* Jedd Thoughts

The Ever Changing Value of Stuff…

simplyintentional

In the last 9 years I have moved 10 times (twice with Michelle) and so you probably see why I think I am an expert on the subject. But moving has really only helped me downsize from the amount of stuff I use to have (which, If you can imagine was way more things before Michelle and I got married). The real credit has to go to Michelle who will ask me how much I value or care about certain things. She helps me to be more intentional about what I keep and it has brought up some pretty difficult situations and decisions.  Most of the time I’m not even aware of a lot of the “things” I do own until we uncover it through cleaning and preparing for our moves. Items that I’ve been holding onto for the potential time that I might actually need it. For example, I have a basketball. Do I play basketball? No. Do I wish I played more basketball? Sure. Do I really need a basketball? (I wait a couple of seconds, go back and forth with the thought) Maybe?

Life happens. As we change, our stuff in a way changes too, at least the way we value and think about our stuff. My mom and I were cleaning her house (on a recent visit back home) and I was trying to help her sort through our family’s “treasure” (a little bit of everything). It was interesting as we went back and forth between what was truly important and what was just another “thing”. My mom did make an interesting observation though and said that if the house were to flood and everything was ruined, she probably wouldn’t need to replace any of it. I was proud of her for that. It’s not that the stuff she owned wasn’t important, it’s just that it wasn’t so important that she couldn’t continue to live life and move on. All that stuff she figured wasn’t really worth it. This was great for me to understand because I really enjoyed my snowboard gear (although I don’t care to go up anymore) and my DVD collection (down from over 100 to 48). I still enjoy movies, but thanks to Netflix, I don’t have to physically own them. Most of the stuff I have isn’t that great unless there’s someone to share with anyways. I know it’s sappy but we were meant for relationship (no matter how introverted you are) and that’s the “stuff” that really matters…

BTW: This is also a shameless plug to tell you that Michelle and I are selling somethings so if you are interested, let us know (we make great deals for friends and friends of friends). We don’t really care about how much we make, but that we are getting rid of things we don’t need anymore. Maybe you might need 48 dvds??? 🙂

45 DVDs and 3 Blu-rays. See the following link for more details: http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/emd/1840081201.html

21″ Widescreen Samsung Computer Monitor (with DVD and Video game, Component cable Hookups): Actual pictures below.

Our ridiculously big Coffee Table (just ridiculously too big for our apartment)

My lightly used snowboard gear (1-2 seasons of use) – http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/spo/1840078477.html

Let us know if you want anything 🙂

* Jedd Thoughts

The Namesake….

simplyintentional

What’s in a name? Growing up I didn’t really like my name, at least, that’s what I remember. I didn’t have what I considered to be a cool name and of all things, I actually wanted something that was more common, more asian, and wasn’t so unusual to me (I never knew anyone or ever heard the name Jedd till I was older).  I was tired of hearing people rhyme Jedd with unimaginable words like bed and dead. Tired of listening to my Orthodontist sing the “Let me tell you about a story about a man name Jed” song (which I never knew anything about the Beverly Hillbillies at the time and yes, he did sing that song every time he tightened my braces). Familiar faces, people that looked like me (yes, Asian people) were not named Jedd. People would be quite shocked in some cases to meet me and learn that my name was Jedd, expecting someone different (yet my other Asian friends were named Brent, Aaron, Heather, and Jennifer just to name a few). I admit, there were times when I wondered why. Even in high school I thought if I could choose a name for myself I’d much rather be something like a Tony (Yes, I don’t know where I got this from) or my Hawaiian middle name of Kaeo (hoping I was from Hawaiian lineage somewhere). But Jedd?

I watched the movie “The Namesake” tonight with Michelle and it got me thinking about my name and all the things that have happened in my life that have brought me to this point. While I thought my name Jedd had come from “Return of the Jedi” which ironically came out the same year I was born, I have come to learn that my parents picked Jedd from the Biblical name of Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord.  I tell people that my parents shortened my name because they thought I wouldn’t be able to spell Jedidiah growing up and that they felt the spelling of Jedd looked a lot better then Jed with one D (of course, I could just be telling a crazy story, I’ll have to check with my mom). So Jedd I was, but I never really embraced my name until later.

Reflecting on life now and what has happened, I can only say that the name fits. I am truly blessed.  Everyday God reminds me that He loves me as proof by the people in my life such as my wife, my family, and my friends.  I am humbled to think that my name has come from a marriage of two very different and wonderful individuals. I think of the ways in which they have sacrificed their lives for me, the ways in which I caused chaos to them, and the ways they have let me know that they love and care about me no matter how many times I’ve screwed up.

Like many things in life, my name is nothing and everything at the same time. We often hear our names called, read our names in email, even hear strangers say our names like they know us (thank you unsolicited phone callers). We don’t have time in our busy lives to really think about our name’s meaning, the rich cultural history behind it, but more importantly, the story of how we came to be. I see and use my name everyday, but rarely do I think about what my name means. We treat our names like they are nothing. But whether you like the sound of it, the spelling, the way it rolls of your tongue, your name is you, it is everything. It is the collective whole of experiences both past and present that make you, you. It is a way that you are known in this world, unique in that people know you because of your name (and also people don’t know you because of your name).

I am forever grateful to my parents. I am continuing to discovering what it means to be Jedd with two D’s and I am blessed to have my name and not Tony (which is a great name for someone else).

* Michelle Thoughts

Haiti Hopeless or Healing

mcmeeshi

One of the greatest tragedies in my socially conscious lifetime was the earthquake in Haiti this year. What a greater tragedy it would be to forget…

The Bazilme family, whom we shared a week with in Haiti last June (Pastor Delamy Bazilme is the in-country leader of Haiti Foundation of Hope), were recently in the Northwest. Hearing Pastor Delamy speak about the current situation brought both hope and helplessness. We can only thank God that he and his family are still alive, having been in Port-au-Prince the day of the quake. He has been working non-stop since the disaster, hardly sleeping, until their trip the States a couple weeks ago. Just over a year ago, I had heard him speak about the challenges in Haiti before ever setting foot there, but this time it was different. To hear him say the situation is simply “miserable,” I could sense in his voice and behind his jolly and gracious spirit, that he is worn and tired. I pray for his strength, endurance, and encouragement through this uphill battle, Pastor Delamy, the power house and the hope for so many people.

In an effort to stay in tune with the situation in Haiti, Jedd and I attended a talk at the Mercy Corps Action Center by a member of the International Crisis Group, an organizational that analyzes the factors driving conflict and makes recommendations for policy and reconstruction. He repeated something which was shared with us on the Nicaragua Immersion as well, which was that Bill Clinton actually took the blame for exacerbating the degree of devastation in Haiti.

In his presidency, Clinton pressured countries like Haiti to dramatically lower their tariffs on imported U.S. rice, leaving them unable to supply their own staple crop and diminishing their investments in agriculture. Now the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, he says: “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. … I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.” We saw similar effects of American trade policies, which hinder self-sustaining agricultural production, in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, Haiti has become a prime example of just how detrimental our self-serving trade policies can get. It’s refreshing to hear Clinton apologize. I only hope he’ll be effective and thoughtful in helping turn this around. A major part of the Crisis Group’s reconstruction advice includes investment in agriculture, as well as expanding credit to small businesses and farmers and decentralizing the country’s economic center into eight regional development centers. According to the Group, the “Emergency” period in Haiti will last about three years (can you imagine a three year emergency?) and the First Phase of reconstruction will take a full decade. Policy decisions needed to move forward with a resettlement plan have yet to be made, and the country is waiting on U.S. Congress to approve desperately needed assistance funding for democratic elections in 2011 (a requirement to satisfy U.N. benchmarks).

In reflecting on the miserable catastrophe in Haiti, the ridiculous oil spill, the never-ending wars, the broken public school systems, and on and on with all that is deeply wrong with humanity, I have been very humbled. I’ve realized that I cannot solve the world’s problems and neither can anyone else. I’ve seen how complex, deeply rooted, and numerous our problems are. All that remains is trust in God. Not that I’ve given up or even become pessimistic really. But I’ve submitted to the reality that we as human beings are in over our heads, and our only hope is our Creator. A Creator, who- fortunately for us- is powerful and loving and has made great promises for justice, restoration, and a kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven. He has asked us to be His hands and feet and to do small things with great love, trusting in His plan.

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels

U.S. Goes Bananas in Nicaragua

mcmeeshi

On the Nicaragua Immersion this past May, two of our site visits really stood out to me. One, the factory where we saw North Face jackets manufactured (read about that visit here) and two, the tent camp where former banana workers have been protesting for four years (read more here). Combined, these brought to light much of what has gone horribly wrong with the U.S. trade policies we thought were supposed to be fair and helpful. To make a long story short, we heard straight from the source that big fruit companies like Dole have used a harmful fertilizer, Nemagon (which had been banned in the States twenty years earlier), on its Central American plantations. The unknowing banana workers now suffer from sterility, cancers, and many other diseases. One thousand have died and 16,500 were harmed in some way. Hundreds have left their families to protest in the capital, living in a tent camp until something is done. Meanwhile, Dole refuses to acknowledge its wrongdoing. It turns out, we aren’t the only ones who think the story of the banana workers should be heard. In fact, it was so scandalous that a documentary filmmaker covered the trial the banana workers brought against Dole in a new film titled “Bananas“, and companies

around the globe were watching carefully as the case “would open the US courts to other global victims of US-based multinationals.” Dole even tried to sue the filmmaker for screening the movie in the U.S.! While it hasn’t been released yet, the premiere in L.A. happens this week, as does the filmmaker’s court day to win back lawyer fees for having been inappropriately sued. Please visit www.bananasthemovie.com to learn more!

BANANAS!* trailer

from WG Film on Vimeo.

Educate Yo’self: The Background Info (Source: http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=225)

Free Trade opens up markets by eliminating all taxes and tariffs on products being imported and exported, creating one large economy in which everyone competes. It encourages countries to produce for export rather than for their own consumption. Under this prescription, impoverished countries like Nicaragua have been obligated to offer cheap labor to the global economy. In the apparel industry, the cheapest countries will succeed in attracting foreign-owned garment assembly factories (maquilas).This system has spawned the notorious “race to the bottom:” a race of developing countries to be the cheapest option for the multinational corporations that produce and sell our jeans and t-shirts. So Nicaragua offers maquila investors the lowest wages in Central America, governmental tax breaks, and unenforced labor laws.

Such cost savings for U.S. corporations have taken their toll on Nicaragua’s workers. Foreign-owned maquilas routinely violate and disregard Nicaragua’s worker-friendly labor laws. The Ministry of Labor does little to enforce the law, knowing that the companies may balk at increased production costs and abandon Nicaragua for a country offering more lax laws. As a result, thousands of Nicaraguan workers are regularly insulted and harassed by superiors, forced to work late into the evenings, fired for pregnancy or illness, and denied legally-entitled pay and benefits.Unions that attempt to halt such exploitation are summarily dismantled by managements’ blatant acts of union-busting.

Under CAFTA, sold to the Nicaraguan public with the promise that a surge in maquila jobs will replace lost agricultural jobs, the country is becoming even more dependent on the maquila system. Given CAFTA’s failure to establish a realistic mechanism for labor law enforcement, more maquilas likely mean more exploitation. Many also question how long these maquila jobs will last. With the recent entrance of bigger and cheaper contenders like China, Nicaragua now faces grim competition in the global race to the bottom. To win, Nicaragua may need to allow for escalated erosion of workers’ rights.

* Jedd Thoughts

A Toast…

simplyintentional

I’m back. After taking a hiatus and feeling a bit silly for being self-conscious for what I assume is random babbling, I have decided that there are things I want to share and that people have a choice to like it, hate it, or not even read it, so why should I care that much. Thanks T for inspiring me to share…

Photo by the Avenna Studios

Michelle and I recently celebrated our two year anniversary(!!) and this summer, a lot of amazing friends are getting married so as you can imagine, I’ve been thinking and reflecting a lot about love and relationships. This is my toast to them…

First of all, I want to tell you both how much Michelle and I love you and will be there when you call, email, tweet, or facebook. Some days, it might take a bit to respond, but we will be there to support you, not just today, but for all the days of your lives together in thought and in prayer.

I wanted to share with you two thoughts- well, really hopes- from my extensive two years of marital experience, wisdom that I hope will be a blessing to you in your marriage. (And please know that I really believe that in all things in life, you discover so much on your own).

The first thing I hope for you is that you live your lives with intentionality. Be intentional. Do what is right, not always what is easy. Lower the toilet seat down for her. Talk about issues that are difficult to talk about instead of easily walking away. Protect your time as a couple and figure out for yourselves what it means to be a couple. Forgive each other for inevitable hurt and sadness you will cause each other. Take time to enjoy each other.

We can easily fall into patterns, belief systems where we feel trapped in a relationship, trapped in regimen and routine, not taking full advantage of the gift of what love really is: freedom. The wedding day is a celebration of your intentional choice to live together, to love each other.

Love is choice. Choose to love. You cannot force anyone to love you and you cannot force yourself to love them. You can choose to love each other. From personal experience, we must also respect each other’s freedom and ability to choose, especially your spouse’s. You must intentionally protect their right to make their own choice for their life and trust that they are considering how their choices impact you, and I hope they will trust you in the same way. Choose to be there for each other. Choose to bring the truth of what you really feel and think to conversations (this one is very important in Michelle and I’s relationship) and choose to learn more about each other and what is important to each other. Remember, no one is forcing you to get married, you are choosing to get married.

Michelle and I hope you have laughter and grace (and plenty of babies or puppies). We hope you know that your family and friends love you both and are cheering for you, thinking and praying for you no matter where life may take you and whatever you may do.

May you live life intentionally and may you choose to love each other every day….

Here’s to the beautiful newly wed couple. Cheers! Banzai! And as Grandpa Shigeme would say, “Now suck’em up” 🙂

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels

Nicaragua the Wise

mcmeeshi

As many of you know, I (Michelle) had the great opportunity to travel to Nicaragua for almost three weeks with a student service-learning trip. The experience was amazing and I can honestly say I’ve never learned so much in such a short period of time. This collage of pictures depicts just a few snapshots of our trip, but what it doesn’t show are the profound stories of hardship, wisdom, and resilience we heard from the Nicaraguan people nor the deep, complex issues we encountered in the country. The one request we got over and over from people while we were down there was to share their stories and to remember their communities. Please, you can help me do this. I’ll do my best in the coming blog posts to recount some of the stories, but never hesitate to ask me more about it. (And if you ever have the chance to participate in a “delegation” with the organization Witness for Peace, I can’t recommend it enough.)

We packed our days learning about the culture, the economy, the political history, labor rights issues, health care, coffee and organic farming, fair trade, human rights violations, street children, and more. For example: after a crash course in trade policy and labor rights, we toured a big factory making North Face jackets, then saw a fair trade cooperative factory for comparison, and later sat down for a talk with union organizers who are standing up for labor laws to be enforced in their workplace. I think one of the most shocking themes we saw throughout the trip was how much the United States’ policies, trade agreements, and influence throughout history have impacted Nicaragua to its detriment. As a result, we also came to discover that our role in Nicaragua was not to make changes while we were there (the Nicaraguans should be empowered to change their own country from within) but rather to wield our power and influence upon returning home, where our decisions, purchases, votes, and voice still have a huge impact on Latin American countries. All of this is something I’ll attempt to explain in my next post.

Until then, see our 2010 Nicaragua Immersion blog for more stories from the students.

* Life Updates, * Michelle Thoughts

The Wonderful World of Student Leadership

mcmeeshi

Another year has already come to an end in the world of the University where I work. Looking back, it was a year of excitement and blessings, and the opportunity to work with amazing student leaders was definitely a highlight. Seeing their passion and their growth over the year is what gives so much meaning to my work. These students are inspiring their peers, dedicating themselves to service in the community, coordinating meaningful events, digging deeper into the issues of our world, and bringing life into our office every day. It’s been a real privilege to take part in their journey.

This month I also have the privilege to travel with another amazing group of students. We’re heading off to Nicaragua May 7th to the 25th and exploring the effects of U.S. policy, visiting fair trade coffee farms, learning from local leaders, touring orphanages and social service agencies, living with families, and working alongside a community to build a school. We’ll be working with two excellent organizations: Witness for Peace and Seeds of Learning. After seven months of weekly meetings and hours upon hours of fundraising, we’re all anxious to finally be there. It’s going to be an incredible experience for all 21 of us, and one that I am so grateful to be a part of. We won’t have a whole lot of internet access but you can check in on us through the Nicaragua Immersion blog.

Until next time…

* Michelle Thoughts

Big Ideas

mcmeeshi

Big ideas. As many of you know, Jedd and I are full of them. Within 15 minutes of first meeting each other back in July 2007, our conversation quickly turned, revealing how we were each entrepeneurs at heart and felt called to non-profit work. Most recently, we dreamed up our own TV show/documentary where we would travel the country in a veggie-oil RV on a quest to find creative ways that people are practicing “voluntary simplicity” (from community living to urban farming to self-sustaining homes and more). Apart from all the cool people and places we would encounter, can you imagine the entertainment value? [Jedd makes outrageous pronouncement. Then, close-up on Michelle’s lifted eyebrow. Jedd dances, trying to get a reaction. No reaction. Etc.] If anyone can line up a sponsor, let us know! By the way, we discovered days later that a somewhat related series was done on the Sundance Channel, called “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.” We recommend watching it on instant Netflix.

Other big ideas of ours include starting an inter-generational, intentional living community; a multi-functional coffeeshop/community/ministry center (like Q-Cafe in Seattle); a non-profit/co-op residence hall for low-income University students; an annual Serve Portland ministry conference (inspired by Hawaii’s H.I.M. conference); and many, many more. I have little doubt that one or more of these ideas will happen in one way or another at some point in our lives. “With our powers combined!” We know we are surrounded by amazing friends and family with all kinds of talents, skills, and experience that could come together in creative and synergistic ways.

I’m sure some of you have “big ideas,” too. We’d love to hear about them. Please share!

* Jedd Thoughts

For what it’s worth…..my two cents about Health Care

simplyintentional

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?

* Jedd Thoughts

Tsunami, Avatar, and Lent

simplyintentional

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.