Author: simplyintentional

I would go to Jon Stewart’s rally. Whether it’s a joke or serious, he does have a point. Where is our sanity? When did issues become so polarized? How did we become so divided as a nation? Where are the voices of those that believe that issues are more complicated than what the media portrays them to be? Where are the people who can see many sides of issues and are willing to work together to find solutions? Why do we only see our differences in party lines? Aren’t there things that we all believe in, unified goals that we agree in and want to work towards?

Jon Stewart is not my savior. Jon Stewart does not have all the answers. But he does ask good questions and, really, that’s what seems to be missing in our conversations. There are no discussions, just arguments and propaganda. There is no open listening, just judgments. It’s not OK to ask tough questions. Just obey.

From what I remember from our pre-marital counseling (and yes there is marriage and politics go hand in hand, it’s about relationship), if two parties enter a discussion and are trying to convince the other person that their side, their opinion, their actions are “right”, then there is no way that they can be united. They fail. Is being right the most important thing anyways? What is “right?” (Sorry, had to ask the questions.) It’s not that they have to agree with what the other person is saying, but to truly know someone, to allow yourself to grow, we must humble ourselves, we must be willing to see that we can learn something from others, we must be also willing to acknowledge that there is a chance, we might also be wrong.

Take the controversial plans to build a Mosque close to Ground Zero of the 9/11 attacks. It seems like the most publicized arguments for or against the proposed plans are centered around Islam and really fail to see the larger picture that the events of 9/11 hurt everyone;  every race, religion, and social demographic we can think of. We all have been negatively affected by 9/11.  The people who died on the planes and buildings, the heroic responders, all came from different backgrounds and all had their own life stories. Yet the only headlines and major source of debate regarding the Mosque plans is centered around the attackers, their religion, their beliefs. Once again, do we have the courage to ask important questions: Does everyone who considers themselves Muslim believe in what the attackers did? Were the only victims and those affected by 9/11 non-Muslim? Do we think about sensitivity to victims in regards to other controversial events (like government buildings or houses of worship where there was injustice and death to Native Americans or Native Hawaiians)?

All I’m saying is that one only needs to look at peoples’ comments on online news articles or watch one of the news channels (FOX, MSNBC, CNN), and you start to wonder if there are only two kinds of thought in this country, only two kinds of people. Its frustrating that our media only portrays and sets up new stories in two specific lights. Why don’t they highlight the majority of the population who doesn’t fit in a specific political or ideological category? Not entertaining or shocking enough? Could there actually be people who have both liberal and conservative views on issues?

When did asking good questions become the insane thing to do?

—-

Please let me know what you think….maybe it’s just me that feels this way.

As most of you know the Universal Health Care Bill recently passed sparking a lot of reaction and debate. For what it’s worth, I wanted to contribute my two cents about the issue but would love to hear your thoughts about it. I don’t necessarily know who is “right” in this situation but I do know that we will only grow from discussion. So as my friend Michele Leong wrote in her facebook post recently, “Bring It On”.

—

There is no such thing as a perfect bill nor a perfect politician. In some ways both parties are right and both parties are wrong. However, Universal Health Care IS and SHOULD BE a human right and whether or not people deserve it is not the question. We don’t ask firemen, police officers, or paramedics to only save or help only those who can afford it.

I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the bill nor do I like that it was passed without more discussion and essentially forced by one side of the issue. Additionally, I hate that people put issues into black and white, two party perspectives. Democrats and Republicans think they represent everyone but they don’t. We need more voices and more representation other than those of democrats and republicans in Washington.

Final thought. A lot of people like to bring up our founding fathers and talk about their conservative values and ideals, how we ought to remember their sacrifices. While many of the things they stood for were amazing, honorable, and led us to be a great nation, lets not forget many of them also believed in and owned slaves. Like are founding fathers, none of us are perfect and as times change, we learn from our mistakes and our victories but one thing remains the same. It seems that we are all working for respecting and valuing human life, equality, the idea that everyone deserves a chance of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. If we aren’t, shouldn’t we?

The Oscars have come and gone. Avatar didn’t win the big prize (I was hoping that UP was going to win 🙂 ) and life is relatively the same as it was yesterday, yet recently, nothing has seemed very normal.

About a week or so ago I traveled home to Hawaii to celebrate my mom’s birthday (love you, Mom. She reads this blog and my twitter updates) and as you know we were a bit on edge as we waited for the tsunami (mind you, we have become very accustomed to warnings but this one seemed different). Of course, the strange thing was that there was some disappointment that the hype, the great expectation of a large tsunami reaching the islands, fizzled as nothing really happened (which was definitely a blessing). While there was definitely relief that there wasn’t any danger, most people wanted to see something incredible and even something frighting come ashore (I was one of these people, happy that we were safe, disappointed that it wasn’t epic).  Isn’t that strange? On the other side of the world in Chile, I can only imagine the panic, the suffering, and the sadness.  At home it was just another day and by night we had already forgotten what had transpired earlier. Kind of like how I read an article online recently about Haiti. The media and our attentions have long forgotten the tragedy there. I know for me personally, I get so wrapped up in work or my own life, that I have pushed the thoughts of Haiti and Chile to the back of my mind, only to be reminded of it once in awhile. A part of me knows that those there right now do not have that luxury. I wonder now if they think of a world outside of their own. Would they think that my frustrations of long days at work, daily commutes, my neighbor’s dog barking 24/7, and my complaints of the weather to be strange? How do they go back to normal?

Maybe that’s why I liked Avatar so much. Don’t get me wrong, the story was predictable (think Fern Gully with guns, a remake of Dances with Wolves, etc…) but there was something very compelling about what I think the main point of the movie was, which could be summed up in one question: What are you living for?  As you know, Michelle and I have recently done a lot of thinking about things like work, intentional living (like eating healthy and p90x), and living simply. Some days, the purpose seems very clear, and others, not so much. But it seems to always boil down to this question: what am I living for? I kind of liked (warning* Avatar movie spoiler) that the main character in Avatar was willing to learn about others (even if it was for misguided reasons in the beginning). I liked that his original purpose for what he was doing changed, that he allowed himself to change. I know the ideas of the Avatar and its pseudo Matrix-like living (being someone else) seem far fetched, yet I can’t help to think that we do things similar to that everyday. No matter what the circumstances, it seems that we can all choose to be who we want to be in this life with others. I was so good at being different around so many people that I had no consistency, no core to myself, and though I know it’s cliche, I was lost. Yet like the protagonist in the movie, when you start to truly live, to stand up for things that you truly believe in, things so important to you that it resonates so strongly with who you want to be, you can’t help but to be authentically real.

Which leads me to Lent. I’ve never been good about Lent. I’ve always made big promises and pronouncements to give up something leading up to Easter only to fail miserably. In fact, failure became so normal that I stopped the practice altogether until recently (partly because Michelle has encouraged me not to give up when I do fail, kind of like me becoming a runner). So this year I have given up excessive use of the internet (thus why I haven’t posted in awhile). I gave this up because I spend a lot of time allowing my computer to control me. One of the first things I do is check my email. While that loads, I go through a sequence of checking in with some of my favorite sites such as CNN, Honolulu Advertiser, ESPN, Engadget, Lifehacker, Facebook, Eugene Cho’s Blog, Dealz, and Macrumors (for all my Apple news). And of course like any true surfer, even though I look through these pages once, I usually go back again or get lead to another page. This has been challenging for me as I love being in the know. I miss reading random sports stories, knowing exactly what the latest world news is and telling people about the latest tech or Apple product coming out. But the absence has made me realize that I have spent a lot of time on the internet, so much that I realized by not being on the internet, I have become bored. Yet this process has taught me to really question my value being “plugged in” to the internet. I remember one of the first things Michelle said in our relationships was that, “whatever we spend our time on, there you will find what it is you value or care about”. If time = money/value then I hope “What I am living for” is worth my time. If the tsunami, earthquakes, Avatar, and Lent has taught me anything, its that I can control somethings, I can’t control a lot of things, but what I can control, I want to make the best of it.

90 days.

Lots of pushups. Lots of trying to do pull-ups. Lots of Ab Ripper X (the Ab routine of the program).

5am early morning work outs. 10pm, last minute, have-to-do-this-before-I-go-to-bed work outs. Working out during the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas break- that was dumb).

Working out with Michelle (thank you for your support and encouragement). Working out alone with only Tony Horton (P90X creator and host) to comfort me. Working out around my work schedule.

Learning to not give up. Learning that I can be disciplined if I want to. Learning you cannot lose love handles or your belly if you keep eating unhealthy and drinking beer. Learning to love Yoga.

—-

As you might recall, I started this challenge 90 days ago (if you don’t remember you can refer to it here). But let me give you my two cents about the program because I know many of you want to know if it works. To be frank, it does work. In fact, it works well. But there’s a catch (there always is with these infomercial type of things): this will only work well if you commit and actually do the program. Was I perfect and did I do every exercise all the way through? No. In the beginning I didn’t finish through the programs (it was tough). Was it easy to give an hour of my life a day? This sucked. Did I change the my diet? Only in the last month. But if you do decide to do this program, if you commit and really try, you will see results.

You remember that age-old adage about “eat right and exercise”?  Well, it makes sense. Not to knock P90X, because it really is a well thought-out and designed program, but if you were to exercise for an hour or more a day and eat healthy, you would see results no matter what. P90X takes things to the next level, gives you that structure and instruction that you need to see results. I feel stronger, more flexible, and feel more fit than I have in a long time (thanks Tony).

All in all, it does feel great to know that I was able to do this. I’ve decided to keep working out on my own and not necessarily every day. I really appreciate all the emails, phone calls, facebook messages, and asking me in person about how I was doing as it really encouraged me throughout the 90 days. If you have questions about this program please don’t hesitate to contact me and I would be more than happy to help you if you are thinking about doing something like this. I definitely learned a lot and would do things a little different if I did it again.

Enough of my rambling thoughts though. Here are the results (note we took pics on the first day and the 90th day):