short and sweet

It would seem evident that Will neither reads nor writes in his blog.

But the teeming masses of fans deserve to know about the two new women in Will's life.

Will, won't you tell us about them?

We hear they are both short and sweet...

(posted by The Hacker)

from the non-resident hacker

Will needs to update his blog.

Desperately.

And if he doesn't...

Well...the threats remain.

Summer at home

I'm back at school after a wonderful summer split between Oregon and northern California. Here are just a few of the highlights:
- Dinner at home with my family
- Hiking in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness with my siblings
- Eating barbecued hamburgers four times in three days
- Watching a thunderstorm (from under an overhang) with my little brother
- Getting to run a backhoe for the first time on two brand new machines
- Eating lots of homemade ice cream
- A three-day backpack trip in California's Trinity mountains - fishing, swimming, climbing, relaxing
- Working with my cousin (and then cousins), talking about serious things and silly things
- Singing familiar songs in familiar churches and learning new things from God's Word
- Sticking my feet in a cold mountain stream with my siblings after hiking above the crowds at Multnomah Falls
- Stuffing my mouth with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries
- Flying kites in our field after nine years of poplar trees
- Climbing Oregon's third tallest peak (10,358 feet) with my little brother
- Driving across the most boring parts of the country with two far from boring people
- Arriving back at PHC for my final year

Life at this little college in Northern Virginia is good in its own way. But I think I would burn out without the refreshment and refocusing of a summer at home.

I wish....

...student politics wouldn't become personal and interfere with friendships and friendliness.
...people would talk to me when they have a problem with me.
...people cared as much about God's righteousness as they do about their own righteousness.
...Christians would actually live by 1 Cor. 13.
...those who find it necessary to attack me would at least refrain from attacking my friends.
...it were easier to love people that apparently hate me.

For that last one, I'm going to need God's help. I want to respond in anger, when I'm supposed to respond in love.

Loving your enemies is easy to talk about. It's hard to do.

Thoughts on a Cold Night

It is a cold night here in Northern Virginia; the mercury sits at 11 degrees and the wind chill takes it to -4. But the night is beautiful, with the waning moon shining through clear skies. These middle-of-the-night security shifts are tough on my sleeping pattern, but they are kind of fun. I like the stillness when the whole campus is asleep. For a few hours I can get away from my two hundred fifty neighbors and be alone.

Everyone needs time to get away from everything. There are different ways to do it. I find running refreshing because it gives me time to take my mind away from schoolwork and schoolmates, and reorganize my thoughts. Something about the physical exertion seems to have a purging effect on the brain, removing the mental stress through physical stress. Running also gives me a chance to experience a little bit of the outdoors, something else that is difficult to get in my collegiate lifestyle. Since I am here in urbanite Virginia with little time on my hands, running serves as a substitute to my favorite pastime - hunting.

Hunting, in my opinion, is the best and most concentrated form of both mind-clearing aloneness and the invigorating wildness of the outdoors. Requiring physical exertion, mental alertness, silence, and a good deal of patience, hunting is the best way to exercise both mind and body. Thomas Jefferson made this same observation. In 1785, he wrote to his nephew Peter Carr:

"In order to assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what hours you have free from the school and the exercises of the school. Give about two of them, every day, to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."

I am not about to give up games played with a ball (although the last two football games have proved pretty violent for my body). But I heartily concur with Jefferson's other advice. He went on to write: "Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking is to relax the mind." This relaxation of the mind is exactly what I need in the midst of my studies (although my studies are nothing compared to those of Jefferson's nephew).

It is about time for me to go on patrol, to once again venture into the moonlit night and enjoy a frigid stroll. The walk will most assuredly relax my mind.

Now all I need is a gun.

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14

Finals are starting to get to me

I think I am going crazy.