I like this dude, if you didn't know...

Here's some words from Barack Obama's commencement speech to the graduating class of Wesleyan University.

"Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story."

"At a time when a child in Boston must compete with children in Beijing and Bangalore, we need an army of you to become teachers and principals in schools that this nation cannot afford to give up on. I will pay our educators what they deserve, and give them more support, but I will also ask more of them to be mentors to other teachers, and serve in high-need schools and high-need subject areas like math and science.

At a time when there are children in the city of New Orleans who still spend each night in a lonely trailer, we need more of you to take a weekend or a week off from work, and head down South, and help rebuild. If you can’t get the time, volunteer at the local homeless shelter or soup kitchen in your own community. Find an organization that’s fighting poverty, or a candidate who promotes policies you believe in, and find a way to help them.

At a time of war, we need you to work for peace. At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again.

Now understand this - believing that change is possible is not the same as being naïve. Go into service with your eyes wide open, for change will not come easily. On the big issues that our nation faces, difficult choices await. We’ll have to face some hard truths, and some sacrifice will be required – not only from you individually, but from the nation as a whole.'

I enjoyed this rather much and thought I might share it with some folks.

What is the best way to kill a blog?

What do you think the best way to send a blog into stagnation?  I believe the number one way to flatline an online journal(or print for that matter) is to write about how one has not posted in a long time, and make a promise to post more frequently.  For that reason, I will not actually claim these things.  The moment you feel guilty for not writing you begin to see it as a chore.  Should a person ever feel guilt for not expressing oneself?  I think not, but I do believe a person should be expressing his or herself one way or another.  That is why journaling is important to me, because it has the ability to open up dialogue with myself about what is going on in my life.  The good thing about an open journal is the addition of other's opinions to your internal dialogue.  It is because of this I will continue to write in this blog and encourage my fellow posters to follow suit, not out of obligation but out of healthy self exploration.

This has been Saturday night in the house of ShaKim.

(Disclaimer:  This post was about myself and my lack of blogging.  Of course one or more of my fellow posters have been diligently posting, and I commend him/her for that.)

Fragile Reputations

No more name calling or gossiping for this girl. I'm pretty sure I made that declaration once in high school, but haven't thought of it much since. It seems like such a juvenile concept, but the reality of adult gossip hit me really hard yesterday. I do a lot of "spreading the news" business because this is such a small town and it makes a person feel powerful and connected. I'll admit that in a lot of instances, it's pure speculation or recycled news (who knows how many times.)
And the tables finally turned on me and I got to hear about it all. It was awful. It wasn't just awful, it was entirely wrong and it made my store and I look very bad to a small but important group of people. It was the stupidest incident made huge because everyone was questioning everyone else's character based on miscommunication and a hint of manipulation. I really want to be unified with other businesses and people in the area and I know that can happen eventually, but I was pushed a step back.
So it's pretty simple. I've got to go to the source, consider the intentions of others and their side of the story, and stop using "news" as a conversation crutch. It hurts too much in the end and I think I needed to be reminded of that.

In other news, St. Augustine found a girlfriend. She's so good looking with her Andy Warhol hairdo.

Customer Service

Our store is opening (ever so gently) today. I will go in around noon until 8. I didn't think much of it, minus relief- pure relief, until this morning. Suddenly I got a bit nervous. What will people think of my work? Not only that but I recalled that sometimes I really despise customer service. Working at Junkyard usually wasn't so bad, mostly because we had an average of 4 shoppers a day and 50% of them were people like me. There were the awful exceptions but only when it came to buying jeans from people. But then during my 1-2 month stint working for a one-woman Nampa empire, I noticed that there were tons of mean people in the area. Is it Nampa? Is it because I worked in two "uppity" (or overpriced) places? I wonder what kind of customers we'll have. A huge majority of customers at the Market and the Shed were 50 or so year old women. They were the worst. Not all 50 year old women are terrible, but for some reason I think almost every woman goes through about a decade of thinking she is owed the world. Maybe it has something to do with the kids leaving the home and suddenly she can start thinking about herself again. That's a good theory. I'd really like to believe that's it.
So wish me luck in this new customer service venture. I'm excited for the studio to be open so that I can escape into the back whenever I'm afraid of someone.

Unbelievable

Tonight Joe made a deal with me that says if I don't get married by the time I am 27, then at my wedding I have to sing and play the song "Unbelievable" by EMF on the mandolin all by myself. This song and I have a little bit of history together to begin with, but that's another story. Why I agreed to it I don't know, but I do know that if I were somebody else, watching myself have to do that could be quite funny. I don't even know if its even possible to play on the mandolin and make it sound anything remotely close to the actual song, but there are some good odds I may have to figure it out. I got 4 years. Hopefully this won't rush me into any rash decisions in that last year, but hopefully it won't have to come to that. I might have to start practicing just so I can get a really sweet version down. So anyways, here is the deal for all to see and hold me to if the next 4 years doesn't produce holy matrimony.

Party Postcard Pre-Parade