. In Idaho I have had the opportunity to see all sorts of nature. Mountains, valleys, rocks, fields, meadows, rivers, lakes, and so on. There is something about the amazing qualities of nature. And now we are getting to the change of seasons and there are new colors out there. It is exciting to see the fall colors coming, even though it means colder temperatures. I think there are times when we take nature for granted and don't think about how wonderful our surroundings are. I see people flick cigarettes out their window all the time. They don't think about the fact that wildfires could be started by those cigarettes. I also see people toss random things into the water as though it will disappear. This bothers me because we have become more and more complacent with our actions and believe that our actions do not have reactions.

Spandex Commute

Today I joined the rank of environmentally friendly commuters. It felt good, minus the burning thighs and lungs. That is right, I left my car in the drive way and hopped on the old 2 wheeler and pedaled in. It was great! Plus I killed 3 birds with one stone. By riding my bike to work I didn't drive and therefore, didn't use gas; I got exercise; and I got to drive through all the closed roads that cars have to detour which actually cut my commute by 10 minutes.

I also learned firsthand about the feared goatshead. It is this little bur that has the spikes. They go into your tire and give you a flat. Fortunately, I looks like the goatshead missed my inner-tube and I will be ok. I went and bought some protective tire liners today. I will install them and hopefully it will help prevent my tires from getting destroyed.

And to clarify, I did not wear spandex to work. I did, however, tuck my right pant leg into my sock like Steve Carell in the 40 Year-Old Virgin.

This commute got me to wondering. How much gas could we save if we walked and rode bikes more places? My drive to work involves me driving around construction and taking massive detours plus I have to sit at lights forever and stop for school busses. With my bike, I just have to stop at lights and the only thing that happens is I get to catch my breath. Not only would we save gasoline, we would also help the air quality. Boise is currently rather hazy due to the wildfires north of here. I believe the car traffic is not helping any. The final benefit would be the exercise. We could burn more calories and move from our sedentary lifestyle that many of us (myself included) become accustomed to. I have been trying to lose "the last 10 pounds" and I have tried various ways of going about it. I think this will probably help more than anything.

I more people will hop on bikes and get out of cars. Plus it is so beautiful outside it is hard not to enjoy the weather.

Lack of Inspiration

I was thinking about why the world has so many problems and such a hard time living peacefully with one another. I started to think about who it is we turn to for inspiration on a global level. And that is when it hit me. There aren't any major globally inspirational people left. Pope Benedict is the closest thing we could come, but you hardly ever hear him mentioned. And I can't blame him, John Paul left some big shoes to fill. Looking back, we used to have Pope John Paul, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Stephen Biko and so on. Growing up it seemed like there was always someone you could look to for inspiration. Now I can't think of one public figure. Even Al Gore, who is championing saving the planet from Global Warming, charges you $12.99 for the DVD at the store. I think that we are going to stay in a continual state of disarray until we start getting people to inspire us as a world. Maybe I am being pessimistic, but that is the way it feels to me.