Risking Stupid

Here's something I've often thought about. Risking looking stupid. When you are on stage and playing in front of many people often, you really become aware of this. Or at least I really become aware of this! If I'm itchy somewhere, scratching it discreetly can be a challenge or just trying not to scratch it at all can be a challenge. Jumping around the stage to try to pump up the crowd while not screwing up what you're playing and also trying not to look stupid is also challenging. Something has to give. For me, I just don't bother jumping around the stage because then I don't need to worry about looking stupid and nothing gets screwed up. Or maybe by not jumping around stage and just standing there I look stupid!?!. I don't know. Well, now I feel stupid!
OK so here's why I bring this up. In response to a comment from my first blog, this may be why people would rather tell you things and give advice rather than ask questions and admit things they don't know. None of us want to look stupid. At the risk of looking stupid I'm going to say that when we do risk looking stupid that's when we open ourselves up to the greatest learning potential. I think this is true for my life.
I haven't acted much but I remember when I was involved in my highschool musical. I just had to not give a crap about what people were thinking and basically make a fool of myself. When I did that my drama instructor was always happiest with my performance. I remember finding that kind of freeing. I think spending some time with a real acting coach or instructor could be a real freeing experience. It would help me get out of my protective shell that I'm afraid of leaving.
I'm going to try to do that here too. There's a lot of stuff I don't know and when I tell you, you might think, man what an idiot! But I'm going to resolve to not care. I will look stupid in hopes of becoming smarter and more open and honest. It may take a while before I'm willing to do this on stage. There's the whole "cool" factor to deal with there but I suppose that's another blog.

Glenn

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I See Things . . .

It’s pretty cool how when you start to learn about something you seem to notice it more everywhere in life. Like when you get a new car and suddenly it seems like everyone is driving the same car. Well that’s the great thing about reading. You start to read about a topic then you start to notice that topic more in life.
I just read a little booklet put together by the Canadian Library of Parliament called “How Canadians Govern Themselves”. It gives a good outline of how politics work in Canada and even gives a good basic comparison to the American system. So since I’ve read it the news has become much more interesting. I guess politics are always on the news as it is but since I didn’t know much about it or even care much about it I would just tune it out. But now that I’ve got my head into the beginnings of the Canadian politics world the news is just jumping out at me. The fact that we have a minority government in Canada right now makes things interesting.
For the sake of my own learning, the Americans who may be reading this and other Canadians who are much like myself let me attempt to briefly explain why this is interesting to me.
If the minority government we currently have (the liberal party under Paul Martin) tries to pass legislation in the House of Commons and is unsuccessful the Government is defeated and a new election will be called. So recently when the Liberal party presented the budget to be voted on the Conservatives decided to not even vote! They were not supportive of the budget and knew if they voted that way their votes along with the other non-Liberal votes would defeat the Government. Then there would need to be an election that they didn’t think they could win.
But now the conservatives are saying they will vote against the budget if the Liberals don’t change a key point regarding some environmental issues.
So anyway, I don’t totally understand it all yet but as I’m learning the more interesting it is becoming.

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Politics For Normal People

So one of the books I've recently finished is called "In, Not Of" by Hugh Hewitt. It is a "Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World". There is the obvious question, "Should a Christian be seeking to influence the world?" I wondered the same thing which is why I wanted to read it. One quote convinced me of at least one area that I need to try to be influential . . . or at least knowledgeable.
"If inviting nonbelievers to worship matters, then so does preserving the freedom to worship. If ministering to the needs of the poor is a mandate, then changing the policies creating poverty is very much within that mandate. And if building shelter in developing countries is part and parcel of a Christians burden, so is the destruction of the power of tyrants who oppress peoples around the globe."
Yes, yes and yes. So now what? At least I voted this last election. Until then I hadn't even been voting! Man does that make me feel like an idiot! The good thing is I'm human and I can change.
I don't know anything about politics. Really. I don't really know or understand the ins and outs of Canadian politics or American politics. Now it's time to avoid my personal political stagnation! So I stopped at my local Member of Parliament's office to get some literature on how the Canadian system operates. This will be the first step in stimulating my political brain activity. Hopefully after getting a bit of a handle on how things operate I can figure out what to do next.

GL

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Welcome To My Blog

So here it is. My very own blog. I've kinda felt against blogging for a little while. It all seems so self centered. Maybe that's why I'm finally writing my own. I guess I really am writing it for me. What put me over the edge in deciding to start a blog was that I can use it as a tool to learn. I don't feel like I have a lot of wisdom or advice to share so this won't be one of those types of blogs. I do want to be influential but not in the way of imparting knowledge to people that I don't have. It will be more of a "This is what I just figured out today!" type of blog. I prefer to ask questions and talk about what I've been reading or learning about with hopes that someone else might read this and respond and make us all more knowledable in the end. I'm tired of seeing people stagnate and basically go on auto pilot. I know that knowledge isn't the answer but sitting in front of the TV and keeping the same routine for years is definitely part of the problem. So in an effort to avoid stagnation and promote brain activity I invite you to check out this blog as often as you like and leave your comments. Game on! GL

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