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futures
Where am I headed?
If you had asked me a few years ago where I wanted to end up, I probably would have responded with something like a restaurant owner, police officer, or world famous musician.
How funny are the changes with time?
Two of those things would have involved large amounts of wealth for me, something that I was quite desirous of for nearly all of my life, the other would have been enjoyable for me, and I’ll admit sometimes I still think about how I’d enjoy being a police officer. But the crazy thing is, none of those are really possibilities in my life any longer.
I went from having a fairly certain life (with a goal of financial gain) to a life of uncertainty. We may be moving to Baltimore in a few years, which for us is a fairly big deal, I think it was kind of always assumed that I wouldn’t be traveling to far from “home,” yet Maryland is pretty far away from Georgia.
While I wasn’t wholly certain on where exactly I would end up, and what exactly I’d be doing, having a feint notion of a future path wasn’t at all comfortable to me. Really it wasn’t. I remember long miserable swaths of time where I would yell at God about not revealing my future to me in whole. Funny thing now is, I’m not at all certain what I’m going to be doing in a year, let alone the rest of my life, and I’m completely fine with that fact.
I’m completely comfortable with a completely opaque future. Sure, I have some things that I’d like to see happen (more on that in a second), but if they don’t happen I’m fine with that. There’s something far more exciting and intoxicating about not caring if you know your future or not. In a day in age when college messages revolve quite often around knowing “God’s plan” for your life, I’m somewhat of an intriguing dichotomy to that system. It feels good that way.
So, what are the things that I’d like to see happen? (Note: I’m quite interesting in coming back to this post in a few years and seeing if any of these things actually happened).
Well, I want to go to seminary. I’m a bookworm, I love knowledge, and while I doubt that I’ll ever be in a ministry position with a Church (As their known today), I still desire to know as much as I can.
We also want to travel, similar to Nick Fiedler and his wife, we’d like to spend some time just going around the world, doing whatever we’re given the opportunity to do, meeting friends and hanging out. There is something romantic about traveling the world, something beautiful and wholly thrilling to my mind. I desperately hope that we’re able to do so.
Finally, I kind of want to open up an alternative fuel shop. Kind of weird sounding, but it’s been there for a few months now. I really want to open up a bio-diesel location somewhere in Atlanta. Convert over some veggie oil and make up for some of the crap that I’ve put in the air with all the big trucks I’ve been driving since day one.
Will any of those happen? Who knows?
Will I be distraught if they don’t? Not at all.
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So you’re going to go to a seminary in some far-flung corner of the world, and sell ecologically-sensitive fuels to the natives
Good one. But aren’t bio-fuels already discredited as doing more harm (to the environment, to food prices) than they solve?
Not the nasty worthless ethanol, but the beautiful veggie oil conversion.
I’m sure the natives will appreciate it.
Is there enough vegetable oil to make a difference? I know that every little helps… but I know that the amount of discarded oil in a year of my life, say, wouldn’t get me as far as the supermarket once. I don’t eat much fried food so I might be an exception… dunno: I’ve never really looked into the stats. [but yes, I do include in that food that has been fried for me, as well as stuff I might do for myself].
You’d be amazed at the amount of veggie oil that get taken from fast food restaurants to be disposed of. You have to take into account the enormity of the American restaurant system, which would be a vast supplier in used veggie oil.
Would it be enough to drive everyone everywhere? No
Would it be enough to make a difference if we used all we had? I think so.
LOL. Fair enough. I wasn’t factoring in the American love of fast food.
As I understand it, many diesel engines can use the stuff unmodified (though I guess a bit of filtering helps!). A few years ago, there were some folks in Wales doing it. They soon had the police (or revenue and excise, or someone like that) after them, because, perversely, if it’s vehicle fuel, you have to pay tax on it. The police said they could easily spot the vehicles because they smelt of fried fish :-). Other than the smell, it did strike me as something to encourage (with a favourable tax regime) rather than try to prosecute.