ryansmusic.com

A tribute to a great actor and singer in Jim Nabors. My dad and I watched a few episodes last week in Florida, it’s one of his favorite shows. I remember watching this show when I was younger along with Andy Griffith. I wondered how the two were connected and I found the scene where Andy Taylor made an appearance. This will bring back memories for some:

I think it’s an official record, nine days without a post. The world has experienced a reprieve from Ryan’s hot air! (as if the world is reading anyway:)

Thought I’d just remind you of the websites listed on the right-hand side of my page. I follow several other blog sites and many of my friends post some way cooler stuff than me so check them out if you’d like.

This week I’ve spent time in Florida helping out with my Mom’s County Commissioner Campaign in Brevard County Florida. On Wednesday I helped go door-to-door handing out fliers (mainly I just navigated the streets to find addresses of super-voters) and it was a full day. Let me tell you, campaigning is no joke, it takes some work and I can think of no harder worker than Jan. I think she’s got a heck of a shot at the republican nomination on Aug 27th.

Click below for the entire album and more pictures from the fundraiser in Cocoa Beach:

Campaign

The first time I listened to John Mayer’s song “Say” I thought he repeated the phrase, “say what you need to say” way too many times. Seriously, when you look below you’ll see that the phrase is repeated twenty-four times.

Ya, I originally thought it was a lyrical mistake and John Mayer just wrote a cheesy song with a repeated line. But, after listening to the song more and reading some of the lyrics closer, I think he knew exactly what he was doing and I think he did it brilliantly with a great message that is expressed with crystal clarity.

I wish we would all say what we need to say. The world would be a better place, less time guessing and gossiping, more time laughing and loving. Thanks for admonishing us John in a most unthreatening and beautiful way.

Say lyrics

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you only could . . .

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

This morning we ran to Akron General with a trauma patient. On the way back the moon was absolutely breathtaking. It was full and setting in the western sky. The huge celestial body seemed so undisturbed in the peaceful night sky. I suppose there aren’t too many things to disturb its view at 3:00 am~

A quote from an episode of the “The Office” (the greatest show on television):

“If you want to reduce my identity to my religion, then I’m a sikh, but I also enjoy biking, reading and hanging out with friends.”

The guy who said this quote wore a head covering and looked like he might have been from India. Michael, the really backwards boss on the show, immediately put the building on lock down when he saw him coming. The quote was in the context of a “office meeting” on the topic of religion and what religion everyone prescribed to. It was quite humorous but I think it offers the following application:

I think we make a serious mistake when we try and define someone by what they believe and or reduce their beliefs to a few recognizable words in the english language. Come on, lets give people credit for being more complex than bean poles.

Aside from the major traumas, CPR and many other chaotic events that happen, the back of the ambulance is a space where most of the time, patients, usually older, get a slow ride to the hospital. Some of these patients are literally days away from death (many times with advanced directives) and others know it’s just around the corner. Many of these patients have terminal conditions and are well aware of the stage of life that they are in. Some are familiar faces in the EMS world and others are scared because it’s their first time having to summon emergency care. I enjoy having conversations (as best I can while taking vital signs, putting on oxygen, writing my report etc.) with these patients and I think I’m going to start submitting posts of some of the words that these people say and a bit about the circumstances that they find themselves in.

Due to the HIPPA privacy policy, I certainly won’t be giving away any information that would jeopardize our patient confidentiality agreement. I suppose these posts will serve as a way for me to allow you to experience events from the back of an ambulance and probably most importantly and selfishly, allow for a release of the sometimes very tense and emotional moments that I encounter. These posts are not an attempt to over-dramatize events that occur in other’s lives and all of these posts will be a completely honest and accurate account of what happens during some of my trips to the hospital while caring for patients.

Today June 12~ A 98 year old woman said as I took her blood pressure

This woman couldn’t remember my name and didn’t know where she was. She just knew that she didn’t want to be alone.

More wonderings and yearnings from the brain of Ryan~

This post will sound familiar as I continue to wrestle with the idea of applying meaning to the events in our lives. I’ve been wrestling with this issue for about a year now; and will probably grapple with it until I die.

Our constant effort to explain the “whys, and hows” of life take away so much of the pleasure of our existence. In this vain attempt to explain why things happen we get lost in the messiness of interpretation and analyzation. Why can’t I just leave things alone and let them be? Why can’t my mind just be o.k with events that happened maybe just because they happened? Why does everything have to have a meaning? Who gave me this busy brain and why…

There I go again…

Maybe everything doesn’t have a meaning and the only meaning I need to be worried about is the meaning I’m loosing while asking all of the meaning questions. Hm…

I’m coming to think that small things have less meaning than I originally thought. Maybe the reason my car wrecked or my kid fell down the steps was because I looked away (my eyes were diverted) and I was negligent. Maybe there is no innate meaning behind it other than the physical ramifications of pushing the accelerator two more inches towards the floor and forgetting (memory loss) to put up the gate at the top of the stairs. Maybe the good feeling I had about the last ten jobs I applied for was just that; a good feeling or positive self esteem; maybe it was not from God. And maybe the most important point to make in all of this is that IT’S O.K THAT IT DIDN’T HAPPEN AND IT’S O.K THAT GOD WASN’T INTRICATELY INVOLVED.(note that I’m not saying that God isn’t involved at all; just wrestling with how involved He really is) Like I’ve written about before, if we place God in the position of intricately involved and the causer of all things, what do we do about an infant that dies or an accident that takes our loved one’s life? It seems that we can’t have it both ways, but in my opinion that’s exactly what SO many Christians do. They attribute to God what they deem admirable and pleasant and remove God from all things shameful and painful. I think it’s easier and correct to wrestle with this perspective and achieve for ourselves a more accurate understanding of God instead of flip-flopping and in turn, confusing those that look in at our lives. (not to mention giving others a definition of God that in my opinion is thwarted)

I’m really fine with not winning that race because I know that my not winning the race was not a punishment from God. This brings comfort because if we’re really honest, how many attempts does it take to win the race or get the job sometimes? It might take many attempts and to put God in the hot-seat for every little thing in our lives cheapens Him and sets us up for devastating esteem issues. Because ultimately, our human wants, even needs, are many times not God’s needs and wants. If we believe He is ultimately greater than us and in control, why would I try to manipulate Him by applying meaning to what He does or does not do (not to mention that maybe He doesn’t “do” or “not do” things specifically)

And again, this is a tough issue and I’m certainly not a “wind the clock and let it go” Deist.

I know I’ve written other posts like this one on the subject of meaning. This issue constantly comes up in my conversations with people (and quite possibly because I’m listening specifically for it) whether it be with ordinary folks who say “everything happens for a reason” or very religious folks who claim that “God directs everything that happens” or folks who say “there is no meaning to anything.” Next time you have a conversation with someone, listen for these kinds of things; you’ll hear them and in turn, find out a bit about that person’s frame or reference or how they think about events in their lives. I think I’m somewhere in the middle of all of those statements but really not sure where. I wouldn’t be writing so extensively related to this subject if I didn’t think it’s so important to constantly be struggling/thinking about where we stand on issues of meaning/God/Faith etc. Because I think it really defines and directs who we are as people.

And like everything else I write and think about- in the end, I’m thankful for Jesus; not anything more, not anything less.

It seems that my attempts to keep my car cool have led me to a deeper understanding of who God is.

I like to find shade for my car in this hot summer sun and often times I park under large trees with my windows slightly cracked. Even if I can’t find trees, I always leave my windows open just a bit and over the last month, more than cool air has found its way into my car. Every kind of seed, from those helicopter thingies to the little green seed thingies to little pollen dust thingies have migrated into my car via the tiny crack of my window. They come to rest on my seats and everywhere else that they find a suitable landing spot. Even though I do enjoy looking at the many different forms, I feel bad for them. Their journey is in vain and they have severely mistaken my car’s blue interior for fertile soil. But maybe their journey isn’t totally in vain because they remind me of a few things about God.

Just like all of those seeds who really have no business coming into my car, and just like those seeds who have found a quite remarkable path into my space, so is God’s existence in our lives. His seed finds its way to us and meets us in some weird places sometimes. It finds us most of the time where we’d least expect it to and often times we don’t recognize the different forms that it comes in. It’s a mystery really and this mystery of seeds and plant reproduction seems to parallel the moving of God’s Spirit in our lives and the lives of others around us. We can’t see it often times specifically but we can see the evidence of the seed being planted. But at the same time, we really can’t explain it away, for to do so seems to somehow lessen God.

My summation; God always seems to find a way~

This was posted on Ryan’s Blog a few days ago. It took me several reads to really dig out the magnificent truths tucked away in this little passage. I’ve been following this guy’s blog for about a year now and I love his creativity. I can’t say I always understand his very artistic and eccentric posts, but I appreciate his perspective and always love checking out his site. Here it is G.K Chesterton for your enjoyment:

Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health;when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt this gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in them. He has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that. Thus he has always believed that there was such a thing as fate, but such a thing as free will also. Thus he believed that children were indeed the kingdom of heaven, but nevertheless ought to be obedient to the kingdom of earth. He admired youth because it was young and age because it was not. It is exactly this balance of apparent contradictions that has been the whole buoyancy of the healthy man. The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say “if you please” to the housemaid. The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery; but because of this his relations with the housemaid become of a sparkling and crystal clearness. He puts the seed of dogma in a central darkness; but it branches forth in all directions with abounding natural health. As we have taken the circle as the symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as the symbol at once of mystery and of health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms forever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its centre it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travellers.

-G.K. Chesterton, “Orthodoxy”

According to CSPAN, 195 Million is the number of dollars that Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have spent on their campaigns so far. Can you think of a better way to use our resources; I sure can.

I wonder how many jobs could be created and run-down schools could be helped by using even half of that 195 Million. Suppose all of our politicians decided (collectively) to give half of their campaign finances to make our Country a better place to live, work and raise our families. Maybe we should demand that they do this and instead of talking about all of the change they’ll be making when elected, they could really show us.

Ah, “but we’ve already created the monster you say”; I was afraid you’d appeal that way.

Then this question follows:

Who’s willing to stop being a monster to combat the political beast we’ve born, and can that person be heard above the dollars and sense that run our Nation as we know it?

I’m really proud of myself for this thunderous post that seemed to leap from the keys (I’m laughing a bit as I write this); I guess it’s a bit dramatic after reading it again, but oh well, I think it has some truth in its letters~

Today, I had the chance to go golfing and my inner dialog went something like this:
“Hips still; head down; weight on front foot; blade open (thanks Grandpa); on toes; tee it higher; no, tee it lower; choke up; choke down; head still; loosen grip etc.

I know that to be a great golfer, I have to tame some of that inner dialog and still my mind enough to just take a shot. I got to thinking that the series of corrections that I’ve made in the last ten years that I’ve played the game of golf is a lot like the series of corrections and adjustments that one makes in life. You know how the saying goes; “It’s how you react to adversity that counts,” or something like that. I really think that the reality of living parallels that completely. I constantly find myself adjusting and correcting my actions when I mess up. I hit the dirt in front of the ball; I speak too quickly in a meeting at work. O.K, next time I hold my head still and stay on my toes. Next time I ask myself if it’s really worth saying what came to my mind so quickly.

Because no one is perfect, maybe the reality of living is only about those adjustments and corrections and the ability to humbly recognize our shortcomings. Or maybe we should just play golf all of the time. I vote for the second one :)

I’ll keep you posted on the status of my tomato plants and sunflowers. I wonder how good this “Heart of Wayne County” soil really is. Here are my Sunday gardening pictures. I dug up the little garden area on the east side of my house. The sunflowers are to the right of the small tomato plant. Going to see which tomato plant grows best the one using the eastern morning sun or the plant in the last picture in a small area in front of my garage that picks up the northwestern setting sun.