The Concluding Prayer of the Church

Heavenly Father, in you I live and move and have my being; I humbly pray to you to guide and govern me by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of my life I may not forget you, but may remember that I am ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Beef Recall

Ok. I PROMISE not to become a "crazy" animal rights guy.

However, in light of my previous post on my new ideas on food, I find it interesting that the largest beef recall in US history has just taken place.

The recall of 143 million pounds of beef was not prompted by tainted meat making people sick (as most meat recalls are), but rather by a video that the Humane Society recently made available.

For Those Interested in Local Food

Go ahead, click on that...type in your zip code...and MAGICAL! Find local food for your belly...to be happy.

Joy from XKCD

Goodbye Meat (sort of)

I have made a very dramatic decision. I am going to become a "social vegetarian." I just made that up. I never thought I would come to this...I even secretly resented "vegetarians" and their foolishness for abstain from the trancendant delights of meat.

Until last night.

I was driving our family to house church and saw a cat in the middle of the road. It had one leg raised into the air, swinging around, reaching. It had been hit and was writhing around in the middle of the street. It almost made me sick right there. I was at first horrified at the sight. And then I become intensely angry at myself for not showing mercy to the animal...I was too cowardly. What struck me most about this was how unnecessary it was. We don't NEED to drive around in our cars killing animals. We don't NEED to. Humans might be dying from just our need for gas...but I'm not sure of that. I do know that many people die each year from car accidents...it's not necessary.

So what the heck does this have to do with eating meat? Well...like I said, I was mad...my first instinct was to say something crazy like "we aren't going to own a car anymore!" which would have been...crazy. (Maybe some day.) What did grow from this was the intense sorrow I felt for that animal...one of God's creatures...that didn't NEED to die. Well...I do know that our consumption of meat results in an incredibly unnecessary waste of animal well being and life. I don't doubt that the meat on sale in the grocery store is the end of that gruesome trail. I couldn't bring myself to take responsibility for that cat's life. I can take responsibility for what I eat. It's very simple.

I later went back with a shovel and a box... cleaned the cat (who had by then been hit several more times) off the street and dumped him off a bridge into the river.

I decided that from now on, if I don't KNOW where the meat came from, KNOW that the animals had decent lives...lived well (for animals), and know that the people who raised and killed them actually cared a little for them... I won't eat it. That means for convenience sake, I will probably now just tell people I am vegetarian...

I will still eat meat, if I can take the responsibility to enter into that relationship with the animals and farmers...

By the way, I'm not saying that I think this is for everybody...I wish it where, but thats too big for me... I am not holding the rest of my family to this code...it is my own personal choice.

"Let me on your shoulders"

Our Lord lets us play.

The move to Ohio and why it is not.

For those of you interested/concerned... plans have changed (no doubt this was expected by many) and we will not be moving to Ohio this May. In the end it was a decision made in the best interest for my family.

A transparent look at motivation and life:

When I graduated high school in 2001 I did not go to university. I was bothered by the idea that you pretty much HAD to go to school in order to get a good job...get in debt to get out of debt etc.

Well... Last year, with a wife, a daughter, and a son on the way, I quit my luxurious job as assembly line worker in a Maytag Factory. I was inspired by reading Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to go to school and get a degree in Biology.

Giving up a job (as bad as it was) meant that we no longer had health care. Thankfully in Tennessee they have a very good health care system (welfare?) We are able to get health care for our whole family through the state, as well as food stamps (which we also needed.) We are currently living primarily off of grants and loans as I make my way through school.

I certainly never expected to be on welfare, and it is VERY humiliating from time to time. I COULD work full time and go to school full time, but I would do very poorly, and would not have a family life at all. So for the time being I am grateful for the programs that are available.

The decision to not move to Ohio came from many various reasons, but they main being that Ohio does not have a comparable health care program and we would lose health insurance for our family.

We certainly regret not being close to family and old friends, but hope that we can still maintain our relationships. (We will make periodic trips to Ohio for family/friends visits, and certainly all you "busy" people can come and visit us.)

Our current plan is to stay here in Tennessee. In the next year I will be transferring to UTC where I will obtain a bachelors in Biology, and then a Masters in Environmental Science. We are open to the Lord giving us a new way, but as it is, our course is set.

-Nathanael Johnson and Family

Poly-ticks

If it really ends up being between Clinton and McCain....

We will not be staying in Tennessee.
We will not be moving to Ohio.
Or South Carolina.

We will be moving to Norway...where they have abundant geothermal energy and free college.

Wait a minute...why are we staying?

There is tale of a thunderstorm near

And I am drinking espresso and working math. This is good.

Cradle to Cradle

I have just finished reading William McDonough & Michael Braungart book entitled "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" It's been a very fresh take on "environmentalism" and "sustainable" method. It resonates strongly to the notion of integrity and doing things right. I have a notion of "living within ones means" that I feel very strongly about and will be writing on the in the near future.

Here are some of the ideas...