Filed under: Dre's 101 in 1001
One of the links sitting on the right side of this page will take you to an interesting exercise on my part. Dre's 101 in 1001 is explained on the page, but it's simple, at least my interpretation of it. Say you'll do these things in a certain period of time. Set some insane goals. Maybe even do more than what you think you will. The scary part is putting it all out on the web for people to look at, criticize and judge the activities. They are also serving as the audience watching you make your best attempt.
I start my attempt at completing this list tomorrow. Bets find a great deal of humor in this as it is April Fool's Day. Maybe that makes it more appropriate than anything else. Some of them are things that I've always wanted to do; others a little bit outside of the comfort zone. The weird thing is that this list is an excuse to be more aggressive in doing tasks. At one point it was "I don't care about the consequences, let's just get it done." Nowadays it's become "Well, I"m not sure I should do this, I don't want to offend anyone." Neither mindset is necessarily considered healthy, though a happy medium is always good. I guess that's why the list is up here. Look it over, and then watch me try to complete it all before my brother's birthday in 2008. And I'm going to have fun doing it too.
More later.
Cheers.
“Prepare ye, the way of the Lord; prepare ye, the way of the Lord.”
These words echoed through the main sanctuary as Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) president David Pollick sang them as arranged for Godspell. This impromptu serenade served as the beginning of his prepared statements for those gathered at First United Methodist Church for the next installment of the Lenten lecture series. It also served as a pleasant treat for those in attendance. The words come from Mark 1:1 and are attributed to John the Baptist. The remainder of the line reads, “…make his paths straight.” The words were appropriate when he applied them to the recent events that involve the institution that he is charged with day to day oversight of.
I’m going to assume that right now most of my regular readers are wondering how I’m going to tie this biblical verse into one of my insane ramblings. Well, let’s see.
There are many people that have all of the tools and opportunities presented before themselves to do great things, most of which would fall under the category of morally right. The main point that I walked away with from Dr. Pollick’s comments is that the choice is ours what we do in these moments. We are the ones that can choose to be great or to do things that would be considered immoral, including the destruction of small wooden churches in rural Alabama.
The other choice that must be made in a situation like that is if you are the one that has suffered because of the action, can you forgive. The congregants have been able to do so. Those that attend the small rural church found the ability to choose to forgive, even in the situation presented to them. There are many people that I believe would find it hard to do so. They’ve also made the decision to rebuild and to come together as a community for support and encouragement during this time. BSC has made a decision to volunteer to assist in rebuilding the physical structures for them to worship in. This is something that they did not have to take part in, but felt compelled to as leaders in the community, providing an example for their students about what they should do in their own lives.
Whether you are religious, spiritual or not, spring is a time when you take stock of your life, to see what you can live without or what needs to be changed. Some people do spring cleaning, some choose to think about life changes. It’s ironic that most of the talk about communication and implementation is reaching its peak now, as our spring social season is starting, allowing for more conversation and perhaps, an opportunity to find that same sense of community found in rural Alabama without having to suffer the same heartbreak. The choice has been laid before us to decide how we want to move forward in our lives as a city; now is as good a time as any to determine what we’re going to do.
My place of reflection? I choose to run a long distance race over a bridge along the Carolina coast the first weekend in April. Somewhere between keeping my pace up with the beat of the song I’m listening to and asking myself at the apex of the span why am I doing this again with 3 miles to go, I’m thinking about how life’s been going. And what’s coming next. Also thinking about the home opener for the Barons (we’ll talk more about that later), but mainly about what choices are coming next.
Share your thoughts if you got ‘em.
Cheers.
The Ramblings camera is still suffering from too much caffeine in recent days, though I can always say that this image is more artistic. Or not. This image shows a pretty cool view of the City Federal Building (you have to trust me despite all of the distortion). This iconic sign was relit in December as part of a renovation of the property for use as condos and office/retail space. And it makes a really cool view to come home to during the winter, both driving into the city center and walking into the loft (it’s the view from some of our windows).
The buzz happening downtown because of projects like this received another boost with the presentation of the next steps in the Railroad Reservation Park by the master plan design team yesterday. The next steps were laid out in various locations including from a bird’s eye view of the park site from 2 North Twenieth Street. The thought of running through a park in downtown Birmingham is pretty exciting. It will almost be like doing my daily laps around Forsyth Park again. The Bham News ran this article in today’s paper about the recent developments. Hopefully, within the next 9-12 months, some significant progress can be made and some greenery will enter our city center environment.
I’m also interested in hearing what Birmingham-Southern College President David Pollick will talk about at First United Methodist Church today. He’ll be speaking as part of their Lenten series beginning at noon. I’ll let y’all know what happens there after work, since I’ll be starting the trek to the Hostess City of the South tomorrow morning instead of this evening.
Cheers.
In lieu of a Friday Ramble, I’m getting it out of my system today as I will be on the road for the weekend (insert jumping for joy here!) and probably uploading images of my trip instead. Stay tuned…
BTW, Check out last night’s post and the new pages on the blog. And forward the link to this morning’s post to anyone that you feel would appreciate it.
The adventure begins
It seems as though there are several things beginning to happen around the region. Yesterday’s announcement about the name change at the amusement park formerly known as Visionland seems to talk about benefiting the region as compared to the park, which is good. Today’s Birmingham News talks about the changes for Alabama Adventure and the surrounding area. The benefits of having a park geared towards drawing in the region are endless. This will also provide a chance to expand offerings to conferences, conventions and large groups that seek additional activities. Hopefully part of this will be a way to encourage locals to consider visiting the park more often than they do now, if they do at all. I’ve been unable to experience it for myself as of yet; I’m hoping that changes this summer.
The conversations continue
Birmingham Vision is continuing with efforts made by several organizations to engage individuals in Birmingham. In this case, it is a panel discussion with some of Jefferson County’s political leadership, including Mayor Bernard Kincaid and Commissioner Sheila Smoot. The event will take place on March 30 at the West End library. The hope is that the discussion will lead to suggestions for solutions that the leaders will consider and use when moving forward with plans for the region. I unfortunately will not be able to attend the meeting, but would love if someone would post some comments about it to the blog about it if they’re able to attend.
The group does not have a website as of yet (at least not one that could be found), but it has been added to the list of organizations that I’ve collected in the region. If you have any additional contact information, please let me know by posting and we’ll get it out there for folks.
Getting on the good foot
Living on the coast for so long, there’s still something about running over bridges that is a lot of fun. So for my mini-vacation this weekend, I’m tackling the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC. I’m optimistic that somehow I’ll finish, and there may even be a picture or two that come out of it as well, probably of me stumbling across the finish line. This is the first year for us to run over the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston Harbor. While it just won’t be the same as feeling the pavement below you sway as we all “Get Over It” (it being the old bridge), it’s a great chance to take a step back and determine how things are going. I end up using running as thinking time anyway. Normally the route includes wherever I feel like running. My reward to myself for completing the race – a chance to hang out, eat wings and watch the first part of the Final Four tournament that evening – isn’t too shabby either. It’s also a great chance to see how friends are doing and practice taking some pictures like my friend Adrian, who’s doing this race for the first time. The race has grown substantially in recent years, with this year’s cap set for 50,000 runners from all over the world. Normally about the time I get to mile 2, someone has already crossed the finish line, in under 20 minutes. This is the easiest of the runs I want to do this year, there’s the Tour de Pain on my list next (#73)
Cheers.
UPDATE: New website for Alabama Adventure – http://www.alabamaadventure.com. And I’ve got to go with Possumblog on the name thing myself 
Relay for Life has become one of the largest single fund raisers for the American Cancer Society. Click here to learn more about the event. Last year I served as the team captain for the Birmingham Jaycees team. We participated in the Homewood Relay for Life event. We did quite well last year as well, raising more than $2000 as a team. This year, the chapter chose to particpate in the Leeds/Moody event as a way to continue efforts to do projects throughout the greater Birmingham metropolitan area.
Cancer has unfortunately become a disease that is all too common. This year it is estimated that more than 1.3 million people will be affected by this disease, killing nearly 500,000 of them. It is unfortunately far too easy to immediately bring to mind a family member or friend who has had to battle this disease. This year I will once again attempt to stay awake for most of the evening for this worthy cause (though last year this whole idea of not sleeping the night before didn't help matters).
This link will take you to my personal Relay for Life webpage where you can give if you feel like and see why I choose to participate in this event. There is also the option of creating a team yourselves and participating in one of the Relays that will be taking place that evening throughout the metropolitan area. There is still time to give of yourself for this worthy cause this year. I would hope that this would be an example of working together for a common goal.
Cheers.
