Peeing on the Continental Divide

Last weekend I went skiing at Monarch Mountain with some family and friends, including two of my nephews. One of the lifts we rode took us to the very top of the mountain range. We stood there looking at the trail-map, and someone came up to us and gave us some recommendations on the slopes to take. He then asked the boys, "Do you know what you're standing on? It's the Continental Divide. If you were to pee over here, it would end up in the Atlantic Ocean. But if you were to pee over there, it would end up in the Pacific Ocean. And if you were to pee right here, well, some of it might end up in the Atlantic and some might end up in the Pacific!" He then waved goodbye and was on his way.

Unless you drank A LOT of water that morning, I highly doubt that any amount of pee would be recognizable as such by the time it reached one of the oceans. But the guy was 100% correct. Any water landing on the East side of the Continental Divide ends up in the Atlantic, while any water on the West side ends up in the Pacific....and if you were standing there with a full bladder, you could decide where it was going to go. As the crow flies, it's about 1000 miles to the Pacific Ocean, and about 1700 miles to the Atlantic. Standing on top of the Continental Divide, you can't see either ocean, but that's the final destination nonetheless.

We make decisions like that every day. We can't actually see where that decision will end up, but it will end up there regardless. Sometimes it takes someone else (even a total stranger) to stop by and tell us where a decision might lead. But if that happens, will we listen? Will we make an adjustment? Or will we continue making the choices we want to despite knowing the outcome?

If you were to pick up a cigarette and someone tell you that smoking leads to cancer, would you still smoke? If you were to pick up a can of soda and someone tell you that drinking soda leads to obesity, would you still drink it? If you were about to throw some plastic away and someone tell you that it damages the earth's ecosystem, would you still throw it away?

I understand that you have to trust that the person is telling you the truth, but if you know the information is accurate and the person is trustworthy, why would you ignore it?

What's a 'person'

Last night we watched "Robot and Frank," which I think is a pretty good movie. Rachel thought it was very sad, but we did find ourselves laughing at several parts and had a good discussion afterward.

The basic premise is that an older man (who is fighting dementia) is given a robot to assist him around the house and help improve his health and overall well-being. Frank initially rejects this idea but grows to appreciate the Robot. Early on in their 'relationship,' the Robot tells Frank that it is not a person, it is just hardware and software designed for a specific purpose. But when Frank's kids later refer to the robot as being nothing more than a mechanical slave, Frank responds with, "I need him. He's my friend." At the end of the movie, Frank has to do a factory-reset on the Robot, thereby erasing its memory. The Robot again assures Frank that there is no problem doing so since it is not a person.

But the Robot is a person in Frank's mind! Frank would not have attached himself in the ways he did to the Robot if he really believed it was just hardware and software. And it took the Robot repeatedly assuring and almost even begging Frank to wipe it before Frank finally was willing to do so.

The movie got me wondering 'What makes an entity a person?" I've come to the conclusion that whatever it is, it has to come from either within the entity or be projected onto it from someone else.

"I think therefore I am!" is a philosophical argument that 'personhood' comes from within.

Pro-abortionists believe that fetuses are not people and use arguments that 'personhood' is projected onto them at birth (or at whatever week gestation the particular pro-abortionist draws the line).

Frank obviously projected 'personhood' onto the Robot, but the Robot was the first to admit that it was not a person.

So what is it? Help me out here!

A Valentine's Day Date

Seven years ago today, Rachel and I went on a Valentine's Day date.

I know what you must be thinking, "Valentine's Day was yesterday!" That's very true. And you might be interested to know that we would have gone out that night instead, but I had a college class I needed to attend. To make up for my one-day delay, I dropped off a bunch of roses and chocolates and a nice card at her house before heading to class.

The next night, we went to dinner. We reminisced about all the time we'd spent together over the past several years....some of those officially 'dating' and others being 'just friends.' After dinner was over, we went for a stroll along the river, meandering through town. We found ourselves crossing a bridge onto an island in the river where a park was. We had a lot of memories there. It was where we went for our first date. It was where we first held each other's hands. It was where I first told her "I love you." I had even carved our initials into a fallen log, and we made our way over to it to see if we could find them.

We sat on the log for a while just talking, then I told Rachel I had a song I wanted her to listen to. I told her to just close her eyes and focus on the words.



While she did that, I knelt in the snow and laid out some tea candles, and attempted to light them in the falling rain. She quietly said that the song was over, and I told her to turn around and open her eyes. She did so, and saw me on a knee next to a partially lit message, "I ❤ U ∞" and holding a ring up to her.

I asked her, "Rachel, will you marry me?" In shock, she responded, "WHAT?" so I repeated the question, this time with a grin. I waited in anticipation, my heart beating like crazy.

Then I heard the best thing ever.....she said Yes!

And after almost seven years of marriage, I am still so very glad she said yes.

Being the Encourager

If you read my Facebook posts recently, you know that last night Rachel and I went to the gym, where she kept up with me and ran 3 miles, did over 100 pushups and over 200 crunches. I can't begin to describe how proud I am of her, and as I was thinking over that hour or so, this thought kept surfacing, "Neither she nor I would have done all that had it not been for me encouraging her."

For her, she needed to hear the encouragement to keep on going. I kept telling her that she was doing awesome, that it was only a little bit further, that she could do it. I banged the floor and demanded another pushup. As I ran beside her, I whispered to her that I was proud of her. For over an hour I kept the tempo of encouragement up and she did it all: 3.1 miles, 110 pushups, 220 crunches.

For me, I needed to keep on going in order to be able to encourage her. I wanted her to do it all, and I knew she wanted to do it all. I also knew that I had to lead by example and if I quit she wasn't going to push me on. There was one point where she was out of breath and wanted so badly to stop running. I was in exactly the same boat - I could hardly talk I was so out of breath, but I had to keep going so I could encourage her to keep going. Instead of doing our reps of pushups at the same time, I had to race through mine so I could kneel next to her and talk her through her reps.

What I realized is that if you want to be an 'encourager,' you will have to demand more out of yourself. My words would have had little power if I was sitting beside the track drinking lemonade and telling Rachel to keep on running. I had to push myself harder than I was pushing Rachel so that I would be able to push Rachel. And at the end of the day, we both crossed that finish line!

A Better Place

On my way into work this morning, I was listening to the DJs on the radio station talk about a recent article published talking about how employees of certain vocations thought they were making the world a worse place because of their jobs. A couple of examples are Fast Food workers, Telemarketers, and Dealers at casinos. Bear in mind that it was the employees themselves that were making the claim. Anyway, the DJs were asking the audience how their job was making the world a better place.

So here's how what I do is making the world a better place:

1) I am directly helping the people I work with by keeping their computers running. Since they're not as frustrated with their computers, they're able to focus on their tasks with better clarity. This allows them to do better at their job, aiding their happiness and lowering their stress levels.

2) I am indirectly helping other co-workers around the world by playing a part in keeping our entire infrastructure functional. This allows the ongoing work of HCJB Global to progress.

3) I am indirectly helping people I don't know around the world through the ongoing work of HCJB Global. HCJB Global is improving lives in countries all over by meeting physical needs through hospitals, clinics, clean water, and other community development projects.

4) I am helping to spread the good news about Jesus. Jesus Christ is the only one with the power to truly transform lives for the better. Humanity, left by itself, will deteriorate and degrade....call it the Law of Human Entropy. But Jesus can turn that around. Humanity with Jesus will continually improve, and that is why I'm trying to spread the news about him.

Those are the four reasons that quickly came to mind on how my job is making the world a better place. Is your job improving the world, making it worse, or isn't doing anything at all? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.