13. It's a Wonderful Life!

Hey, did anybody go to Flicks on the Bricks last night? They showed "It's a wonderful Life" in Clinton downtown open air (it was freezing!!!) and it was the first time for me to watch this movie. And I was really overwhelmed by it and I decided that it should become now one of my favorite movies :-)

I was really excited by the idea used by the storywriter to confront George Bailey with the circumstances in his city if he had never been born. It showed the effects George's life had on other people's lives and it made him understand better why life is wonderful indeed and that you shouldn't just throw it away.
I do agree with it that your life influences the lives of others, to the better or to the worse. Unfortunately we scarcely remember this fact and that's why we live our lives "they way I want it," selfishly and egotistically.

This movie also reminded me of a friend at home who died in March after he had received a bone marrow transplantation due to leukemia. This man was only in his fortys and only some days ago, memories about him flashed my mind. What he had done, what he had said, things we had experienced together, the way he had laughed. This overwhelmed me and tears filled my eyes. He was a man who was pretty simple in his life and in his thoughts, but he was a person who was a straight Christ follower. Even when he spent his last three months after the transplantation in the hospital, deceising, he still was a witness to Christ. He followed him both in death and in life. He's a person I want to use as a role model on my way following Jesus.

12. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I have to admit that this week's blog is not that originally, at least its topic. But for me as a German guy, it's my very first Thanksgiving holiday! And in addition, I have the opportunity to spend in an original American family (actually, we're kind of international because there are five Americans, two Chinese guys, and the additional German!).
Before the Thanksgiving break, people explained Thanksgiving to me as "Eating - Sleeping - and Eating again!" Well, that's how I experienced it so far. Since we arrived here in Tennessee on Tuesday night, we have only been eating (excellent stuff - my beloved Sauerkraut!), sleeping, playing Wii, and we've been around the area and also in a mal. One of the things I like most, apart from having the awesome experience of an Anerican Thanksgiving, is the landscape and the existence of fall over here in Tennessee (as compared to its nonexistence in Mississippi). All the lawns and fields are full of colored leaves, things are really easy going, everywhere there are little lakes and ponds, and I just relax - that's holidays!

This morning, I saw a survey in TV and they had asked Americans about the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday. In this survey, 53 percent said that Thanksgiving is the most important holiday in the U.S. Well, that surprised me a little because it is just a holiday that people would spend at home with their family. It's nothing like Christmas of the 4th of July which would either have an international/religious implication or a political significance. Ok, there is definitely a historical significance because without the assistance of the Natives to the Pilgrims during their first Winter, it's likely there wouldn't have been any Pilgrims left the next Fall.
However, even if you want to stress the historical significance, I'm a little confused when people ask me if we have Thanksgiving also in Germany. There was nothing like an assistance by a Native people that could be celebrated over there. So, if people ask me about Thanksgiving in Germany, they either have no idea about German history at all or they never understood what's the thing behind the Thanksgiving holiday over here.
So, either or, it's a little strange when over 50 percent of the Americans state that this holiday is the most important one but at the same time they don't really know what it is about or why it is special for the U.S.

Well, I guess it's almost the same in Germany: I suppose people would "vote" for Christmas to be the most important holiday - and there are only few people left who still know why we celebrate Christmas. But for this you should read my entry of two weeks ago ...

11. Boys, that's going to be a little awkward ...

Ok, guys, I'm not really sure how to put it, but I found something out the last week and I don't want to hide it from you.
One of our biggest problems of male humans is - the new hairstyle of a woman. I have to admit that I always fail to act political correct towards a girl with a new hairdress. About 3 years ago, a friend of mine had a new haircut and I said "Wow, you've been to hairdresser, right? Well ... I liked your hairstyle before better." Ok, girls, I know what you think - "Oh my gosh, how could he say something like that???" And actually, this friend, she still reminds me of this occasion now and then. But for us guys it's just "Where's the problem? It's the truth. And also, as soon as in 2 months, your hair will have grown and you can go to the hairdresser again. That's one of your favorite pastimes anyway, right?"

Last week, I had a similar encounter. A friend had a new hairstyle and it was definitely - different! So, knowing that I always mess up these things, I preferred to say nothing. Then she said "Hey, didn't you see? I've been to the hairdresser!"

See, that's the problem: no matter what we do, we will always fail!
Possibility #1: Your friend/mom/sister/girlfriend (exponentiated danger!) has a new haircut. You prefer not to make any comments because you need a little time to adapt to this newness and you don't want to hurt her. The reaction: "I've been to the hairdresser. Why you don't say anything about it? You're such an ignoramus!"

Possibility #2: Same situation - a female you know has a new haircut. You know that girls want you to comment on things that are new in their lives (including new wallpainting, new nail polish, new perfume). Therefore, you decide to be honest and favoring the truth, you say "Oh ... you've been to the hairdresser ... that's ... ok! I think ... maybe, I liked the one before better, a little bit. But still, you look so cute!" Take my advice, guys - try to escape out of the room, out of town, out of state as soon as somehow possible!!!

Possibility #3: The same again - you have to face a new haircut and it scares you. Still, you know that the last time you spoke the truth, you weren't able to come back to your own house for the next 2 weeks! Consequently, you decide on this: "Wow, you've been to the hairdresser. That's great, I love it. You look so good!" Well, you might have saved your life for the next 24 hours, but deep down in your soul, you know that this was a terrible lie and will stick to your bone marrow and eat away your guts for the rest of your life.

See, no matter what you do, it's definitely wrong! Either you're an ignoramus, you're a malignant person, or you're a dirty liar (actually, if this woman finds out about your lie, life will be even worse than choosing possibility #2!).

Well then, good luck in surviving, guys! And don't ask me to solve this problem because I can't!

10. Santa Claus is coming ...

... to town. Well, wait a minute, it's middle of November - that means that there is more than a whole month to cover until it's actual Christmas! And by the way, who is coming to town? Is it really Santa Claus? Isn't it that we celebrate the birth of a little creature to a poor family that would be the savior to the whole world?

Did you know that Jesus' birth is very unlikely to have taken place in Winter? Scholars are pretty sure about that. As far as I know, one of the main reasons that the birth didn't take place in Winter is that the Gospel of Luke mentions shepherds were tending their sheep in the night that Jesus was born. Well, sheep out in the middle of Winter? The weather can get really cold in Israel ...
Even though that is maybe not the most convincing argument, theologians are pretty sure about that (ask one of them and they can explain it to you). In addition, in contrast to today's Christmas "culture" - actually, I'm not sure if it's the same over here in the U.S., but it's that way at least in Germany! - Mary and Joseph probably didn't stay in a stable, but more probably in a cave cut into the rock. And one more thing, neither an ox nor a donkey were present - at least not according to Luke!

So, why do we celebrate Christmas at the end of December? The reason why the Church decided for the middle of Winter - is the feast of solstice. Pagans celebrated it and the Church wanted to establish their own holiday and to weaken Nordic mythology and belief at the same time. And also the Christmas tree goes back to an old Germanic tradition. Scared?

I think today nobody about all thes pagan traditions. However, there are only few people left who care about Christian tradition behind Christmas either! This holiday has become a gift feast in many families and some parents would spend hundreds of dollars to buy gifts.

Well, Jesus definitely was a gift to humankind. But we have to accept this gift, we have to accept him in our lives. Put away all the things that are considered as accompanying Christmas and being necessary and search for the actual, wonderful event that happened some 2000 years ago. Then, things will change and Christmas can become again the feast of love. Receiving the Lord will change your live. That is really a happy occasion.
Therefore - Merry Christmas :-)

9. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6,38)

Did you ever realize how annoying different measures can be? Especially for me coming over from Germany to the U.S. - there seems to be no end of converting German measures into American ones and the other way round.
I'll give you some small tiny examples:

You measure long distances in miles, we do so in kilometers. Well, that's why I never have an idea how far the distance is between let's say Clinton and Chicago. So, 1 mile is 1.6 kilometers (actually, I like kilometers much more, just because 6.43 kilometers sounds a lot more than 4 miles when you're running on the treadmill right?). But it's not only about distances - also velocities always confuse me because driving one mile per an hour is much faster than driving one kilometer per one hour!
Well, let's move on. When I had to write my first essay, I was told to have margins of 1 inch each. However, my writing program only knows centimeters. So I had to find out how many centimeters equal one inch (it's 2.54 centimeters - I learned my lesson well!). And also, did you know that we got different sizes of paper? Over here, it's the letter format (meaning 8.5x11'') and we have the Din A 4 format (meaning 8.3x11.7''). That's crazy, isn't it? However, my writing program was at least smart enough to have the letter format.
Having no idea of distances expressed in miles, my problem with sizes of the body is almost the same - how should I know how many pounds I weigh and how many feet I'm tall? Well, in Germany I would use 1.79 m and 77 kilograms (well, if you want to know how fat I am you really have to look it up *gg*).
However, the problem with the body sizes doesn't stop here - what about the size of shoes? In German shoes, it's size 43 - when I bought some sneekers over here it was size 9.
When I knew that I would spend the winter in Mississippi, I had a look at the minimum temperature over here - and they showed it to me in ° Fahrenheit! That's again when I had no idea how cold or warm 32° Fahrenheit is. To me, it sounded pretty warm at first, but when I found out that 32°F equals 0°C - I was thankful to know that it means FREEZING! (32°C would mean almost 90°F!)
One last thing to mention is the measurement of liquids. You always use gallons when we use liters. Comparing the prize of gas to the German prize is therefore pretty difficult ;-) And did you even know that the American gallon has 3.78 liters and the British gallon even 4.54l? Well, if that's not crazy ...
I want to finish with - currency *gg* Back in June, one € was $1.6. This changed a lot and does so every single day (actually, this was even a worse thing to compare gas prices!)

What if we just changed everything: you adopt the € and the metric system - and the world would love you *lol*

Even though I used the verse from the Gospel of Luke only as a nice starting point, I really think that considering all these different measurements shows how often we use different "standards" in our everyday life. Unfortunately, these "standards" are not only different when you cross the Atlantic Ocean, but every single person has his or her own standard. So, if we all measure differently - whose standard is the one we should use? There has to be someone outside of this earth because we humans are not capable to have a neutral measurement system. Only one came from outside this world and gave us standards that will last forever.
Therefore, let's adapt to His.

8. Evaluating Democracy

This week in my "American National Government" class we talked about lobbyism in the political system of the U.S.m In the class I made quite a controversial statement. As I'm still convinced of its correctness, I wanted to repeat it and elaborate a little on it.
"Democracy is a bad form of government - but it's the best we can think of right at the moment!"

Looking back at all the different governmental systems that have passed over this earth, things seem to be quite clear: socialism failed, dictatorship is a horror to the people ruled by the dictator but also to anyone else, monarchy too often resulted in dictatorship-like conditions. Anarchy - you cannot even call it a governmental system and aristochracy, meaning a government ruled by an elite, again suppressed many of the respective citizens.
Therefore, wouldn't it be reasonable to have the people ruling over itself? That every citizen can influence what's going on in the nation, that everyone can make his or her voice heard?

Well, democracy, meaning "ruling of/ruled by the people", is really promising. Greece started off with this idea of direct democracy meaning that decisions are made by the citizens in debates, taking place now and then. Today's states with huge territories, millions of citizens, and complex problems no longer can be governed by making decisions after debates (Switzerland is one of the few countries that still stick to this kind of government). Therefore, the representative democracy was developed meaning that the citizens elect representatives whose profession is to be politicians and who are trained to cope with the several challenges a nation of today has to face. The citizens however can influence political decisions by influencing their particular representative.

So far so good ... or maybe not? The idea to influence political decisions via lobbyism is really strange if not to say corrupt. Simply because it means that who has the most money has the most influence. Therefore it is no longer that one person has one vote!
But even if it were correct and just - I doubt that there will be a better outcome the more people are influencing the decision. Is it not that the more people one has to satisfy the more wishy-washy and therefore unsatisfying will the decision be to anyone? And in the end, the nation as a whole will suffer!
I don't think that everybody has the knowledge to make correct decisions in today's issues. Just consider the economic crisis! I don't know how to solve it and I doubt that any "average" citizen has the knowledge or the skills to do so.

Yesterday, somebody told me that the Israelites weren't supposed to have a king because God wanted to be their leader. But they desperately wanted someone - and they ended up with Saul. Congratulations!

So, my suggestion is *tataaaa* an autocracy by a ruler who really wants the best for the people, who will never be corrupted, and who is wise enough to make the right decisions without acting for selfish ends.
Well, I guess that there will be nobody who is that generous. The only person I could think of is - Jesus, i.e. God himself. Therefore, we're back when God wanted and still wants to be our only leader. A great thing, right? :-)
I'm glad that we will be at this point one day ...

7. German vs. American Perspective on History

Today's blog topic goes close togehter with the title of my blog: The Frontier Experience.

Yesterday, I talked to some people about German history, namely the more recent one like the coming down of the Berlin Wall, but - inevitably - also about World War II and Nazi Germany. What I realized in some conversations over the last couple of weeks now came clearly to my mind: being in Germany, I always thought that the history of Nazi Germany doesn't really affect me, I don't have to be ashamed of it because I was born only in 1985 (ok, for some of you this might already seem old!) and even my parents were born only in the 1950s. I had nothing to do with the Nazi crimes and WW II and therefore, nobody can blame me.
However, being in the U.S., I was a little shocked how slackly people over here, especially professors, treat the topic of World War II and some of the the crimes committed by the Germans. For example, there are teachers who joke about concentration camps. I mean, not bad jokes, but something like comparing the institution of colleges and the arbitrariness colleges show sometimes to German concentration camps. When I heard things like that I really didn't know what to think or what to say; I was shocked and tongueless.

I mean we Germans still treat this topic very carefully. Showing a swastika will be sentenced and owning Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" is also prohibited. Even if you are a historian you have apply for an permission to access this book.
Just the other day, an Italian court sentenced the Federal Republic of Germany to pay almost 1 million Euro. Background is a massacre on 200 Italians committed by German soldiers during World War II as a retaliation for the murder of three soldiers.
Still, as I wrote above I really felt that I don't have to feel responsible for acts of folly of soldiers of German citizenship, about 64 years ago. But being confronted with the handling of U.S. Americans showed me that I still have the feeling of being sorry for what German people did. That surprised me a lot.

So, the question is: how do things of the past affect us, our lives, our behavior and our feelings? For sure, things happening in our lifetime will do so. But what about things happening 30 or 40 years before you were even born?
Actually, I would say that they may affect us, but that they shouldn't make us feel bad. The same counts for U.S. citizens like you, being born in the late 1980s - the racism that was to be found in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s wasn't your fault at all!
But still - the same as for me - when you are somewhere abroad and you are confronted with this topic, you might think, feel, react quite differently.

That's stange somehow ... is there something like sin of your forefathers that puts pressure on our conscience?
I really don't know.