and more gratitude...again

Something important happened today: I thought maybe I'd lost, or at least made inaccessible, some old writings of mine a while ago when I reinstalled my system software on an older computer, a precursor to the one I have now. I knew I had some stuff on an old hard drive from an even older computer, but I don't know where that hard drive is, and I was planning on taking it to a computer store to have the files copied off of it and onto a CD.

Well, while I was looking for the hard drive, I was ignoring a bunch of floppy discs I've had laying around, but God nudged me to look on those. So i did. And I've got back a lot, if not all, of my old stories. I just ned to get my school papers and my thesis back, and I'll be fine.
So thanks to God for recovery of a lot of stuff on which I worked very hard. I felt like part of me that was missing has been found.

What can I say? Writers, even semi-former writers, get attached to their work.

encouraging, yet a little disturbing...

Okay, so ever since Sept. 11th, 2001, I've kind of wondered if people think I, who look to be of Middle Eastern descent when I've got my head shaved, look like a terrorist. Perhaps my getting cast in a movie recently to play one has got me thinking, but I reflect on two key things here: 1) I haven't been taken for one (terrorist), at least not to my face, but 2) I notice some people around where I live, at least in their speech, seem to think that Middle Eastern young man and "terrorist" are synonymous. I think this is a media thing, and it's sort of unfair, y'know? I could say, "Since when did that happen", but most people probably know it's since 9/11. I also know that a lot of terrorists do come from Middle Eastern countries. What I don't like is the automatic equating of one with the other.

When I took the part in the film, I hoped, and found, that the filmmaker gave the terrorist some dimension, a reason why he was doing what he was doing. Even if that part isn't in the film, it's encouraging that the director/writer at least thought about it.

So here's the point: just because one looks like a young Middle Eastern man doesn't mean he's a terrorist. He might be one, but he's likely not. Heck, as in my case, he might not even be Middle Eastern.

See beyond the surface.

more thanks to God

Well, this time last week I was wondering how long it would take to get some parts in acting. Now, thank God, I have a few parts to play. Perhaps that had something to do with God's reminder that I should sow into other peoples' work rather than just looking for paying gigs. I mean, this is Oklahoma--paying gigs are hard to come by, but why not take the opportunity to invest into somebody else's stuff? You get experience, goodwill and credit, all of which I'll need. I praise and thank You, God, for the correction and the parts, and for what's to come.

-Love, Sean

issues

issues

I shared this with my best friend as we were talking about the issues that are important to us this presidential election. Thought I'd share.

Important issues to me (in no particular order):


1) Religion--the candidate must uphold freedom of religion. It's important to me that we be allowed to worship freely and worship whomever we regard as our higher power, or to not worship at all. Government must not _make_ us worship or not worship.

2) The environment--we must realize and act on the knowledge that we have done more in the last hundred years to screw up the environment than has been done since Moses was a lad. To that end, it's important that we find alternative fuels for our polluting cars. Once that's done and accepted, we can use those fuels to supply energy in other areas, but I think cars are the worst offenders, so let's stop the bleeding, and then we can go on to fix more of the environmental injuries.
Really, we just have to be good stewards of the earth. We are not the only ones here, and we want to leave the place in good repair for subsequent generations.

3) Health care--the sick get good-quality help. Not a band-aid and a foot in the butt. This should be subsidized by the government and private industry, and I would be willing to pay more in taxes to fund this. Alternatively, there's a bit of a skirmish in a desert from which we could divert funds.

4) Education--this is of huge importance to me--we need to pay our teachers a good wage for what they do. A good wage is one that has the good ones sticking around rather than going off to other states that pay better. The emphasis is on quality, quality, quality from pre-school through graduate school. We should demand more of kids, of parents and of teachers than I understand that we do. And high-schoolers should not be focused so much on ACT/SATs--it's not about a good test score but about learning stuff. I'm thinking depth of education here.

5) Drugs--I don't know that marijuana, though I don't do it myself, is necessarily harmful. Maybe that should be legalized while still keeping other, more harmful drugs illegal and vigorously going after the big fish in that arena.

6) Abortion--I don't know that that should be illegal unless we can somehow guarantee that we won't go back to the hangar-in-the-alley days. Other than that, I think the woman's body has a system built-in that will abort a baby if needed. These are called miscarriages. I figure her body will take care of itself without help from the government, thank you very much.

7) Equal rights--women and men should earn equal pay given equal experience and equal positions. It's been enough time now--women should have the chops to do a job as well as if not better than a man.

8) I think we should encourage small business more (businesses earning, say, less than 1 million dollars a year) than we encourage big businesses. There's got to be a way for small businesspeople to continue to coexist with big and medium-size business symbiotically and without fear of hostile takeovers by bigger businesses. Perhaps emphasizing shopping for locally-grown produce--keeping as many dollars spent, spent locally.