Living Rarefied

Headed up to Castaway Club in Pelican Rapids, MN for the annual leader weekend. Ready to get out of the daily routine here and get my heart reset on YL and kids. Gather some momentum in spirit with the other leaders from the area.

I hope to meet some new people there, possibly a few who are interested in leadership but don't have a homebase for a club yet. I hope to meet a few guys up there to build the male side of our leadership team. It was 3 years ago that I met Rob up there. He was just checking things out and we clicked and he spent 2 wonderful years of leadership with us and he and I have become amazing friends. I just hope for something like that to come out of the weekend. There are remendous kids roaring for YL this fall, the majority of them being guys. So I hope for a commrade to walk together with these students…

Vikings opener too, thats the downside of the weekend, missing the game, and only getting to listen on the radio…

Ethan testing

I hope I never get criticized for what I write on my blog. After all it is for me… If others enjoy it, all the better.

I can't stand seeing comments blasting the blogger for not writing what they want to read…

Ethan Surprise Me

It is my Grandma's 91st birthday! She acts and looks much younger though…

It is the 1 year anniversary of the start of all the possitive changes in my life. 1 year ago today I walked in and told everybody at my old job I was leaving… Nowhere to go, but that I was done… Which created 3 months of early retirement, and a lot of time spent with myself and a lot of time spent with close friends helping me grow…

Today's a good day…

I am in a great spot in life..

Ethan Daily, Feeling

One thing I am blessed with in my neigborhood, especially the 4300 block of Mackey Ave, is the fact that fathers are always out with their kids. It is almost akward to see the amount of time spent with their kids! This is an amazing thing. Its akward because you just don't see it too often. I see dads sitting on the sidewalk drawing with chalk, I see dads playing in temporary kiddie pools. There is one dad a few houses north of me on Utica that comes to Steves house in the afternoon with his son and they wait for Steve to come home from work, and the 4 of them just sit around and hang out. It is truly amazing that the 4300 block is like this, active with kids and dads.. The moms are out there too, but its just that society tells us that fathers make the money and mothers raise the kids. So when I see fathers spending so much time with their children, it is very heart-warming. The surrounding blocks are not like this. They are quiet, lacking the sounds of children's laughter, bare of the cute smiles on kids faces as they chase each other around. I am very blessed to be a part of this neighborhood, to be surrounded by men who as far as I know, have it figured out.

I was fortunate to have all the time in the world to hang out with my dad. From a young age, I would go to the golf course with him and watch him practice and play. It was a few years before I could play, but I would still go with and hang out with him. Golf has been the life-long tie with my Dad. It has brought us together more than anything else in life. From the first days of my golf career, cut-down clubs, to my first set. To when I turned 14 and could finally play in the Father-Son golf tournament, to my summer before senior year of high-school when we went on tour around the country playing junior tournaments, my momma went with too on a bunch as well. In college, being a member of the UofM golf team and having my dad as a booster. All the way up until this summer when we played together in the Member-Member tournament at Minikahda. We got trounced, but that didnt matter since we were together. All this time we were able to spend together, my temper tantrums as a youngster, to my best rounds and his best rounds has helped create a bond and closeness that I am proud of and absolutely blessed to be a part of. But it has been something where the time spent with him and my following of his example that has made me turn out to be a pretty good guy. All that time was spent doing something he already loved. He wasn't playing golf because it was what I did. He already loved it. So he didn't have to do much besides be there. Be available… But I am guessing that if I chose a different path of interests, he would've found a way to be a part of that as well.

A friend of mine told me a story about the 4th of July and a sight in his neighborhood in south Minneapolis. He said he saw a father on the steps of his apartment lighting sparklers with his 2 kids. He said that he kind of watched in awe, because it wasn't something you see much anymore. The father wasn't doing anything amazing, doing anything difficult or tiring or boring. Just being there with the kids… That was enough. He was available… The fathers in my neighborhood are available to their kids… Its great to be a part of it.

Ethan Daily

WARNING: THIS POST IS A VENT POST… Also a 3-category post…

If a large percentage of a community has no initiative, can it grow?

If last night at the State Fair is a fair example, I say no.. We had a great group of people, about a dozen of us… I feel like we did a lot of standing around. Somebody would say "Lets get curds" and I would start walking with them after announcing we are going to get cheese curds… 30 seconds later you get the feeling of nobody being with you anymore… Sure enough you turn around and they are all in the same spot… They look confused and wondered why we had walked away? Perhaps because we were going to get cheese curds and we announced it. It made for a lot of walking forward, then returning to gather the group and then moving forward again…

I have seen this in the community I surround myself with during the week and the main gathering on Sunday nights. People say they want gatherings, yet it is the same handful of people planning them all the time. People say they want something, but when it is time to step up… NOBODY DOES IT!!! There are support teams at our community that set up the environment, take down, gather food, greeters, ushers, lights, and other groups that put on each service. The community consists of 1200 people. Yet 200 spots for support teams cannot be filled. Only about 50 people want to chip in a few hours of their precious time. And its the same 50 people week in and week out, year after year…

People are takers, people want everything on a platter delivered to their door, perhaps even to the couch or bed they are laying on. I admit, I have been one of them…

This is why I got frustrated when I used to be one of those handful planners.. That's why I quit large scale organizing. I will organize a small event with my close friends, but not too often. I found there is no use in it, because the major feeling I get is that people don't appreciate it, they expect it. This is also why I started being intentional about those I spend my time with. Being exclusive of my time. I want to spend it with people who are genuine, people who respect me, who appreciate that I spend time with them, who don't want shallow "face time" with me.

Interesting experiment, tough to deal with though, because it is reality…
Stop calling people, stop emailing people… You will start to find out quickly who wants to spend time with you. You will find out who is loyal to you. It hurts… I did this during the spring time. I indirectly did it last year when I quit drinking altogether. Reasons why people hang out with you rise to the surface quickly. But in the end it is beautiful, because you will find more genuine relationships and happiness out of those who pursue you as much as you pursue them…

Why do I struggle with this so much? Why don't people step up? Why are we so selfish?

On a positive note, I did catch a Marlin last night…

Ethan Daily, Feeling, Surprise Me