Life at 3 miles an Hour

I've been thinking about influence lately. I've been thinking of mine. The kind I have with others I mean. It's a natural part of my calling and profession. Without influence, I'd have no job. I'd be considered a miserable failure. At the moment I'm just miserable. I'm not liking that I have influence. It's hard to grasp the idea that decisions I make and feelings that I have can shape large parts of the existing world. That may sound like arrogance. It's really not. It's ripples. All people form ripples everyday with practically every action that they make. Mine are maybe just more widespread than the average guy because I, by nature, have a bigger circle that I interact with. I have a larger audience than most. I actually get paid to say something worth listening to. Listening hopefully transforms into doing and then the ripples get bigger. It's ironic that I get paid to have people listen to me. When my family gets the chance to do it for ...

I've come to believe that the world is round. I know...that's already been figured out. I don't mean literally round, although it is. What I mean is that I believe that the world exists in circles. Everything is circular. You know what I mean. What goes around comes around. History repeats itself. In the end you end up marrying someone just like your mother, if you're a guy of course. All of those sayings and mystical beliefs about human nature and the society in which we live. But the longer I do what I do, the more I believe that these have truth to them. They have truth because they've been observed. Science used to be that way, truth through observation. Today it's truth by what makes sense, or what feels good, or what offends the least amount of people. But in my opinion, what I learned back when science was still somewhat reliable, truth is observable. And I've observed that life exits in circles, so it must be truth. Anyway.... what I ...

I really like the Fall. One of the reasons that I like Fall is the visual stuff that goes with it, the holiday stuff, the pilgrim stuff, the pumpkin stuff. My wife really goes all out decorating our house with all sorts of orange, red, brown, and yellow stuff. That always includes gourds. For the longest time I never really understood the point of a gourd. I mean, after all, it's not really a pumpkin right? You can't really enjoy its' taste like some kind of squash can you? True, it is very Fall like and festive if used in the right combination of other Fall type decorations. But what is the point? You can't carve it, shouldn't eat it, can't really smash it in the roadway. So what is the point. I',m not really sure I have a point, other than to look good on my table and around the house. They bring color. I did notice one peculiar quality they have though. They can rot from the inside and you'd never know it until one day, with just a little ...

I read in the Bible different ways that God spoke to His people. A burning bush, a still small voice, various prophets, and parables that Jesus taught, were just a few. I think He speaks to me through dishes. Actually it's more through the process of doing the dishes. I love doing dishes. I don't know exactly why. I do have theories though. So do other people. I won't discuss theirs here though. Jesus spoke many parable to many groups of people and he always had a way of connecting what what going on in the parable, or story, with what was going on in the listeners everyday life. For the farmers he told stories about farming. With the fishermen he told stories about fishing. Around business people he spoke of business transactions. With me it's dishes. Something draws me to the sink in any gathering I find myself in. In my own house i think I'm drawn there because of the amazing effort and love that my wife puts into every meal. Her stuff is incredibl...

I've been dealing with water alot lately. It's not because I live in Seattle either. We don't really get all that much here. Ask my lawn if you don't believe me. It's only been this past week that I've even been encouraged to consider mowing my lawn. It's only now going through it's annual resurrection. Being from the Northeast, I'm used to a lawn that is now just dying in the last days before winter. Here, mine is just coming back to life in the last days before winter. I used to care that it turned brown and died. I thought it was a status thing to have green lawn. That changed immediately after getting our first water bill from the city. Status is overrated. And so my lawn goes through it's annual process of death and resurrection. I just tell myself that it's my own personal Christian metaphor. In the past few weeks I was in Louisville and Cincinnati, two places highly influenced by water. The Ohio river flows majestically...

I just opened my blog this morning and learned that I have made 32 other posts to my page. That would make this 33. I'm amazed that I've had 32 other things worth saying. maybe they weren't really worth saying for that matter. At least I'm surprised that I thought 32 other things were worth saying. I'm not sure that I have another. I have looked back over them and found more randomness than cohesion throughout the things that I write. I'd probably have a hard time writing a book. I can't stay on one string long enough. This morning I'm thinking about 33. Jesus died when he was 33. I was 33 in 1996. I just found a CD the other day called WOW 1996. See what I mean? My thoughts travel in probably 33 different directions. Write now as I write here for the 33rd time I'm noticing that the blog site has changed. The resolution on the whole site has changed. Everything is larger, almost magnified. What does that have to do with anything? ...

I'm a very scheduled person. Even my writing is becoming more and more scheduled. In fact I'm only writing this at the moment because, when I checked the date of my last post, I realized that "it was really time for another". One a week? I call that scheduled. I'm interested to see how this turns out at the end. Writing, like anything else creative, should never, in my opinion, be scheduled. It ought to be inspired. That's why I don't pursue my artistic tendencies. I was a photographer once, but lighting and backgrounds and such don't lend themselves all that well to schedule. I was a painter once. Same thing, schedule and inspiration don't mix. Neither do inspiration and a self critical spirit, but that's for another counseling session. So I have many "works" tucked away where only I can still see. Bringing them out in public only encourages people to try to get me back into inspirational mode, which again conflicts wit...