Brad Moore At War

What would you do if you suddenly learned that your body was riddled with cancer?  What if you found out next Wednesday that you had a year left to live?  What is it in this world that really matters to you?  When it comes down to it, what do you really care about in this life?

And I’ve got nothing against going concern.  I’m not talking about quitting your job or booking RTW or hiring a battalion of hookers.  That’s not the point I’m making here.  The point I’m making is: if you know what really has first priority in your life… what you really and truly love… the impact you want to have on this world… then what are you doing about it?

I don’t care whether or not you get paid to “pursue your dreams” – whatever the **** that’s supposed to mean.  There are extremely few people in the world who can be so fortunate as to make a living doing something they would do for free.  And what are those dreams of yours?  Selfish and narcissistic emotional investment in something you can’t control?  You want to be a pop star?  You want to win the lottery?  You want to be a combination CEO / professor / award-winning-author?  Okay… and so do millions of teenage kids who have been raised on the same TV you’ve been watching.  Good luck with that.

Sorry if I sound harsh; it’s only because I’m speaking to me first.  I have absolutely no control over whether I become a rock star.  When it comes down to it, I don’t even control whether I live to see another year.  What I CAN control… is me.  Right now.  I can keep trying to make my life about G*D instead of me.  I can keep making music.  I can keep creating and writing and thinking and innovating.  I can show love to everyone in my path, and especially to the ones whom I care about the most. Life is too long to avoid making a living – but it’s too short to avoid doing what really matters.

Truth is, if I found out that my life was almost over, I would be at peace with that.  I’ve been born into a beautiful life for no apparent reason, and I’ve had it far too good for far too long.  More to the point: “To live is Christ.  To die is gain.”  I know I would be going to a better place… not just in the politically-correct-but-actually-boldfaced-lie way that we all love to repeat at funerals (for straight is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal life, and few enter in by it)… but in a way that’s more real than anything in this tired world could possibly be.

I’m not a good person – but Christ is the best saviour.  And that’s how I know.  So when I tell you now that I wish I could share what I’ve been given with everyone in the world – know that I mean it in more ways than I could ever tell you.

Sometimes I wish I could do that Vulcan thing where they transfer thoughts – but that would just take all the fun out of it.

I’m really glad that New Zealand passed the same-sex marriage bill.  It means we can all stop arguing and misunderstanding each other.  It means all of us can finally shut up about “us” and “them” and start getting along like normal people again.  It means that the loud and angry idiots on both sides of the issue have substantially less to be loud / angry / idiotic about.

Yes, I’m glad it passed.  G*D is Love – and all the people angrily screaming otherwise will have good reason to stop and reconsider now.  On the flip side of the same token, I’ve been continually horrified at the incredible conceit and condescension among supporters of this movement.  That holds true not just in NZ but everywhere you look.  People all over FaceBook are talking about this as if it were an “idea whose time has come” and as if it were exactly the same as women’s suffrage or the abolition of slavery.  Almost every AP article I see about it says “New Zealand is the 13th” and “France is the 14th” as if it were some kind of race to the finish line of marriage equality.  The assumption behind all of this is that it’s a human rights issue and anyone with an opposing view must be:

A. backward and stuck in the past
B. bigoted and intolerant toward homosexuals
C. using some narrow-minded interpretation of religion to justify discrimination

Nobody wants to be backward / bigoted / narrow-minded, do they?  So let’s all push onward to the wonderful future where everyone can live in equality before the law.

Sounds great, right?  I mean, it’s not like this is an extremely deep and multi-layered discussion involving several of the most complex systems in our known universe.  It’s not like ALL of the fundamental facts surrounding this are still very much open to debate.   Never mind those decades of research aligning with conventional wisdom and giving us all kinds of very good reasons to be hesitant about this.  Never mind the millions of people out there who are not in a big hurry to jeopardize anyone’s kids in the name of social experiment.  Never mind the fact that we may easily be causing enormous harm to the causes of justice and equality by doing this.  No, it’s basically just a few enlightened, progressive thinkers bringing the shining path of progress to legions of the backward and narrow-minded.

This could be just my bad luck, but I’ve only seen one single news article in this entire week that even bothered to (very briefly) mention any other side to this story.  I’ve checked Stuff.  I’ve checked Al-Jazeera.  I’ve checked all over the place… and I get the feeling that it’s actually really intentional.  A one-sided approach to any controversial issue like this is NOT an accident for any organization which claims to be unbiased.  Such is life when just a few enormous media conglomerates control 90% of the outlets in the English-speaking world.  Such is life when those same conglomerates are made of struggling news agencies that are essentially paid to play politics and create controversy – not to spread truth.  They’ve decided that we won’t care about Ron Paul, that we will care about Kim Kardashian, and that marriage will be the next great frontier in civil rights – amidst a lot of juicy controversy and dramatic sacrifice for a noble cause (of course.)

I’m just saying: unless we take the time to look up facts and start thinking for ourselves – we will only ever know what they want us to know.  We will only ever see what they want us to see.  And it will only turn out bad for us and for society as a whole.  We have an enormous responsibility to promote equality and justice for everyone in our society, full stop – not just whichever special interest group is shouting the loudest this week.  If we allow ourselves to become products of a system that cares nothing for the good of society, then we have completely failed to do that.

Care about these celebrities and these politicians… becaues they tell you to.  Be sad about the Boston bombing but not all of those other far more destructive and horrifying world events of this last week… because they tell you to.  Support gay marriage and equal rights instead of being a backward and narrow-minded bigot… because they tell you to.  Do as they say and don’t worry about it.  Go with the groupthink.  You don’t want to look bad, do you?

Small wonder that we start out as kids being taught en masse to prefer memorizing and regurgitating instead of thinking critically.  We end up as adults who are controlled en masse by that same preference.

So, my dear friends and enemies, today marks a change in the life of this website.  In the past 27 months, I’ve gone from Nebraska to the other side of the world and back again – multiple times.  I’ve explored all over The Land of the Long White Cloud, and I’ve taken you with me to every corner of it (and then some).

At this point, I’ve gone from exploring a remote land on the far side of the world… to being an official resident of it.  I’ve gone from being almost broke / starving / homeless in a faraway city where nobody knows me… to being an integral part of my organization, the senior member at my flat, and the front man for my band.  I’ve got awesome friends and a completely amazing girlfriend.  Everywhere I look, I see RIDICULOUS blessings from G*D Himself – all of which I have done absolutely nothing to deserve.  Even with all of the bad parts thrown in, I still truly believe that I’m one of the luckiest guys in the entire world.  And I don’t even believe in luck.  G*D is good.

Why do I tell you all this?  I guess it’s to make the point that A LOT has changed since this blog started.  The original purpose of Brad Moore At War was to fill in my friends and family about what’s going on in my life while I explore New Zealand – and to do it all in a way that incorporates stuff I love doing in the first place.  You know: stuff like photography and PhotoShop and writing about big-picture things.

But the huge, gaping hole on that list for me is MUSIC.  You may or may not know that I’ve created (and continue to create) hundreds of songs… usually with full sound production and even recording and performance cues intact, even if only in my mind for years on end.  I have my own developed musical language and my own distinct notation that I use to write it.  On top of all that, I’ve been working for over half of my life now on the universe and framework for what will be an epic (in the true classical sense) work based pretty substantially on that musical language.  You might have noticed that this is basically what I do in life: I collect Truth and Beauty, distill it down, organize it, and then hit people with it as precisely and as often as I can manage.  Even from times where I was mostly too young to remember, I’ve always fundementally been a subcreator and an artist.  Music – even more than writing and photography – is my medium of choice.

I’m going to make more room in my life for music and for creating – and because this blog has now served its purpose in at least some sense or another – I’m making that room here.  I won’t be posting faithfully every week anymore, but that doesn’t mean I still won’t post at least semi-regularly.  I’ve shown you basically all around New Zealand, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to see.  I’ve dealt with quite a few different topics, but that doesn’t mean there are not hundreds more for any given day.

To put it short: keep watching this space… we’re not over yet.  Not by a long shot.

This… is the first post I’ve written in a very long time that hasn’t been from my place over by the Botanic Gardens.  No, I have *not* decided to move out into the backpackers again.  I’m actually posting from my girlfriend’s house with the smell of amazing Moroccan food filling the kitchen!  Basically, my life is (ridiculously and amazingly) good.

Speaking of that – we just went Facebook official… oh, about half an hour ago as I type this.  What does that actually count for?  Oh, pretty much nothing in real life… but if you’ve ever seen me with an unshakable and permanently glowing smile – I promise you this is right up there at the very top.

On the subject of things that make me smile, here’s the last set of pictures from the South Island:

Hey look!  More photos from the South Island!  What’s that?  You’re wondering where the madness will stop?  Umm… probably after Part IV, but please don’t quote me on that.

Observe:

Hey guys, you’ll be happy to know that New Zealand has not died from a giant drought.  Yet.  You’ll also be happy to know that I’ve cooked up some more graphic goodness just for you.  As always, this is “graphic” as in “photographic”.  Not “graphic” as in “violence”.  Not that it wouldn’t be sweet to have just one post on my blog that’s X-rated and filled with as much violence, gore, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll as I can possibly manage.

You know.  Keep it edgy for the kids out there.  And stuff.

And on that note, here’s another brief message from the most photogenic country in the whole world:

Wow, so you know how I’ve been in New Zealand doing all that touristy stuff for the last couple years?  Okay… now I just did most of the best parts ALL OVER AGAIN AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE – except it was with my parents and/or girlfriend instead of solo.  Can life get any better?  I submit that it cannot.

Well, I can think of one improvement: we could add a tiger with three laser guns, riding bareback on a giant robotic flying shark through the sky in a glorious display of sheer terror and awesomeness – all while Daniel Day Lewis, President Obama, and Chuck Norris stand by and applaud continuously.  But that’s pretty much it.

I’m not sure what to tell you except that we went to the North Island, and then the South Island… and basically everywhere we went was AMAZING and beautiful.  This is all despite New Zealand now going through its worst drought in many decades.  The guys at The Shire said that they would be in many thousand dollars of trouble if they didn’t get rain sometime in the next week.  Seeing as how it’s been two weeks and I don’t think they’ve seen even a drop anywhere in the Waikato, I’m guessing Hobbiton is now in many thousand dollars of trouble.  This drought is BAD news for all of New Zealand, really.

Not that we didn’t appreciate the (almost 100%) nice sunny weather for our entire nation-wide tour.  No great loss without some small gain.  Or great gain without some small loss.  And I’m really a long way from deciding which is which in this case.  Just sayin.

Here’s some pics from the sunny north of New Zealand:

Hey guys, I’m with my parents enjoying the sun in Wellington and the rest of NZ.  Hang tight for now… I promise to tell you all about it later!

Peace / love / justice / rock n’ roll,

~ Brad

“He who does not know what the world is does not know where he is – and he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.”  ~ Marcus Aurelius

If there is one debate in the world that gets far too much credit, it has to be “science vs. religion”.  I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Your spiritual friend vs. your intellectual friend.  The enlightened modern quest for knowledge and advancement… versus those stodgy old traditionalists that cling stubbornly to their dogma.  Or maybe if you paint it from the other side, it’s beautiful and universal Truth that transcends even space and time itself… versus a small class of disproportionately loud, insecure geeks who like to circle jerk about how smart they think they are.

Yeah, that’s the debate I’m talking about.  I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t really exist.  The conflict between those two charicatures is just that: a conflict between two charicatures.  Fresh blood is always diving in on both sides because everybody loves a fight… and you know I would never deny anyone that.  I’m just saying: sucks for them that there’s really nothing to fight about.

At the core, it can’t possibly be “science vs. religion” any more than it can be “beach vs. ocean”.  Those two things fill totally different spaces and have totally different roles.  They’re always bumping up against each other, but that’s because each defines the other.  You can’t have one without the other.  Science and religion are not in conflict; they fundamentally depend on each other.  Einstein said it best: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

You know what science is?  It’s basically the scientific method and all the WICKED AWESOME stuff that we can do with it.  Science converts stuff that we see and don’t understand into stuff that we see and do understand.  (SCIEEEEEEEEENCE!)  In case you don’t remember every detail from fifth grade, here’s a quick refresher:

1. Observe
2. Hypothesize
3. Predict
4. Experiment
5. Repeat

And you know what’s the most important part of that whole deal?  The last one.  If you can’t repeat your process – ideally from a point of forward progress but really from any point at all – then you’ve gained nothing.  Sure, the experiment is where the magic happens – but from pretty much any scientific standpoint in the world – if you can’t repeat it, then you have now successfully established… nothing.

My point here is that we only have one known universe.  That’s why we call it a “universe”.  (Crazy, right?)  The age of the universe is not an experiment that we can repeat.  Sure, we can look through telescopes and check out rock samples and count tree rings and isotopes.  We can and should do our BEST to understand, enjoy, and take good care of the world that’s around us.  You can say that it looks like this deep space object is 13 billion years old, from our current standpoint on the thin crust of Sol’s 3rd major satellite.  But as soon as you ask “What is the age and nature of our universe?” or “What is reality?” … science is fundamentally unable to answer those types of questions.

That’s because the greatest strength of science is also its greatest weakness: it only works from the inside out.  It starts with small questions and builds up toward the big picture.  The further out we get from small, easily repeatable experiments – the less we’re able to use the term “science” for whatever we’re doing.  By the time we get anywhere near the big picture, there are not many places where we can apply scientific methods at all.  If we try to come at the big picture from the inside out, then we’re forced to rely almost entirely on assumptions… and at that invisible point, it’s no longer science at all; it’s religion.

If science is observation, then religion is assumption.  Science is what you believe and can always prove with repeatable experiments.  Religion is what you believe and can’t always prove with repeatable experiments.  Science works from the inside out.  Religion works from the outside in.

In that sense, everybody has their own religion.  Everyone inescapably has some concept of reality and how they fit into it.  You can call it “worldview” or “cosmology” or “metaphysics” or “religion” or “philosophy” or “faith” or whatever you want.  The bottom line is that every normally functioning human being has an opinion on what the big picture actually looks like.  Maybe your opinion is highly cogent and based on current superstring theory… or maybe it’s blind superstition because your grandpa told you. Doesn’t matter – because even the most well-informed view is always based ultimately on nothing more or less than assumptions.  You know, assumptions: deciding to act as if certain principles are true even though you can’t really test them right now.  There’s actually another good word for that.  It’s “faith”.

It’s not an accident that Jesus was going around asking people to have FAITH in Him.  To believe in Him.  That’s because the human condition has never changed.  Humans are finite, mortal beings – subject to things like hubris and midlife crisis and constipation.  If Jesus had asked us to fully understand a bunch of deep cosmic mysteries… good luck with that.  But check this out – He asked us to fulfill exactly the role that a human is inescapably designed to fill: faith.  The idea is to believe, and to act in love based on that belief.  Funny how that works…

So anyway, let me cut to the chase.  I’m not defending superstition.  I’m not defending ignorance or stupidity or selfishness under the guise of “Christianity” or any other religion (organized or not).  I’m definitely not writing this post to sway anyone toward any specific cosmological theory.  I’m really just saying one thing: know your enemy.

Your enemy is not science, and it’s not religion.  Lemme play my Jesus Freak card right now: GOD is definitely not your enemy either.  Nope.  The “science vs. religion” debate only has one enemy, and that is the ignorant apathy of people like you and me.  You might call it the human condition.

And on that note, I can’t scientifically prove this one for you, but I guess I lied up there about the human condition never changing.  There is actually One way that can happen.  And it’s never been tried and found wanting – just found difficult and left untried.

Just for mindless entertainment’s sake, we at BM@W (including my phone and myself) now present a selected list of custom T9WORD dictionary entries taken from 3 faithful years in Nebraska and New Zealand:

backatcha (Got me there.)
beehive
ceroc (Because “country” and “swing” are both entirely too normal.)
aite
AKL (But WLG is curiously absent…)
blogging
dulces  (As in los pollos.)
coriander (You mean cilantro?)
coulda
Courtenay (As in the Place.)
BOXI  (As in yet another business intelligence acronym.)
bros
burrito
Oso (Hello Lincoln.)
curry
Daawat (Hello Wellington.)
dastardly
fellas
FH  (Wow, I miss it.)
Dixieland (Music.)
flamenco  (More music.)
flatties  (Roomies.)
roomies  (Flatties.)
djembe  (Did I mention music?)
salsa
seeya
fjordlands  (Representing a slew of English-name places in NZ.)
Karori  (Representing a slew of Maori-name places in NZ.)
Salamanca (Ditto.)
shucks
skool
FTW  (Now I sound like a geek.)
haecceity  (Now I sound like a philosopher.)
hefeweizen
lemme
gnarly  (Now I sound like a surfer.)
howdy  (Now I sound like a Midwesterner.)
LOTR
martini
naught
Nebraska
negligible
niiice
milady (Now I sound like a knight.)
ninja
mojitos  (Now I REALLY sound like an alcoholic.)
noxiously
Skype (Hello other side of the world.)
snubbing
yeahTHATSright  (YeahTHATSright.)

I think the lesson to take away here is that if you want to write like Brad Moore, you need to do several things:

1. Borrow a lot of slang from a lot of places.
2. Write that slang exactly how you would say it (in a strange sounding, mumbled, kind-of-Midwestern accent.)
3. Intersperse aforementioned onomatopoeia with big words like “intersperse”, and “aforementioned”, and “onomatopoeia”.
4. Talk about music and eating things and going places.  And apparently drinking lots of beautiful stuff.
5. Throw in some catch phrases FTW.  Boom, baby.  YeahTHATSright.

But of course you don’t really want to write like me anyway.  Honestly, I spent most of college journalling every day of my life… in addition to churning out papers for Business and Philosophy classes.  You shoulda seen my spellchecker after that.