A Most Unfortunate Discovery

A Poem for My Mother

2010-01-10T14:15:00.001-08:00

Crumbling beige between crimson tone
My mother sat reading and the bright sun shone.
A distraction--
Strapped in roller blades, I played alone

Atop her brick perch, Mom stole her eyes from Tolstoy
to look at me:
The rascal-child who played happily.
Little does she know her watchful eye was as warm
as the sun upon my neck.

Skinned knees and bloody hands posed no danger
While my mom sat reading on
Crumbling beige between crimson tone

Movie in the Park

2009-08-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

"I have multiple-personality disorder. A few days ago someone stole 4 pills of mine...that's 105 dollars," exclaimed the lady behind me.

"Sit down, Rashid. We want to watch the movie," piped up the mother to her child sitting on my right.

I looked around Binn's park on Lancaster's Queen street to notice the eclectic group of Lancaster citizens coming out at 9 PM on a cool, summer night. The preppy high school girls sat, reclining against the small brick wall facing the screen, the artsy group sat another twenty feet beyond them--yet again staring at the screen. Families, individuals, rich, and poor joined together to watch a movie.

Sure, watching a movie isn't the most community-oriented event possible, but when the movie is free and in a public park, it might as well be. Roughly 70 Lancaster natives came out on this Thursday night to watch "Best in Show"--a Dogumentary.... And, probably those same 70 natives, come back every Thursday during the summer to watch another movie with friends they might not meet otherwise.

Having been gone from Lancaster for quite a while (from Covenant to Belgium and back), I haven't been really around to see Lancaster's downtown become what it is today--people being around people they normally wouldn't see. I am proud of my home-city (Quarryville doesn't count) of cultivating community--creating an atmosphere for those of all social-statuses to enjoy a night out--watching a movie, drinking coffee, and most-importantly being around one another. Movie in the Park is a one such event that brings people together. I wish I could remain in Lancaster a little bit longer--to meet the other Thursday night movie watchers. I wish that I could meet the lady with the multiple-personality disorder, to learn her story and to become her friend. I wish that I could stay a little bit longer so that maybe on the next Thursday I might meet little Rashid and his family. Alas, I will just have to seek out such experiences in Chattanooga in less than a week.

Anyways, this little event that I attended during my short excursion back into Lancaster has made me ever so desirous to live in the city--to be around people and to share my life with them and in turn hear about their's.

10 Dollars

2009-05-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in my English Practicum class, of all places, and was suddenly bombarded by random memories from my younger years. (I guess I'm still pretty young, so that phrase is kind of weird...). Anyways, this poem was the result of my thinking:

You remember the strangest things.
For instance, I once was running,
Not sure where, but quickly through the hall.
It was a corridor of light--a divided semicircle window.
I ran past that old wooden woven chair
that used to be the storehouse of letters,
papers, and my (lunch) money. If I hadn't been
running so fast, I might have noticed,
my prized possession--a ten dollar bill--fall from my hand,
lost forever to the clutter of my childhood.

Interesting Article

2009-05-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

Rather than studying the French that I should have. I stumbled across this article on the New York Times. It was pretty interesting. It discusses a new book by Terry Eagleton, "Reason, Faith, and Revolution", that explores the incoherence of the post-modern philosophy especially in relation to religion. Stanley Fish, the writer for the New York Times, doesn't tell us whether Eagleton is a Christian or not, but it sure seems that Eagleton has sympathy for it. If you don't have time for the article, you are going to have to be content with my shoddy summary. For those who are more cultured, here's the article: God Talk.

Camera

2009-05-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally posted again on this unfortunate site. For those that somehow keep up with me, here you go. I'm about to end my first year at Covenant College. It was awesome and I'm very glad that is where God has placed me. Anyways, I'd just let everyone know that I now have a Nikon D60 and plan on learning all the "ins" and "outs" of the camera so I can take some sweet photos. Hopefully, I'll update this on a more frequent basis about my thoughts/life. For now, enjoy this lovely picture I took with my new camera:

Misplaced Hope

2009-02-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

This is an article I sent into the Bagpipe, my school's newspaper. And I'd love to share it with the lovely people who look at my blog:

Misplaced Hope

Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Inaugural Concert in Washington D.C. two days before President Obama took his oath as our nation’s leader. The concert took place at 2:30 p.m. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. My group of five (Jake Corbett, Hannah Brown, Jane Travis, Christiana Prawius, and myself) had left Covenant a mere fourteen hours earlier to partake in the event. Although our trip was less publicized than Mr. Harrison’s, we still saw the star-studded concert and we even caught a glimpse of President Obama.

People were excited, and rightfully so. The crowd was tightly woven together for the concert which prepared the nation for the oncoming inauguration. The fact that I couldn’t move an inch without bumping into someone evinced the togetherness of the event. At the conclusion of Obama’s speech, the crowd on the mall exploded in applause. After about ten seconds, the voices became unified, and together they cheered “Obama! Obama! Obama!” And I was afraid. Not because I believed Obama will destroy the entire framework of our society, as some believe, but because of the crowd’s misplaced hope. So many people are looking to this one man to redeem their world.

I do not say this to belittle the rightful excitement of Obama’s inauguration. I understand its importance. However, I would like to say that it is not good for one man to have the hope of so many resting on his shoulders. Sure, I guess it’s easy for me to make this claim when I supported the “other guy”, but if McCain garnered the same type of following, my claim would still stand. Sadly, as a society, we do it all the time. Whether we place our hope in the politicians, the celebrities, or even the “superiority” of the American government over the rest of the world’s, making our lives’ foundation in anything other than Christ is wrong.

During a chapel talk, President Nielson mentioned the website bornagainamerican.org. One of the eminent themes is characterized in a stanza from Keith Carradine’s song:
I’m a Born Again American, conceived in Liberty
My Bible and the Bill of Rights, my creed’s equality
I’m a Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream from sea to shining sea

Our hope is not the combination of the American Kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven. When, as Christians, we put them both on the same plateau, we lose the genius of the Gospel. For, we have a heavenly ruler who has defeated both sin and death and who now reigns victoriously. With this at the forefront of our minds, we can “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction” and “faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).

As Christians, we have a duty to bring forth the Kingdom of God on earth. Our prayers and actions should be directed towards fulfilling Jesus’ prayer: “…your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Yes, our hope in Christ dictates how we interact with our culture. We need to be supporting people, and ideals that bring forth the Kingdom of God: looking out for the poor, the widows, the neglected and heavy laden. Yet, the “people and ideals” of this world must never become an end in themselves. We as Christians must not become caught up in placing our hope in anyone or anything other than our Heavenly Father.

Life is an Ice Covered Adventure

2009-01-21T07:15:00.001-08:00

Recently I have discovered an amazing waterfall about five minutes off the road that descends down the mountain. In regular weather waterfalls look amazing, but I had always wondered what waterfalls looked like when the temperature was below freezing. On Friday I took my good friends Tom Delong and James Orsag who were visiting the mountain for a few hours on the five minute hike to the falls. Unfortunately I did bring my camera and therefore was unable to catalog our discovery of the ice-covered falls. Upon turning the curve that opens up the view to the falls my breath was taken away. God has created such beauty in the world around us. A steep hill of boulders covered in cascading water surrounded by frozen water. The sound was peaceful, a quiet rustle of water complimented the crisp air. We felt alive. We spent about forty minutes climbing down the falls, nearly slipping on Ice and experiencing God's creation.

Determined to get some pictures of the falls, I went with a fellow friend (from the J.V. Soccer team) Kit Meyer to the falls. Even though I had already seen what the falls looked like in the blistering cold of winter, I was still taken aback. Our desire for adventure was really high during this trek. Starting at the top of the falls, where water was resting peacefully awaiting its turn to fall over the steep boulder cliff, we climbed down. About halfway down, Kit came upon a vine and being wild at heart like all men should be, he pulled it away from the tree and swung from it. Now, that doesn't seem too bad except for the fact that the trajectory of the vine lead us directly over the edge of a fifteen foot ice covered waterfall drop. Seeing his boldness, I took a swing and at one point hung by one hand off the edge overlooking God's creation. The waterfall was amazing and I think that exploring it has been one of my favorite things at Covenant so far. During our adventure we let the chill water rush over our hands, let our feet slide (rather dangerously) down a small ice-covered boulder, and let our minds be filled with the wonder of God's creation covered in a royal coat of white.

Check out my Flickr account to see some more pictures:

(Stay tuned for my adventure to Washington D.C.)

And So It Begins Again...

2009-01-13T12:25:00.000-08:00

Classes resumed for me as of 8:00 a.m. today, January 13. It is an exciting time of the year, mainly because I am registered for some interesting classes. Specifically, I cannot wait to begin digging into the material for New Testament Introduction, Intro to Literary Studies, and History of Philosophy: Classical to Renaissance.

As a side note, its great to be back on Lookout mountain, where the air is crisp, the view beautiful and the people are wonderful. That being said, I know I'm still going to miss everyone back in Pennsylvania.

A Most Unfortunate Discover: My First Post

2009-01-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

As it were, I may or may not have been sucked into the blogging world. You see, I have tried doing this sort of thing with Xanga, Myspace, Facebook, etc. and have never succeeded in writing anything of importance or discernible regularity. However I shall attempt to do better at this. Because, as with most things, Robbie Brown has inspired me to start this blog. He started one only a few months ago, but his actions have sparked inside of me a flame for blogging that I hope will never go out.

I chose the title of my blog, A Most Unfortunate Discovery, for a few reasons. During the course of trying to come up with a title that was "cool" or "witty", I randomly thought about a comic (See top of blog) from one of my favorite internet comic strips, www.toothpastefordinner.com. Its simple, yet witty, humor made me think about the act of discovering something (like Atlantis). I then thought to myself that those who view my blog would discover something for themselves: a view into who Peter McCrory is and what he is doing. That is where the word "Discovery" of my title came from. The "Most Unfortunate" part is merely the realization (or discovery) that Atlantis really isn't on the map.