The Wedding

Two posts in one week must be a new record for the year. This one's only to note that I've completed the web site for our wedding.

Check it out!

Gimme Golf!

Pretty sad how long it's been since my last post, but it is what it is.

I've been inspired to post links to some of the great coverage our game has gotten since its open beta launch a few weeks ago. Have a look:

Chicago Sun-Times - Online or Print
USA Today - Online or Print
Chicago RedEye - Print
Time Out Chicago - Online

Thanks for all the support!

(Now go play Gimme Golf, and tell your friends)

-jeff

Now accepting...

I'm very excited to announce that we're now accepting emails for the Gimme Golf beta, scheduled to release in just a couple weeks!

Visit gimmegolf.com to sign up!

Snow and Sisyphus

1. Absolved from seeking equality by the Parable of the Workers?
This morning I rode the 122 bus from State/Wacker to it's end near the Northwestern train station. It seems to be a phantom route, as I can't even locate it on the CTA map. Therefore, I also don't know exactly where it starts, but for whatever reason, a large majority of the passengers on this bus were people of color. This observation was in stark contrast to some other bus experiences I've had traveling on express routes from Lakeview to downtown, where at least eighty percent of the passengers were Caucasian.

For better or for worse, my unscientific observation of Chicago's persistent segregation is nothing new. However, when I started to feel something cold and wet hitting my hand on the 122 this morning, I was forced to ask why it had never snowed inside the comfy articulating buses that I used to ride from Lakeview. (Seriously. Snowing inside the bus.) Could it be that the CTA was sending nicer buses on those routes?

After swallowing this snowflake-sized pill of inequality, I recalled a recent conversation about fairness in reference to the Parable of the Workers. If a person has received what he or she has agreed to, in this case a ride from A to B for $1.75, then what difference should it make how much better or worse another person's deal may be?

The analogy fails in the fact that no one opted for a snow-globe bus ride (unless they thought it was some special power of the Knight Bus), but here comes my bigger question...

It sounds so unsympathetic and unkind, but if fully accepted, does the Parable of the Workers entitle us to stop caring about inequality? Should each of us just be content with or grateful for where we and others are in our individual lives, and stop worrying about the outcomes presented to others regardless of whether they're better or worse than our own?

The question's setup is a little vague because I had one other commute-inspired idea, but I'd welcome your thoughts anyway.


2. Could I be a happy Sisyphus to the corporate authorities?
Last night on the train home, I saw a middle-aged man entering sales figures into a CDW database from his laptop. My immediate thought was, "Ugh. I don't think I could ever stomach such corporate drudgery." But rather than settling on my first impression, I turned and asked Brenda how she thought I'd do.

We both agreed that my beef with authority would present some major obstacles, but I recalled an article from Inc. Magazine several years ago that pointed out how no person ever entirely avoids authority. We'll always have a superordinate, a shareholder, or even a customer who must be appeased.

In the face of this inevitable subordination sentence, I recalled Camus' Myth of Sisyphus. The philosopher suggests that the mythic hero's only remaining choice in the face of his eternal condemnation to rolling a rock uphill is to revolt by choosing to be happy.

Keeping Sisyphus' internal revolution in mind, I wonder if I really could handle a career in a big corporate setting. Then again, a good friend of my parents once said that I'd be perfectly happy making a living scraping bugs off of windshields. (A sign of imbalance? Perhaps.)

I'll conclude by stealing Camus' closing:

"The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

More bliss in apathy than ignorance

In a recent conversation with Andy Schneider, I had a thought about the American Empire's potential demise...

Based on a long history of rising and falling empires, it seems inevitable that even ours will end. That's not a profound thought.

But I realized that if our country's downfall is just as inevitable as the last's, maybe there's no sense in worrying about our country's demise.

Make your peace with family and friends, go live on a farm somewhere, and enjoy the years that you have.

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to relax without worrying--or more importantly without complaining--about our downward spiral, but perhaps the longer I can cling to this apathy, the longer I'll be able to live in a fully aware bliss.

Manuary 2008 - Episode 1

A heartless liberal

Somewhere along the way, people seemed to start confusing compassion with political ideology. My awareness of this unfortunate association has been heightened by several recent conversations with my girlfriend regarding today's political parties, and our mutual acknowledgment that she and I share a common desire for the maximization of well-being within a society. We differ in our beliefs of how the greatest utility can best be achieved. Herein lies the most commonly found damning of an ideological conservative--one who wishes the government to exert the least power in his or her life.

I will grant that the government may serve as a means to improving some of society's woes. However, I will almost never agree that it is the best way. Governmental power may be the clearest or most easily seen solution, and therefore, it often becomes the most commonly executed solution. In the short run, government intervention may even provide noticeable results. Sadly, in the long run, this tool is clumsy and inefficient at best.

So what becomes of those who share my sentiment--those caring, reasonable people who would like to help others as well as themselves, but don't think the government is or will ever be on the right track? They're called heartless, greedy, or just plain nutty.

Most animals including humans, and even more specifically my family, raise their offspring to become self-sufficient. Given the inclination to use the government as an all-powerful parent to the individuals in a society, when does the parent's job expire? When does it relinquish all power to its individuals? When does it set its children free into the world--with opportunities for failure, success, pain, and pleasure?

My parents always said that when I finished school, they were done taking care of me. It was the most terrifying, liberating, and loving plan I could have been presented.