Cool random article about one-handed baller…

Basketball Prospect Provides Inspiration With What He Doesn’t Have – NYTimes.com

“It was a science to watch him play,” the former Amador Valley coach Rob Collins said. “With Kevin, you had to have vision, bro. And how could I even care if he messed up? He’s only got one hand. He’s just an amazing dude that everyone should meet once.”

I’ve been on a blogging hiatus lately, mainly because life has been really busy. This article is cool, though.

India, a land of opportunities…

The World – India Calling – NYTimes.com

My love for the country of my birth has never flickered. But these new times piqued interest in my ancestral land. Many of us, the stepchildren of India, felt its change of spirit, felt the gravitational force of condensed hope. And we came.

Great article about the seeming reversal of the ‘brain drain’ – that is, the flow toward India of Indian ethnics born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. Reading what people have to say about this type of phenomena brings me a smile to my face – after all, it does have a lot of parallels to my thesis (which was about transnational choices facing Chinese Americans).

Obama’s Victory

So this past Tuesday, our nation overwhelmingly voted to appoint a Black man to this land’s highest political office. Barack Obama won all over the map, cruising to a victory that even the major networks were able to announce comparatively early in the evening. Still, though the finale wasn’t altogether surprising, I can’t exactly say this was an anticlimax. The spontaneous celebrations and outpourings of joy/relief/triumph in every corner of America tells me that the singular potency of the moment was certainly not lost on many.

As for me, I didn’t cry like a baby and I didn’t get out into a public area to join in a spontaneously display of euphoria Tuesday evening. However, as the week progressed, I couldn’t help but think upon the historicity of the election cycle we had just witnessed. For much of my adult life, America had one president – George W. Bush. Bush took office when I was 14, and I don’t have a lot of memories of American politics from before then. Thus, simply having any other President is pretty shocking to me. The fact that it will be Obama is even more mind-blowing… For the first time since I’ve paid attention, it seems like we are moving past Boomer politics and the culture wars, and it’s nuts.

I realize now, too, how easy it is to get completely wrapped up in politics and elections… And honestly I hope I put my focus more on living.

That said, here is some Obama-related content that I found pretty cool.

Judith Warner on what Obama’s victory signified.

Colin Powell did not dance for joy over Obama’s victory; he wept.

“Look what we did. Look what we did,” he said, puffy-faced, red-eyed, fighting back more tears on CNN. “He’s won. It’s over.”

Neomonastic voices

So lately I’ve been reading Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s The New Monasticism: What it has to say to Today’s Church during work breaks and in my time around the apartment. Wilson-Hartgrove is the co-founder of a neomonastic inner-city community known as Rutba House in North Carolina. The book was definitely on my reading list for awhile but I didn’t get a copy of it til I found it at the LAPL central branch, which happens to be a stone’s throw from my Starbucks. To make a long story short, the book is great and has a lot of very wise and challenging things to say. Jonathan is a lot like Shane except I think he focuses more on the community aspect of neomonastic practices. But it was really refreshing to hear about some of the ways the Kingdom is being manifested in different ways across the United States. I’m being challenged as I realize that I’ve been so steeped in a ‘me-’ culture growing up that it can difficult for me to dream about community like JWH talks about.

Some thoughts on my faith and electoral politics

So I’ve been doing quite a bit of processing in the last 48 hours or so – not to mention the last year or so of my life – regarding how my faith and politics interact. I have been at times an outspoken supporter of Barack Obama this year (and at other times more of a political fly-on-the-wall, esp. when the politics have become downright disgusting), which probably is of little surprise to those who know me. I am also an “evangelical Christian” (I hate being labelled, but ironically I love demographics…), someone who is hungry for Jesus and wants to see him transform every aspect of my life. Many of my friends are strong supporters of McCain/Palin – and would likely be strong supporters of every ticket the GOP could put forth, given a strong opposition to abortion and homosexual marriage. This is something I struggle with – I am definitely ‘pro-life’ in my own understanding of the term, and I am torn over the issue of homosexual marriage…

Evangelical Politics

Evangelical Politics: Three Generations [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]

So a friend of mine mentioned that Krista Tippett (who runs a very interesting NPR series on faith) had spoken to Shane Claiborne and some others at a Pastors conference earlier this year. Last night my roommate and I were speaking and the topic of this talk came up again, so I went and looked it up. After listening to the entire unedited conversation Tippett had with Claiborne, Pastor Greg Boyd, and Chuck Colson, I was extremely impressed. The three included in the talk come from different generations and disagree on various points about how evangelicals should approach the political arena, however they all struck me as very passionate, eloquent, and honest in their attempts to live their faith. I highly recommend this talk to any and every Christian, especially in the light of the upcoming election season.

Less meat, more sustainable diets

What the 21st Century Will Taste Like – Esquire

So it really chilled me when he said, “America better prepare for some uncomfortable changes. Things might get really ugly.” · You’ve seen the articles, right there on the front page next to equally uplifting stories about oil, the economy, and the war: The cost of food–of producing and procuring it–is soaring.

So when David Chang, one of New York’s fastest culinary risers (and pork-serving hero) writes about the necessity of changing the role of meat in 21st century America, it’s time to sit up and take notice. Not that this came without warning, or anything… I hope that this can motivate me (and other Americans) to have more healthy diets.

I didn’t have internet access for awhile, and otherwise really haven’t felt like blogging. It’s very odd, being an adult, out of college, unemployed and uninsured. When I was growing up, I never really figured I’d be part of those statistics – it’s a humbling experience, which is good. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been reading quite a bit. One book I would highly recommend is Francis Chan’s and Danae Yankoski’s Crazy Love. Francis and Danae have some extremely important and intensely challenging things to say (they don’t pull many punches). Crazy Love was definitely a book which challenged me to look at the way I live.

The election, in recent months

So in recent months (especially after I read Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s wonderful Jesus for President), I think I have been observing this election with more interest than fervor. In actuality I took a several month break from keeping up with any but the most basic election news.

Now that I have been keeping up just a tad bit more, however, I’ve been trying to understand something which has baffled me a bit this entire election cycle, but mostly since the likely nominees were chosen. Mainly, the question of identification with the two candidates, and why many people don’t seem to ‘get’ Obama at all.

But when I was reading the NYT the other day, things started to make sense to me.
Man in the News – Biggest Step Yet for a Lifelong Striver – NYTimes.com

He does not easily exult, despair or anger: to do so would be an
indulgence, a distraction from his goals. Instead, they say, he
separates himself from the moment and assesses.

Getting settled, with tidbits

Wow it feels like forever since I last blogged. Actually my unplanned break started when I moved to my new place, where I’ve spent the last two weeks getting settled, gobbling up books, keeping tabs on the Olympics, exploring my new community, reflecting, and in general transitioning into my Servant Partners program. I’m probably gonna take another blogging hiatus as I’m traveling to Manila soon and I find most of my writing energies are being used for other forms of reflection. But for now…

ASIAN POP / Could Obama be the first Asian American president?

In fact, reading Obama’s absorbing 1995 memoir “Dreams from My Father,” it strikes me that the tropes that surround and define Obama can just as easily be read as those of another community entirely.

I’ve gotta say the idea this dude covers has kinda been sitting around the back of my brain recently. I don’t really think it ever got fleshed out though. Lately I’ve been dealing with a lot of cultural and cross-cultural learning, so perhaps that really triggered a connection with this article. It definitely strikes me that a lot of what Obama has to say I’d expect to hear from an Asian American. So yeah, interesting read.

Meanwhile, Lyricks has some new material over on his myspace. Love the music that brother puts out and hope more people check him out.

Lastly, I’ve been working on a google map of places I eat out in LA, kinda as a reference for friends new to the area and also for myself (I always forget certain places are around). Here it is, work in progress.

View Larger Map

Prayers

Russia and Georgia Clash Over Separatist Region – NYTimes.com

GORI, Georgia — Russia conducted airstrikes on Georgian targets on Friday evening, escalating the conflict in a separatist area of Georgia

Another war is going on in the world today. Hopefully not something which will be pushed under the carpet as a result of Olympics-related euphoria. Thinking about it, it’s kinda crazy. Not to say this is the only war zone, what with people fighting in Afghanistan and Darfur and elsewhere. Please pray for those caught in the fighting or otherwise affected.