History is not always made in the big events -- the wars, the crashing markets, the celebrity gossip. Dare I say it is rarely made there? Those headlines shape our cultural landscape, leaving monuments to honor and battlefields to forget, but we each traverse through on our own two feet.
We walk in the details, the minutiae of waking, dressing, eating, seeing, hurting, laughing, hoping for a better tomorrow, filing away the stories of today. This is where history is made. This is the path our memories trace.
May 22, 2009:
* Marcus Kirwin Aden Schoessler was born. My best friend phoned at one in the afternoon, baby in arm, voice serene. I was the one who cried. Welcome to your world, Marcus. May God dwell richly in you and your parents as they raise you to follow Him.
* I returned to editing my book. It was like sitting down to coffee with a dear friend, each of us apologizing for the too-long space between meetings. Let's do it again tomorrow, hmm?
* The crickets sang, and in their melody I relived a dozen childhood summers. I closed my eyes and saw stars winking above my head, nearly within grasp if I could just...reach...a few inches...higher.
* I stood on my lawn, drinking mint tea, eyes wide in wonder at the flashing glory of Spring's first thunderstorm. Dewy grass tickled bare toes; falling rain tickled upturned nose.
* As I sat on the floor listening to music, our dog tucked her head under my arm, trembling at each thunder clap. I held her close, tight, until she finally slept.
* Strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Smile. That is a good memory.
What history did you make today?
5.22.2009
5.20.2009
5.19.2009
All in the line of duty...
When I first started working as a crew leader with the U.S. Census Bureau, I suspected I'd be talking on the phone and crunching numbers most the day. And I have done plenty of those things. What I didn't know, however, was that I'd be "forced" to drive into the wilds of Wyoming...in the line of duty. All peeps, no matter how remotely located, have to be accounted for, right?
Recently, my Dad and I took the Jeep for a spin to find those reclusive sorts in our state. The roads started out innocently enough...gravel, dirt, rutted two-tracks. We pushed on...all in the line of duty, of course.
The roads became lakes. But we pushed on...all in the line of duty.
The lakes became muddy rivers. But we revved up and plowed through, pushing on in the line of duty.
The rivers became...well, crystalized. Snowy. Glaring white. Dare I say it?
Impassable.
We pushed...the camera's shutter button, capturing mountain, sky, father, daughter, unexpected bliss.
Look what adventures we had today...all in the line of duty, of course.
5.15.2009
Two Roads
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost
I was out doing some rural field work for the Census Bureau this week. At this fork in the road, I couldn't help but think of Robert Frost's oft-quoted poem. And so, I quote it again here, surprised at how something that runs the risk of being cliche can still speak to my adventure-seeking spirit.
Truth is, I took both roads that day...for the sake of duty. Both were little traveled; on the right fork I saw bear prints, and on the left, I shared the path with elk prints and a tiny, slithering snake. Trees creaked in the wind, the sun warmed my skin, and views of Laramie Peak, still veined with snow, called me ever onward. If I hadn't had a job to do and a worried mother to report back to, I think I may have just kept walking...
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost
I was out doing some rural field work for the Census Bureau this week. At this fork in the road, I couldn't help but think of Robert Frost's oft-quoted poem. And so, I quote it again here, surprised at how something that runs the risk of being cliche can still speak to my adventure-seeking spirit.
Truth is, I took both roads that day...for the sake of duty. Both were little traveled; on the right fork I saw bear prints, and on the left, I shared the path with elk prints and a tiny, slithering snake. Trees creaked in the wind, the sun warmed my skin, and views of Laramie Peak, still veined with snow, called me ever onward. If I hadn't had a job to do and a worried mother to report back to, I think I may have just kept walking...
5.01.2009
1 : 6,776,988,185
* The population of my small town is around 5,500 people. The population of abandoned street children in Guatemala City is about the same.
* The population of my entire state is about 550,000. If I multiplied that by 73, I would get the number of children living and working on the street in Latin America -- an estimated 40 million according to UNICEF -- who steal, kill and prostitute themselves to survive, who do drugs to forget their hunger and their loneliness.
* My two best girlfriends in town -- Sarah and Becky -- mean the world to me. If we lived in Afghanistan, one of the three of us would be guaranteed to live life with physical, psychological or sexual violence. And we'd all die at the ripe old age of 44.
* My house has 8 windows upstairs. If I built 49 houses identical to mine, and put red lights in every window, my neighborhood would glow like the Red-Light District in Amsterdam, whose more than 400 windows house thousands of prostitutes. I would have to build 300,000 houses to employ the 2.4 million worldwide victims of human trafficking. Or I could just sell the entire city of Chicago into sex slavery.
* I have two sinks, one shower and one toilet in my house. On average, I use 400 liters of water per day. More than half of the world's population uses 10 liters per day. And 884 million of those people don't have access to safe water, leading to the infection of millions with preventable water-borne diseases and the death of 5,000 children per day.
* I am one person. One out of six billion seven hundred seventy six million nine hundred eighty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-five people in the world.
* But I have one mouth to tell all those people I care about them. I have two feet to carry me to where they live. I have two eyes to see what I should -- no, what I must -- do to help. I have two hands to work to relieve their pain. I have two ears to listen to their stories -- and ten fingers to write them for the world to read.
* I have one heart. And I'm learning, as I read and hear and see stories of pain and injustice and poverty, that a heart can hold an awful lot of love. Now I just need to learn to give that love away -- to family, friend, stranger and foe. That is my prayer.
* God help me love. God help me move. God help me. God help your people.
--Statistics and wake-up call taken from Relevant Magazine, March/April 2009 issue. Visit www.relevantmagazine.com for more information and to read "Reject Apathy" by editor/publisher Cameron Strang. Additional statistics taken from Living Water International.
--www.RejectApathy.org
--www.actionintl.org, www.unicef.org, www.compassion.com
--www.amnesty.org, www.wapha.org
--www.ijm.org, www.notforsalecampaign.org
--www.worldrelief.org, www.freeforlifeministries.com, www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
--www.water.cc
Coastal living in Tanjung Balai, Karimun, Indonesia. Behind me, as I took this photograph, was an open sewer, the stench of which burned my nostrils and made my stomach churn.
Riverfront property on the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand.
This woman gathers garbage from the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand.
Children in Vang Vieng, Laos.
Typical housing in Vang Vieng, Laos.
* The population of my entire state is about 550,000. If I multiplied that by 73, I would get the number of children living and working on the street in Latin America -- an estimated 40 million according to UNICEF -- who steal, kill and prostitute themselves to survive, who do drugs to forget their hunger and their loneliness.
* My two best girlfriends in town -- Sarah and Becky -- mean the world to me. If we lived in Afghanistan, one of the three of us would be guaranteed to live life with physical, psychological or sexual violence. And we'd all die at the ripe old age of 44.
* My house has 8 windows upstairs. If I built 49 houses identical to mine, and put red lights in every window, my neighborhood would glow like the Red-Light District in Amsterdam, whose more than 400 windows house thousands of prostitutes. I would have to build 300,000 houses to employ the 2.4 million worldwide victims of human trafficking. Or I could just sell the entire city of Chicago into sex slavery.
* I have two sinks, one shower and one toilet in my house. On average, I use 400 liters of water per day. More than half of the world's population uses 10 liters per day. And 884 million of those people don't have access to safe water, leading to the infection of millions with preventable water-borne diseases and the death of 5,000 children per day.
* I am one person. One out of six billion seven hundred seventy six million nine hundred eighty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-five people in the world.
* But I have one mouth to tell all those people I care about them. I have two feet to carry me to where they live. I have two eyes to see what I should -- no, what I must -- do to help. I have two hands to work to relieve their pain. I have two ears to listen to their stories -- and ten fingers to write them for the world to read.
* I have one heart. And I'm learning, as I read and hear and see stories of pain and injustice and poverty, that a heart can hold an awful lot of love. Now I just need to learn to give that love away -- to family, friend, stranger and foe. That is my prayer.
* God help me love. God help me move. God help me. God help your people.
--Statistics and wake-up call taken from Relevant Magazine, March/April 2009 issue. Visit www.relevantmagazine.com for more information and to read "Reject Apathy" by editor/publisher Cameron Strang. Additional statistics taken from Living Water International.
--www.RejectApathy.org
--www.actionintl.org, www.unicef.org, www.compassion.com
--www.amnesty.org, www.wapha.org
--www.ijm.org, www.notforsalecampaign.org
--www.worldrelief.org, www.freeforlifeministries.com, www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
--www.water.cc
Coastal living in Tanjung Balai, Karimun, Indonesia. Behind me, as I took this photograph, was an open sewer, the stench of which burned my nostrils and made my stomach churn.
Riverfront property on the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand. 
This woman gathers garbage from the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand. 
Children in Vang Vieng, Laos.
Typical housing in Vang Vieng, Laos.
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