there's treasure everywhere.

At long last, I am sitting down to write the very first "There's Treasure Everywhere" post. The idea and desire for this blog has been percolating in my brain for some time now. First, it was during a time where the idea was vague and mysterious, where I knew I wanted to do something but had no idea what. This initial period was actually quite long, but it finally started to take on a more concrete shape very recently when I began making a series of music posts in which I shared some of the beauty and redemption I noticed in various songs which are close to my heart. As, during the short history of these music posts, I began to see what they meant, both to myself and to others who shared their thoughts with me, the idea for a collaborative blog dedicated entirely to posts of a similar nature crystallized into something that excited me a great deal. As timing goes, this new idea happened to coincide with a crazy, crazy time of paper writing in grad school, so while lacking the time to even make the aforementioned music posts, the idea was temporarily shelved until the end of the term. Finally, the end of the term has come.

And so, it begins.

It seems to me that the best way to get the proverbial ball rolling and describe what this blog is all about is to simply share the meaning of the blog's name. A very long time ago, I remember being struck by the cover of one of the many lovely compilations of Calvin and Hobbes strips which graced my bookshelf. I remember looking at Calvin and Hobbes as they marveled over worms and rocks, and realizing that there was indeed treasure everywhere, if we only knew how to see.

For Calvin, as for children the world over, the oddest things discovered in the backyard become priceless discoveries. The beautifully imaginative eyes of the young can see value and significance in rocks and worms, in cardboard boxes and sticks, in the discarded and the unnoticed. Our cynicism can tempt us to laugh at their naive way of seeing the world, thinking about the inevitable day when they will grow up and learn that a rock is in fact just a rock, as they move on to more important things like sex, power, and financial security. As with most self-fulfilling prophecies, children often do grow to lose the ability to wonder at the magic they once saw in everything. Wouldn't it be lovely if children stopped learning cynicism and monotony from those further along in years, and instead we adults began to learn to see the world with the wonder and awe of the young?

It is the humble opinion of this writer (if I can in fact be called such) that, as the title of the Calvin and Hobbes collection professes, there is in fact treasure everywhere. The question is, do we have the eyes and hearts to see it? Can we see the redemption hidden in every nook and cranny of creation? Can we learn to embrace the ability to wonder and be amazed as a virtue to be praised and sought after?

So often, I am watching a movie, listening to a song, reading a book, having a conversation, or simply walking down the street, when I am struck by beauty or hope or life which is so evident it is practically tangible. There is a quickening of my pulse, at times my eyes well up, and I often find myself brushing against something too big and wonderful for words to do justice were I to try and explain the internal response to what I've witnessed or experienced. While the mystics have taught us that the instant you use words to describe these experiences you cheapen what really happened a bit, words are all we have and for too long these experiences have felt like the 'fire in my bones' just longing to be set free. I just have to share them with others, and that's what this blog is all about. It will be a place for me and my friends to look for beauty everywhere, and to share our discoveries with anyone who cares. The hope is that we might be able to shine a light in this world which so often feels stiflingly dark, and also that we might sharpen our skills in 'treasure hunting' as it were. Perhaps by continually drawing attention to the life hidden all around us, we will grow in our ability to see that life.

My hope, in part, is that this blog will help me to continually learn to approach the world with Calvin's imaginative way of seeing. I believe that Calvin's imagination isn't an obstacle which keeps him from seeing the world as it, but instead is the gift which enables him to be the only one who truly sees. It isn't that the rest of the world sees Hobbes for the inanimate stuffed animal that he is, it is that Calvin is the only one who looks close enough to truly see Hobbes for the faithful, loyal, wonderful best friend he really is. How much fuller, how much more beautiful is Calvin's life because of his ability to see the world around him as a place of constant adventure, danger, beauty and wonder?

I hope all of us who contribute to this blog can look closely at life, at everything around us, so that we might find the treasure all around us waiting to be discovered.