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http://www.sofolo.com/

The majority of my online life is gathered up here and wrapped in prettiness for your viewing pleasure! (my blog, my facebook updates, last.fm, goodreads, youtube favorites, and more to come!)  I am really impressed with flavors.me.

Also, you will notice that I have moved my blog (again!).  It’s true, I am leaving WordPress.  I started out blogging on Tumblr and felt it was too lightweight and was really turned off with the lack of a built-in commenting system.  I moved to WordPress and loved it, it’s packed full of features, the thing is–i don’t use half of them.  Enter Posterous.  Posterous has bridged the gap between Tumblr and WordPress for me.  Crazy simple blogging…with comments and a whole lot more.  I’m going to be merging my music blog (Tumblr) into my Posterous account as well, considering they will host my file for me and present it in a pretty little flash player.  Enough chatter, here’s my new blog address:

http://sofolo.posterous.com/

You can subscribe via RSS feed or good old fashioned email!

–Kierkegaard
Filed under: Quotes Tagged: Christ, Jesus, Kierkegaard, Obedience ]]> http://sofolo.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/189/feed/ 0 sofolo http://sofolo.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/the-story-of-cap-and-trade/ http://sofolo.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/the-story-of-cap-and-trade/#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:53:06 +0000 Chrisotpher Sofolo http://sofolo.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/the-story-of-cap-and-trade/ ]]> The Story of Cap and Trade

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smiling:

running around with animals strapped to our backs:

getting bundled up to play in the snow:

embracing the prickly wonder:

and since it was so rainy out today, grandpa and i brought in buckets of snow and built a snowman in the shower!:

oh, and i think i might have fractured my good pinky!  yikes!

i hope you all are having a wonderful christmas.  we are enjoying the season and all it’s festivities . . . but rowan’s impending arrival has taken ahold of our conscience.  there have been days of false labor and we are ready for the real thing!

what a perfect way to celebrate the closing of a year . . . a newly birthed babe cradled in my arms.  my cynical 26-year-old eyes staring deeply into the innocent purity of his.  teach me, my son!

so, here is my holiday mix for 2009.  i hope you enjoy it!

by now you must be thinking that i loved this film, and i guess i have been gushing a bit.  but truth be told…i’m not so sure i did like it, thus my irresolution.  this was the clincher for me: the crude sexual content.  i totally understand that it is a vital part of the story.  i understand that it exists to show the depraved state of some and the horrific desperation of others.  you cannot remove it completely and still leave the story in tact.  but did the execution need to be so distastefully disturbing?  i guess the point was to disturb and shock in order to bring the reality of many peoples lives into the light.  i just feel it was too bleak and could have been done in a way that still eluded to reality without the graphic content.  not only is it too disturbing for me to enjoy fully but it limits the audience of this film hugely.  and that is what saddens me most.  i want to love this movie.  i want everyone i know to see it.  but alas . . . i feel like i could not comfortably recommend it to anyone.  i have to agree with my wife:  ”i wish they would have just made a documentary”.  i also have to agree with her in “this was one of the most depressing movies, ever”.

a lot of the information the movie discusses is not new to me, but it definitely brings forth a bunch of new questions.  i am now very pumped to read eric schlosser’s book that was the inspiration for the film.  i will let you know my thoughts on that whenever it is that i get around to reading it.  if your hungry for information on this subject matter don’t watch the movie first….read the book.  also, here are some links:

the backwards hamburger (video)

the meatrix

sustainable table

take part

i am NOT talking about that kind of vessel or that kind of minuscule crack.  i’m talking broken . . . like full on shattered into a thousand million pieces.  this is us.  this is our society, our culture.  i am reminded of this shattered condition when i see this or read this.

so many cultures, worldwide, find reasons to gather themselves together for a common purpose.  it could be a celebration of the phases of the moon or the changing of the seasons.  or maybe a new life is being welcomed with eager arms or an old one kissed farewell.  there are countless reasons to come together for a common purpose as a family,  community or nation.  in fact, we continually create new ones because we love the senses that are awakened during such times.  this hunger for community is primal.

that being said . . . what purpose is it that we find ourselves gathered together every fourth friday of november?  why is it that throngs of people hang out together for hours upon hours, outside, and in various climate conditions?  not for the sole pleasure of “being together” i can assure you of that.  it is, of course, to buy more plastic crap at “ridiculously low prices”!  what else did you expect from a consumer society such as our own?  as we all know, consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions.  so, do we wait in line because we think we fill find some happiness in that new plasma-rific television that doesn’t even need a remote control because it reads our thoughts?  or maybe we have that voice in our heads telling us that if want to please our loved ones . . . if we REALLY want to express our deep-felt love and appreciation and bring them some “happiness” we should buy them that perfect gift that we can’t afford.  but wait, we CAN afford it because it’s $200 off during the black friday doorbuster sale!

the fracture is not in what we are doing, but what is driving us.  what brought us to this point?  what chain of events have diluted and polluted the construct of love in our minds?  did your father abuse your mother because his father did the same to him and/or his mother?  (what effect is without a cause?)  how do we begin the daunting task of gathering all the shattered pieces and making them whole again?

i know, i’m awfully good at asking questions and i definitely don’t have all the answers. but i think we might have a chance if we begin small and we begin united, one tiny shard at a time.  we can teach each-other how to love again.  and before you know it, we’ll look back and realized we’ve created something beautiful.

in regards to your gift giving dilemma.  go ahead and buy some.  gifts aren’t evil.  buying “things” is not wrong.   but this holiday season, if you really want to show your loved ones that you care . . . grab them in your arms and hug them with all you’ve got.  i’m not talking about a half-hearted hug with limp arms or the infamous double pat.  REALLY hug them.  close your eyes and center yourself, let your love for that person just consume you for a few moments.  this kind of hug will not soon be forgotten and is crazy contagious.

if you need any pointers you can ask my sister-in-law, annette.  she is the master of the five minute hug.

final note:  there is a wonderful alternative to black friday called “buy nothing day” where you do just that.  my wife has already committed to going shopping today with her mom, sister and sister-in-law.  *gasp!*  but, starting next year we are joining this “moratorium on consumer spending”.  i think it’s a fantastic idea and a great way to challenge ourselves.  some people just don’t buy anything for 24 hours. (a great starting point) while others take it further and shut off their lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances.  some even park their cars, turn off their phones and log off of their computers for the day.  why not give it a try?

—

on the pharmaceutical industry testing drugs in Africa:

“No, there are no murders in Africa. Only regrettable deaths.

And from those deaths we derive the benefits of civilization,

benefits we can afford so easily… because those lives were bought so cheaply.”

to sum it up, and i quote:

“This is how the world fucks Africa”

–Shane Claiborne

taken from “The Irresistible Revolution”