Costa Rica #1

The jungle is wild. I know that's cliche - like saying the desert is sandy - but you don't fully understand what it means until you've seen it in person. The very nature of the Costa Rican rain forest seems to fight against the clean lines and convenient shapes of our outdoor spaces in the states. Often machetes and weedwackers are used in place of mowers - leaving the ground chopped unevenly - and the flora and fauna is all so twisted and spindly that it seems to overtake the boundaries even of the most well maintained lawns. Roads twist back and forth through the mountains, their nauseating shape dictated not by well trained engineers but by the land itself. Water comes gushing down in torrents to erode in hours what it may have taken days to carefully plant or smooth or build.

It is a wild place, even where it has been civilized. It is beautiful - amazingly so - but I admit that it bothers the sensibilities of this American who is used to flat lawns and state parks with well laid gravel trails and roads cut straight through mountains. I have come to find that not all hedges are squared.

School's Out for the Summer

Summer vacation begins tomorrow! That's right. For the few brave enough to face a classroom full of high school students nine months out of the year, the sacrifice finally pays off. As for me, my summer will be spent writing (include this blog - I hope), traveling (Costa Rica!), and working on our new house (hopefully I will expand my handyman knowledge beyond screwing in light bulbs).

Searching for Greatness

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s an election year. Check your pulse if you missed it, you may be dead. The candidates have been in full campaign mode for what seems like half a century now and are really stepping up their efforts for the primary season. Yes, that’s right. We’re only in the primaries. The real campaign hasn’t even begun yet.
Despite my sarcasm, I find myself more than mildly interested in the competition this time around. It’s a bit like a sporting event: there are close calls, comebacks, underdogs, and off-the-field intrigue. Excitement, press conferences and strategizing. Unlike the Super Bowl or the World Series, however, this political/entertainment process will choose the leader of our nation. Unlike the athletic teams who are crowned victorious at the end of a long season, the winner of this competition will make decisions that will directly affect the well being of millions of people, both here at home and abroad.
Given our choices, I’m concerned. Sure there are some very intelligent candidates. Some brilliant politicians. Good looking, charismatic speakers. Wealthy businessmen and experienced leaders. There’s even a few who might be honest…sometimes. But when you look down the line-up of those who want to lead our nation, do you see any Greatness?
Greatness. Men and women who by the strength of character, vision, wisdom, and leadership have transformed the world. Men like Martin Luther King Jr. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln. Like Benjamin Franklin or George Washington. Not perfect people but individuals worthy of respect and admiration. People who can be looked up to and followed, during good days or bad.
That’s the kind of President I want and it’s just the kind that I don’t see pleading for my vote. Will the next great President please step forward?


This was submitted to the Cincinnati Enquirer last week but wasn't published.

The longer version

The previous post, the article sent to CinWeekly, was published today. However, much to my dismay they cut out a few sentences that I thought really added to the humor of the article. The "real deal" is below.

editorial submitted to CinWeekly...

Chick flicks make me thankful. At every unfortunate turn of events, dooming those destined for each other to one more scene of uncertain anguish, I think, “Boy am I glad to be finished with that!”
I remember well those anxious days before I met my wife. Wondering if there was a woman out there who wouldn’t just think I was a “great guy” but “better we just stay friends.” It’s easy to begin wondering if you’ll ever meet “the one,” if the one even exists, or if you haven’t already met the one and she was the waitress at the dinner last night that you didn’t tip very well. Blast!
Consider this an encouragement. A romantically down-and-outers story of finding love in a place I never expected, happiness in the last person anyone would have thought likely (if that’s not a tag line for a chick flick, I don’t know what is).
My wife and I are very different.
She grew up in a family of world travelers, traversing the globe to live in such places as Japan, Niger, and Uganda. My family were homebodies, perfectly content in our own corner of the world which didn’t often extend farther than Ohio or Pennsylvania. For family vacations, my in-laws would take their two girls trekking up a mountain to see gorillas or whitewater rafting down the Nile. My folks, preferring not to risk a good gorilla stomping or being eaten by piranhas – there’ s piranhas in the Nile, right? – took us to relax in a rustic cabin in safe and pristine PA.
Growing up she was a rebel. Nose ring and all. I thought choir boys were a bit devious and preferred a more tame childhood. We’ve often joked that had we met a few years before we did, I would have thought her “liberal” and she would have labeled me…well, boring.
In college she was involved in everything, completed a double-major with high marks and probably attended more social functions in a month than I did all four years; eight years if you want to include high school, which would still leave her safely ahead. I attended a small, private college where I mostly blended in with the woodwork while quietly earning my diploma.
We met at a horse camp – I hate horses, by the way – and in a lightning fast romance here we are, happily married and still trying to figure out why in the world the other person does what they do. Who’d have thought? In a million hopeful dreams I never imagined someone like Kyna as my wife. Or where I’d meet her. Or how everything would fall into place.
So go rent a good Meg Ryan movie, and between the tears, take heart. Hope, and opportunity, do spring eternal. You never know who’ll be on the next horse to come moseying through town.

Published Aug. 14, 2007 in CinWeekly's "Last Word" column

Christian Writer's Guild practice...

My last lesson for the Writer's Guild was about the use of the senses in writing. You know, sight, touch, etc. It's tough to practice this spontaneously in my novel - the plot dictates what I can talk about and when - so I like to write smaller pieces in order to excersize my creativity and sharpen my writing skills. So here's what work is like...

I'm sitting, slouched back, at my desk. Computers hum all around me, set in neat two by two rows around the room, many with a pair of attentive eyes glued to their luminescent screens. Well, actually, where I work they could use a good dose of Elmer's. As I glance around the room I don't see much rapt attention being paid to the windows of learning that cover my student's monitors. Instead I see tired faces, glazed eyes and drooping heads. It's summer school and they'd all rather be somewhere else. Who can blame them, even on a day like today. A light haze of cloud cover dims the outdoors today, rather than the more prototypical school-free summer day. But through those windows and out into the overcast morning is still freedom. Its still where they...where we...would rather be.

To the Cincinnati Reds front office...

The trade deadline is only five days away. Please...please get us some pitching.

Universal Health Care

Its all the rage. Every American, covered by government sponsored health care. The democratic candidates are touting it as a moral necessity (see John Edwards especially) and those who would oppose such a thing are easily cast as rich, uncompassionate heals. How could anyone be opposed to universal health care?

Well, here are a few concerns. #1: Quality of care. Sure, Great Britain, Canada, etc. have free medical care available to all citizens. But I've heard that often they have to wait months to get that care, even when their health depends on its speedy application. Is this true? This would concern me. #2: My understanding is that doctor's salaries go way down under government sponsored health care. Won't this negatively effect motivation (they do work rediculous hours to earn those big checks) and even the number of college students heading for the medical field. Increased financial gain for increased ability and work load is kind of why capitalism works. Moderate financial gain for the same sacrifices will surely turn capable young people to other more lucrative professions. #3: If the government is paying for nationwide health care, that means that I'm paying for it because they will be using my tax dollars. While I'm not necessarily opposed to helping out a fifty year old man with a cleft palatte (see John Edwards YouTube debate), I do have a problem paying for a unrepentant six pack a day smoker whose having lung problems or an alcoholic whose liver is finally calling it quits. I do have a problem paying for maternity care for a single mother of five who wants more children for the welfare it brings in. These may be extreme cases, though certainly realistic, but it comes down to our government using my money to accomplish things I might not agree with (for the record, I have the same problem in other areas).

There seem to be other solutions. Let's bring the cost of health care down, and with it insurance rates, by targeting rediculous lawsuits that drive malpractice insurance through the stratosphere. Let's promote generic drugs and other alternative that might introduce competition into the marketplace. And let's face it: we need to start teaching people that the American dream isn't to have the luxuries of life handed to you on a platter. Its opportunity. Opportunity to get an education, work hard, and be responsible. Sure there will be cases of disadvantage outside a person's control and we should jump as compassionate human beings to help from our abundance. But individuals still must take responsibility.

YouTube Debates

I was able to watch much of the Democratic YouTube debates on Monday night. I enjoyed the format (though I think the "freedom" and "user generated content" aspect of it was tainted by the fact that CNN sifted through and chose all the questions) and surprisingly enjoyed hearing the democrat's answers. Most of the second or third tier candidates were very unimpressive, save Joe Biden. Their obvious attempts to make bold statements in order to separate themselves from the others came across as, well, obvious. Dennis K. especially with his repeated attempt to promote his text-messaging campaign prop. However, the top three, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, were fairly solid. Clinton especially came across as intelligent, capable, and powerful, no doubt overcoming some of the doubts American's might have about having a woman president. In fact, her performance, complete with references to "brigades" which I thought was a great demonstration of military competence, was so good that even I can begin to see her leading our nation. Its a terrifying sight. I get the feeling that she can be such a good leader that she will actually be able to accomplish some of her agendas, moving the country in a clearly leftward direction. Forget about Iraq for a second. I'm talking about universal heath care, bigger government, and further moral decline. Clinton is focused, smart, and a great politician (not necessarily a compliment in my opinion) and her performance last night led me to believe that she could take the nation by its partisian horns and direct it into her own coral. Not a place I'm interested in being.

Our nation praises good leadership. We forget that the term is morally neutral. George Washington was a great leader, but so was Adolf Hitler. We need a strong president, but we need one who will lead us in the right direction, not the left.