I still have no idea what I'm going to write, but I'm just going to start writing and we will see what happens. Usually that means I start theorizing or I start talking about sports. I'll do my best to avoid either possibility....
I think, this time of year, I end up writing some sort of ode to peppermint...or maybe I remember that happening from earlier in the year or something...but as I'm sitting here thinking about what I could say, the first thing that came to mind is how much I love this time of year because Peppermint is my all time favorite flavor. I'm alright with other types of mint (particularly wintergreen....whatever that even means, I like how it tastes), but nothing has anything on peppermint for me. It's just so good...and it tastes like Christmas...and who doesn't love Christmas?
Don't answer that.....because I know a lot of people don't like Christmas. There are a lot of things not to like about it. I should probably hate it because consumerism is among my least favorite things in all the world...but I don't think you should throw the season out with it's ills...it's not my fault others do things with Christmas that I hate.... just like the human body, many things happen to it, but it doesn't mean I should stop loving the miracle and beauty of the body. Okay, strange example...first one that came to mind though.
During this advent season, my church has been focusing on a new, three-part way to think about Christmas: Worshiping Fully, Spending Less, and Giving More. I don't know what to say about that, anymore than I just did... it's really what it should all be about. Really, it's what life should be about. It's been a very meditative season for me, as I've thought about how to rethink how I approach and deal with the holiday season. I don't think I'm in the boat of not giving gifts yet (which has a lot to do with the people for whom I shop, but also the not-so-bad theology behind giving gifts to loved ones to honor God's gift to us), but I've been thinking about how to make the gifts I give meaningful.... to actually, really, put thought into who the person is and how my gift can be something that makes them feel loved and allows them, in turn, to show more love.
I don't know what that means yet...but it definitely doesn't mean spending more...it means thinking about how I'm spending and what I'm doing to show love with my gift...not just to fill the expected obligation of buying gifts (which, quite frankly, has been what it has felt like from time to time in the past).
Hillsdale's second semester starts a week from yesterday. That means, in less than 1 month, I'll be working on campus. That's a surreal thought and it feels like forever away...but it's coming and it's coming quickly....maybe too quickly.
And semesters always fly by....and I won't even be taking classes. I don't know how ready I am for the life that is waiting for me. But it's where I'm headed...and I know I'll meet it head on and do my best...and God won't just do the rest, even thought that would rhyme, but he'll sustain me through it all...and he'll work it out and he'll do great things. That's what he does...great things. And he loves too...it's the sort of sustaining, constant love I know I'll need... I know I do need now...
I haven't watched a movie in weeks. It's incredible really, considering I was once watching 5/week for class plus usually one or two for fun.
I also learned today that video games just don't mean much to me anymore. I had nothing to do tonight and the house to myself, and my brother has a ton of PS3 games that I haven't even touched (and a PS3 that I've barely played at all, for that matter)....and I even moved it out to the living room. I played for maybe 1.5 hours, then used it to watch DVDs for the next couple of hours. There was nothing wrong with the games....very fun and all... I just don't have the drive to devote time to it. It feels like a waste of time, even though I spent the time watching Gilmore Girls instead, so it's not like I had something better to do. And they were even sequels to games that I have spent probably hundreds of hours on in my lifetime....and good sequels too...but I just didn't have it in me.
That probably doesn't mean much to anyone that reads this, but that's because I don't think any of my high school friends read this.... before college, video games were my thing...my very passionate, often argumentative thing (and I was more argumentative then than I am now, if you can at all believe that...).
I don't know when it all changed... I mean, I certainly spent less time with video games during college than I did before, for a ton of reasons, but even as late as spring break my junior year, I still remember being able to play hours of video games at a time (because we were snowed in, and I remember doing just that one of the days we couldn't leave campus). Maybe the love was just supplanted...maybe old habits don't die as hard as they seem to and I replaced my former love with other things that at least seem like a better use of my time.
Whatever it is...I used to think I would be playing video games regularly on into my old age...but that's definitely not going to be the case. I'll probably always want to play the newest Zelda and if I have a chance, I could probably still devote hours to it....but I don't know if that's true of anything else (Zelda has been my thing for as long as I can remember...like, honestly, my earliest memories are playing the first one.... much of my love for the series is pure nostalgia). But for whatever reason it, as it began 22 years ago, now ends with Zelda. Actually, that is my last memory of devoting real time to a game; last Christmas, my brother bought me a Zelda game I hadn't played. I finished it before going back to Wooster for second semester...
There is, however, a degree of social value for my particular age group that comes from playing video games with friends... I'll probably always acknowledge and be able to enjoy things like that.
I am excited for 2010. Every new year is exciting as it is (it is my favorite holiday for all the reasons Christmas should be...), but there are some cool things happening.... I finally get to start staffing Hillsdale, the winter Olympics, I get to be in another wedding (which, by the way, is a top 10 life experience...do it if you get the chance!), all of my favorite sporting events return (they've all happened for the year, save for Christmas Day NBA basketball), the Rose Bowl featuring Ohio State for the first time in the Tressel Era, I'm sure there will be many more engagement announcements (that just happens at this point in my life...but it's got to dry up eventually right, as everyone gets married?) and who knows, maybe I'll get back on the track to be one of those engagement announcements too. I'm hopeful for the new year in a way I've not been for awhile. It's also the second of my new tri-annual traditions of reading the Bible in a year. I actually did it by September last time... I'm looking forward to it, because that remains one of the most impacting experiences of my life so far, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. It's a simple system: read 3 chapters of the Old Testament, one of the new, and one psalm each day. you could probably even drop it to 2 chapters of the old Testament and still finish by 2011. But I won't... I like the studious feeling that comes from absorbing that much text in a single sitting..... if you're going to do it, be sure you keep track of where you are in writing each day....some old testament chapters blur together so just bookmarks don't always work....but bookmarks are helpful when you're trying to find the second chapter of Amos or something like that....
Well, I kind of patched together something there. I hope there was something there that was at least a little fun to read!
Until next time!
-Zack
"I'm not in it to win it, I'm in it for you"
-Train
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