A Rebel Yell !

I know I promised you photos from Austria today, but my camera broke.  This unfortunate fact allows me to post shamelessly my 40th birthday wish:  a new camera.  Let me be specific.

Below is a picture that I ripped from the web of the village were we stayed, Spittal, Austria.  I could see this church building from my hotel room.  My WorldVenture colleagues, who's cameras did not break, took pictures that they've promised to send to me. When they do, I may post a few of the good ones here.  But, helas, you will not see what I see on this blog until I get a new camera.  hint!

"With a rebel yell, [he] cried, 'more, more, more...'"  That was my best Billy Idol* impression to meld together in one overpowering message the name of the camera I want for my birthday and a cultural icon of my generation, the one called X.  In case my subtle message is anything less than overpowering, then just take a look at this baby! 

Did I mention that I was born on December 3, 1967?  That's right, next month is my 40th birthday!

*Mention of Billy Idol on this blog does not constitute an endorsement of his lifestyle or "art".   If you think it does, then you need to go take a nap or something...whatever it takes to help you relax.  I would have mentioned the Pixies --art I would endorse.  I've got "Where is my mind?" turned up loud as I write these words, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work with the camera name:  REBEL.

Don't try 'n' d-dig what we all s-s-say ... Talking 'bout my generation. That's my dynamic equivalent translation for baby-boomers, but I couldn't make that work with the camera name either.  Just think, if I'm already turning 40, that means people who first had their minds blown by the sound of The Who are like old people now... old people doin' their best Pete Townsend air guitar.  Try not to imagine that.

Is anybody still listening?  Did I mention that I was born on December 3, 1967?  That's the day Christiaan Barnard performed the  first human heart transplant.

If you've read this far, then you probably are my generation.  Let me whisper in your ear what I really wish for my birthday:  that my generation would find its soul.  I wish that we would be remembered for more than marketing pop cultural emptiness and purposeless technology.  I wish we would live a better story, a great story full of heroic courage and sharp-edged love, cutting through to the real.  I wish that my generation would lay down its life for a dying planet.  Buy me a Rebel camera if you want so that I can take pictures of sad little conformist lives. That'd be peachy.  But what I really want is for us to live inspired lives, to take risks, to live way beyond who we are today, to be who we were meant to be.  I want to live God's original dream, his idea of what it means to be human.  I want more, more, more than this.  On my 40th birthday, I want you to rebel with me... oh yeah... I still want the camera too.   With a rebel yell, he cried, "More, more, more!"

 

Après-Post, 19 Nov 2007:

One of my colleagues just sent me this photo.  It's an almost forty-year-old- Jonny-boy with no camera of his own to take pictures in Austria.

Comments

[Andrea Lisk]

I just got your birthday camera Jonathan. It's pretty sweet I must say (I love that you can do both the manual and the automatic with it). But I also agree that what you REALLY want for your birthday is even better! Thanks for the email. Say hi to Karen for me!