So I talked with our youth pastor Jerrod today and he told me he is planning to start a newsletter for the youth. It would combine all the various things we send out now such as calendars, support letters and letters to parents into one document. It will be a zine for the youth. And eventually, it would include writings by the youth as well including their own thoughts about life and events that we have done. Should be really good, especially if we include some interesting content. If the design is really slick, it can be something that the youth could give their friends too, to give an idea of what the youth group is all about.

So Jerrod asked me if I would like to write a regular article in the zine. I'm looking forward to it and should be really great, but I need to think a bit now about what I would include in it. It will be my musings and I hope it can be interesting, funny, thoughful and perhaps be a discussion of sorts on culture and growing up. It makes me think even about why someone should post their thoughts on a blogger. Who actually reads these kinds of things anyway? If you know the person writing them, you may read in order to catch up on what your friend has been doing. If you don't know the person, then you will read it because it draws insight into the events in life that perhaps you are also dealing with. It is that common experience that makes you read. It is good to see that people are thinking about similar things and have good things to say about those experiences. It is great to read something that you've also never experienced just to learn more about it. It it is funny and interesting and real and is able to speak to where a person is at, then it will be read. That is my goal for this little column. I would like to have it be the one thing that our kids read first because it challenges them to think and encourages them in some way that the things they deal with now at school and home at the age of 13, 14 and 15 is still dealt with at my age of 23. That is the challenge I have laid upon myself. Now to begin to fulfill it.

Still reading: The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Listening: Dolour, Hot Hot Heat, Ester Drang, Hey Mercedes

Money is a very interesting thing. It has power to affect those with it and those without. We all know that if you have a lot of money, that can be a "root of all kinds of evil". Soon, you begin to buy lots of things and begin to get in debt from all these things that you think you need to have. It's dangerous when you begin to think you can buy happiness and also dangerous when you hold on to these things you have bought possessively and become tight fisted with your money and stop becoming generous. That is less of a danger for me because I spent so much time in my first year of university conteplating these things. I was on my way to becoming an engineer and having the possibility of earning lots of money. I struggled with that because I grew up having everything I ever needed but didn't grow up rich by any stretch. I was hesitant because I saw myself growing into a guy with a big house in the burbs, two cars, a boat, motorcycle, camper and all these things that wouldn't make me happy. Over time, I began to see that these things aren't bad but it is mostly your attitude towards money and possessions that govern how you react to them and govern just how happy you will be having or not having these things.

Now I have a bit more of a balanced understanding of these things. I feel much more comfortable with either having money, or not having money. I can still see it is an issue though for other people and for myself, but in a different way. I am quite self conscious when I spend a lot of money on things. Three examples are my computer, my iPod and my new camera. There are others too, like my nice acoustic guitar and my motorcyle. Before buying any of these things, I did a lot of research about them, why I wanted them, what purpose they would serve me and what kind I should buy. I am very comfortable with all my decisions about these things. I can say honestly that I didn't get the cheapest I could find, but I got the ones that were a good value and that would serve me well for a long time. The reason that I feel kind of dumb telling people how much I spend on these things is primarily because I know their reaction will be surprise at the apparently large dollar sign affixed to these things. But most of the time, they haven't done any research into how much something like this should cost so their surprise stems mostly from their ignorance. Why should I feel like a dork because I spent a thousand dollars on a great camera? I was even hesitant to spend that much, but not because I couldn't afford it, but because I had this imaginary dollar figure in my head about how much a camera should cost. Everyone I know spends a hundred dollars on a point and shoot, or three hundred on a ten year old consumer SLR. Perhaps if I had friends that spend 3 to 10 thousand on cameras, I wouldn't feel so bad about spending a thousand.

So what everyone needs to learn is to be more careful about how you react to the money people spend on things. Don't react according to some imaginary dollar figure you have attached to that object. Ask intelligent questions about the quality and purpose of the object that has been purchased. Don't belittle a person for spending more or less money than you would have spent. And for those who are spending money on things, do your research, don't go into debt if you can help it, and if you are going to spend a lot, be equally as generous.

An interesting, informative and intelligent site to check out, not related to the above discussion is OpenDemocracy.net. Have a look, if you feel like using your brain at all.

"The glory of God is a person fully alive." - Irenaeus

Read: To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Reading: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and Soul Survivor by Yancey