Here I Am

I made it back to America! Yeah, I landed in Charlotte, NC at about 5 pm on Friday night, and I was picked up by Pat and Alan and brought back to beautiful Columbia, SC. That night I had an amazing burger and a dark beer at Rockaways and then had some more good beer with Dando, Nate, Pat, and Alan. Couldn't ask for a better first night back. Friends, food, and beer that, unlike all the beer you could get in Villars, is darker than my pee.

Since I've been back I haven't done much. It's been at least 80 degrees here in Columbia every day and I don't have a car so I've been trying to find stuff to do in Alan's . . . wait a second. I'm watching TV right now and a show just came on where they're documenting the Ohio State Grade School Wrestling Championships. I don't even know what to say. Little kids throwing each other around on a mat acting like hardcore big dogs--like they're already men--until they start to lose the match and start to cry. There's nothing wrong with crying. It's just that if you didn't see the little kids wrestling in the background, you'd think all the adults were coaching and screaming at grown men and the kids are acting like grown men until the match is over and the loser is sobbing hysterically and everyone has to switch gears back to the reality that the kid that they just told (and I'm quoting) "This is the most important match of your life" and "If he hurts you, you hurt him worse" is just that: a kid who is at most 11 years old. That was a long long run-on sentence. Anyway.

I've been trying to stay inside and not sweat to death. Today I'm going to hang out with James Basler and get some lunch somewhere downtown.

I'm not sure what all I should write in this post. I think I want to give you all a rundown of some of the things I was thinking about while I was at L'Abri, but I need to think about it a little bit more and take some more time to process everything a little bit more. Until then, here's a quote from the blog of a girl, Emily, that I think is a good beginning to my thoughts about my time at L'Abri:

"It was a time to stop 'doing' and think about what it was that I was doing. I was allowed the freedom and time to explore thoughts that I have never before allowed myself and then to actually attempt living out some of those things with the space to fail. I can’t quite describe in words how valuable this has been in my life and how badly I needed such a thing."

That's from Emily's blog. I linked to it on the right, but here's another direct link. Check it out.

Before I go, here's a video I've been watching about five times a day for the last three days. It's a music video for Kanye West's song "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and it's starring Zach Galifianakis and Bonnie Prince Billy. It's amazing. I think it's hilarious. Maybe you will too. Here's a link to the website of the director: The Claw Productions. Check him out.