Author: tallthinman72
:)
Variations on the happy face, a heart, a coffee cup, and thumbs up. Sometimes I’ll list a whole mess of different ones just because, in an attempt to be intentionally over-the-top, I guess. I’ve never used the poop emoji, but I can imagine certain topics where it might capture how somebody is feeling.
Conversation
Politically speaking, I enjoy venting with like-minded people. When it comes to what folks think of Donald Trump, etc., I don’t feel like arguing, since both sides have long been entrenched in their understandings and beliefs and all that happens is that everyone’s blood pressure rises to unhealthy levels.
I enjoy shooting the breeze about sports, especially golf. I like talking about music, woodworking, astronomy, what NASA is up to, what the grandkids have been up to, and maybe a book my wife or I have been reading.
Infrequently, I guess
I keep returning to the decision to pull up roots and move the family to Gettysburg, in order to go to seminary. That’ll always be the risk-taking standard for me. Pastoring is a challenging line of work, but it worked out.
Otherwise, I don’t necessarily see risk taking as something great. I’ve never been inspired or moved by the value of “stretching myself” just for the sake of something to do. And adventure is a relative term. The “best version of myself” will always remain elusive and unattainable, which doesn’t mean I haven’t acknowledged my growing edges and tried to be a better person.
I once had to return to college in the middle of a major snowstorm, but that was unavoidable, since I was a passenger in a car driven by the person who just needed to get back to campus that night. If I didn’t get in, I would have been stranded in the Twin Cities without a way to get back to school. It was a risky venture, in my estimation, and a nail biter of a trip, but we made it.
Embarrassment
It’s not a surprise that nothing has been resolved in the matter of our invasion of Iran. Trump still talks about a deal being in the works. Always a “deal” in the works. Everything is the art of the deal, as if this is the only transactional method worth considering, even as he apparently has never really mastered it.
There are always consequences to consider. Ramifications. Unforeseen—or maybe totally foreseen—outcomes. Just the way they drew it up.
But nothing good. Nothing that brings relief or hope or optimism. Just more ineptitude, subterfuge, darkness, self-involved scheming. Ugliness.
Shameful
Daily writing prompt
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
The only incident that comes to mind is the same as last year– it unfolded when we were teenagers, all young and impressionable and not fully formed. OK, immature and stupid.
It involved making life difficult for some kids we basically decided we didn’t like. The worst part, beyond the fact that I participated in this mob action, was that it was led by an “adult” who should have known better.
I seldom think about this anymore, but it haunts me when it does come to mind. I didn’t speak up or try to put a stop to things. I just joined in.
We eventually made peace, thanks to the passage of time and also what I now recognize as grace-filled behavior on the part of the person done wrong. We became friends again, though I’m not sure about the parents involved– they may have held onto the hurt for longer than their kids did.
Nothing Better To Do?
The state of things political. As a species, it seems someone somewhere is always trying to keep the wolves from breaking down the door. Evolution can’t move quickly enough– if peaceful co-existence is where we might be heading. It’s often exasperating to think that there are still so many self-anointed “visionaries” who enjoy imposing their will, spreading misery, always aching for a fight.
Therapeutic
We had a delightful visit recently with my sister and brother-in-law and their two grown children who live elsewhere but joined us old folks for a meal and conversation. It was thoroughly enjoyable and an invite we eagerly anticipate when we’re visiting family in Massachusetts.
A visit often starts with wine and conversation in the living room, then a delicious sit-down meal at the dining room table, then more conversation which often turns to politics and the nightmare that is the Trump administration.
While it might be enlightening or otherwise beneficial to stretch oneself by plunging into debates and such with people of differing political stripes, it’s nice every now and then to be among kindred spirits who basically are on the same page when it comes to opinions of Trump and his hapless cast of sycophants and pretenders.
A lot of territory was covered, anger expressed, but there was also a fair amount of humor and laughter. Once we sat down for supper, we didn’t get up again until it was time to go home.
The conversation is always engaging and often cathartic, and I always feel a bit lighter by the time we leave at the end of the evening.
Slowing Down
If it has involved exertion of any intensity, like helping our son with his landscaping work, I’ll shower, get some comfortable clothes on, then sit in my favorite chair and look at the iPad for a bit, or sit outside with a glass of ginger ale on ice, or cold brew, and revel in a day well spent– being useful, getting something done. And I’ll probably fall asleep for a bit.
Anymore, a “demanding day” means something different than it used to when I was still pastoring a congregation, but I guess the things I do at the end of such a day haven’t changed all that much. It basically involves winding down, maybe a bit of review, and doing something relatively mindless.
Judiciously, for the most part
As little as possible. I text and email people when I need to, I don’t have Instagram or TikTok or anything of that nature. I do occasionally look at videos on YouTube, mostly music but a couple of politics-related ones.
By and large, I refuse to go down the social media rabbit hole– partly because I’m of a particular age and it doesn’t interest me, but mostly because it can be such a huge waste of time and energy. I prefer to frustrate the algorithms, or just ignore them. They’re probably not meant for me, anyway.
There’s such freedom in simply putting the phone down. It can be an act of rebellion or sheer will, or at least a bit of respite from the noise.
3 Cents' 