Quick Response

This is just a very quick response to a reply I received to my "Your God and My God" post from several months ago. It was made by the Rev. Danny Alger, a former staff member of Camp T. This will all make much more sense if you go back and read his reply first, but even if you don't I think the point is fairly clear. Enjoy!

Dear Dan,

A couple of thoughts on hair color: 1) Did you know that 90% of brown hair is actually a VERY dark shade of red? So while you may say you have brown hair, someone who says that it is actually red is equally correct. 2) If I say I have sandy blonde hair, and someone else says a have light brown hair, isn't that just a question of perception? Just because someone else perceives my hair to be a different color then I happen to think it is, that doesn't make them wrong.

Case in point - the Seattle Seahawk's uniforms. Now you're probably thinking 'Huh? Where the heck is this going?' Well let me tell you - take a look at the Seahawk's uniforms the next time you see them on TV (this Sunday would be a good opportunity actually) and tell me what color they are. I'll tell you right now, the most popular response is gonna be 'blue' or 'sea blue' or 'blue green'. This is a debate I've been having w/ a friend of mine who is a Seahawks fan, and it's been going on for sometime now. As it turns out, the OFFICIAL color of the Seahawk uniform is Seahawk Blue. Great. Apparently they couldn't figure out what color it was either, and just made up their own. Anyway, my point is just because the Seahawk organization SAYS it's Seahawk blue, does that make void any other description of the color of these uniforms? Could they not ALSO be described as blue/green or sea green, steel blue or dark aqua, etc. etc. etc.? No two people see colors the exact same way - that's why it's so hard to agree on anything more then very general shades most of the time. Now, back to the hair...

Your analogy actually supports a point I was trying to make - I don't like the fact that so many of our religious leaders deal in such glaring absolutes. The fact is, you DON'T have blonde hair. You have hundreds of thousands of different color hairs on your head, some lighters, some darker, some longer, some shorter, and they all work together to produce what YOU call blonde. Your definition of blonde and my definition of blonde may not even be the same thing - why do YOU (not you specifically of course) get to decide what qualifies as blonde and what doesn't?
Yes, you may be MUCH more knowledgeable then I am in the area of hair color, and you may have studied hair color for years, and even have a book that your great, great, great grandfather gave you that says 'The ONLY REAL blonde is this exact shade...', but I'm sorry, in the end your blonde could just as easily be my very light brown.
So my question is, instead of spending so much time trying to convince EVERYONE that there is only ONE shade of blonde in the ENTIRE WORLD, why not accept that everyone perceives their own hair color a little differently? You don't make your definition of blonde any less valid by allowing someone else to have a different definition. Just realize that in the end we're all talking about the same thing - hair. And as long as we all agree that we do in fact have hair, and that it does have color, then we're doing ok.

Promises, Promises...

Yea, I know...I promised to try and make my posts on here not quite so few and far between. What's the result? Damn near to 2 months since my last update! YIKES! I swear I really am going to go for a new post every two weeks from now on, ok? The holidays were just really busy...as they usually are, and I never got around to writing much of anything. In my defense I DID start several potential postings, but never finished fleshing them out. All that being said, I'm really not sure where to start THIS post...I guess w/ HAPPY 2006!!! That being said, a quick review of the end of 2005 -

Took my Dad to see the Panther play the Falcons on Dec. 4th in Charlotte as his Christmas present...what an EXPERIENCE! I mean obviously I've been to a couple Panther games before, but NEVER one w/ such intensity, and such a fired up crowd! Yea Dad and I had nosebleed seats, but the great thing about BoA is that no matter WHERE you sit, you've got a great view! In fact I think I prefer sitting in the upper deck, because you get a more complete view of the field etc. I took this pic from our seats right before kickoff...




Needless to say the game was AMAZING! The Panthers SMOKED the Falcons 24 - 6! It was the first time in FIVE GAMES w/ Vick starting that Carolina had managed to beat the Falcons, so needless to say, that made it even better. The crowd was AMAZING and seeing my Dad cheer like a frat boy at a college game was something I'll never forget! After that game, Carolina only won three of their next five (including a second spanking of the Falcons to end the season), but it was enough to get us into the playoffs, where we are now ONE WIN AWAY from our second Super Bowl appearance in THREE years! That's pretty damn good!

Between Sunday's, I stayed pretty busy! A week after the Facls game, I attended the Dean's annual Christmas throwdown on Sat., which of course kicked ass, and then got up Sunday morning and drove to Charlotte w/ a bunch of the guys to see the Panthers/Bucs game. We lost though...which pretty much sucked. Next I went home to Wilmington, and got there in time to help Mom decorate the house for Christmas and of course put the ornaments on the tree which, lets face it, would never get done if it weren't for Lauren and I. Then we had the neighborhood Christmas party which was a blast...got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a very long time, etc. etc. The next day, life got REALLY interesting when I was going to have lunch w/ my friend Penn up on Emerald Isle. I was driving through Camp Lejune when I got stopped by an MP for having an expired registration sticker - ok, def. my bad. Here's the kicker though, the MP comes back to car after running my license to tell me that my license has been REVOKED in the state of NC! I mean WTF! I had no idea! Anyway, long story short, he cuffed me, searched me and my car, and then told me I had to be taken back to the main gate of the base and call someone to come pick me and my car up. NOT FUN! Longer story even SHORTER, it turns out that a lawyer I had hired to deal w/ a ticket I got back in like March of last year had appeared for me in court, but never bothered to pay the fine. Apparently that doesn't sit to well with the NC DMV...and they jerked my license. Yikes! I mean at least send me a letter or something and TELL me that! Anyway, silver lining to all this...since it happened on base, there were no fines involved, and none of this gets reported to my insurence. Had it happened anywhere else in the state I would have been SERIOUSLY up sh*t creek. I now have my license back and all is well again, but the moral of the story, make sure your lawyer DOES HIS JOB!!!

So then we had Christmas and I somehow managed to get onto the "good" list once again this year...not sure how I managed that, but whatever! :-) I also won my first ever fantasy football title that same weekend, soundly defeating Father Sean in the Camp Trinity league! Some people (who shall remain nameless) were pretty bitter about their teams performance in the playoffs, but I wont go into that except to say that how you lose is almost as important as how you win, and it's better to do it w/ grace and style, then to make excuses.

After that things went really fast between WinterLight, New Years, Winter Conference @ Trinity and my last few days in Wilmington. LOTS OF DRIVING! I'm now back in Asheville and settled in again...it's kinda nice, truth be told. I have my first practice w/ the Asheville Rugby Club tomorrow night! I'm a little nervous, but it should be fun! I just decided I needed something to help keep me in shape other then my usual gym routine! Hopefully this will do the trick! Oh, I've also started working part-time for Verizon wireless, mostly so I can have a free cell phone, but also to give myself some extra cash. Job seems like a keep so far! Alright, that's enough of a personal update for now! Next up, a couple of good rants that's I've been sitting on...tune in tomorrow (or the next day!) to see what they're about!