Return

Today's word is return. This took me a bit to come up with something. Finally I settled on a picture of my front door. I like to travel, but when I'm on my return trip there is nothing more exciting than the sight of my front door. It means that I have made it back. I am home. I can kick my feet up and relax, take a shower, lay in my bed, play my guitars, etc. 

Lent is supposed to be a season of return and renewal. When I return to my house I am free to be me. I'm no longer limited to the clothes that I packed or what was in my car (or more often my saddle bags) It is the same when we return to God we are set free. Anything that was binding us or limiting us is gone we can be comfortable. Not that we should stop doing things and become stagnant, but we don't have to work to be accepted. We can be ourselves and are free to realize our full potential. Sometimes when I first get back from a trip I still live out of my suitcase. Sometimes when we return we still live with the restrictions we have gotten so used to working with. Remember that we have the whole wardrobe (and guitar rack! :-D) available to us once we've come home.

Who Am I?

Who am I? I don't like taking pictures of myself. So I had to come up with a way to take a picture that represented who I am without me in it. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "He wears many hats." used to describe someone. I decided that would be a good way to express who I am without having to take a picture of me. These are some of my most prominent hats and represent important aspects of my life. They are in no particular order of importance.

The closest to the camera is the bandanna I wear when I play gigs. So it represents my music. The gray fedora behind it was given to me by my grandfather, before that it belonged to my great-grandfather (who had a very small head) I used it to represent my family. The white ball cap is the one I wore as drum major of the Marching Salukis. It represents my time in the Marching Salukis as well as my time at SIU in general. Behind that, is my patrol cap which represents my service in the National Guard. Finally the motorcycle helmet, because I love my motorcycle!

So all of these represent me and things that I have done, but the question is "Who am I?" this is a difficult question to answer. When ever you meet someone new you usually start with names. Then often the conversation turns to "What do you do?" maybe this is because actions speak louder than words. You can tell a great deal about a person by knowing what kind of things they do and enjoy, but is this really who they are?

As I have reflected on this question today, I have come to an answer. I don't know if it is the right one but it is an answer all the same. Who am I? No one of consequence. Now I don't say this in some sort of self-effacing or negative way. I'm not looking for pity or moping around all ho-hum woe is me. In fact quite the opposite. Stick with me hopefully it will make a bit more sense.

This evening I attended an Ash Wednesday service. As the ashes were placed in a cross on my forehead, the pastor delivered the whole "From dust you came, to dust you shall return." It seems a bit morbid. "Hey glad you came to church by the way: you're dirt!" Try thinking about it differently for a moment. You, me, everybody a bunch of mud people walking around. Crazy! Nothing but dirt and God is SO good he can make awesome things happen. Every symphony ever composed, every work of literature ever written, every sculpture, painting, architectural masterpiece, EVERYTHING... Its all dirt. Pretty cool! I've never seen dirt do that on its own. Something had to help. So again I say: I am no one of consequence. I'm just a pile of dirt, but God has done some pretty cool things with this pile!

Well I've been slacking, but I have found something to get me in the habit of writing more often. In fact for the next 46 days I am going to write every day as well as post a picture. I can't take any credit for being original or anything, but I think it will be a fun way to reflect through the Lenten season.

If you want to join me you can read more here: Lenten Photo-A-Day

And of course the mandatory pic:

Well if I'm going to do this on a weekly basis, I should write something. I'm already a day late.

For the record I am not a blind optimist. I tend to consider myself a realist. I often assume the worst, and over think things. With that being said, the following discussion sounds sickeningly optimistic, but I firmly believe it to be the case. Often even I do not adhere to all the tenants, but I should.  

I have been training at my new job, and it has really brought into light exactly how important perspective is. I know it sounds cliche, but mindset really is everything. This isn't a new concept to me, but as I enter a new environments it is again reinforced. I suppose I could write a fairly long entry on the value of a good attitude. I hesitate to do so, I feel that there is no reason to try and complicate a very simple point.

Attitude is everything.

That is all there is to it. Why are there so many unhappy rich people? Why are some people living on the streets content with so little? The only thing we have control over is our attitude. Everything else could change in the blink of an eye. 

Again I'm not a fan of blogs without pictures so here is an stereotypical "artistic" down-the-keyboard shot of a piano... If I really wanted to go for it I should have put it in black-and-white huh?

I am going to actually try to update this at least once a week. It seems like a good practice if only for the purpose of collecting my thoughts. I do not really have a defined purpose, so it will be a bit free form. Originally, the blog was created for a class. The class is over and the blog remains. I might as well use it, right?

I have written about three more paragraphs and deleted them because I feel as if no one would ever want to read them. The internet is full of enough rambling already. I will bid you farewell until I have something more significant to say.

Blogs with just text are boring, so for now here's a picture of a dead bug on my sunglasses.

Oh, I almost forgot! if you want a blog with purpose check out some friends of mine:

http://percussionsauce.blogspot.com

http://sethtowerhurd.com

Above: Me, my father, Maj. Arthur Fager, and my grandfather, E. P. Fager

The Fager Military History (working title) is a documentary that contains first-hand accounts from three generations of military veterans. The Fager’s military history stretches back five generations to the Civil War. It includes most of the major conflicts; the Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Army, Navy, Marines, and the Army Air Corps (which later became the Air Force) are all represented. This documentary is a loosely related series that can be heard as a whole or as self-contained installments. Each episode will contain a short introduction followed by an anecdote from the service member who is featured in the piece.

It is not difficult to find military records on a family member. These records list when and where they served, awards they may have received, etc. That is not the goal of this documentary. The focus of this documentary is to collect the stories from the service members themselves. This preserves more than just the factual records. It gives insight into the personality of the subject. Rather than just reading the story or hearing it told second-hand. Listeners get to hear the history from those who lived through it. This includes all the nuances of the storytellers’ voices. The common thread that runs through the series is the storytellers’ relation to the creator of the series, and each other. This will build a cast of characters whose stories overlap, share common themes, and influence each other in various ways. There is a unique opportunity to hear similar overlapping stories from multiple points of view.

This link leads to the first of installment of the series.

Fager Documentary Ep. 1

I have decided to compile an audio record of some of my family's military history. I guess you could call it an audio documentary, though I would almost consider it more of an oral history. The idea was first developed for a class. We have to create a 5-8 minute audio documentary. I was going to attempt to cover this history  in that amount of time. The difficulty being: as I devoted more thought to it, I became almost instantly aware of the fact that with that time constraint I would have little time to do more than briefly introduce each family member. At which point I decided that I would devote a segment of similar length to each member of my family.

That was my plan as I headed in to my first interview with my grandfather a veteran of the Second World War. I started the interview as one normally does asking for him to identify himself, give his age and a short background. He started with what I asked for and then continued telling the stories of his military career for the next two hours without me having to ask another question. It was fantastic! The stories were enthralling, (at least to me) so I just sat and listened.

As I was leaving the interview I found myself wondering how I was going to possibly condense two hours' worth of stories into a single segment. To do any sort of justice to it would be impossible, so I decided to narrow my scope again. So for the first installment of this oral history I have chosen a single episode from my Grandfather's time in the Pacific Islands.