Bob The Builder

Today I went off the beaten path...literally. I stepped into a construction site. There was a worker there throwing large stones across the path, about sixty years old.

"Well, you look like you're having a good time!" I said.

"Sure am...how are you?"

"I'm doing okay," I replied.

"Well, that's your own fault!" He laughed.

"Whatcha doin?"

"Oh, just playin' in the dirt!"

I asked this happy man why he was a construction worker. He told me that when he was a little kid, he loved to play in the dirt, so working in construction was just a natural progression of what he'd always loved to do.

I shook his dusty hand, and hoped that someday I, too, can make a happy living by playin' in the dirt. Whatever "dirt" may be for me :)

The Inspired Lawyer

I met the Inspired Lawyer in his office today. In the midst of our conversation, I asked him how he had come to his chosen profession.

"I was a business major in college," he began. "One day, when I had about a year left in school, I was in my bishop's office wondering what to do with my life. He said, 'Maybe you should think about being a lawyer.' When he said that, I felt a very warm feeling...as if God was telling me that was right."

He then went on the explain how he tried to apply to law school, but he was too late to take the LSAT. He thought that if being a lawyer was what God wanted him to do, he would be able to get in. So, he called the admissions office, and they made an exception for him. He took the LSAT, and then was awarded a scholarship.

Right as he said that, he laughed. "I was sold!"

What made it interesting was that, as he was telling me this, I remembered why I was there: to interview him about a horrible criminal he was defending. Heavenly Father made him a lawyer to defend criminals. It made me realize that even the scummiest people in this country need someone to represent them in our courts.

In the end, aren't we all criminals to the law of the Lord? And don't we all need the Savior to be our advocate...our defense attorney at the final judgement? Being an advocate for the defenseless just might be the most Christlike work of all.

The Waitress Formerly Known as Janette

I had a hard time finding people to talk to today. There were cell phones everywhere. So I took my dog for a walk, and wandered into the tiny, run-down Chinese restaurant by my house. The place was empty, as usual.

"I'm just here to meet a neighbor!" I said.

The waitress was an older lady who spoke broken English. I asked her, "Are you Chinese?" to which she corrected me: "No, I'm Taiwanese!"

She said her name was Janette. Her husband was the cook of the restaurant, and he had been cooking for 30 years. She has been in the U.S. for 25 years, waitressing the restaurant for her husband.

I smiled: "Is Janette your real name?"

She leaned over the counter and smiled back: "No, my real name is a Chinese name. Too hard to pronounce. When I got here, I just liked the American name Janette, so I called myself that." And it stuck.

It's amazing the stories you find. She told me she hates it when people eat all their food, and then complain they don't like it. "I kicked a mean man out of here and said, 'Don't you ever come back!' when he didn't want to pay." She has even called the police on people, but doesn't anymore: "They don't come for 20-30 minutes!" she complains, laughing.

I told her my wife doesn't like Chinese food. She recommended the house cashew chicken for her.

The Bee Keeper

It's not every day you find someone who has dedicated his whole life to bees. Seriously...bees. I met the Bee Keeper outside the city administration building today. He was tending to his hive.

"Sir, how exactly did you get into this? Why do you like bees?"

He laughed. "When I was a kid, I used to live on a cotton farm. There were bees everywhere. Then, I learned there were different types of honey, from blueberry to orange to smoked. Once I tried each of them, I became hooked. Bees are fascinating to me."

Wow, I thought. He must lead a boring life. Seriously. Bees. I was about to comment on this when he perked up.

"Yup, I've been all around the world...to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, to teach bee-keeping classes and pollination lectures. In many nations, they need bee production to survive. Bees have allowed me to travel all around the world."

He taught me all about bees--how and why they are important, the hierarchy of the hive, and how to tame the killer ones.

It's not everyday you meet a guy who has seen the world on the backs of honeybees.

The Indecisive Soldier

Airports are the best places to learn about people. They are either going somewhere or coming home, and are usually apt to talk about either of these events. A few, however, don't know where they're going--even though they have their boarding pass in hand.

I'm sitting near The Indecisive Soldier in an airport terminal. He's in full uniform, so I lean over, point to his uniform and start talking.

"Goin' home?"

He smiles. "Yup, on my way home."

He told me about his family: his fiancee whom he plans to marry in June, and a 17-year old daughter. He is in the National Guard, but wants to transfer to the Army. But there is a problem: his soon-to-be wife doesn't want him in the Army.

"Well, why do you want to join the Army then?"

His voice attains a level of pride I seldom hear. "I feel like I can contribute more in the Army. I don't keep going back (on tours) for the money--no soldier does. I go back because of a sense of duty, and because I want to be a part of a greater cause."

Duty. Pride. A greater cause. Sacred words to him that have become cliche to the rest of us.

"There is a special pride about wearing this uniform that civilians just don't understand."

Our boarding numbers are called, and we shake hands. I say the only words I can: "Thank you."

As I watched this modern-day Odysseus walk through the terminal, I wondered: Why are we uncomfortable about speaking of duty, pride, and a greater cause? And then it hits me: we have forgotten how to define them. The definitions have become lost in the excesses of our days--precisely because they don't exist in a dictionary. Rather, then can't exist in a dictionary. They are definitions of the heart. The world would be a better place if we stopped defining success based on money and fame, and defined it based on words like "honor" and "a greater cause." Only by doing that will their definitions ring inside us. Then we can look at the soldier sitting next to us, and understand him for the first time.

The Dragon Slayer

People love to talk about what makes them happy. Even the shyest of people will talk your ear off if you ask the right questions.

I met the Dragon Slayer on a drizzly Saturday morning at an old, musty-smelling used bookstore near my house.

"I'm looking for Walden by Thoreau," I asked him. "Do you have it?"

He looked in his database and quietly said, "Nope, we don't have it here." I could tell he was uncomfortable.

"Hmm. Well, do you have any recommendations for me? What do you like to read?"

He perked up. It was like seeing a glimmer of light through a door-jam. "I like to read fantasy and science fiction."

I smiled. "You know, I've always wondered why people like science fiction and fantasy books. I've never read them." (To be honest, I'd always thought sci-fi and fantasy were kind of dorky--too many wizards and goblins and trolls and what not.) "Why do you like them?"

And with that question, the floodgates opened.

"I think that fantasy books just flow better," he explained. "The problem with non-fiction is author has to be so accurate and precise, that the story sometimes gets lost in all the facts. The author has to study so hard to make everything factual, that he sacrifices the flow of the story. Science fiction authors make everything up, so the story just flows from their minds to the page. Personally, I like books that flow, with a strong story-line. Let me recommend some to you!"

He recommended Isaac Asimov, then he described to me one of his favorites--a fantasy book called Dealing with Dragons.

"It's about a princess who has five other princess sisters...except, she's not a normal princess. When the other princesses are learning table manners and etiquette, she wants to learn to cook and fence," he excitedly describes in between phone-call interruptions. "But her father puts a stop to that. So she meets a talking frog--but he's not a prince in disguise, he's just a talking frog, you know?--who tells her to run away, and she does and becomes a maid for dragons. All the knights in shining armor want to slay the dragon and save her, but when they get there, she turns them away, because she actually likes living with the dragons!" He laughs and hopes I see the irony. I do.

"So, in this book," he continues, "the two things that have magic are wizards and dragons. The wizards have magic through their staffs."

He picks up a nearby broom and holds it up to give me a visual.

"And the dragons make magic internally." He smiles.

I have to ask, "So, when did you start reading fantasy books?"

"Well, most children's books are fantasy books," he explains, "so it just was a natural transition for me." He starts to chuckle. "In fact, my parents used to bribe me with money to read, because I never wanted to. But then I got hooked, and I would stay up late and read and read and read!"

The Dragon Slayer taught me something I had never realized before. Sometimes, we tend to get so hung up on facts and figures, that we neglect the inherent beauty in a creative work of art. It seems that, in our society, to know more is of higher value than to dream more. But they are of equal importance. Knowing scientific facts helped the Wright brothers build their airplane, but it was creative passion that gave them the dream in the first place. Was Benjamin Franklin, the famous lightning tamer, any less of a wizard than Gandalf? How is flying in a plane any different from flying on a broomstick? For one second, let's stop looking at our great technological advances as parts and pieces, and start looking at them for what they really are: magic.

All of the sudden, wizards and knight and dragons and magic don't seem so far fetched now, do they?

The Amigo Project

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau says: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

We are so desperate to get from one tax bracket to the next, from Point A to Point B, from birth to death, that we have forgotten what truly makes us happy . . . EACH OTHER!

This project's goal is to give people a break from their quiet desperation, even for a moment. These are the rules:

1. I will only spotlight people I have never met before.
2. I will meet people outside of my normal daily areas (the classroom, work, etc.)
3. I will meet one new person per day.

The goal of this blog is to inspire you to take out the headphones, turn off the cell phone, and get out there and start talking to people! :) After all, it's much harder to live your life in quiet desperation if you're not...well...quiet.

Join me as I set out to end this quiet desperation of which Thoreau wrote. One amigo at a time.