Friday, March 19, 2010

Guest Post on Self Awareness

by some guy

Me: I love sunshine after a couple rainy days.
Also Me: Why is that?
M: I'm hoping the sun will dry out the rain-soaked dog poo in the front yard so I can shovel it out into the street where it belongs.
AM: Where it belongs?
M: Well, it certainly doesn't belong in my yard.
AM: It doesn't belong in the street either. Two wrongs do not make a right you know.
M: I'm not trying to be right.
AM: That's good because you know you are wrong.
M: Whoever owns the dog that leaves those huge piles in my yard drew first blood.
AM: So you're Rambo now? You going paint your face with mud and hide in the feather reed grasses and jump out the next time that mini-bulldog digs your bark out onto the sidewalk?
M: No, I'm not Rambo. Am I supposed to enjoy dog crap in my yard?
AM: No, but you are going to die of a stress-induced heart attack if you don't learn to let go of all these insignificant things that you get all worked up about.
M: Like what?
AM: Like what? Oh, like anytime we drive anywhere and you comment on every other driver and how you must’ve missed the memo that driving to the gym was now a NASCAR event. Or anytime we are in the front yard and that red pickup blazes the stop sign on the corner and you remark how he never stops there.
M: He never stops there.
AM: See? Or that time you were dropping the kids at the child watch at the gym and you made a big deal about how it stunk so bad knowing all along it was Patchouli and knowing the worker girl standing right there wears Patchouli.
M: I hate the smell of that crap.
AM: Exactly. But that doesn't mean you gotta get all worked up and make a federal case out of every little thing. Like that time at Goody's when we were getting ice cream and you asked the worker girl if she was a hippie and she said she didn't like to label things and you went off on her deconstructing her comment pointing out that every word in it was a label and how stupid it was to say labeling things is bad and how without labels for things nobody could ever communicate; we would all just point and grunt and soon even grunting would be a kind of a label. There’s no reason you need to take everything to its most ridiculous extreme.
M: ....
AM: Do you even recognize that you rant anytime someone parks backwards on the street or in a parking lot or someone cuts across a parking lot or leaves a grocery cart anywhere but in the cart return or doesn't use their blinkers when turning or anytime the neighbor takes a tool out of his shed or anytime you see someone on their mobile while driving or...
M: ....
AM: I just don't see what skin it is off your nose if someone you don't even know and won't ever see again happens to like listening to their music really loud in their car stereo as they pass you going a few miles over the speed limit. Why do you feel compelled to make a snide comment about their tastes and their passion for NASCAR e v e r y s i n g l e t i m e?
M: I see you've thought about this a lot.
AM: I want you to be self-aware.
M: Really? OK, I'll think about that while I'm out front shoveling soggy doggy poo into the street.
AM: Perfect.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Obama's Crusade

Is there no one--or not enough of them--with the courage to go against the king? Will this "health care" thing be shoved down our throats?

"We will get the votes," he says. I don't like the sound of that.

Hold firm, conservatives. Come on, moderates.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Refund Joy

Holy Cow! I already got my tax refund--small though it is, $80--from the state of Idaho. Can't complain about that. Hope they let me keep it.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Now Maybe I Can Forget About Taxes

I have received email communications from the IRS and the state of Idaho. Both of my tax "returns" have been accepted. I hope this means accepted forever and no letters coming in two or three years saying I owe more.

I hope.

Yes, I hope accepted means to them what it means to me.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Here's How I Think

"I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." One of those ubiquitous sayings, the likes of which I can't like.

One young man stood up in church recently and credited Jesus with that very statement.

I squirmed, but I did not say, "Oh, really. Can you give me chapter and verse on that? Was that before or after he said 'Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light'? or 'And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me'? or any of a number of things actually attributed to Christ in the scriptures?"

No, I did not say it. But I thought someone should warn the young man--actually, he's a full-time missionary--that he needs to be aware that he may encounter some people who know Jesus did not say that thing. It's not part of his gospel, not doctrine. It's just one of this day's "feel good" bunches of words that probably came from some motivational speaker trying to sell his books and DVDs. And some people might like to be taught the truth.

And so on and so forth.

This week's Weight Watcher's meeting brought the saying to me again. "You know what we always say," said our meeting leader, "I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." This time I didn't squirm, but I did sigh. More tolerable in such a setting, and at least she didn't attribute it to Jesus. I suppose I can apply the saying to "dieting" and say, "Well, okay."

But, truthfully, I still hate it in any setting. I find its succinct trivialization of everything in our lives intolerable. Yes, I do.

Chapter and verse for my citations: Matthew 11:29-30; 10:38.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Tax-es

Done.
Hoping--and praying, truly I am--that they are done right.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Yes, Taxes

I'm working on them.