Judgement Call

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Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
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I guess I’ve never thought of life writ large in such clearly defined terms. In specific instances, like learning to ride a bike or a language or measuring twice and cutting once, it’s been a matter of persistence and learning from mistakes.

Vocationally, maybe my time in the ministry came about because I somehow needed to end up there, after a few false starts and work that didn’t mean much other than a paycheck. Still, I don’t view that period in my life as either success or failure, or even a calling. It just… was.

And as far as success or failure as a human being, I find such stark categories to be inadequate and offensive, even as, on occasion, someone might be driven to think about a person in those terms.

A Few Things

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Daily writing prompt
What experiences in life helped you grow the most?
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Being raised in a loving family, working in a restaurant during high school, going to college, watching people who worked hard until the job was done, getting married and raising a family, picking up stakes and heading to Seminary, holding pastorates in several congregations over the course of 26 years, traveling to various places, reading, listening to serious people, including comedians, who pay attention to what’s going on in the world, writing in a journal and posting things in here that help me work through and give expression to thoughts and observations and feelings.

Stages

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Daily writing prompt
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
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I don’t know if there were any. I’ve always been ready to move on.
In retrospect, and perhaps as a function of nostalgia, I might choose the college years, when we were on our own, far from home, and having a taste of what in certain ways was more freedom than we’d known before or have known since.

Hmm…

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Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
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Not sure, since it’s only for a day. On the other hand, if I come away from the experience feeling like it has some bearing on the rest of my life, then maybe it would be worthwhile.

So, maybe a professional golfer winning a big tournament, or a guide at Gettysburg NMP.

Who Needs This?

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I guess resigning instead of playing along with Musk can be viewed as a sign of protest, if not …strength? On the other hand, wouldn’t a sign of strength and courage be to stay on and fight and make things difficult for these heartless thugs? Otherwise, they’ll just replace you with a sycophant or incompetent cyborg, or no one.

It’s the rare bird who would actually risk a stable home life and marriage and child-rearing responsibilities and a nice life beyond the Beltway to go all-in on saving the democracy—even as one stands to lose all that stability by neglecting the fight and giving Trump and his minions carte blanche.

All of a sudden, we’re in the fight of our lives. All of us have to be in this together– now– if there’s any hope of turning a corner in 2028. The people in charge are in it for themselves, as usual. They won’t be of any help, can’t be counted on for anything other than misery and coldness.

Updated

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Daily writing prompt
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
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Almost three years ago, we re-did the half bath we have upstairs, from tearing out carpet (have never understood carpet in a bathroom) and toilet, to leveling the floor, to smoothing out the walls, to measuring, cutting, and installing new flooring, to painting walls and adding wainscoting and trim, to new plumbing connections, new toilet, new electrical outlets and switches, new towel and tp holders, fresh caulking, and a new mirror.

When nature calls, I sometimes still make the trip upstairs just so I can admire our work. We’d never taken on anything quite so ambitious, even though, in the larger scheme of DIY projects, it’s pretty modest.

Winners All

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It’s hard, day after day, to sneak up on the newsfeeds hoping for something… hopeful, only to discover the next frighteningly dumb thing happening in the Trump White House.

It’s difficult to know how to perceive things- as genuinely nefarious and insidious, or more the bumblings of sycophants and rubes who are play-acting and spouting the party line. I suspect the level of compromised values and knuckling under is pretty high for anyone who comes into the Trump orbit and expects to stick around for a while. And this batch has been more thoroughly vetted by the Heritage Foundation and others of this creepy brain trust.

And yet… there is still a part of me that wonders, on occasion, if some of these appointees may find their spine at some point and stand up to Kings Trump and Musk. Maybe the next generation of Hutchinsons and Milleys and Kinzingers are in place and biding their time.

Nah. Probably less likely, this time around.

Yolo

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Daily writing prompt
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
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In general, any word that becomes cliche, so over-used that it carries little to no weight anymore. Lots of words fit this category.

Narrowing it to one is difficult, but the first to come to mind is “devastated,” or “devastating.” People are devastated by so many things– clothes that don’t match, a favorite actor leaves a show, they ran out of maple syrup at Trader Joe’s. It’s misused or hyperbolized (not sure that’s a word) so often that when reporters or survivors at the scene of some natural disaster or a plane crash use the word where it actually fits, it loses some of its punch.

A close second is “traumatized.”