Personal Archives
February 28, 2010
This is a quasi-followup to my previous post, Meet Richard Ssempijja.
This past summer when I started supporting Richard was a time when my concept of charity, generosity, philanthropy, social justice, and a personal responsibility for the well-being of the world as a whole began to shift. Though Richard was a part of it, there were countless relationships, conversations, articles and books that contributed (plus a little boy named Christian).
Whatever the reasons, my view of philanthropy is staggeringly different than it was a year ago. And that shift has affected how I think of nearly every facet of life in one way or another.
To put it simply, I started caring.
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Posted in Personal | Charity | Compassion | Compassion International | Giving | Love | Philanthropy | Politik | Responsibility | Richard Ssempijja
February 22, 2010
I would like for you to get acquainted Richard Ssempijja. Richard lives in eastern Africa, and he just turned 6 last month. He lives in a hut with his parents and siblings, and just started going to school. He likes playing soccer with his friends, and is fascinated by cars.
And, though I have never met him, he’s completely changed my world.
I became Richard’s sponsor through Compassion International in July 2009, thanks to encouragement from Daniel Bryant. And though the monthly cost to support Richard is less than almost every other “bill” I have, it’s more than three times as much as his parents are collectively able to make in a month doing occasional farming jobs.
What my support of Richard represents is the first major contribution that I’ve made that I have a true personal connection with. I’ve given to various charities before for various reasons, but none of them have had nearly the satisfaction or impact within me as Richard has. I’m specifically helping Richard; not Compassion as an organization. My support isn’t being spread out over all of the countless children that Compassion supports. No, I am helping Richard Ssempijja grow into the man he is going to be.
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Posted in Personal | Charity | Compassion | Compassion International | Dan Bryant | Philanthropy | Poverty
January 20, 2010
I write about music a lot; and for good reason. Like so many people, I adore music, and no matter what I’m doing, music is either coloring or being colored by my circumstance. And like so many people, after a hitherto existence’s worth of hearing, loving, learning, and exploring hundreds of thousands of songs, trying to narrow it down to a single favorite song is impossible. The question hardly even makes sense. When asked, my weight shifts back onto my heels ever so slightly as I cock my head slightly and stare back blankly. It’s like being asked your favorite letter of the alphabet or the best breath you’ve ever taken.
With that in mind, I decided to narrow it down to five instead of one, which somehow seems slightly less absurd. Though being asked your five favorite letters or your twenty best breaths would seem even more foolish than narrowing it down to one, so that analogy just crumbled before my eyes. Moving on.
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Posted in Personal | Coldplay | Favorites | Feedback | Five For Fighting | John Mayer | Last.fm | Lists | Music | Sondre Lerche | The Killers
September 29, 2009
I thought I start this post off with a solid, immaculate truth. I’m not gay. Now there’s truth if ever there was such a thing. Moving forward, let’s all keep that irrefutable fact firmly placed at the forefront of our minds. Because the rest of this post could possibly be used to refute said irrefutability without proper context. That context being that I’m not gay. Apologies for the redundancy; I just want to make sure that we’re all on the same page here.
But, seriously, I’m not.
So, I have a crush on Chris Martin. And Tom Welling. Mat Kearney. Gerard Butler. Sean Bean. The list goes on. Man crushes. Some may deny it, but in my almost complete lack of experience on the subject, most men have them. If not, they’re either foolishly blind to the charm, wit, and coolness of other men, or they’re actually gay and trying to hide it.
It’s a strange thing, a man crush – or a “mush” as I’ve never once heard anybody call it. In fact, the name “man crush” is a little more provocative than it should be. But what was first a concept that, by name alone, disgusted me and caused me to rebel against it, I now understand and embrace whole-heartedly.
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Posted in Personal | Beauty | Celebrities | Insight | Inspiration | Man Crush | Manliness
September 19, 2009
Earlier this year, I came into possession of a journal of my great grandfather’s. It’s not a full-on, soul-baring journal. It is – as the front cover displays in gloriously deco font – a Line a Day Five Year Journal. While Poppy didn’t write in it every day – and he typically wrote more than one line on the days that he did – it did end up truly being a 5 year journal. The first entry was New Years 1945; the last was New Years Eve 1949. Wow.
As the story opens, Poppy (christened Houston Epps Sr.) is 42, Jerry (my grandmother) is 18, my great aunt Glenna is 14, my great uncle Houston is 20 and fighting against the Japanese in the South Pacific. My great grandmother, Maurine (affectionately known as Mimo), is age unknown at this point. I’m guessing 40, give or take a year or two.
A lot had happened between then and the last time Poppy put pen to paper five years later. Poppy and Mimo had celebrated their 25th (Silver) Anniversary. The war had ended (marked by a simple entry “Japan Surrendered Unconditionally To-day”), and Houston was back home and had started dating, become engaged to, and married his wife of over 50 years. Glenna had dropped out of high school (with her parents’ consent), then re-enrolled and graduated on the recommendation of her new employer. Jerry had become engaged twice, called both weddings off, and started dating my grandfather; they were married in mid-1950.
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Posted in Personal | Family | Genealogy | Grandparents | History | Insight | Journaling | World War II
January 15, 2009
In spite of it’s overlength, my recent video blog about classic wet shaving garnered a good bit of interest from a number of people, so I thought I’d give a little more info about the specific products (yes, products) I use, where I got them, and why I use them specifically.
If you were bored by the video, or have no interest in classic wet shaving, don’t read any more, because this is largely a reference post devoid of anything personally self-reflective or intentionally entertaining. Seriously.
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Posted in Personal | Grooming | How-To | Wet Shaving
