Create The Noise. Change Your World.

I just wanted to give a quick update for my readers.  Late last week, I was KO’d by a nasty case of the flu. I had planned to give a few more updates on the process of the Altnoise project, but it didn’t happen.

TED And Compassion

 I will give the final installment in the introduction tomorrow, but in the meantime I found this really great TED talk on Compassion. You should take a minute or two (19 to be exact) and watch it.

The Notice Me Factor 

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. - Robert Kennedy

Are you against global warming? What about poverty? Then you must not care about the genocide in Darfur.. Did you forget about the hundreds of thousands of girls who are sexually abused every day?

Where does it end?

I don’t have enough time or money to make a big enough impact to change the world.

 What is your New Year’s resolution?

I don’t usually make a resolution. The idea is to mainstream for me, but I do secretly think about it.

I might not actively participate in the global activity, but I can and do say to myself that if I were to make a resolution it would be to do this or do that. Last year, the resolution that I could’ve done was be more organized.

It is a year later and I can’t find my cell phone today.

This year is different. I am going to announce a New Year’s resolution. It is not because it is good publicity for altnoise… Well, not entirely. I decided to do this for another reason.

We all know that it is important to help improve our global community by giving to those in need. Many times, we will give a young lady in a white shirt an umbrella to walk across the street in the pouring rain. Other times, we give our extra Egg Mcmuffin to the homeless man standing outside the McDonalds. We don’t mind being charitable in this fashion. It is easy.

What about the rest of the time? 

When Charity is in need of your money?

 In the first examples, we weren’t worried about the one in need of help taking advantage of us. We had complete control, and we didn’t lose anything of major value. Money is different. We’ve all heard the stories of fraud and horrible money management when it comes to charity organizations. Who Should we trust?

We all desire to do more. There really aren’t many people who walks through life and chooses not to improve society.  We might not want to be Mother Theresa, but we would like to see a better tomorrow than was today. It is a virtue that we are naturally born with. It might be a flaw that evolution hasn’t corrected yet, but right now we want to make the world a better place.

The problem is that there are so many damn people problems in the world. What can we actually do? I’m not a superhero who can stop the genocide in Darfur. I’m not a millionaire who can help out the bankrupt amusement park owner who turned our city around. I can’t even stop time to help guide a lost stranger to his destination. I want to do something, but I dont have the time/resources/initative/skills/power/influence/income/ability/charisma/personality/../../.. to do what is required to affectively change the world.

Have you confessed lately? Went into a booth and told another individual who couldn’t see you, everything that you have done wrong? I haven’t. I never have. The faith tradition that I follow doesn’t believe in it. They say that you don’t need any person to forgive your sins, but God. Therefore, Go straight to God.

I both agree and disagree. Theologically, we do not need a mediator between us and God. We can go directly to Him with our prayers. On the other hand, we also need to confess our mistakes to other individuals. He or she might not be wearing a black suit with a white collar, but he could be. Every time we do something that hurts another individual does hurt God. We do need to confess to him, but we also hinder the growth of our community.

Do you always want to be the best? Is there something in your life that you want to accomplish, but can never finish? No matter how hard we try, there is always something else that can be done. We want perfection. The house we own must encapsulate our dreams. Our children will attend the best schools and excel perfectly in their talents. Even in our own selves, we desire to reach for perfection. Nearly my entire day is driven to please someone or obtain a goal.

Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

Get Rich Slowly is a finance blog that I frequent sometimes. I have gotten a few good resources such as clearcheckbook.com from them. They provide sound financial advice for those who desire to acquire more wealth without any schemes. Today I read a post about where our money goes when we invest in low-risk investments like money-market accounts, CD’s and savings accounts.

This morning I got out of bed and thought about skipping church. This morning a 12 year old boy was maimed for his genes. Yesterday, I was tired so I took a nap. Yesterday, a woman was raped right next to her dead husband. It was her genes. Darfur is so far away and their reality is even further. Hundreds of thousands have been brutally killed. Many were young boys. It is a genocide. It is a hate crime. It is Cain killing Able.