Periscope – “an apparatus consisting of a tube attached to a set of mirrors or prisms, by which an observer (typically in a submerged submarine or behind a high obstacle) can see things that are otherwise out of sight.”
Welcome to my Blog! I hope you enjoy it here. Below is a slightly fun, but in all reality quite serious description of why I am starting a blog (if you find yourself curious).
TLDR – I will serve as your periscope to see into a world that you may not have known existed. That world is real, its my world, our world, and hope to explore it with you.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. Gandalf once said this when he and his party were lost in the Mines of Moria. I think he had far reaching wisdom when he spoke these words. I imagine being next to Gandalf in that cave. Hearing the dripping of the water droplets falling off of the stalactites, strange winged creatures staring out at me in the darkness above. Doubtless, one would be prone to feel afraid (I know I would, not knowing where to go, or where we came from, or really what all this business is about a ring and saving the world and whatnot), but in this instant, Gandalf, in just a few words, does the impossible. He completely disarms the fear of his party members. How does he do this? He presents them with a fundamental, unshakable reality. In doing so he commands all of the swirling possible horrors that “may” happen out of the minds of those around him (including me, who for the purposes of this monolog, am currently in the cave with Gandalf..and my laptop). All of the sudden I see before me a simple, almost laughably simple road. I cannot teleport out of the cave, I cannot magically make a five course dinner appear, I cannot remove the existential threat of Sauron from the planet, all I can do in fact, is use the time given to me in this moment for the best possible good. So with Gandalf-given resolve, I decide to shoulder my pack. I straighten my back, look forwards, and take a step. Then another, and another.
Friends, what does it mean to decide how to use our time? This is a question that has pestered me for years. I used to think one could chose to not decide, to stave off the ever present myriad of options that are always and ever before us. And in a sense one can do just that. One can sit paralyzed in fear of what is to come, and what may come. But this is no choice. This is no way to live.
Our world is swirling. In my short 24 years of life, I have never seen such a tumultuous state. Everything is so loud, so confusing, and so oppressive. Everyone demands to be heard, but no one relents to listen. No one wants to use their time. People sadly are content to watch the time they have been given slip away from them. To escape into the bowls of social media, to run to arms of noise, of entertainment, to do anything at all except to take the next step forward.
Well my dear reader, that is why I am starting my project here. I want to write to you and to show you that another life is possible. A life of peace, of prospective, of observing, doing, laughing, creating, analyzing, and wondering. So blog post by blog post, essay by essay, project by project, by each cooking receipe shared, by each random project attempted that my whimsy desires, by each and every thought I hope to combat the plague of not deciding.
Sometimes days will be sad, whole seasons of life will be sad, challenging, frought with danger and challenge. I will be honest with you in those times. Not all my posts will be happy, not all my posts will be sad, in fact some may be about gummy bears, or origami, or how to repair a 1980s sailboat. But above it all, this blog is one way that I am deciding to use my time. I am deciding to use it in hopes of reach you, of showing you the world is not hopeless. In fact, there is a good deal of adventure out there, and its worth deciding for.
I hope to encourage you to decide to use your time, and to use it for good. So come lets get out our periscopes, and see what is next on the horizen!
The Perry Scope 