Understanding the Importance of Optimism and Momentum

With any new activist group, we can always expect hiccups, unexpected obstacles, and of course, your occasional nay-sayer.

So far, I can say I am genuinely pleased about the turnouts and support. It has given me much confidence for continuing to not only build a better Fargo area, but to find myself calling it home with a sense of satisfaction.

I think some of the greatest challenges can be on opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand, it can be hard to contain my excitement about long-term projects, knowing the anticipation with make progress feel slow. On the other hand, it is so important to keep morale a focus of the group.

As atheists in the area, we have many obligations while raising awareness. Constructive efforts are first and foremost. It means going out of our way to avoid the resentment and vitriol that we all have at times and remembering that our neighbors are our friends regardless of their beliefs. It also means keeping a positive outlook when reacting to some of the theocratic encroachment we see every day. There is something I am often reminded of: people often forget what I say, but they truly remember how I made them feel.

Another obligation is one of respect in society. Yes, we know we can be good without god, but I think we need to work extra hard as a suppressed minority to demonstrate that. Great Plains Atheists will be organizing many upcoming events. Let's get involved. Let's work with churches to feed the hungry, or help blood drives, or run a marathon, but the last thing we need to demonstrate is that we refuse to work with society because a some people discriminate.

The last obligation I will point out today is one of community. Let us remember how isolated and lonely many of us felt when we realized we did not believe anymore. Just remember there are still thousands out there with the same frustrations. Help to run your campus's Secular Student Alliance, and if you don't have one, Great Plains A's will help you get the contacts and resources to start one.

Join the FM Secular Community for regular social events, or  contact GPA (contact@greatplainsatheists.org) to get involved with activism. Just remember, we have made great strides in a very short time, and momentum is increasing, but let's not stop there. Help your local high school kids organize a group of their own, start a book club, or write a letter to your representatives. GPA will be sending delegates to speak with our elected officials, but without the community support, our voices may be perceived as the squeaky wheel. Most importantly, write us or comment here to let us hear how we can better support or represent you!

I am loving Fargo more and more every day, and it is because I am realizing that I am surrounded by friends and people who care. Thank you!

A passion for reading...

I love it when people ask me the oh-so-innocent question of "do you enjoy reading?" as the first thing to cross my mind is a series of sarcastic and entirely condescending remarks. Well...yes. To keep it simple.

Reading offers so much to the mind, such as languages offer the desire to express, or colors add to the ability to paint. In fact, when I imagine someone replying with a sober 'not really' it might build a well of darkness in my gullet as if being robbed of the moment.

So hard to think of a life in the absence of so much inspiration, such an exercise of imagination, I only see the noncognitive drought which only times of abundance make clear. Yet I now know it is hard not to see it as a weakness, but what is the alternative?

Films simply ask you to visualize a situation, a breakfast plate for example, specific in every way. A talented writer will describe that breakfast while making you imagine the details for your self, and the brain define the contours of every spoon for itself.

The bits we read on the internet barely hold the attention, and seem to encourage quick tangential searches. No, give me a good old fashioned poet to describe a mood, as Frost, Yeats, Fenton, or Wilde did on a daily basis. Let me learn with the works of any scholar, contemporary or ancient, and linger on every word which no documentary can afford. I can dive into the polemical, disect the history, and feast on the fantastical science fictions.

No, reading is not dead, and I do not feel I am being old fashioned in this, although time will tell. I feel we can all add the slightest pressures in society by encouraging our family and friends to pick up a good book, spend an hour in the couch, grass, or bed, and find something to expand our minds. Perhaps that hour might just inspire us into our next dream, which might lead to a lifelong fulfillment.

Yes. I like reading.

New blog network!

One of the many reasons I have been at a loss for words recently is the amount of time spent organizing the new group, and watching the silly detail involved.  Great Plains Atheists is becoming more and more involved in the community daily. One of the great tools at our disposal is the website, www.greatplainsatheists.org, and the many voices that contribute. Until now, My blog was the only one linked, and grateful for the hits I was.

Now a multitude of ideas, persuasions, and rants can be heard. And of course, from now on, I shall be posting directly to that blog simultaneously, sharing words in hopes of creating dialog.

Feel free to browse and comment, and of course, comment here or via a new email - contact@greatplainsatheists.org