Lifestyles Session with the Bauers.

A guy I used to be in a band with made half of these kids, and they are AWESOME. I had a lot of fun shooting them. Check it.

RIP Howard Zinn

howard zinn passed away today. and with him i think maybe a little piece of the hope i still have for this country did as well. if you don't know him, howard zinn was a historian who saw american history not through the eyes of it's leaders or victories, but through the eyes of slaves, farmers, workers, teachers, bus drivers and the average people who make up this country. two of his most famous works were "a people's history of the united states" and "you can't be neutral on a moving train." i recommend you check them out, maybe you'll rethink a thing or two you hadn't in the past. as thomas jefferson said, "dissent is the highest form of patriotism." howard zinn was truly a great patriot, historian, and man, and his commentary will be surely missed. rest in peace mr. zinn.

please keep my savior out of your rhetoric.

i've been thinking a lot about religion and politics lately. and the more i do, the more i just get BUMMED out. i am so so so SOO sick of listening to people bring jesus into their political agenda's and rhetoric. stop it. jesus would not vote republican. jesus would not vote democrat. jesus probably wouldn't vote at all if he lived in this country, given the rampant corruption and lies that every politician, regardless of party affiliation, seems to innocuously share. let me get into some gritty details.

the senate race in massachusetts last week. dear lord. i can't count the number of facebook status' i had to read saying something along the lines of "another victory for us!" the us, of course, referring to the "christian" populous in general. i use the word christian in quotation marks because i tend to get the feeling that these people have no idea what jesus ever talked about, aside from the part of the gospels where he specifically told everyone to vote republican (which clearly never happened). the biggest problem i have with these neo-conservative people who claim to represent my savior, is that they only perpetuate the "us vs. them" mentality which has been the singular cause of every act of hate, violence, malice, or war in the entire history of humankind. i believe the new testament makes it clear over and over again that there is no more "us and them." we are all one. mankind is one. jesus came for all. he came to save all and to love all. and several times, he boiled down his entire philosophy into two commandments, "love god and love other people." and yet the separation and resentment that i see running so wildly in the "christian political" commentary, completely goes against everything that jesus stood for.

i've been listening to a lot of interesting commentary on that subject lately. it's interesting that the "christian" population in this country who claim to be republican, what i will refer to as the "christian right", are so interested and invested in "taking the country back for god." they are so active in politics and so vehemently believe that their only goal in life should be to make the laws of this country reflect their moral convictions. which is ridiculous. what's so fascinating, is i read recently that in china, where being a christian can result in imprisonment, torture, and death, this attitude doesn't exist at all. and christianity is spreading like wildfire in that country. there are definitely enough christians there that they could rise up and change things if they wanted to. but oddly enough, they don't want to. apparently they're more concerned with fellowship with other believers and praising god, and living out the teachings of jesus in their everyday lives. hmm. interesting.

i wonder if the problem could possibly be that people in this country are so accustomed to getting what they want all the time, that they're scared of the slightest possibility of any kind of suffering or injustice. and i think that problem is especially prevalent in the attitudes of the christian right. they're so active in politics because they're so scared of the possibility that something might happen that would make them leave their comfort zone. despite jesus' words to his followers, "in this world, you will have troubles" and "you will suffer on account of me", they're so stoked on getting their own way all the time, they had better take the necessary political action and put the specific people in office who believe what they believe so they won't ever have to worry about any kind of opposition or suffering.

and so, quite relentlessly, jesus' beautiful name is dragged through the mud, over and over again, and attributed to some of the most atrocious people and things i have ever witnessed. i'm starting to think it's time that people stopped stuffing words into jesus' mouth and pretending that he said them, and just start following the things he actually said and talked about. none of which had to do with politics. jesus didn't care about politics. jesus didn't care about the occupation of his people's homeland by the most brutal military empire in the history of the world. he didn't care about alleviating that occupation, or changing the laws of the empire. in fact he once said "give to caesar what is caesar's, and give to the lord what is the lord's". it would stand to reason that he saw the two as completely separate entities, and he didn't care one way or the other what happened with the one that was based in this world.

i wonder what would happen if the people in this country who claim to follow the teachings of christ stopped caring so much about what happens in washington, and started caring more about what happens to the poor and underprivileged people in their neighborhoods, cities, and around the world. because if one thing is clear to me from the time that christ spent on earth, it's that he cared about people. not about empire, not about laws, not about morals and the moral majority. he cared about spending time with the poor, the broken, the needy.

i wonder what would happen if we all started to listen to jesus, rather than constantly speaking for him.

it's been a while

so i've kind of been ignoring this thing lately. not really on purpose, i just feel like i haven't had the proper motivation to write anything, which is pretty much because i haven't been doing anything with my life. i don't have a job. i don't have a car. i just sit at home, read books, play guitar, watch movies, then i go lift, and then come home and do more of the same. every day. it's a war on monotony, and monotony is currently winning. it's blasting my senses into a complete oblivion, drenching all of my nerves in novocaine. it just keeps becoming harder and harder to feel anything. but i'm still fighting, and i think that's important. i haven't given up hope yet. i have so many things looming on the horizon, possibilities, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and right now i'm just playing the waiting game, waiting to see what comes down the chute at me. for a while now it's been nothing. but i still have hope. something has to come soon. it has to.

i think the biggest thing that i've been realizing in all of this time is the lack of connection i have to this place now. to denver. to colorado. there's just nothing there anymore. i think especially not having a car and being immobile has made me realize that i'm a complete shut in here. no one cares. i can't really reach out and make plans with anyone, because i have no way of transporting myself to those plans, so it's like in a way, i'm giving everyone here the ultimate friend test. and they're all losing. and if you don't have people, then what do you have? some buildings and shopping centers and the familiar sillhouettes of mountains looming in the distance. and that's not enough to keep anyone around, unless they're an idiot.

i'm desperately in need of change. this place is just no longer healthy for me, it's no longer where i need to be. denver was great to me for the time i was here, and it will always be home, but it's just time to move on. sometimes you just gotta cut your losses and move on, and that's exactly what i intend to do. my soul has needed that for some time, and i've known for some time that it's what i've needed, but due to some constraints i haven't been able to leave. my lease is up at the end of may, and i just can't imagine having a reason to stay here anymore. this place is valium to my senses. i'm just numb. i need a fresh start. i need a new place. i need to be surrounded by people that actually ignite my soul.

and this is just rambling. i've talked about nashville so many times before, but this time i think it's just inevitable. two of my closest friends in the world, who i've missed every day since they moved away from denver will be moving there in the spring. another of my closest friends is considering moving there, and i'm hoping to convince him as soon as possible to go with me. and really the only friend i have left in colorado that is close enough at this point in my life to be of any consequence in my decision to move will more than likely be moving out of state when he gets his degree in may. and that's it. i've been building to this for a long time i feel like, and it just feels completely right at this point to move on.

everything that ignites my spirit is centered in nashville. music and photography are the only two things i've cared about for as long as i can remember, and nashville is the nation's capital of both. i can't imagine a better place to start working in the music industry, and interning for a photographer at the same time and getting my foot into that industry for more of a long term position. it sounds fantastic.

so that's my rant for the evening. colorado, i'd say that i'll miss you, but oddly i don't think i will.