Thursday, October 08, 2009

Made to...?


I often wonder if I’ll ever be content with how I’m spending my life.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy where I am. I do.
It is generally gratifying and challenging and sometimes I actually feel like I’m making a difference. Life is not overly difficult right now. I have great family and friends, and I am not ungrateful for any of that.
But there is a feeling that burns in my chest that there is something bigger that I am supposed to be doing-that I’m using a small fraction of the potential we all are given.

I think part of it is that I’ve met some pretty amazing people over the past few weeks that I’m secretly really jealous of.
One guy, Chad, decided at age 17, that he was going to clean up the rivers of the United States. He started with a single boat, piling trash in his parent’s backyard. And now he has a major cleanup operation with a full crew, barges, a tugboat, a soon-to-be-aired TV series, and a host of national honors and awards. I met another guy, Paul, who started his own custom heavy equipment fabrication shop and now has a government grand-funded side project of building a biomass-burning furnace that could heat a whole block of homes on nothing more than mulched waste wood products for over a week at a time, unattended. It doesn’t stop there though. He’s already making and selling a dozen other products created from what other throw away and has plans to open biomass processing centers across the U.S., built from other discarded materials (I won’t give away all his secrets).
I hear people tell their stories about serving the poor, the oppressed, and the orphans in places half way around the world and how life-altering it is. How a group of unlikely, untrained, and seemingly naïve missionaries visits a place in the desert and the next thing you know, the ambassador of some far off place is coming to their home in Wisconsin to talk about foreign policy.

I just don’t have that kind of vision. And when I hear others speak of their plans and dreams that they are actually chasing and believing, I feel….mundane. Average. That I am wasting the days I have been given.
Isn’t there something more?

And am I so caught up in this fever-paced, calendar-ized, rush through one thing to get to the next, life that I’m missing it?

What have I been created to do?

And if I find that thing, how do jump from this race and chase after it?

Monday, October 05, 2009

A conversation on sustainability.

Justin R. Gansc...adam. killer idea. 3:42:59 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...what 3:43:22 PM
Justin R. Gansc...BUFFALO. 3:43:45 PM
let's turn the quad into prairie grass (as it once was) and get some freakin buffalo out there! 3:43:58 PM
who doesn't love buffalo? and the campus is already fenced in! 3:44:06 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...YEs 3:44:07 PM
Justin R. Gansc...can you get me on Mark's calendar?! 3:44:21 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...then we can make money off of selling the meat to restaurants 3:44:32 PM
Justin R. Gansc...mmmmmmmmmooooooo 3:45:23 PM
and we can launch a campaign with a slogan that plays off that of our big green competitor- "Nothing Runs Like a......Buffalo". 3:45:31 PM

Adam, we can't NOT do this. 3:46:24 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...and we can get Buffalo Wild Wings to take a bunch of pictures out here 3:46:29 PM
which means free BW's 3:46:36 PM
have you been getting into the hazardous chemicals 3:46:37 PM
Justin R. Gansc...mmmmm.....wings 3:46:43 PM
why do you ask? 3:47:31 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...because you must be high 3:47:52 PM
Justin R. Gansc...soo...i'm sensing that you are not as enthusiastic about the buffalos. are you a racist? 3:48:09 PM
what do you have against bovine? 3:48:27 PM
this is directly in line with Vision 2020 3:48:44 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...racist 3:48:49 PM
not so much rac-ist 3:48:53 PM
as racial 3:49:04 PM
who does being racist apply to buffalo 3:49:10 PM
Justin R. Gansc...reduce greenhouse gases by reducing mowing. reduce water consumption by reducing irrigation. boost morale. etc. etc. 3:49:25 PM
if i have to spell it out for you, then....jeez.... 3:49:25 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...omg 3:49:28 PM
you're serious 3:49:30 PM
alright 3:49:32 PM
lets do it 3:49:33 PM
Justin R. Gansc...ADAM 3:49:35 PM
yes 3:49:37 PM
hooray! 3:49:38 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...I'm only here till January 3:49:40 PM
so yep 3:49:42 PM
buffalo 3:49:46 PM
done and done 3:49:51 PM
Justin R. Gansc...can we order buffalo through mysupplycabinet? 3:49:55 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...YEs 3:49:56 PM
Justin R. Gansc...get mandy w on the phone 3:49:59 PM
we need her charge number 3:50:08 PM
DO IT NOW! 3:50:08 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...and keep their dung in zebra tubs 3:50:13 PM
Justin R. Gansc...compost, baby 3:50:19 PM
zebra tubs are only for zebra dung 3:50:33 PM
have to keep waste streams segregated. 3:50:35 PM
it's the law. 3:51:38 PM

i hope you are dialing the phone and that is why you are not responding. 3:51:41 PM
adam? 3:51:44 PM
hello? 3:51:56 PM

Adam J. Sharpl...yes 3:52:02 PM
i've gotten Tana on the phone 3:52:04 PM
she says go ahead 3:52:05 PM
Justin R. Gansc...look, if you are not onboard with the buffalo, i'll find someone else. and we'll share the glory. 3:52:08 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...order 200 buffalo 3:52:12 PM
Justin R. Gansc...SUCCESS! 3:52:19 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...we've made buffalo possible 3:52:26 PM
Justin R. Gansc...dude, there's no way the quad will support a herd of that size
3:52:36 PM

there will be much gnashing of teeth 3:52:36 PM
Adam J. Sharpl...our safety number are buffalo targets 3:52:57 PM
Justin R. Gansc...we also have to take breeding season into consideration 3:53:24 PM
no one is allowed to wear brown clothing or hats with horns during the months of august-october 3:54:09 PM
things could get ugly. 3:54:20 PM
and our RIF could potentially skyrocket 3:54:30 PM
but I think it would be worth it 3:55:41 PM
I'm placing the order.....NOW.