Erik and Lindsey

Last weekend, I had the chance to take engagement photos for two of my friends, Erik and Lindsey.  I met Erik my freshman year, and we quickly connected, both being in Mechanical Engineering and InterVarsity.   At some point, I began to hear of Lindsey, whom he had met through study sessions for Statics and other engineering courses.

Erik proposed in early March, having used oil lanterns to make an awesome trail for Lindsey to follow.  They brought these lanterns to the session, which was a great idea.  Lindsey also made a banner to mark the date of their wedding.  Why spend time on the graphic design of a "Save the Date" postcard when you can put it all in the photograph itself?  This was an amazingly creative idea, and I was glad they had thought of it!

These photographs were taking at various locations around Blacksburg, VA: the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Smithfield Plantation, and what most of my friends call "the Caboose Park."

Congratulations to Erik and Lindsey, and I pray the best for their wedding preparation and the marriage to come!

A Tribute to Andy Goldsworthy

Many years ago, I spent a class period in one of my art classes watching a video about Andy Goldsworthy.  He talked about his craft as he joined bits of icicle together to create a serpentine shape that seemed to move in and through the rock on which it was placed.   The camera continued to observe as he created floating stick structures, egg-shaped rock piles, and vibrant autumn leaf murals.  I was enthralled...and quickly forgot about it.

Then, a month ago, we watched this same video in my Art and Science of Tracking class.  The following weekend, I went home and, already requiring several books at the library, also picked up a picture book about one of his more-permanent works, a dry-stone wall.

Goldsworthy's art is almost purely natural.  He uses tools he finds, if necessary, but often simply works with his hands and, occasionally - as with the icicle sculpture - his teeth.

Goldsworthy's art is often very transient.  The sun will melt or evaporate, the river will wash away, the rising tide will cover, or the wind will scatter his work.  Photography, then, is important to his craft - the art must be captured before the forces of nature cause its destruction.

Inspired by this outlook and artistry (as well as a Google image search of his work), I decided to make a few pieces of my own.  The first is above, the second below.  I don't have anything profound to say about them, as my thought was well, this might be cool, and the two pieces took less than an hour of total work anyway.



Your turn! Get inspired, make something, take a photo, and let me know about it!

On Time Management

"I don't have enough time!" is a phrase I hear frequently, and often from myself.  Is there anyone who has their life so rightly balanced that their time is never wasted and they are able to do precisely everything they hope to accomplish?

I reckon not.

As I grow older, I find it more and more imperative that I use my time well.  No longer can I play Age of Empires II for hours on end (as I did in high school) without feeling as though I've missed out on something important.  If I were to time travel back to my freshman year of college, I'd probably slap myself and tell me to get off the computer and go do something more meaningful.

Granted, as an introvert, I need time to be alone and recharge.  But, I consider this to be a necessary, fruitful use of my time.  Refreshing Facebook over and over is not (Though I am not immune to such a disease!).

I consider good conversations, hiking, thought-provoking reading, community service, prayer, and cooking to be effective, meaningful uses of my time, among others.  Yet, I cannot do all of these things all the time as much as I would like!  Attempting to do so would be futile and unnecessarily stressful.  Understanding that I cannot do everything, then, frees me to do my best to choose great things, even at the expense of good things, without being crushed under the weight of it all.  Do I always succeed at this?  Absolutely not.  But, thankfully, I am slowly getting better as the years progress.

How do you spend your time?  What would you do if time was no constraint?

Senioritis

Many of my friends will be graduating college one month from now.  Every so often, someone groans and utters the word "senioritis."

They can't focus. Don't want to work.  After all, they've hustled for 16 years!  The drudgery of public education is nearly complete!  The real world awaits!  This work is boring anyway!

We did this in high school as well - why work for a  goal that had been, for all intents and purposes, already achieved?  A slackening in work output wouldn't result in the retraction of a diploma.  Besides, all we really wanted to do was spend time with one another before heading to college.

This senioritis phenomenon seems to occur among some of those who are entering the last decades of an already full life.  They're 65 or older.  They've spent 40 years hustling for their employers.  They have enough money saved to last them the rest of their lives.  Don't they deserve to take a break, relax, and withdraw from the constant busyness around them?

In many ways, certainly, they do.  And yet - when running a race, no one slows down as they approach the finish line.  No one thinks, well, I worked myself pretty hard those first 300 meters, so I'll just take my time on these last 100. No, the runner presses on, speeds up, finishes well!

So, what is our mindset?  In life, or the microcosmic years of high school and college, have we defined our purpose?  Do we consider it a race to win or something that we just have to push through?   As we ease off the level of toilsome labor, do we take the rest of our cards off the table and resign completely?  Certainly, in our senior years, we have knowledge and experience to pass on to those coming after us.  Do they not deserve the opportunity to learn from the wisdom their elders have gained?

I graduate in December 2011.  I plan on taking easy classes.  I am sure, even then, that it will be hard to find the motivation to complete my assignments.  I'm ready to leave the public education system and move on to new things.  Yet, without doubt, I will be back here early to help next year's freshmen move in.  I will continue to be a mentor to younger men in my faith community, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  I will go on every Appalachia Service Project trip that I can.  This last semester of college is not the time to rest on my laurels.  It is time to give back.

How about you?  Do you feel like you're trying to win a race or just push through an unwanted chore?  If your journey is winding down, how can you look to those who are just starting out on that same path and offer them something of value?