Inky Orchard

Going home was a bad good thing. I needed that down time so badly… but it has made this week very difficult mentally. I am ready for my Christmas break. It was sooooo good to see my family, though. Even if I spent more time with my pomegranate (overall).

Courtesy of my momma

Mason’s marching band show was awesome! My brother is the coolest person ever. Who else gets a drum set solo in a marching band?

Look how cool these kids are. Just look at em. Look at em.

So. Two weeks until I come home. I can’t wait. I’m going to: make Christmas presents until my hands fall off, eat good food, draw what I want to draw (people, scenes, trees – colored pencil), read what I want to read (Blue Like Jazz, Christ the Lord), sleep, love on my dog, hug people… I only have four more classes for each class. That is the best way to think about it.

Nothing in this blog so far has been worth reading. So now I will throw something at you. Let’s talk about the election.

Tuesday night I was running on less than five hours of sleep, no nap. So I was headed to bed around 10:30. I had been keeping my eye on the blue and red map on my computer screen. I figured I’d know in the morning if not before. Well, the latter was the actual truth. My head split in two as my neighbors started screaming their heads off all around me “oh my god! oh my god! I can’t believe it!” Choruses for the Baminater went on and on and on all night, mixed in with the Darth Vader march and numerous triumphant uses of particular expletives. There could not have been any more celebration. I am convinced that I will never hear anything like that again after an election. All I could think about was how I had never heard anything so joyous for Jesus: the salvation of our souls – the conquering of our grave. For eternity. What I heard was empty. Hopeful – but based on what? Hot air coming from hot mouths and hot brains. Humanity.

Needless to say, I did not cast my vote anywhere near the direction of Obama. But. That is me.

God is doing something inside my heart. On that night I just so happened to be finishing the very last pages of Jesus for President. The fourth appendix. It was a prayer – a ‘Litany of Resistance.’ (Which you can download here.) Somewhat equivalent to our pledge of allegiance that we recite oh so dutifully to our country when necessary. This appendix was my pledge of allegiance to God, and I read it as the whole world seemed to be screaming for Obama – for change, for rescue, for peace. Peace has been brought. My pledge goes out to the One who inspires my politics – who teaches me how to get down and dirty with the broken, with the homeless. The imperfect. Myself. No government. No president. It’s people, human hearts connecting in the mud, in the darkness that make the difference. (The music our collisions made!*) I am starting to realize that I am the one who needs to change. The world will always be filled with problems and corruption and failure and filth and lies. But protesting them does not do anything but clog the airways. Let’s do something about it. I am going to make a difference. For Him. For them.

*(this lyric is by mewithoutYou) – I can’t get enough of this stuff. His poetry is finally starting to mean something real to me.

I am going to design a T-shirt one day. The message is taken straight from Blue Like Jazz, tweaked slightly.

And in closing, the most beautiful thing God gave me in this super stressful week (besides a homework-free weekend!!!): I found this garden after a very frightening encounter with a man out of his mind on drugs. It is a secret beauty. I almost missed it. That’s how it is with most things, I think.