Janauary 22, 2005 - While driving around in New Mexico today, I saw some tumble weed blow across the highway. It was a very simple thing to see, something that the locals in NM experience regularly. For me, it was something that I had never seen before, and really, didn't think existed, other than in Peanuts cartoons and on television. I can't really explain why I didn't think tumble weed existed. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that in this world of email and internet and cell phones, tumble weed seems so technologically outdated that it got phased out in some latest release of "world xp" or something. Or maybe it's because I had never seen it before. This got me thinking about the state of the world, and how there are so many things that I have never seen before that I have already made assumptions in my mind about. Then there are things that I will never see that I will just have to have faith exist or not exist. I guess the reason I got thinking about this is because it seems like there are so many horrible things going on in the world right now...the war in Iraq, the recent tsunami, the snowstorm sweeping through the midwest and atlantic, and that's just stuff making the headlines in the past few weeks. People still kill each other, buildings burn down, people lose their jobs and become homeless...if I were a pessimist I wouldn't have much to look forward to. On one hand, I could continue to focus on all the horrible things going on and assume there is no God, otherwise, why would he let things like this happen? I realized the other day that it has been a few years since I had done any 'volunteer work'. I don't mean the sort where I help a friend move his couch into his apartment. I'm talking about the sort where I give up my time to help someone out because they genuinely need help...like the type that I did back in college with Christian Appalachian Project. I found out about an organization called Give Back Cincinnati (www.givebackcincinnati.org) that does exactly what I want to do more of...volunteer in the Cincinnati area to help out those who need it. When I hear about groups like this, people doing things like this, and do it myself, it restores the faith I have that the world is not coming to an end. There really are good things going on, you just have to look beyond what the media presents, because sex, drugs, and violence sells, but service, goodwill, and community do not.