The Longest Day

Day one of our vacation actually lasted 35 hours; from central time, it ran from 4 am on a Saturday to 3 pm the following Sunday.  It involved entering into a new country, and a ton of travel via "planes, trains, and automobiles."  It was less than optimal, but both of us were too excited to allow the temporary tribulations offset the zeal for the land for which we were seeking.  Were that it was always so easy to be so longsighted.

As mentioned, our day began with a 4 am wake-up call in order to be at the airport in time.  Alex noted how easy it was loading for our flight in our small regional airport, which actually got us to Dallas 10 minutes early.  Not that the 10 minutes did much for us; we had a 5 hour layover anyway.

We both wanted to try to stay awake as much as possible so that we'd sleep better on our 10 hour international flight, so we did a lot of walking around the airport.  Arthur, thirsty for adventure, took to exploring some of the fancier stores and was surprised that Alex did not want to join in the fun.  When asked where her sense of adventure way, Alex replied she was going to a country where neither of us spoke the language well and advised Arthur not to push it.

We finally loaded the plane and found ourselves sitting next to some Texas Aggie fans who were present during a certain dark day on our own Alma Mater's history back in '98.  We politely stated that it was nice someone had a good time during that particular event and set about the task of falling asleep, a task which neither of us were particularly successful in achieving.  Alex might have got an hour in or so; Arthur never could quite find a way to fall asleep.  At least they had a good selection of movies on the flight and the food was good.

Finally, we touched down in Rome.  For Arthur, this was a first European encounter.  Alex was once in a Parisian airport trying to get to Atlanta, so that hardly counts.  Here the new experiences came quickly.  We found an ATM to get some European currency, went through customs were a bored looking guy pretty unhesitatingly stamped our passport, and figured out how to purchase train tickets from an automated machine by playing a little "monkey see, monkey do" with the couple ahead of us.  That got us to the main terminal in Rome, from which connected with our five hour ride to Bolzano.

Heading out of Rome, we really didn't see all that much; mostly residential apartments and a little industrial area.  Then we went past the ancient wall of the city, and we were reminded of the age of this city.  The train was actually very comfortable with plenty of leg room and Arthur finally got some sleep as we passed mile after mile of grapes and apple trees.

In Bolzano, we found our bus stop and began deciphering how exactly to tell what bus to get on.  With some help from Tom, an Oregon man who flew out specifically from the hiking, we concluded that we ought to ask one of the locals.  Fortunately there was a young political science student who spoke excellent English there to finally get us squared away.  We enjoyed chatting with her until our bus arrived, and then it was off to Castlerotto.  Also thank goodness for some kind Germans on the bus that helped us get off on the right stop.  Each town had two or three stops and not sleeping as well as not being able to read German was impairing our decision making ability

We were now in basically German territory.  Italy gained sovereignty over the area at the end of WW1, but everyone speaks German, and it was interesting viewing the architecture of the buildings.  The feeling was much more like exploring a fable land from the Brothers Grimm than the Roman forum.  We couldn't wait to explore further, and we finally got to our hotel.  Believe it or not, we are now in early afternoon of day one.

So our day is not quite over, dear reader, but this particular post entry has run longer than a post should, and so you'll have to turn in next time to continue the adventures of Alex and Arthur.  Until then, Omnia Vincit Amor.

Every journey starts with a single step...

Every journey starts somewhere.  Our trip to Italy didn't beginning with our flight from the Manhattan airport but much earlier.  If you were looking forward to the nitty-gritty details of day one that will be another blog and really day one included us wanting to sleep most of the time so it won't be that exciting of a post.  This post is the back story of our trip-- the first few steps.

For as long as I have known Arthur going to St. Peters Basilica has been on his bucket list. Since Arthur isn't Catholic I originally thought this was a little strange.  Then three or four years ago he started saving for a trip to Italy to see St. Peters with a stock savings plan through work.  I will admit that was thinking to myself, "It's great to be putting away money but we probably won't actually use it for Italy but we may have other things we need to pay for down the road like a house, car, etc that it will be great to have money already saved up."  About a year ago the savings plan came due and he sold the stock and asked when we were heading to Italy.  After a month of going back and forth I finally jumped into the idea of doing this trip.  I tossed in the idea of doing several countries in Europe because who knows when we might get the chance again but it finally boiled down to two weeks in Italy to really experience Italy.

For the past year we have been preparing for Italy as if it was a university study abroad program.  We listened to lectures, read books, watched videos-- many by college professors in preparation.  We studied Italian, learned about the ancient Romans, watched videos on architecture appreciation, read books on art history with a focus on the Italian Renaissance, and learned about contemporary Italian culture.  For the average traveler this might be a little much but we wanted to know about what we were seeing and doing.  Prior to this study I would not have been able to distinguish a Gothic church from Baroque or a Giotto painting from Carvaggio.  But oh my there is a difference.  We were excited to see certain works of art in person I didn't know existed before this that made the museums so much more fun.  Understanding Roman architecture made the ruins on brick and rubble come to life.

If I am honest the part I spent the most time on was learning Italian-- usually on a daily basis for the last year-- and I was disappointed by my level of actually being able to use it day to day while traveling.  However everything I learned was self-taught through internet resources and I had never actually exchanged any words with an Italian speaker until we landed in the country.  My reading skills were pretty good, listening was about 25-50% comprehension, and speaking we were able to get by.  A lot of the time people knew some English so it was just easier to default to English and my Italian words did not come out of my mouth fast enough for fast paced interactions.  Was it necessary to study a language for a year before traveling-- not at all.  But my motivation was to also learn a language.  Learning as always come very easy for me except for languages.  I wanted to see if I could learn another language and to what level.  Am I fluent? No, not even conversational with speaking since it is very hard to practice this by yourself.  However I could ease drop on phone conversations and guided tours in Italian, read signs, and most importantly order gelato.

Outside of studying for this trip there was the planning aspect.  Since we didn't go with a tour group we were responsible for making all the reservations, figuring out details, planning an itinerary.  My two thoughts on this are:  thank goodness for the internet and email and I might be a Rick Steves groupie.  First, how did people figure out any info before the internet?  I looked up directions, bought train tickets, reserved museum tickets, and booked hotels on the internet.  This is another time my Italian came in handy was emailing to make hotel reservations especially since we stayed in a few convents which are less touristy and the nuns were less likely to communicate in English.  As to being a Rick Steves groupie I poured over his guide books for Italy, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, etc.  We watched all of his TV shows on Italy to figure out where to go.  Arthur gave me a hard time that I wouldn't even eat at a restaurant unless it was recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook.  This is basically true but why reinvent the wheel if people have done research and have already figured out what's the best.  We would have missed basil gelato if not for the suggestion in the guidebook and that would have been terrible.

Also to get ready for the world of international travel we realized that we needed to catch up with the 21st century and get a credit card and a smart phone.  It is nearly impossible to make hotel reservations with a debit card overseas.  This required more visits and calls to the bank than getting a mortgage on our home-- not even joking.  And in the end it still didn't work and we had to get a credit card.  We only used our debit card to get cash from ATMs but the credit card was handy for train tickets and paying for hotels.  The smart phone is essentially a Swiss army knife for travelers.  I am still not convinced that I needed it for my everyday life but one the road it was great.  We used it as our camera, we could email to confirm reservations, text or call our parents to reassure them we didn't fall off the side of a mountain.  I used it a lot to screen shot guidebook pages or trail information.  We had a navigation map using GPS to know where in the world we were after we got off the subway and an app with train schedules and stops so we knew when our stop was coming up.  Additionally we had the Rick Steves Europe app which had podcasts about Italy and Europe which was our entertainment on the train or audio tours of the bigger sites so we didn't have to pay for guided tours.  These were the best!

The final step before our trip was packing.  We were going to be gone for two weeks, using only public transportation, and traveling all over the northern half of Italy so packing was key.  We needed to be able to carry all of our stuff easily through train stations and while walking up to 30 minutes to our hotel.  Since we were seeing a lot of ground that also meant being in a new place every 2-3 nights so packing everything up frequently.  We decided to just take backpacks as our luggage.  This made a huge difference in our trip but apparently is out of the norm since we were frequently asked where our luggage was when we arrived somewhere new.  We each had 2 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, a sweater, a pair of hiking boots, and a rain jacket.  We did do laundry in our hotel every few nights and were glad we don't have to wash clothes by hand in a bidet all the time.  We had a small pack we used as our day bag for the guide book, water, snacks, sweaters, sunglasses, and emergency travel kit.  I think our packs weighed in at 15 pounds.  It was a nice change from our true backpacking trips since we didn't need a tent, several days of food, etc.  If we needed something we could go out and buy it-- we were in Italy and not a remote island only accessible by ferry boat.

I love logistics and planning.  I am contemplating a second career of being a travel planner or tour guide in retirement.  So I enjoyed all the prep work for the most part and I feel more comfortable if I am prepared for what is coming.  Some people like to travel without reservations and have the flexibility to go where they want or stay longer.  However for us on our first international trip knowing what to expect was helpful since there was enough other "unknowns" (like figuring out how to flush the toilets).  The planning helped us get started off on the right foot four our trip which really made the trip a great experience. It also helped decrease the stress of making decisions on the fly or getting lost (as much) which was probably very helpful to maintain the peace in our relationship while traveling for 2 weeks with each other.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Italy Prelude

Faithful readers may feel aggrieved by the lack of high-flying action this blog has become so beloved for over the past several months.  Maybe they fell aggrieved over the lack of action of any sort whatsoever.  Whatever the grievance, Alex and I hope to appease you all over the next several months.  You see, we just got back from vacationing in Italy, an adventure aesthetic, culinary, emotional, spiritual, cultural, and many other adjectives besides.

Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing our trip with you, our beloved readers.  We will take you with us as we enter a land where we don't speak the language or know the people, and yet learn to thrive.  We'll share with you the exquisite sites and sounds.  And the food.  Oh, the food.

Our trip will begin by getting up to the Italian Alps, experiencing a far more Germanic/Swiss culture than the Italian one to come.  After the mountains, we'll head down to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, then out to the Cinque Terre to experience a provincial life to satisfy the flighty Belle.  We'll take you to Siena, Florence's great rival, to stay at an agriturismo and experience the beauty and history of Tuscany.

Finally, we'll head to The Eternal City, Rome.  There, we will see what time leaves of its mightiest civilizations, and stand beside you amazed yet again both at what rots away and what it preserved forever.  We'll gawk again at the cavernous cathedrals and be moved by the great artist's renderings of the divine mystery of an infinite God laying himself down for his infinitely fallen creatures.  We will stand in awe of what wonders these depraved, fallen beings of long ago were able to achieve without machinery.

The experience has been a very profound one upon me.  It is a wonder do experience another culture, and it is groundbreaking to stand where history was made.  I come from a land with about 3 centuries to be affected by.  Here, the history goes back 25 centuries easily, with the very founding of Rome itself.  You'll hear me marvel at the effect of history, at the my thoughts peering back and trying to think the thoughts of great men after them.

Dear reader, if we can complete the project before us, you are in for a treat.  We want to record these things not just for you but for our own memory and reflection.  So much of what we have seen came at us like drinking from a fire hydrant, and we need to process all of this.  What follows is part of the very experience of this vacation, the remembering.  We hope you enjoy.  As our friends the Romans would say: Omnia Vincit Amore.

Konquering the Konza

This past weekend I completed my first trail running race. I have been running for almost 20 years now (that makes me feel old) so it was fun to try something new in the running world.  I have run track, road races, cross country, and triathlons.  Cross country is probably the closest relative to trail running but usually when I competed I ran in parks or manicured golf courses.  It could be debated that some of the golf courses in western Kansas are similar to pastures and can be pretty rough terrain.  While I still like the run I have found that pounding the pavement isn't something I love especially now that I have discovered the wonders of riding a road bike.  But I have always been a runner and that won't change but I wanted to do something just a little bit different.

Enter trail running.  Often on hikes we will come across people who are out running the same trails we are hiking--as if hiking 10-15 miles isn't enough of a workout.  I liked the idea of being able to run these trails but usually going up and down hills is involved--- and I avoid running on hills.

Then I moved to a town that has hills.  We live at the top of one of the hills so anywhere I run in town I have to run back up the hill at the end of my run.  I decided if I am going to have to run hills it might as well be pretty scenery.  The street at the end of our block heads out of town and straight up three big hills.  They look intimidating and taunted me the first 3 months we lived here.  One day I decided I was going to run that road just so the hills would stop laughing at me. I then discovered the road turns into a gravel road that goes up and down for a few more miles and this has been my favorite training road.  It is about 5.5 miles and I don't think more than 100 yards of it is level.  So much has changed from high school cross country out in the flatlands of Kansas where we would drive 10 miles to find some sort of an incline to practice on-- and often the school from the next town over would be practicing there too.  There weren't enough hills in the county for each school to have their own.  Anyway recently on Saturday mornings I have run the hill road and I get to see deer, foxes, some cute calves, and sunrise.  It is a challenge but the scenery keeps my mind off of my burning hip flexors.  I feel like I have finally conquered my fear of hills.

Since I am not scared of hills now trail running becomes a real possibility.  My cousin Elanor and I decided to sign up for the Konquer the Konza 10K.  Neither of us have done trail running before.  I tried running once out at Konza prairie in college and it ate my lunch.  Our first training run we did two miles making sure we went down the "big hill".   Each week we went a little bit further and tackled a bit of the trail that was a little more challenging.  During the summer we would head out on the weekend early in the morning to get our run in and I think both of us would say it was one of the highlights of our summer.  We discovered that if you can actually breathe enough to talk while running it makes the miles fly by.  We were able to catch up on life, encourage each other, blow off steam about our weeks, etc.  I will admit that we walked too.  These were are fun workouts for the week so walking when needed was totally acceptable-- this is a freeing concept to a runner.  There is so much guilt that comes with walking while on a run.  I remember the first time we ran the complete 6 mile loop.  We ran the whole thing and even went up the "big hill".  I have always considered it a pretty good day to hike the 6 mile loop so I almost felt like I became a trail runner on that day.  When hiking the 6 mile loop the only other crazy people out that far are trail runners-- and now I was one of them.

Sunday morning was finally race day.  I will admit that leading up to this race I had only ran about once a week since August.  I trained really hard for our triathlon this year and after that I just haven't been real excited about hardcore training so I have only ran when I wanted to.  Since it was our first trail race there is no expectation and we are guaranteed a PR (personal record).  I also wanted it to be fun and if you push yourself hard to compete well is just isn't fun but fairly painful and miserable.  That just doesn't sound appealing to me anymore.

We were standing at the starting line ready for the race and we didn't even bother warming up-- after all when running six and a half miles there is plenty of time to get warmed up.  Probably the best part of the day was that the start of the race was delayed since a few of the bison that live at Konza were out on the course and needed to be corralled.  We started with 200 other runners jogging down a gravel farm road on as the sun was coming up on a Sunday morning.  For some reason it is always fun to run a race with lots of other people-- possibly because misery loves company.  Elanor and I were running our way through the crowd and just chatting away.

We did get to see some of the bison safely back in their pasture.  I am sure that the bison were more than puzzled by this parade of figures dressed in neon running on these rarely traveled roads.  We finally went up the first hill on the course and people started walking.  And with trail running that seems to be fairly accepted.  Usually trail runs are fairly long distances-- 10-30 miles-- so you generally rest a little bit by walking up the hills.  Some how as we were bobbing and weaving through those who were walking as we were still running I got separated from Lindsey.  I am sure the gal in a grey shirt I thought was Lindsey was a little confused that I was trying to carry on our conversation.  I was a little concerned about being separated because longer races can be tough if you don't have someone to talk to especially in the later miles.

There is a little bit of adventure in trail running since you don't always know the trail in front of you-- where are the hills, how far have I gone, what's around the next bend.  Over the next several miles I was entertained trying to catch the person in front of me, and then the next, and the next.  I was probably right in the middle of the pack so people weren't too far spread out making this game a lot of fun.

Then we turned the corner to the "big hill".  The two gals in front of me hadn't run at Konza before so they were wondering to themselves if we had gone up "the hill everyone had been talking about yet".  The hill was at about mile 4.  I also knew that once that hill was behind us it was mostly downhill to the finish.  One of the problems with trail running is when actually running on a true trail you can't pass anyone which led to a bottleneck going up the hill but we were all in it together.  Let me mention here that the volunteers for this race were some of the best.  Some one at the top of the hill was ringing a cow bell like there was no tomorrow to encourage each and every runner up to the summit.  As a spectator it is hard to have that much enthusiasm sustained over a long period of time.  In another part of the course another volunteer let out a loud whoop as each runner trudged by-- yes, by mile 5 everything turned into a trudge.

At this point the excitement of the unknown I mentioned earlier changes.  At least in track you know exactly how many meters you have to run and can calculate exactly how long it should take you to finish.  With trail running you never are really sure where the finish is... just another 1/2 miles or so, just around the next bend, just over that hill.  But finally the finish line came into sight-- such a relief to a runner.  I was happy with how I had run and happy that it was over.  Elanor finished just a few minutes behind me so we enjoyed a post race walk for our cool down while eating Varsity donuts.  We decided that races should just skip giving medals to finishers and just go with donuts.  While we had finished the race we hope it isn't the end of our Konza running and maybe there will even be more trail runs in our future.

Securing Your Treasure

This evening the door bell rang.  This is fairly rare at our house but now we have a door bell-- at our old place it would ring randomly because of a short circuit so we just unplugged it and never really missed it.  In our neighborhood now I think we will get more kids selling stuff for school, sports, etc-- I suppose that is a downside to a family-friendly area.  Tonight it was not a Girl Scout but a gentleman trying to advertise smart home security systems.  These systems can unlock your door from your phone or use a camera to see who is at your front door when you aren't there.  We weren't interested but we made the mistake of opening the door.  I suppose that is a good part of the advertising-- one of the systems would insure that you knew when door-to-door salesmen are there.

He started his spiel with, " I'm sure you have seen the ads for our company on TV."  I didn't bother telling we don't watch TV since we are too cheap to get cable.  "Most security systems out on the market are using old technology where you have to press numbers on a control panel inside the home.  Kind of like when everyone had flip phones 15 years ago."  Or still do have their trusty flip phones.  "With this system you can unlock your door from your phone or let a family member in while you are away. "  I did the same thing this weekend since we still have the realtor's lockbox on the door that we don't know the combination to get off.  I texted my parents the code from my phone and they opened the door.  "It can even open your garage door with the swipe of your phone."  Now that would be a trick since our garage door is broken needing a new circuit board so the only way to open it is by hand right now.  "It would give you peace of mind that your home is protected from intruders." The most questionable safety event that we have had occurred is having some salesman off the street that we have never met come into our living room. "The system hooks in with your smoke detectors and notifies the fire department of any issues."  Meanwhile I am thinking of dinner that is in the oven burning while I talk to him.  "We could put sensors on all the windows and doors and you would be notified if there is a breach in the system."  Currently every window and door in the house is wide open since it is beautiful outside.  This is also why we couldn't pretend we weren't home and not answer the door.  And they are open a good portion of the time so that we don't have to use our programmable thermostat. "Your home insurance costs would be lower with the system and your valuables are protected."  As we are standing in a room without any furniture that contains only houseplants, a bag full of athletic training supplies, and a bookshelf full of library book sale purchases. What valuables?  At this point I am also hoping he doesn't see all of our undergarments hanging to dry on the back porch since we don't use our dryer.    "We offer all of this for less than your monthly phone bill.  What is your average monthly phone bill?" Twenty dollars.  We have a budget smartphone and a flip phone. "So it would be a little more, about $70/month but we would cover the instillation and set up fee if you are one of the first three homes in your area to put our sign in your front yard."  My thought is how much for just the sign to make it look like we have a system, or better yet could we sneak the sign out of one of the neighbor's yard if they get the system and put it in our yard?  

 We tried to turn him down gently and he gave us a few more offers.  He had just moved to Kansas from Florida since he liked his summer job here so much and had only been in the area a few weeks.  A young guy trying to make a living from door to door sales.  Arthur and I would never make it if we had to rely on sales.  Visiting with him did make us consider security.  What do we have to protect?  Nothing that the unlikely chance of us loosing it would lead us to shell out $850 a year.  I do like feeling safe which is why I always lock the door and usually don't open it to strangers.  I like feeling secure financially, mitigating risks with careful planning, taking safety precautions with traveling, trying to prevent injury or illness, etc. However, in today's world do we put to much stock in protecting our stuff and ourselves?   As a homeowner I am more aware of "protecting our investment in this house". This reminded me of Matthew 6:19-21:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Are we investing in true security?  
What are we saying we are treasuring with how we are living?

Omnia Vincit Amore.

Summer Catch-up

Editor's Note:  The majority of this blog was written some time in mid June.  I thought I would finish it later in the day and somehow it became about 30 days later.  Here are the highlights of the beginning of our summer.  We do have more blogposts in the works but we are just not very speedy on getting them typed up.

It is a hot Saturday afternoon and we are lazing around the basement.  Frankly it is a nice change.  The past few weeks we have maybe run ourselves ragged so a restful afternoon is perfect as it is hard for use to say no to anything in the summer.  Here's what we have been up since once again we obviously haven't been blogging lately:

- This past week has been been full of people.  It has been fun to hang out with friends and family but as introverts it was exhausting therefore today we are recovering.   On Monday evening we got together with my two brothers and theirs wives and our cousin for an 'adult' evening.  My sister-in-law has transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom over the past few months to care for their 4 year old and infant twins.  She wanted to host an adult evening eating charcuterie.  Charcuterie is a French word that is a store like a deli that prepares and sells a variety of cured meats and other food items that go well with these meats.  We tried a variety of cheeses, meats, fruits, crackers, and drinks.  It was a great evening chatting on the back deck.  Arthur enjoyed the honey herb goat cheese and I loved the basil lime spritzer I had to drink.

- Along a similar theme our current favorite show on Netflix is The Great British Baking Show.  We are still in the first season although season 4 just kicked off.  The show is reality TV but with the British reality TV is down right pleasant.  In a recent episode there was a brief moment of drama when a contestant threw what he was making in the trash and walked out since someone had left his ice cream for baked Alaska out of the freezer and it melted.  It is good competition without the drama between contestants.  In the show there are several amateur bakers who have different challenges each week-- breads, cakes, pies, etc.  Arthur learned quite  bit about bread on that episode and made his best batch of bread this week since he upgraded to a specific bread flour with a higher gluten content that improved the bread rise.  It was also been educational to watch a show on which they speak English but we don't really know what they are talking about-- sponge is a cake, biscuits are cookies or crackers (we still don't really know).

- While we still haven't grasped the King's English I am continuing to work on learning Italian since we have finally purchased our tickets to go to Italy this fall.  Learning Italian has come in handy since I have been emailing to make reservations to find somewhere to stay in Italian.  In Rome we wanted to stay at a convent and most of the sisters at the different convents do not speak much English.  Sister Irene, a Polish nun who lives in Rome, thought my Italian was coming along well.  Sometimes I am floored by technology when I can communicate with someone across the world in a language that I am learning without ever having direct contact with a person who actually speaks this language.  Another learning experience though has been figuring out how to reserve a room with a debit card in Siena.  We have called and stopped in at our bank more about trying to get this charge to go through over the past few weeks then we had to when getting a mortgage.  And we are still working on it.  There still seems to be a lot of details to work out but we are looking forward to it.

- It has been fun to plan a trip but we still have several projects to keep us busy here at home.  While my younger brother Arnold was in the area this week he helped Arthur do some roofing, fix a threshold on the back door, and improve the structural stability of a shelf in the closet.  Arnold has worked as a roofer, trim carpenter, and maintenance man.  He is in seminary too right now so he and Arthur  had a lot to talk about.  Speaking of home updates I realize that we haven't posted anything about our home or garden projects or even a tour of our new home.  Hopefully we get around to that soon.

- One of our goals with our home was to practice our hospitality and we had a lot of opportunities for that this week.  Since Arnold was here this week we invited a few of Arnold and Arthur's FarmHouse brothers that live in the area over for dinner.  It had been at least a year since we had seen most of the guys and it was also a chance for me to get to know their wives.  On Wednesday we didn't host anything but I had accountability group in Manhattan.  By Thursday we were tired from staying up too late socializing  but we had a double header of social event that evening.  After work I hosted a baby shower for a co-worker.  We found out that not having furniture in the living room is not so bad since it gives plenty of room to set up a few extra tables and for people to mill around.  Once we finished with that party we headed to Life Group.  I could tell Arthur was tired since he didn't chime in much for discussion-- this is out of the norm for him.  He made me promise that we wouldn't hang out with anyone Friday evening. So we didn't.  Instead we watched our favorite survival show "Alone" where people are dropped in the wilderness all by themselves and live without human contact until they just can't take it anymore.  This idea seemed slightly inviting to us but we will recover from people overdose and will be ready to interact next week.

-We did try to escape to the middle of the Flint Hills for some peaceful time but 7,000 others joined us for Symphony in the Flint Hills.  Every year the Kansas City Symphony performs a concert at a different location in the Flint Hills.  This year it was at a ranch near Junction City.  We, or as Arthur may tell the story, I decided that it would be fun to go to the concert.  However the tickets were a little pricey for my frugal taste but if you volunteered for 6 hours then you got tickets for free-- that sounded like a good deal to me.  This led to Arthur and I standing out in the summer sun and Kansas wind for 6 hours telling hoards of concert goers which way to go after getting through the ticket line.  For the first 4-5 hours I enjoyed being cheerful and helping answer peoples questions.  I'm not sure Arthur enjoyed any of the day since he isn't used to standing in one place especially next to a pile of hay bales which set off his allergies.  The good news about volunteering was that we were able to reserve an excellent spot since we were there before the gates for the event even opened.  We finally got to sit down and enjoy the concert while watching the sun set over the hill behind the symphony and a herd of longhorn cattle making its way across the ridge.  It as a great setting for a great concert.

Are You Willing to Bleed?

This post is going to come really close to guilting our readership on a variety of fronts, but it is also going to put a big target on my back.   Not everyone reading this need come to the same convictions I have, but I guess I hope you have to wrestle with some of the thoughts I went through.

I do not like giving blood.  Everything people say about it is completely true; it really doesn't hurt, when nurses call the needle entering the skin a "slight pinch," that's pretty accurate.  Regardless, I can't look at the bag of blood or the needle in my arm or I'm going to get dizzy.  Nurses must chuckle to themselves about this big guy felled by the simplest of procedures.

It has been years since I've given blood for that reason.  The reason I'm writing about it now is because of a thought I had during a walk: I claim to be pro-life, but I don't donate blood.  There is an excellent chance that 1 hour of my time could save another human life, but I can't be bothered.  Conversely, I expect women in all sorts of life situations to carry a small human around inside of them for 9 months and then endure the hardship of said human exiting their body, all because I hold that all life is sacred.  How calloused and wicked am I, to behave so hypocritically?

The thoughts hit me like a punch to the gut.  I immediately signed up for the next blood drive the Red Cross had for the area, which it turns out won't be for another two weeks, but the thought of all the human suffering I could have had a part in preventing over the past decade or so of my life haunts me.

Abortion is about the perfect issue to unite a group of people.  Believe life is sacred, and you have an absolute right and an absolute wrong.  Anyone who doesn't believe as you do is a monster, and monsters don't deserve respect or compromise.  There are good guys and bad guys; we're with the good guys, and that makes us morally superior to the other side.  Best part of all, it costs us absolutely nothing to do so, just vote a certain way and can rest assured that you are better than half the people in this country.

I am starting to doubt how much sanctity of life is motivating our priorities, however.  There are a variety of legitimate reasons people choose not to give blood, but what a perfect analogy for being willing to bleed for your beliefs.  If not donating blood, what about enlisting on the national bone marrow registry and be willing to provide a bone marrow transplant should you ever be a match to someone desperately clinging to life?  Are you at willing to be an organ donor, which literally costs you nothing, so that another might live?

How does belief in the sanctity of life influence our support on other political questions?  How do we feel about refugees fleeing war and religious persecution seeking safety in our midst?  Do concerns about safety (most of concerns I hear expressed, by the way, are exaggerated or unfounded) keep us from caring for the widow and the orphan?  How does our belief in the sanctity of life influence how we think about welfare, gun rights, or foreign policy?

People who care about life are going to disagree on these issues; they are multifaceted.  But in talking to people about these issues, I am shocked at how quickly they try to steer the argument away from holding life sacred and towards personal responsibility or the importance of guarding against a perceived onset of tyranny; important issues, sure, but they have to be weighed against others.  The way most people approach politics is to allow only one principle to direct their position and not recognize other principles might pull them another direction, and it is shocking when one of those ignored principles is sanctity of life. 

So are you willing to bleed?  What are some ways you can live out what you believe?  Ultimately, it comes down to showing your fellow man love.  Omnia Vincit Amore.