Confession of a 'Religulous' Enthusiast

Forgive blogger, for it has been awhile since my last confession.

My blogging hiatus associated with this movie was intentional. It has taken longer than anticipated to process my thoughts on the film. How refreshing that a movie could provoke so much thoughtfulness.

Let me start off by being honest on the film from as objective a perspective as I can
- Were the interviews one-sided? yes. Choppy editing & cutting of mid-sentence? yes. Reminiscent of Super Size Me, Fahrenheit 911 and Sicko? of course. Essentially just a rally film for those of us on the in doubt, agnostic or atheist team? Yes!

All these things set aside, what struck me after viewing this film, now twice, is that we live in a day and age that a black man is going to be our next president and there are films in mainstream theaters supporting atheism. Apparently there is hope for America.

I left the film saying 'What now Maher? Where do I start and what do I do? You have my attention.' The solution that has made the most sense is expanding my reading list to have books to refer to friends for more info.

Current recommended reads for 'Religulous' groupies:
I recently finished 'Letter to a Christian Nation' by Sam Harris. If you read Newsweek, you might recognize Sam from the article 'In Defense of Elitism'. He's a good author to pass along his books and essays to a very conservative Christian that believes in literal interpretations of the Bible - or maybe not at all.

I am also eager to re-read 'The God Delusion' by Dawkins. My Twitter pal on the topic has also geared me in the direction of 'Letting Go of God'. Additional recommendations welcome!

A Non-Believer Voice
The film has also help inspire a different voice as a non-believer. Recognizing that there is a silent 'majority' in the States of those in doubt, I feel less chained to candy-coating my words to make believers more comfortable. Using statements like 'I'm an atheist' instead of 'I'm not that religious' or 'I'm spiritual' has been a recent shift. Also, not role playing in church anymore has been a recent departure. At a wedding the other weekend, for the first time in my life, I stopped playing along. No third base coach hand signals before a gospel reading. No kneeling to gold-gilded statues during communion. No zombie murmuring of cult phrases 'it is right to give him praise' or 'thanks be to god'. Ah, sweet thoughtful silence was what I embraced, and by not playing along with Catholicism's traditions I think I showed more respect than half of the people choking back wafers as a 'just in case' approach to salvation.

The bottom line is, kudos Bill Maher for sparking dialogue and shaking up dormant thoughts.

Religulous

Working out my thoughts. In in the interim, see this film so we can have a dialogue. 'Religulous' by Bill Maher.

Balloon Fiesta 2008 - Day 1

This morning marked the beginning of the 37t annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. For my company, I was on site shooting amateur video of the dawn patrol and mass ascencion. It is an event everyone should see at least once in their life. Video below includes: Steve Stucker, dawn patrol, mass ascencion and Darth Vader.




The Darth balloon comes over from Germany and it costs a ton to get it here. This is its second year vising Balloon Fiesta, and the crowd loves it! At about 5:30 AM at Balloon Fiesta park this morning, someone behind me yelled 'get out of the way, storm troopers coming through'. Looked behind me, and there had to be about twenty-five storm troopers and Darth himself walking through the crowd. Proof you never know what you're going to find at 5:30 in the morning.

Also check out this short clip of the Creamland Cow floating at sunrise with the Sandia Mountains in the background:

Video: Oates the pug tries saying 'hello'

Pug Moments - Deep in Thought

Doug the pug worries about world peace.

Community and Local Politics: A Week Immersed in the Obama Campaign

As a newly proclaimed political junkie, this has been one heck of a year. I've gone from nail biting, disgruntle blogging, and have personally dented the local supply of two buck chuck. It has been more manic than my family reunions, and that's saying something!

The past week specifically has prompted a higher level of involvement for me. Mike and I became more interested in connecting with other politically minded people and venting / crying / laughing / cheering together. If we stayed in isolation with our NY Times with recorded episodes of Real Time w/ Bill Maher while following FakeSarahPalin on Twitter, I think our heads would have exploded.

The week was kicked off with an Obama campaign party held at Kelly's in Nob Hill. Although it was difficult to count all individuals who turned out (Obama-sticker-folks) versus those just dining, looked like several hundred were in attendance when we stopped by.

On Friday we followed up with same group at One Up downtown for a debate party. The place was absolutely packed with wide array of faces all eager to hear Obama 'one up' McCain. Even a smal group at the event played political bingo and cheered when key terms like 'recession' or 'Bin Laden' emerged in speeches.

Then on Saturday, we met in the morning at the NE Heights Obama campaign office. Although opposing political sides could argue who 'won' the debate, one thing was sure - Obama campaign won with a surge of volunteers pouring into local offices the next morning. Our team, organized by campaign representative, Peter, was provided with route sheets of registered democrats who requestsed vote-by-mail information. We went in teams of two to visit with this audience and confirm receipt of the information and collect the requests on site.

While walking the neighborhoods around Menaul / Phoenix in NE Heighs, we met a wide array of great people - a couple registered as independents voting Obama. A registered republican furious with her own party for the first time voting democrat. Even a resident in the United States (non-citizen) who through a neighbor that spoke Engligh & Spanish wanted to share how excited she is about Obama as the next President.

Connecting with others and getting out there and sharing thoughts and energy was a great way to reconnect with what is so powerful about this election and the potential of what our country can be. It helped restore hope that the Obama surge is yet to happen and his base of supporteres are out there, eager to vote and smash to pieces the polls.


This post can also be found on Duke City Fix.

Meals on Wheels Pet Program Launch & Community

Today was the first day of the Albuquerque Meals on Wheels pet program. With twenty participating households, four volunteers, and a very gracious sponsorship by Enchantment Pet Spa and Wellness brand pet food, the program eased into its first day of hopefully a long-term program.

We definitely have our improvement points. Routes can be made more efficient and reorganized to minimize excessive miles incurred by volunteers. This is a reasonable pain point not only because people are spending their personal time delivering, but with the cost of gas these days it is a significant expense too. Adding more in depth notes on routes regarding what houses look like / community names / visual cues will help future volunteers navigate routes faster. And I now have a need to stir up additional volunteers - had one quit today and a no show that will hopefully follow through tomorrow.

On my route today, it sunk in how small this program is in comparison to the Meals on Wheels clients' other needs. Delivering a package of pet food to a woman who is homebound with little human interaction on an oxygen tank that takes several minutes to make it to the door is humbling at a core level. This program isn't much and doesn't address a lot of bigger problems that cause these people to worry and stress, but hopefully it is a little bit of hope in their week. Or at least it feeds their comfort and hope - literally, by providing food for their furry companions.

I feel embarrassed at how detached I have become from local hunger and poverty issues through getting wrapped up in my own comfortable life. Basic needs for a lot of locals, and people nationally / worldwide, are minimally met. I hope I/we can do our part to find creative ways to channel energy and skill sets to help contribute in a small way to hopefully making a few local lives a little happier / easier.

Be thankful for what you've got.