My way is the highway -God

I'm not religious. I don't believe in a God. I believe that organized religion has done a lot to cloud the issue. I find it odd that people need to be told how and when to pray to whatever or whoever they believe in.

I'm also finding that a lot of my preconceived notions about religion, in particular the pious few who lead their flocks have been jaded by the media and the dogma it puts forth. This is not to say that I'm giving it all up to become a man of the cloth...I'm merely stating that since being in Iowa, a state devoted to religion, my views on said subject have changed.

What sparked this internal monologue (which has since spewed forth) is a pastor from a church in Bluffton, IN. They brought a group of about 20 people down to Cedar Rapids to volunteer for a week...people in the know call these "mission trips," and all I can think of when I hear that term is Elwood Blues saying "we're on a mission from god..." so it can't be that bad right? Anyway, the Pastors' name is Kent, a guy in his late forties I'm guessing; he is a man that had a unique outlook on life and had an infectious personality. We have similar senses of humor, so we got along well. The week they were here was a productive one and when they left I wished them a safe journey back and hoped that we'd see them again. Kent pulled me aside and handed me a check...this was on top of the week of hard work they had put in and said thank you, we'll see you again. I was amazed and knew that he would be back...

fast-forward to this morning...I open my email and see that indeed Pastor Kent, true to his word, is sending another crew with a check to cover some of the materials for re-building. Instead of amazement I am happily re-energized. Then at the end of his email he said that he prayed for me by name. I'm 27 years old. There aren't too many things that, upon them happening, I can recognize that it's my first time dealing with it --this is one of those instances.

I kinda lost my train of thought about halfway through...

Religion is a powerful tool that's used to acheive a lot of bad and also a lot of good...I guess it's nice to experience first-hand the good side of it after hearing so much of the bad.

Iowa Bound

Just as the title of the blog indicates, another change has occurred that is taking me from Aspen to the flood plains of Iowa. Fits and spurts, that's how change occurs in my life.

I'm going to be a stipended employee of 'Hands On disaster Response' for the duration of their deployment in Iowa. Pretty sweet huh? Finally, I get a shot at doing what I want and not only that, but I'm going to get paid to do it--aw yeah!

I fly from Denver to Cedar Rapids on Thursday to start this adventure and will be there throughout the month of July and from there? who knows, hopefully the trend will continue and I can carry on with the work and continue to get paid. Fingers crossed.

so yeah, big doings people. big doings indeed.

This is a photo of the sandbagging effort to keep the flooding out of Clarksville.