Character Counts?

Growing up, my parents and my mentors and various authority figures in my community taught me that integrity mattered.  Honesty mattered.  Respect mattered.  Empathy mattered.

I learned that there was a golden rule - to do unto others as I would have them do unto me.  The Boy Scouts reminded us weekly that we were to do our duty to God and our country; to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

Today, we respect a man or woman who honors his or her word.  Who keeps commitments.  Who has the strength to acknowledge a mistake and then right the wrong.  Who listens to others and shows genuine care and value for those around them.

Yet, as this election cycle drags on, I wonder about the place that character holds in our culture.  In the game of party politics, the other side's sins are reason for impeachment and outcry, while one's own identical mistakes are explained away.  Both of the leading candidates in this run for the Presidency have a history of unapologetic lying.  Both of these candidates have a Foundation in their name supposedly set up for charitable giving and yet there are serious accusations against both organizations that they are more of a slush fund than anything else.  Both (seem to) have a history of demeaning women: one clearly through degrading comments and gestures, the other in allegedly casting aside victims of her husband's advances for political gain.

We can explain such things away as politics and business-as-usual.  We can forgive certain evils in certain situations because of the utilitarian value.  Maybe it wasn't wrong, because it seems to have worked...

But what happens in a country that does not require integrity, honesty, and character in its leadership?  In such a climate, is it remotely possible that there could be a political class not marred by scandal or shady deals or accusations of falsehood?

Two of the least-trusted candidates in recent (?) history are running to lead this country.  To whom will they be accountable?  To what standard will they be held?  Will there be a reward for integrity and consequences for corruption?

What road will this nation take?  What path will this culture follow?

Who will we be, and what will we value?

Make Life Happen

The book of Genesis says God created the heavens and the earth and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Then he created mankind and gave us authority and stewardship over the earth. He created us in His image, which I believe means in a very real and deep way that we too are born to create. We have a vast playground, broken though it may now be, in which to explore and discover. 

On the days - or in the months - when I feel like i am not learning, growing, or creating, I tend to fall into lethargy.  The days when I succumb to a belief that I cannot make anything, that I'm stuck, that I'm no good at what I do anyway, tend to be days spent in bed or various forms of comfortable chair.  Indeed, early last year, after a series of disappointments and mistakes and setbacks, I found myself spending far too much time in such lethargy, waiting for life to happen to me.

I spent far too long in that wasteland.  Eventually, frustration boiled over into action and I began to walk out of the wilderness. Experiments with photography.  YouTube videos with friends. Lindy Hop lessons. Career changes.

There are yet setbacks; there are yet days where I believe the lie of uselessness and choose to lie in bed.  Nevertheless, I find myself to be more fully myself as I live out that calling of God to create, discover, explore.  And, somewhat paradoxically, self-focus fades away as I live the way I was created to live.

As Jeff Goins is fond of saying, "There are no big breaks, only tiny drips of effort that lead to waves of momentum."

These little steps of trying new things, of asking people to collaborate, of exploring new locations...all of it builds momentum in the journey out of the Waiting for Life to Happen Wilderness.  Who knows what the future will hold?

So, friend:  you are given a gift of creativity to steward and nurture.  Make something today.  Cook dinner. Take a photograph. Hike to a waterfall.  Play with the blocks at the toy store.  Draw on your napkin at happy hour.  You have agency and authority to create.  You can build something great, even if all you do today is lay down a single brick.

Create a work of goodness today.  Make life happen.

Remember

Why are you lonely? Do you not remember?

What about the night I took the sorrow of a sixteen-year-old boy and filled his heart with joy inexpressible?

What about the time a college senior sat solitary in the forest at his campfire, fully aware of my presence?

What about the time a younger man was pulling out of his parents' driveway, suddenly keenly aware that in the midst of his grandparents' ill health, a failed relationship, and several other trials, I would carry him through his heartache?

Why are you lonely? Do you not remember?

Did I not say that I would never leave and never forsake?

Did I not adopt you into my family with eternal finality?

Did I not rescue your soul from darkness?

Remember, my son, that you are called by My name and are by rights my child.

Remember, my son, that I have taken your calcified heart and utterly transformed it.

Remember, my son, that I will faithfully love you regardless of your stumbles along the way.

Be not lonely, my son, and remember that I am with you now and forever.

Remember that I am God, who calls you out from darkness and into marvelous light.

Castle Dome

The alarm goes off at 3:57 AM.

I grab my backpack, some water from the fridge, and head out the door.  Alex is waiting outside, ready for the trip to the mountains.  His Altima, we anticipate, will have trouble on the unpaved roads, so we take my Sorento.  The roads quickly empty as we leave town. Rumbling tires and the drone of the air conditioning are the only sounds.  The desert is silent.

We turn off the highway after many miles, approaching the trailhead.  Eight miles of dusty dirt road brings us to a mining museum on the left and a big gate - quite deliberately padlocked - on the right.  A red light blinks on and off: whoever recently built this fortress is keen to discourage trespassing.  Alex mutters in frustration, as no one had mentioned such security in all his internet researching the day before.  The sun still sleeps, so we cannot see Castle Dome, yet we know it looms not far to the north.

Back on the main road, we decide to head north.  The sky lightens and others silently pass us by in their journey through the desert.  We come to a border checkpoint (strangely far from any border) and ask the two guards where to go hiking.  They point us to King Road, just a few miles north, and mention loads of trails back in the wildlife refuge.  The road closure we had discovered previously was news to them as well; however, they said, we could still get to Castle Dome the long way around.

So we try it. A sharp right onto King Road, then a sudden right up an embankment on to a narrow dirt road. We stop to catch the sunrise and the drive for nearly an hour and a half through the wilderness, trees scratching the windows with Alfred Hitchcock musicality as we bounce up and down through the washes and the rocks. I thank God that I was given an SUV as a rental car this time around.

Finally, we come to the trailhead.  Walking up the wash as the temperature climbs into the 90s, we find the first cairn: a pile of stones marking the trail to Castle Dome.  Alex's internet research says to follow the wash into the canyon, then there's a clear path up to the right and we would be on our way to Castle Dome.

There is no clear path.  The first cairn is the only cairn that we ever do find.  So, we blaze a trail, scrambling up rocky hills and hoping there are no angry coyotes in the caves that we pass.  Up on the ridge, we finally see Castle Dome, some distance away.  It's clear now why the internet says the hike is a six-hour trip.

We traipse around, conversing about storytelling and work and vacations as we try and find the least dangerous routes through the mountains.  A variety of cacti cling to the hills; small lizards and what might be roadrunners dart around.

Soon, we need to head back to the car, so we walk down into the wash, where the occasional rains unleash torrents of water that carve deep pools in the rocks.  The whole way back, we try to see where we went wrong, but never do find another cairn or anything resembling the online trail description.

Three hours driving follows, most of it off-road.  Safe home.

"Next time, Castle Dome," says Alex, ruefully.  "Next time, we'll defeat you."