12 days late but who cares?

I am not one to make New Year's resolutions.  I don't make them because I disagree with the whole premise of "I want to change something about myself, so I'll use New Year's as a starting point."  My personal opinion is, if someone was really motivated to change something, they would do so any time of the year.  But off my soapbox...it just so happens I have started really diving into some books/articles lately, and they are changing my long-standing opinion on many things.  So having ranted above about not making resolutions, I change my approach and say that I am changing some things (but I promise, it's only because it happened to coincide with the beginning of the new year!).

I was reading an incredible article about the failure incredible short-comings of our public school systems (link here) and though the article is deserving of its own post, I did take one thing in particular from it that made me think.  John Gatto writes:


One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else's. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn't know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible.

I cannot tell you how many times a day I will think or say "I'm bored."  It has to be dozens of times, and Gatto's grandfather makes a great point - the only one who can affect it (most of the time) is me.

Another thing I'm planning on venturing into is risk. In many aspects of my life, I'm a very safe, life-in-a-bubble, kind of guy.  I want to venture out and do things, but don't due to the risk involved.  But forget that! Time to make things happen, time to see just what can be accomplished when I take a leap.  After studying my ancestry for the past few weeks, I'm simply amazed at the incredible risk these pioneers took.  Leaving family, likely never to see again, and moving to the middle of a hostile environment, solely so that they could be independent & free - not like what we think of today (our rights per the Constitution) but actually free.  It sort of reminds me of the "if a tree falls in the woods..." question; if a pioneer lived somewhere, and he/she had no knowledge of governing entity, and vice versa, isn't that true freedom!? 

Now it sounds like I'm campaigning for no government - I'm not.  I'm just pointing out how risky our ancestors lives were, and how they knew a life that we will likely never see, and it excites me to find out a little more about it.  After all, the name of this blog is Chance the Rapids!  A metaphor for taking risks and living life to the fullest! :-)

I guess I'll finish the post for today with one last resolution.  Thanks to all my blog followers (hopefully I'll have more in 2011!), and my last resolution will be to actually be somewhat-consistent in my blog posts.  But, know that in down times, I'm going to have to blog about some random crap to fill the void!

Have a wonderful 2011, everyone.