Lessons Learned Late...

I would like to believe that I am adequately wise enough to negotiate most of the perplexities and complications of life.  If you live sixty-eight years on this planet, some of the wisdom of the world oughta take root, wouldn't you think?  Some.

Don't play with fire.

Oil and water don't mix.

Its not where you stand, but what direction you are headed.

If you don't know where you are you won't be able to get where you want to be.

Some journeys take a lot of courage.

Its almost always a good thing to travel with others.

Never ignore the elephant in the room.

Yeah, especially that one.

But there are some life-lessons that too often are learned late in the game;  when one is up in years rather than when one is younger...and could really, really benefit from the learning.

At least it seems that way to me.  Here are just a few:

-No trial, no error...nothing learned.

-No risk, no failure...nothing gained.

-The status quo is never, ever, the way forward.

-Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses.

-More often than not it is important, even essential, to love your neighbor.  And if there are some you just can't love...fake it.

-Know what is essential...and that's not a long list.

And, from Rumi, this:  "Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation."

Yup, wish I had learned those things earlier in life than I did.

Welcome to the In-Between Time...Its Where We Will Do Most of Our Living

I get really tired of folks suggesting they know a whole lot about God.  And all the answers to life’s questions…the solutions to life’s problems. 

 Part of my paycheck depends on me standing in front of no small number of people on Sunday mornings and talking about the Christian view of God, and the Christian way of living in this world.  I try hard not to sound like too much of an authority on those subjects…because I am not.

 A couple quotes that keep from getting too full of myself in the knowing-all-the-answers-about-life-and-about-God areas are these:

~”My formula for living is quite simple.  I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night.  In-between, I occupy myself as best I can.”   -Cary Grant

 ~”It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in-between.”        -Diane Ackerman

So that is to say: In between birth and death we would do well to stick with things we can actually know, rather than speculate too much on the things (or beings) we cannot actually know.

 

 

Welcome to the in-between time…its where we will do most of our living.

In-Between:
Time is too slow for those who wait.
In-Between:
Time is too swift for those who fear.
In-Between:
Time is too long for those who grieve.
In-Between:
Time is too short for those who rejoice.

 In-Between…is one of the most gnarly, dark places in life because you aren’t fully here, and you aren’t fully there.

 The good news is that during the In-Between times:
-There is time to leave behind judging others.
-There is time to leave behind an emphasis on differences.
-There is time to leave behind the darkness.
-There is time to leave behind words that pollute.
-There is time to leave behind discontent.
-There is time to leave behind anger.
-There is time to leave behind pessimism.
-There is time to leave behind complaining.
-There is time to leave behind negatives.
-There is time to leave behind hostility.
-There is time to leave behind bitterness.
-There is time to leave behind too much self-concern.

-There is time to leave behind lies.
-There is time to leave behind the shadows of sorrow.

 But perhaps deep within the in-between times we can more clearly hear the Creative Force whispering to us:
I am not in some far-off place
I am not waiting for you to seek me enough…to need me enough…or to get desperate enough
I am in you, and you are in me…and that is enough.

 That’s about all I really think I know about God…and life…and maybe even that is too much for me to know fully.

Happy, Smiling Faces...

What do you think the Creator had in mind when the Creator created us, we human beings?

All the mythology of creation stories aside, I wonder what was up with the whole creation/evolution thing.

The faith tradition I am a part of believes that the Creator created us in the Creator's own image.

I wonder if this is something of what the Creator intended:

No matter our skin color.

No matter our gender.

No matter our age.

No matter our station in life.

No matter our financial worth.

No matter our religion or philosophy.

No matter our politics.

No matter our state of health.

No matter our sexual orientation.

No matter our country of origin.

No matter our ethnicity.

No matter our real or artificial boundaries.

No matter what we have or have not done in the past.

We are supposed to try real hard and real often to share happy, smiling faces with each other.

Could be.

Centipede...and All Things Since

Life was different back in the early 1980s.  Not so much easier, or harder; more stressful, or less stressful...just different.

I mean, all this came after the time period I am writing about:
-the CD-ROM was introduced in 1984
-the Apple Macintosh and the Windows Operating System were both sprung on us in '84 and '85
-disposable cameras were introduced in 1986
-the World Wide Web and GPS technology would not be available for about another decade
-although I eventually purchased a bag-phone later in the '80s, there were not millions of folks walking around with cell phones in the different days of the early 1980s.

In the early 1980s, as I served a church near the Indiana State Fair grounds, I had more disposable time that I would have in the years just ahead.  (There is a very good chance that this extra amount of disposable time available to me came as a direct result of a not-so-good work ethic...which would be somewhat corrected in years-yet-to-come.)

Back in those different times, I would often head over to the Glendale Mall to play video games in a rather large area set aside for just that purpose.  One quarter = one exciting play!

I wasn't very good at playing most video games...my main gripe with them was that there were no clear written instructions on how to play the game, and it took a few quarters worth of play-time to figure each new game out.  And so, I stuck with games I knew...and could play sorta well.  Centipede.  Centipede was the game I spent a whole lotta quarters, and time, playing.

Atari developed the game in 1981.  The object was to defend against swarms of insects, and the occasional mushroom, spider, and scorpion...all while a giant centipede worked its way down the video screen.

So much has come, gone, and changed since those early 80s. Not all of it good.  Not all of it bad.  Much of it, I do not understand fully.  There are no clear written instructions that come with the passing of years, and with the changes that take place over any span of time.

Maybe some truths we all know (or, should know), but perhaps have not yet employed, would serve us well as we try to master...or at least survive...the passing of time, and the changes time brings our way:
-Change happens (like it or not)...
-Get ready, you are about to learn something...
-To see new things, new eyes are required...
-No ideal world is waiting to be discovered, only ideal responses to the world we already know...
-Everything we do today is preparation for what's coming tomorrow.

Oh, and you can play Centipede on-line these days.  (But its not near as much fun as it was back in the day at the Glendale Mall.)