Looking Up

Look up on a clear night at the Marina and you might see stars. Look down and you might see a man and his telescope.
I have been going to the Marina every night lately and getting in a pretty decent run. Tonight I was going to make six miles. So much runs thorough my head during the day that it is so nice to just go and watch the seagulls scatter as I run by and let my mind wander.
Sometimes I see some amazing things - besides the seagulls.
One night there was a group of people swinging kerosene-dipped, flaming swords, poi balls and staffs through the air on the beach. I got a first-rate education in being a pyro. They even let me wield the staff!
Tonight there was a man with a massive telescope.
He was part of a non-profit astronomy education program and was just letting passersby look at stars light years away. So for the first time during my busy day, I looked up.
It was so cool. First he focused in on a cluster of stars that lie in the puffy outer limits of our galaxy. Then he swung the telescope around and zoomed in on clusters of stars in the swinging arms of the Milky Way.
As people gathered to look through the telescope, I couldn’t help but think about how long it had been since I had really stopped just to look at the stars.
He explained the various life cycles that stars can go through and why they appear to be certain colors. That star was about seven billion years old. This star was closer to the millions. Bigger stars have a shorter life cycle - just about a million years or so. They are the James Dean stars. They live fast and die young. Smaller stars live longer, like our sun. He also pointed to a tiny pin-prick of a star on the horizon that had just recently been certified as a new solar system.
As he pulled out a star chart that traced the path of a star system, he said “remember that we are just here for a moment in time. These guys have been here for billions of years.”
Throughout the past couple years, my life has spiraled into a whirlwind. Dull moments are few and far between and things seem to come and go so fast. In that moment I saw my recent past fly through my mind. The first time I walked into my very own apartment, jokes in the newsroom, tears at church, prayers that left my knees numb, Matthew and Ford’s giggles, awards and scrunched up noses from laughter were all just blips. It was there and it was gone.
The little astronomer on the Marina had a point.
I am so thankful for all the amazing things that this life holds for me, and for all the things that it will throw my way in the future. George Santana once said that “there is no cure for life or death but to enjoy the interval.”
Whether or not you find an astronomer on your daily runs, I would suggest looking up at the stars. They will be there for a while, but you wont. Carpe Diem!

The stories that don’t get told

I have had the amazing opportunity to go places and do things that most people never will. In between the standoffs and school board meetings, every so often I get to research and write about the things that make us human.

Last week, I was assigned to write about the Veterans Guest House welcoming its 100,000 guest. The factual headline read “Veterans Guest House welcomes 100,000 guest.” However, the story was so much more than that.

On Veterans Day we are supposed to take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices countless men and women have made in the name of American liberty. I got to reflect on the tears I saw in David Lantry’s eyes. He served in Vietnam.

I wish so badly everyone could have seen his face when he talked about the guest house and how thankful he was.

No matter what your political beliefs, whether you believe Korea was a war or a police action, whether Iraq is a mission of liberation or a quagmire, these soldiers are devoting their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to their country. There is nothing much more patriotic than that.

Lantry didn’t talk much about his experience in Vietnam. He did say a little about the people who come and go through the guest house as they seek local medical treatment. Some were World War II vets, others were form more recent conflicts. The finny thing was that they all had something in common. They had served their country and put their families on the line to do so. Even now, they were still feeling the effects of their service as they struggled with leaving family for medical treatment and suffering through the lingering physical effects of what they did.

One man that day was a cook in the U.S. Navy. He was on his feet so much that his arches fell, causing severe pain for years.

Another woman at the house was in the Air Force, and darn proud of being a female military member in a house full of male vets.

As I walked away from the house and to my car, I wondered, ‘what am I doing for my country?’

News flash - the world is not going to get better before the Savior comes again. In fact it is going to get worse. I cannot stress enough that this is our time to stand up for what is right.

We cannot be complacent anymore. Watch your elected leaders like a hawk. You cannot afford not to. Be active politically. Be critical about what is going on around you. The stakes are higher now than they have ever been. Your freedoms are on the line.

These men and women risked their lives for your freedom. What is your excuse?