happy fourth

UPDATE: i went for a run and came home to find mr. bones is evidently dissatisfied with democracy:

today a giant candle passed my house

and i could not help but take notice. the monks here are about to go into hibernation or something; i'm sure there are deeply spiritual reasons for this, but no one has adequately explained them to me. the schoolkids evidently give a candle to the temple for this time when monks don't leave the grounds for three months. today there was a processional of students dancing, drumming and pushing from the school at the left of us to the temple at the right of us. so, of course, linda, kim and i followed them, dancing right along (and one time pushing when i swore they were about to start rolling backwards) to the temple. right in front of our house, the candle cart went flat. luckily there is a motorcycle repair shop in our front yard and dong (the guy who sold us phillip's motorcycle) was able to put air in their tires so they could keep on dancing and pushing. so that was my workday.

the rich are different from you and me- high school edition

i got a batch of essays yesterday in the mail written by students in response to my materialism rant. i didn't know about it until i got them, but my super cool friend elizabeth owen teaches chemistry at a houston high school and assigned her students to write a response to my diatribe for extra credit. she began her essay prompt with gandhi's quote "be the change you wish to see in the world" and then attached my article. some of my favorites copied verbatim:

on dogs:
"In my definition of "useless stuff"is like one of the example the writer wrote "dressing up their dog." Really? Is that really necessary? In my opinion I think a dog should be a dog because I work at this upper class restaurant and occasionally the customer would bring their pet. They [the customer with the dog] treat their dog as a real human. For instant, I am a hostess there and Amy [a usual customer] always comes in with her pet dog. When I first met her, she came in by herself with the dog. So I asked her "just one for today?" and she said "no table for two please" so I sat her down and assuming that she is waiting for someone then later I realize that the other person was the dog!"

"I admit I do buy my dog expensive clothes, and the best dog tags, and the biggest bed there is. But I never sat there and thought about what I could do with the money instead of spending it on useless things."

on "if you are reading this from the united states you are rich"
"the was an inaccurate comment, the united states is a very wealthy country, but why does the writer have to stereotype the country like that, I am assuming the writer is a person that is one of the people that has struggles in life..."

"he conveys that Americans that are not rich are rich in other countries. This statement is highly true. I believe that the poor have more benefits here then the poor in other countries."

"Apparently this article says I am rich, which I am not, because I don't have any money. I guess in a way or two I am rich because my family does have money enough to support us. Thankfully I have that for me. My parents have good stable jobs and I am going to college."

from a future republican:
"Valid points were made but overall the blog was ridicule... To say that being successful is unbiblical is the most outrageous thing I've heard in years... We are all accountable for ourselves. Why should we be accountable for the poor? What reason should we be accountable for the poor? I don't understand I feel everyone has a chance to do something with there life. Everyone's life is in their own hands know one can determine your future accept you."

i would tell this kid, absolutely, everyone is accountable for themselves. and as a country, we are only accountable to what the democratically elected leaders commit us to in regards to aid. as individuals, however, the bible absolutely states that we are accountable for the welfare of the poor. and yes, i can see where my blog could be taken as ridicule out of context. i do not think that being successful is unbiblical, but i know for sure that what we do with success often becomes unbiblical when it focuses not on the world but on ourselves.

on gandhi:
"Mr. Mahatma Gandhi is dead on with this article because many people's lives revolve around things of the materialistic nature and the rich spend money on things they don't really need but they just merely want them because they have the means to obtain them. As from my above response it can be derived that I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mahatma Gandhi."

in conclusion (felt like going high school on you there), i am glad to know kids are thinking about this and touched that elizabeth would send these to me. but i am mildly horrified that a few interpreted it as gandhi's words. one day when they finally learn who gandhi is they'll be like, "oh yeah, the dude who wrote that crazy article about dog clothes." while gandhi was not as sarcastic as i am, i'm pretty sure since he didn't wear fancy clothes of his own that he wouldn't be too keen on the whole dog clothes thing either. so maybe he would agree with me. to remind everyone, the purpose of my original post was not to condemn materialism. i simply believe that materialism should be put in proper perspective that comes from knowledge of the world and its harsh realities that americans usually neglect or deny.

it's not the buying of things that's unethical, it's the lack of engagement in the world that i believe we are all accountable for. buy stuff, knock yourself out. but if you lose yourself in that stuff and don't engage others through service, relationships, donations or whatever your gifting is, then the stuff then becomes a wall, essentially, to the rest of the exquisitely pained and beautiful world. rant officially concluded.

china: communism, the church, domination

so, china is communist. there's lots of curiosity and disdain for the system in the US, but honestly, do you know how it affects people's daily lives? or do you know much about the state of the church in china? i was struck by the following:

• chinese people joke that the 30 minutes of nightly news consist of the following: 10 minutes of talking about how busy the leaders are making deals and making relationships with other countries, 10 minutes of how the people are so happy and 10 minutes of how there is war and misery everywhere else. this shows that the media and the information is packaged, sure, but also that people are aware of it and have a keen sense of what is going on underneath the headlines. and honestly, so much of media is the US is complete info-tainment anyway that you rarely get unfiltered or helpful information.
  
• joyce is the perfect idealist that makes communism seem sensible. the government ordered that no air conditioning in beijing can be set below 68 degrees in an effort to conserve energy. joyce rationalizes that the arduous democratic process that keeps energy saving legislation stalled in the US can be immediately implemented in china and china is better off for it. paternalistic policies can be beneficial, though we americans shun it out of a sense of independence. i like the american system, but joyce prefers her system. that doesn't mean that either is more correct, just different.
  
• christianity in china, like the high rises and highways, is booming. definitely no longer a state that people need to smuggle bibles into, china and the communist party see christianity as advantageous to their political system. i just blew the minds of all the people who see jesus as a republican, didn't i? communism values hard work, family values and loyalty and sees christianity as an asset in that way. as a result, the country is open to churches large and small. my friend had an interesting insight that the mission community in the states maintains china's image as hostile and unfriendly to christians to retain the danger and excitement aspect for outreach there.
  
• china will one day own all our asses. china has been largely responsible for financing the development of africa and owns a bond or two of the US treasury. i think it's time we all were honest with ourselves about their successes and the benefits of their system; especially since one day they will be our overlords. watching joyce help her little sister (13) with homework each night, i was convicted that i did not study that hard in grad school my friends. they are smarter, richer and more nimble - watch out.
  

all that to say, i still believe china has an abhorrent human rights history and lives in denial about their true identity. they really believe the worlds sees them as the image they project and not what they are. tianenmen umbrellas, much? that's a pretty naive foreign policy (even if it's really, really funny). the government may have its problems, but the people are as removed from that as i am from the decisions of the current US administration. the people we met were so hospitable, eager and a true testimony to the hard work ethic of their country. life in china is flourishing, getting cleaner and faster and is definitely worth a visit.

green balloons

the images of the iranian election protests on the BBC and the internet have been haunting me. even though my accident/protest incident was a much shorter, less intense duration, it was that same sense of fear, that same question of "why the hell are the police firing at us?" though it doesn't look like the protests there will amount to much meaningful change in the face of such violent suppression, we can hope that it will plant a seed of hope for better things to come. i don't know for sure the outcome of the election but, for crying out loud, the government's reaction is not that of an innocent.

if you're interested, watch the daily show's series on iran. read reading lolita in tehran. browse any of the information andrew sullivan has been consolidating of twitter feeds and videos from iran. the above video is of iranians releasing balloons in memory of the victims - about the only option left available to them since they cannot leave their homes or go to hospitals without the threat of being beaten.

don't eat the marshmallow

so there's this theory that the ability delay gratification is a predictor for success. i can't tell you what terrible news this is.

i sing, too

in the month of september and for some of october i will be in northern california (wine and cheese), dallas (no redeemable qualities whatsoever), austin (tacos) and houston (there's this one cupcake cafe i like there. and i guess my sister and inlaws). during that time, i am hoping to spread the word about what's going on here in thailand, specifically with our programs that promote education and prevent trafficking. if you would like to have me show super fun slides of our great kids or talk about protest safety, please email me at congraced at gmail.com.

china: songwriting on the wall

china: great wall

the great wall is really, unbelievably fantastic. we went to the beautiful and rugged mutianyu section of the wall.

we were amazed


and exhausted from climbing the steep, steep how did they even build these stairs.


the weather and blue sky were perfect.


the best part was having a picnic lunch, eating chinese cherries and listening to devendra's chinese children while having a dance party.

and then we bobsledded down like the ancient chinese warriors used to.




go.

china: summer!

for some reason, china has left me feeling nostalgic. even though we live in permanent tropical weather, being here finally feels like summer. they have lots of great stone fruit - i always miss texas peaches this time of year - like cherries, apricots and peaches. we spent saturday walking around kunming lake at the summer palace and ate ice cream bars, even rode on a boat. the summer palace was built by some emperor's mom who pillaged the royal treasury so that no money was available for the navy. they like blame her for china taking such hits during world war I or something. anyway, in my opionion, the money was WAY better spent on this fantastic set of temples and palaces on this beautiful lake. when you get up high enough you can see the whole modern skyline against the antiquity of the lake and the colorful temples and it's really beautiful. who needs a navy anyway? overrated. happy summer.