It has been some time since I have blessed you all with a blog so I definitely appreciate your patience with me. This has been months in the making so I will try and make it worth your while. I have taken some notes from some of my favorite blogger's such as
Terrance 'One Ten' Millen and
My boy @thetillshow. Throughout this blog I will display some of what I've learned but most importantly stay true to myself. The not-so-random photos throughout is something I picked up from till. However the photos I put up will (hopefully) tie in completely with what I am talking about. Lets get into it after another one of those said photos.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. Its a topic that is thrown around a lot but not always digested in its proper context. Life is all about perspective. How you view situations shape how you feel about the world at large. There are some who are pessimistic about everything. You know the kind that will even state the obvious as long is it fuels their addiction of being negative and belittling others. Then there are some people who are so optimistic and happy about life that you wonder if they really are in touch with reality. The rest of us (normal people) are somewhere between or in other words a combination of the two. I would definitely use this term to describe myself. I describe my condition as eternal optimism. I know that websters defines this as: "the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world," but this is not my personal definition. After this pic we'll see if you can relate.
This eternal optimism that I speak of is tied to 3 things: My experiences as a Knicks fan, an independent liberal in touch with reality, and of course as a Christian. If you fall into one of these categories you might have just had a light bulb moment. Let me briefly go through what I mean for those still in the dark. As a Knicks fan of my age we had some early highs...and in more recent years terrible lows. The last time i wrote a blog it was after we drafted Jordan Hill with the 8th pick in the NBA draft. I was upset, why you ask??? Because he turned out to be so useless and irrelevant that we gave him away today in a trade for a guy no one else wanted (Tracy McGrady). I have spent the majority of my life looking forward to future years with the promise that there are better days to come. I have been disappointed more times than I care to mention. Now it is July 2010 we look forward to with their 35 million dollars of cap space and my question for them is what are you going to do with it? When this time period that we have been intoxicated with for the past two years which has numbed the pain of all the losses has passed, what will we have to show for it. I want to believe...but history leads me to caution....so once again we wait....we'll see.
I got all caught up in the YES WE CAN FEVER!!!! When Obama got in I was amped and I stayed on that high for a long time. Then when I got sober off my "anything is possible" high, I remembered the system of congress that he was called to lead. The chambers where progress is trumped by politics EVERY TIME. The place where you always could have done more, and you say you will, but there is always another way your actions/motives can be portrayed. What we have as of today is a country that is more divided then we ever have been in American history. The proof is the fact that our President has an 85% approval rating with registered Democrats and a 25% approval rating with registered Republicans. That gap is the largest in AMERICAN HISTORY. Think Watergate, Clinton Scandal, Hoover during the Depression, Lyndon Johnson....we're more divided now than during any of their presidencies. My question is pretty obvious...why? Has Obama done that bad of a job. Has anyone stopped and thought about the process that it takes to get anything done in America. When you have a party (Republicans) that does everything in its power to block not just an up-and-down vote on bills, but also DEBATE on ANY bill written by Democrats. They know that if Obama is able to weather the storm on the economy (which will take time but its on its way) and save healthcare, they wont see the White House for another 20 years. So yes once again its back to the political games that Obama hoped to eradicate during his presidency. Unfortunately, sometimes when you try extremely hard to fix a problem it can get worse. Hopefully we can get something relevant done before re-election comes up, but then again when its politics over progress you shouldn't hold your breath.
So where is the hope? This doesn't sound like optimism at all. As I conclude as I would like to remind you why it is important to be eternally optimistic. It doesn't put you out of touch with reality, it actually ensures that you have the firmest possible grasp on it. This can only be fully realized in the Christian experience. When you have eternity in mind, the things that happen around you do not have a major effect on your optimism. Though the Knicks continue to let us down and Washington continues to remain stagnant, there will always be one thing to be optimistic about: eternity with Christ in community with others. If you feel like this is some pie-in-the-sky feel good message or you have been numbed by the fact that you've heard this already, i'd challenge you to give it a try. That means a real dedicated try. Those who seek Him with their whole heart will find Him along with true peace, direction, and perspective. Thanks a lot for struggling through the run-on sentences and occasional typo's. I promise to do better in the future. Take this photo as a gift for reading till the end of the blog. Let me know what you think, looking forward to hearing from you and writing more in the future. God bless.
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Twitter: @MichaelTNixon
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