Month: January 2000

Two Years Later: Where Have I Been?

Here it is, the beginning of 2000. It’s been a few days more than two years since I wrote It’s 1998. Do you know where your life is at? In a month and a half I will be 20. I have grown and changed since I wrote that rambling. Despite the fact that to do so is to perpetrate a heinous crime against my native language, I am once again forced to ask myself: Where am I at? Of course, I still don’t mean in a physical sense, but in more of a philosophical, rambly sense. I find, that, while I’ve grown and changed a lot, where I’m at is still not at all where I’d like to be at.

I have made some strides in the areas of independence and self-sufficiency, but not nearly enough. Here, two years down the road, I still haven’t acheived all of my one-year goals.

These were the goals I listed two years ago:

  • A job.
  • A car.
  • A life.
  • My own home.

Let’s take a look at what I’ve done and what I haven’t done about each of these since then:

A job.
I am now employed. I work at a software company in Milpitas, which is quite hectic, but I like what I’m doing. The money is nice, but it has not yet given me the independence that I need. I am now able to support myself, and though I live with my father, I do pay half the rent, utilities, etc. It is nice to be able to spend money – MY money – without being accountable to anyone for where it goes.
A car.
This is still an issue, and right now it is the biggest hurdle on my road to independence. The truth is, I don’t want to drive. Have you seen what traffic is like in the Bay Area? It’s ridiculous. Yet transportation is necessary, and often public transit doesn’t cut it. It’s too slow, and too unreliable. I need a quick way to get where I’m going without having to deal with commute traffic and idiot drivers and car insurance and the expense of gasoline and, and, and, and, and… 

I’m thinking maybe a motorcycle would be a good compromise. We shall see.

A life.
Now that I’m working, this is not as much of a problem, but it still rears its ugly head once in a while. I need to go out more often, make more friends, date, and just generally interact with people. I need to learn the social skills that were denied me when I was younger.
My own home.
This has improved some. I now live only with my father in an apartment where I pay half the rent. We are on opposite sides of the living room, and we just generally don’t bother each other. It works out well, in my opinion, but I would like to try living alone one of these years.

My life has improved in some ways, but in others I’m just not going anywhere. Here’s to a new year, to the possibilities of change, and to independence.

The Reverend David Safar

I am a minister in the Universal Life Church (hereafter abbreviated ULC.)

Many of my friends are too. It’s a very liberal church, with one major tenet: Everyone should do that which is right. The church makes no attempt to say what is right and what is not; simply that whatever is right, everyone should do it.

Anyone may be ordained in the ULC, simply by requesting it. Any minister may ordain anyone they choose as another minister, and ordinations are available by mail-order and on the Internet. Many people feel that this makes the ULC less of a church, and that its members are simply trying to capitalize on the benefits bestowed upon the clergy. That is not why I am a member, and I wish to make a record of what my membership and ordination mean to me.

I don’t believe that being a minister is about the title, the material benefits, or even God or religion. Indeed, my atheistic nature prohibits such a view. I do believe that a minister should be one who represents what is good in the human race. I believe that a minister’s duties should be to promote goodness in the world, and to spread kindness, goodwill, happiness, and new ideas to everyone within their reach. In short, I believe that a minister’s job should be to *ad*minister good to anyone and everyone who is willing to receive it.

Being a minister is a reminder to me that I can be a positive force in the world. I do not think of myself as a religious or holy man, or as someone who is in any other way inherently better than others. I think of myself as just a man who wishes to improve the lives of others, as well as his own.

I don’t always live up to this. To be honest, I rarely personify the good of the human race. But by remembering my status as a minister, I believe I can improve myself and come closer and closer to being the person I want to be.

Each of us has the potential to positively affect every life we come in contact with. It costs nothing to be kind. But in my opinion, a genuine home-made minister counts for just as much as one who was trained by a religious institution. What counts is the willingness and ability to bring good into the lives of others. May this thought remain in my mind ’til the day I die.

When I Grow Up

What do I want to be when I grow up?

Well, it’s a bit late for that, as I’m already grown up. Instead, I’ll answer the question of what I want to be when I grow old.

I want to be a friendly old man. I want to be the eccentric old guy who’s been everywhere, done everything, and has lots of exciting stories to tell. I want to have seen the world. I want to have worked in computers and in customer service; as an engineer and as a bus driver; as a systems administrator and as a bartender. I want to know all about modern technology and ancient cultures, to know the mysteries of the atom and of the Incas. I want to have in-depth knowledge of everything, and the good sense to know when to put that knowledge to use and when it’s just boring chatter. I want to have been published, and to have performed music for an audience. I want to have made a name for myself as a philosopher, and to have spent time sitting on the floor playing with toys. I want to have had my fingers in everything, and to have had fun along the way. I want to have loved, and to have been loved. I want to have raised at least one child, and at most two. I want to have, at different points in my life, owned a mansion and multiple cars and perhaps a corporate empire, and to have owned nothing, living on the street. I want to have been an ideal citizen and a wanted criminal. I want to be everyone and everything. I want to be a composite product of the human condition. I want to be humankind.

P.S.: I had better get started!