Paradox

A Paradox is a change in the way we look at the world. The funny thing, is that the following link will take you to a powerpoint presentation of a paradox many of you have probably seen, its been passed around email for the last couple years at least.

My Point is that when you are faced with a situation where you realize how fragile life is, and then you read this PPT a NEW Paradox hits,

Life is short, contains many amazing miracles yet our focus and attention are on the wrong things,

Why do we maximize profits, we should be maximixing life.

We rush to get out into the world, be independent and make success our own, we forget the sacrifices of our parents, and we no longer cherish our grand parents. One day we will be parents, one day we will be Grandparents, and independence at 80 seems offly lonely to me.

We complain we no longer have the money to do the things we want to do, if we just wanted it a little more, the money would be found.

And we're not as thankful, because we're too worried about ourselves to realize the gifts others give us...

What is the worst... I had to have a near death experience to truly appretiate the words on this PPT.

http://www.virtuwolf.com/paradox.ppt

Knowing a purpose

[updated]

Dear Jacovo,

Thank you for everything, because of you I have have a gift so precious and so dear to me. Something that I can never return. I hope that God saves you as well if ever you are in trouble.

I did not know what to think when you pulled me from the water, just in time, my body could not fight anymore. Over an hour had passed they said, but for me, it was a lifetime.

The waves were high, and the waves were strong, someone as small as me could not hope to control the turbulance, I was a slave to beast, the power of the ocean.

Onat was there at first, bless him for arriving safely to shore, but for me? there was no fighting the waves, I could only fight the stay afloat. Even still the soreness of my neck, back and legs have yet to heal, yet my life I have, thanks to you.

My broken rib will heal, but scars shall remain that will remind me of this day forever. To forget is to leave this event without learning, and much have I learnt

I feel my time had come, judgement had passed and I was granted an angel to save me from the chaos. My time here is not over, My purpose not fulfilled, I will go on fighting the fight that I can. Helping those that I can, making a difference in the world, that I can.

I may be a slave to ocean, but to this world, I have influence, and I have power, it is not hard to convince the minds of men to perform good, they just need hope and a reason to.

Jacovo, because of you, i can help others now, your influence is greater than you think.

I cannot take the hour back, but I know I can give so much more now.

Thank you,

Peace be upon you

Kurt ´Beto´ Archer

Education

You know what has to be the most useful knowledge of all my education?
The ability to hold a conversation with someone with strong conflicting views;
and not get angered, instead accept and apretiate the diferences in perspective.
Everything else I have learned is merely the complication of simple ideas.

- Kurt

Oaxaca

We rented a car on friday for a weekend vacation to Oaxaca... nice ya? One of Mexico's poorest and most Indigenous states.
The trip was 4 hours, we arrived late in the day and spent 3 hours looking for a hotel.
Finally found a nice one named Mariposa (Nino Serano Street, only $550 pesos a night, incl breakfast)
after not eating all day we decided to goto a restaurant for some real Oaxacan food. Well, Chapulines (grasshoppers) wernt as appetizing as I thought they would be.
Just then! A crowd burst out side dancing around with wierd pots on their head... they came for the famous hot chocolate and were celebrating the birthday of they "Holy Blood" Church... (mexicans will find any excuse to party it up) it was interesting to watch, their traditional dance is very fun, ball room style with a oldstyle twist.. Very unique, and very enjoyable to watch.

Day 2. Mount Alban was great, i'd love to have it as my personal sports complex, large fields, even a ball throughing arena... Tule is a HUGE tree, fattest thing u ever seen, reminded me of the fat weeping willow tree on the movie "The Last Unicorn" (ever watch it as a kid?) great isnt it...

Our vacation has been pretty great so far no? We we leave for Huatulco, aka. The Beach. :) we stop off in a few small towns to visit... closed artisanias stores... meh oh well, so we continue along the road, imagine. 300 KMs broken down into... 6 hours. :s lots of curves and driving 30km/hr...
Lumber jacks in Mexico? no not really, but there was one guy clearing the road and throwing logs to the other side of the street. Luckily for us... he didnt see us coming and threw a log directly into our windsheild... SMASH. no more windsheild... 3 hours from civilization (either way) and it was getting dark. We wait an hour for the guy to come back and lead us to the nearest city.... he ditched us (didnt wanna pay, didnt blame him, he didnt have much money it seemed) so the drive to Huatulco reminded me of Ace Ventura when Jim Carey drives along the road with his head stuck out the window.

Day 3.
We're waiting for a new car to arrive (yea they sent some poor old guy 12 hours to drive us a new car.. haha, insurance is GRRREAT) so we decided what a good opportunity to hang out at the beach!! Wait. it was raining, so hard in fact that it took out the cell towers and every other form of communication. No phone, cell, credit card access, or bank machines funcational... Also no one told us that Huatulco is better off closed int he summer, NOTHING was open. so I caught up on some Live 8 coverage on the TV (the only thing that DID work) By the time the guy arrive we toured around a bit, yet still everythign was closed, say the beach for like 5 seconds... and then went to eat. YAY credit cards worked again! The only place we could go was named "La Crema(Cream) and it was pretty sketchy... but it was food.

Day 4 (of a 3 day trip)
breakfast was rushed (approx. 1 hour in duration) so we got a late start on our 12 hour journey home, too bad we didnt get to see Pto Escondido (the ONLY reason I wanted to goto Oaxaca in the first place) but the 12 hour ride was nice, no logs or strange objects flying at us this time.
It was actually funny, because it was still pouring outside, but the second we crossed the "Puebla/Oaxaca" boarder, the sun came out and the rain went away... bizarre no?

So that ends the curse of Oaxaca. I highly recomend other plans to anyone thinking of visiting this beautiful place! :) (and beautiful it was, hadnt it been for a few minor setbacks... hmmm still cant draw money, odd)