I have three

1. My faith
2. My family
3. My writing

And in that order. What’s your passion?

1.How do you define Friendship?

2.How do you define Friendship on Xanga?

If you are reading this post, whether you’re a subscriber to me or not, I would like to know your answer to these two questions.

I’m an Ohio State fan, but this guy transcends the sport. Very sad. Here’s the ESPN article:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7487597/spokesman-says-joe-paterno-condition-serious-further-complications

EDIT: I gotta be honest, this news is really affecting me. The more I see on the scroll at the bottom of the Big Ten Network(Ohio State game ) and on ESPN about Paterno’s condition, the sadder I feel. Not everyone is a sports fan, but I think almost everyone can identify with losing a grandparent. That’s what it feels like right now….and I’m not even a Penn State fan! JoePa is college football, and seeing him go downhill to the point where he’s asking for family and friends to come to his hospital so that he can say a final goodbye…it’s heartbreaking. I see him as something like my maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother. They’ve just…always been there. It especially reminds me of my grandfather as he retired from his longtime job as a pastor and now he doesn’t know what to do with himself. JoePa was fired for his involvement with a scandal and that may have precipitated his decline. Yes he had cancer, but as my Dad told me when I called him to let him know what ESPN was saying, he told me that Bear Bryant passed away a few short months after he retired from college football.

Can you identify with the feelings I’m describing? Have you lost someone who, while maybe not being a grandfather, had that kind of impact on your life?

Something else I’ll add: If you answer, I’ll just send you a message for my reply since the reply/comments things is broken on Xanga right now.

Dear President Obama,
I just wanted to post this quick thank you note for your decision not to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. I just saw that you said ‘no’ to the American Petrolium Institute’s demands on the NBC Nightly News. You are the leader of the free world, and so if anyone needs to set the standard for environmental awareness, it’s you. I’m a Christian and as a Christian I believe it is a responsibility of mine to respect this Earth that God gave us. This is why I voted for you in 2008, and today I am now leaning more than ever towards voting for you in November.

Again, Thank You,

Signed: A Voter

Dear Madeira,
A few days ago I began to think about you. I began to think about writing a blog entry to you. I pray for you often, but lately I’ve been coming back to you. Yeah, in case our mutual friend didn’t already tell you way back when, you were my first love. I knew I wasn’t yours so I didn’t say, “Well gee golly, you’re my first love you know that?” because that would have freaked you out. Instead you got massive letters in the mail in my not-so-thinly veiled attempt to keep you happy while I tried learning to drive again. I never told you that I didn’t know how to drive, never told you that was why I never came to see you. I just wrote and wrote and wrote and hoped you would be as happy as I was. I still have the seven or eight letters you sent somewhere in the basement. I know from the call you gave me in 2007 that you still have my letters and gifts. That meant a lot to me as I figured you had tossed them out. You did dump me afterall. But i decided that if you ever came across my page here(I’ve put certain instructions in my journals in case of my dying young) I wanted you to know what you still mean to me twelve years after we were together.

The Eagles – Take It Easy

Do you remember when we were in the big white van on the way to Hocking Hills? Yep, even if you don’t, I do. You were leaning over my shoulder talking with me when this song came on the radio and I didn’t recognize it, but you did and told me what it was. Thanks for introducing me to The Eagles.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Otherside

Another song that came on while we were in the van. I wasn’t a Chili Peppers fan, but I remembered Flea was one of the bosses in Chrono Trigger and so when I got home I bought their CD Californication with this song on it. Still reminds me of the ride to when we rock climbed and repelled down that 100 foot cliff.

Bon Jovi – It’s My Life

I bought this CD with a friend a week or so into our ‘official’ relationship. This song just plain reminded me of you and your spirit. You had life to you, and imagination. Those are still two things I look for when I think about being with someone. You were unique and lived life to the fullest. Thanks for introducing me to those ideals in a girl.

So those three songs I decided to share with everyone who follows this page. Here’s a question for all of you. Do you remember your first love? What do you remember most about him/her? Do you still have any of the gifts they gave you?

P.S. Madeira? Thanks to you I’ll always be able to say my first kiss was a french kiss. lol.

This is only to the person in connecticut. Log off man! You’re refreshing about every four minutes or so. This isn’t Mary Martin’s Peter Pan. You don’t revive Tinkerbell every time you view my page lol. Just log off or go haunt someone else. Oy……

EDIT: This was published almost five years ago, but I thought I’d share this with the fifteen or so new people who have joined my page in the past couple months.

“You Are Mine”

I stand in the forest, mourning the life once lived
Not so long ago, and yet so very far away
The echoes of the past sound shrill to my ears
The night is all around me, yet the dawn lies far behind

There are tears that fall upon the autumn leaves
There are eyes that look to the heavens
I see the fading shapes of lives and loves once held dear
With every passing moment I forget another face

Like an island fading into the mist, so goes my childhood
Ever more shrouded in fog, less and less discernable
Like a raft on the open sea is my soul, the island out of view
With this thought the shade of the evergreen envelopes me

The shrills increasingly haunt my night
Quicker than an arrow does time pass me by
To be aware is the doom of the immortal
To be aware of the eternal is the doom of man

Doom walks among the shadows, she seeks me
I know her cries, they echo throughout my past
In and out of the fog she drifts, the seductress
The eyes flash and disappear like the twinkling star

The celtic rain betrays her presence, she cannot hide
The full moon high above betrays my spirit, neither can I
The game is over, she emerges from the mist
It is time to play, and therefore we begin to play with time

The transparent spirit she is, as if a memory
And yet aware of her emergence am I, no longer fantasy
Into the arms of the seductress I go, and with eyes enclosed
I feel the embrace around me, she’s cold as a stone

With every passing breath, another autumn leaf falls
She whispers tales long forgotten, the ancient soul cries out
She whispers tales of lives never to be lived, the youth mourns
Desperation grips me in its’ arms, time is lost each moment

Many times we once embraced, she and I the lost lovers
I’m frozen to ice, and yet take refuge within her
The nails scorch the skin, the breath poisons the mind
And yet…and yet I sigh…Depression, she is all mine

The eyes of the long lost celt seek me out
“You are mine”
The eyes of the shadow know it’s come time to give out
“You are mine”
Together we fade into the night, together we say into the others’ sight
“You are mine”
The dawn is not to be, the morning star not to reach its’ height
“You are mine”

I just finished watching I, Robot with Will Smith. Anyone else ever see this movie or remember it as it’s been a few years since its’ release? Do you think there will ever be someone fool enough to create VIKI? Someone who perhaps plugs in Artificial Intelligence into Facebook or something?

1. Christian
2. Family Member
3. Writer

What’s the order for you?

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”