His: If she was innocent
Today a jury of her peers declared Casey Anthony innocent of murder, and it was a result that I would describe as nothing less than Biblical. Here's what I mean. She could have murdered her daughter, most people seem to think she did. But we live in a nation where justice is served under the presumption of innocence and the Biblical mandate is one that serves justice and mercy.
I'd like to think about if she really, truly was innocent. It reminds me of the story of Joseph and Potiphar. In the Anthony case, the trial revolved around circumstantial evidence with very little physical evidence declaring her guilt. (some described it as an overreach by the DA) In Joseph's case, he was accused of sleeping with Potiphar's wife based on the same type of evidence: he was at the scene of the supposed crime, he left evidence behind of his presence, and he had a high profile witness testify to his actions.
The difference, of course, is that Joseph went to jail because he didn't have the same protections we have here. The mere appearance of guilt was enough to convict him, despite the truth.
Assuming her innocence, the same thing could have happened to Anthony. We as a nation would have sent a woman to her execution because she looked like the puzzle piece that was missing, her blood on our hands. Supposing she was innocent, we would have foregone the rule of law in favor of what felt right. If we believed in justice (and I believe in a just God) then we would have committed a great injustice in favor of doing what we thought best rather than doing what was right.
She may very well have "been the guy." But the DA didn't prove that. And if she's innocent? Then today was a great success for both our court system and justice and a woman walked free rather than to the gallows.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others."
How would you answer the question, "What if she was innocent?"
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A slight change this week. Rather than follow up with the exact same topic, Kristin will return by asking "What if she was guilty?" Stick around and see what she has to say.
This is what happened.
If you're even half as dorky as Kristin or I, you may recognize that line from the show monk. It's the one he uses right before he explains how "the guy" committed the murder. I find it a fitting way to explain to you why this simple two-sentence entry has taken me five minutes to type.
Exhibit A:
I'll get you next time Gadgeeeeet!
His: Pier 14 Softball
There is nothing quite like watching grown men cry from crushing 
defeat in softball, and nothing worse than being that man. Fortunately, I play church league, so there's a home run rule.
Sports after graduation happen few and far between. Really, outside of Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, it's rare to actually participate on the field. Twenty-two you're just entering the world, looking good, taking it all in. Twenty-three you settle down a bit get into a rhythm. Twenty-four, things are good, you're cruising. Twenty-five? Pounds ago, more like it.
It's hard to find time to be active as an adult. When I was younger, it never occurred to me that I couldn't have afternoons all to myself to play and be outside. College left me completely unprepared with it's 2 classes a day, four days a week and soccer matches three times a week. Now it's a morning commute, work, an evening commute, dinner and by then it's almost 7. Time to work on house projects in the summer, might as well be midnight come January. Running in the evening, you say? My threshold is 15 degrees to 80 degrees. Sadly, that's like two months in Indiana.
What it really takes is some external motivation. For me, that comes in the form of an obligation. I'm not obligated to work out because I paid my gym membership dues. I'm not obligated because I moved up a pants size (just mildly depressed).
As much as I'm fickle about commitments to myself, commitments to other people I do my best to uphold (or feel horribly, horribly guilty for the rest of my life about them). This year I committed to a softball team in the league my church belongs to, one committed to fun and sportsmanship.
We don't play too much, once or twice a week, but I'm going to be there. It may not make a huge difference in my exersize levels, but it's a start, and one I can stick with.
We've got a double header tonight, head on over to Hummel at 6:00 if you want to check it out!
His: Movies
My wife and I regularly watch movies. When we got married, we decided that cable was too expensive to justify. We counted channels we would want, and didn't get past a single handful. I was onboard for only ESPN, Discovery and BBC. She only added Food Network and some other station with cooking. Despite that, we knew we still wanted a TV to watch the Colts play (and the Yankees world series run!) So what were we to do with our TV besides rewatch movies from my collection?
After dropping hints for a while, like "man, it would be so much easier to Netflix this than drive to a redbox..." and "I bet we could've found it on netflix!", we finally bought in. As a gift, my wife subscribed to Netflix for me. I've always loved movies and well done television series, and I've got to say: Best. Invention. EVAR. There's nothing quite like sitting on the couch browsing for something to watch, only to suddenly relive your childhood when you stumble accross "Rockadoodle" on demand.
It has revealed to me, however, that things aren't always as good as I remember them. As a kid I loveloveloved the Jetsons movie. It was every bit as awesome as the cartoon was, except feature length. I ran across it for streaming the other day and decided it was a good time to relive that movie as well. Unfortunately there's a big difference between 10 and 25. As a kid I never noticed how over-the-top the animations are. Silly eye rolls, exaggerated movements, really bad integration of computer graphics and traditional animation. We ran it for about fifteen minutes before we gave up.
It's nice to be reminded of things you loved as a kid, but I think from now on I'll just be excited that I found them and avoid watching them.
If you've been thinking about getting Netflix, let this stand as a strong recommendation for it. While there are certainly gaps in availability of titles and it's not the timeliest service for new movies, there is no beating the low subscription price and the unlimited access.
Airdrop – incoming!
It's been about 36 hours since the WWDC party started, so it's safe to say I'm coming in to this way late in the game. The developer's conference is always a big deal: fun new features, exciting innovations, and the things that always seemed obvious but were never done finally get, well.... done. Since I have a MacBook and an iPhone, it's an especially great week for me.
Everyone seems to be focused on great things like iCloud (and the small detail about, you know, paying for storage for music not from iTunes... makes sense, but... yikes...) and that low, low pricetag to upgrade to Lion. Who wouldn't be excited about a $100 drop in the normal OS upgrade?
My favorite part, however, is the AirDrop feature. Transfer files to any other mac user up to 30 feet away without any wifi or network requirements. Real life scenario: I'm at work and need a file from my iPhone to be on my computer (or a colleague's). Right now there are two options.
Option A - Connect the phone via USB to the computer, sync with iPhoto.
Option B - Add the file to my dropbox via the iPhone app, download it on the dropbox app installed on the computer.
Both are easy to do, but neither is very efficient given the technology we have available. In the age of cloud computing (which we are in and have been using in some form for two decades) Taking full advantage of our wireless technology and lack of need for a hard medium, Apple has finally made it possible for me to simply send the file between computers using pre-installed software. Drag. Drop. Done.
His: Graduation
We spent the day on Saturday (and part of Sunday) attending open houses for the newly graduated class of 2011. There is nothing quite like going party to party, eating barbecued meatballs and trying to forget the 95 degree heat. For those who read this and aren't from Indiana, I've been told that this is a very localized tradition. Basically, when a student graduates from high school, and sometimes college, their family hosts a party in honor of it. People who knew the student then attend the parties, eat gratuitous amounts of finger foods and cake, and leave gifts.
Here are my thoughts for the new grads:
It's finally over. You've spent the last twelve (or possibly thirteen or even fourteen years) attending school. Hopefully you've had fun, made friends and learned a thing or two on the way. If you didn't, then hopefully you feel some relief that it's time to move on. Either way, things are going to change. Dramatically.
Remember to have fun. Chances are you're going to college. If that's true, you're about to spend the next two to four years of your live seriously away from home for the first time. You are going to make serious decisions for yourself. You're going to take some really tough classes. You're going to do a lot of growing. And at the end of it your life is going to change again. On your way to that point, don't forget that you won't have this kind of freedom again in your life. Road trips, cultural exchanges, and fourth meals are far less likely once you've graduated. There's a good chance you won't continue to live with your closest friends (excluding spouses). So don't miss out while you're there. Take advantage of trips, make life-long friendships and take classes on things you've always wanted to learn. (like fencing!)
But take it seriously. While you're taking advantage of the freedom, don't forget that you're the new generation. When you get out, it's not other people that will be making the world. It's you. You have the ability to change the injustices you see. You will be the politicians making and changing the laws. You will be the parents, the employers, and the hands that build in the future to come. Don't underestimate how college can get you there. Your education isn't given to you. The things you learn won't be imparted by your professors. Your education, your skills and abilities, are entirely up to you from now on. Hopefully you've had good mentors in your life up to this point. But if you haven't, look for them in college. Look for professors, coaches, counselors or pastors who can help you really live up to your potential.
No matter what it is you choose to do in life (even if it's not going to be college) find what it is that really motivates you, what you're really truly gifted at and do it as well as you can. On a recent episode of the Dog Whisperer, there was a dog that the rescue found unadoptable. It was so high energy, so intense that it would never make a good pet. The Dog Whisperer agreed. But instead of giving up, he looked at that dog's unique traits and discovered what it was great at: finding things. Now it's an amazing search dog helping law enforcement find hidden cell phones. It has a God-given purpose in life, and it only needed someone who wouldn't give up on it.
That's you now. And some day you'll hopefully help others find the same in themselves.