the Office, small towns, absolutes

Today was interesting.. have I ever said much about my work? The office one, I mean. I don't think I have... but if you've ever watched the Office (Steve Carell).. think of it as an exaggerated version of my office.

On Sunday we had a get-together sort of thing. We went out to my boss's place for a shooting contest/bbq. He does these mounted shooting competitions from his horses and has an arena set up at his place. Well, he decided to have the gang over for a little competition. But, being as none of us are horsemen (women), or pro shooters, we got to use the tractor. Mmhmm. It was great. And, he has a little loudspeaker dealio set up so that he could give directions on a mic, which he also used to play some hip-hop/country (I didn't know such a genre existed) music.

Today they were trying to decide what to do for the holiday light parade this year. They started out with a Tribute to Barbara Streisand, complete with back-up singers. Cross dressed, of course. Then, someone mentioned that the catholic school has a bus availble to rent for a small fee. That turned into a Partridge Family Christmas. Cross dressed. Somehow that turned into converting a golf cart into a "Pope-mobile", complete with mafia. (Apparently the goal is to offend as many people as possible.) These ideas were cast aside for a more tame "North Pole" theme with penguins and elves.

So, the beginning of the day was.. amusing, to say the least. Then, I met one of the new owners of a rental, who happens to have the same last name as I do. It doesn't happen very often, so we were chatting, and she found out where I was from and then knew my parents names, because, her husband has the same name as my dad. FUnny thing. When they first moved out here, they'd meet people who would know who my dad was and tell this couple about it.

It's a small world in these parts.

Near the end of the day I was talking to someone else from Williams. He told me his in-laws had gone to one of the funerals for one of the kids. Apparently during the eulogies, the high school kids were getting up and talking about how they were going to remember this kid by drinking and smoking weed because that's what he'd want. . I don't even know what to say... It's like, God's trying to get their attention.. they're so far removed.. or somehting. I mean, how can anyone be so stupid?? Why would you ever say anything like that, much less believe it?

I was (am) pretty upset, to say the least. I went hiking. Still upset. Makes me sick really. Man. The old coach says that if he were still coaching the football team, there wouldn't be one cause he'd have kicked every one of the kids off the team. He's never seen the high school full of kids that were.. like this.

God bless the christians in that town.

God help the little kids while they're helpable.

I had an interesting convo with a friend of mine getting his masters in sociology. Isn't it interesting that each generation has it's own sort of reality. This generation is defined by "reality tv" and all that. A fake reality, a manicured, put together one. "You can be anything" has taken an ugly turn, and humanity is posing as something superhuman.

It's also interesting that as the church, it's pretty popular to try to reach youth with the flashy, fasterthanyoucanthink entertainment that they're used to in the media. It's like trying to convey God, who He is, by using something they're already getting instead of using something real and of Him. Like, you know that feeling of joy you get when you see a sunset or listen to really moving music, basically anything aesthetically pleasing? Shouldn't we be trying to convey that sort of thing instead of that empty, fast-paced stuff.

And I have a question. I believe in absolutes. Obviously. But, what are they? Certain morals we have are dictated by our worldview, or the cultural lenses we have on. This is the example I think of: My roommate's family lived in Uzbekistan for 4 years. In that country, abortion is used as birth control, and the women have never been taught that it is wrong. Now, obviously abortion is a wrong thing. But if these women have not been taught that this is bad and have no convictions to tell them it is, can they be innocent of doing a wrong even while commit it? My point is, we are all inundated by different things in our cultures and maybe we can commit wrong acts and yet remain innocent because we have no concept of the rightness or wrongness of that action.

Also, what makes something absolutely good or bad? Is it defined by its consequence? For instance, war. Cna war be considered morally ok if it produces good for a group of people, Or, is the action of murder always absolutely wrong regardless of the ends? And can an act be considered "good" if it takes a "bad" act to produce the "good"? In order for something to be absolutely good, does it have to produce only good? Can we define an absolutely good act one that causes good effects for the common people, all people the act has an effect on?

I'm not very far into my reasoning, but opinions help.

Well, I really need to get to sleep. Blessings.