What's the deal?
Who's News has been posted for 24 hours and not one comment. You people disappoint me.
CALVIN
Some days it’s interesting, if not enjoyable, to be alive.
Today was one of those rare “count your blessings” days; an opportunity to look around me and see that as much as I bellyache, things really aren’t so bad.
My wife went out and about while I stayed home and did homework, and before she left we took inventory of our foodstuffs, anticipating a large grocery store trip.
To our amazement we actually have a lot of food on hand. Enough for several meals; plenty to take to work for lunch, lots of healthy snacks, etc. There's no better feeling than having food in the house.
I cleaned house today and was struck by the fact that we have a nice home. A bit small, particularly in the wintertime when cabin fever sets in, but clean and solid and quiet. We have a vacant unit on one side and respectful neighbors on the other. That could change tomorrow—avid death metal fans could move in next door—but for tonight we’re guaranteed peace, and as much as I rant about mortality and the great scheme of things, you’d think I’d understand by now that tonight is all we have.
We had a great dinner: Pasta with seasoned chicken, peppers, broccoli and carrots. For dessert, a brownie with Hagen Daas. Afterwards my wife and I sat on the couch and I gave her a back rub. We kissed and touched and remembered what it’s like to engage in innocent physical contact; we reveled in a rediscovered knowledge that we’re allowed to enjoy the comfort of each other’s touch, going no further than a couple of chaste teenagers might on their second or third date.
I went to the workout room across the street and walked a couple of miles, watching “The West Wing” for the first time. The show really sucked me in, which is saying something given my general disdain for and distrust of popular culture, television in particular. As I stretched after my walk a man, woman and small child entered the room.
Normally I’d get worked up over this. I enjoy having the exercise room to myself, particularly because when others are present they invariably turn the television on full blast, oblivious to the fact that others are present. There’s one man I’ve dubbed “Malcolm” because he watches back-to-back episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle” with the volume cranked, his face two inches from the screen, as if receiving orders from Big Brother in Orwell's "1984."
Tonight, however, my workout was over and the intruders seemed friendly enough, so my blood pressure remained surprisingly low. The man asked how often I work out and made other overtures of small talk, and I followed suit. He got on the treadmill and I gave him a tutorial on how to use the machine, stressing that if he felt tightness in his chest or shooting pains in his left arm he should hit the big red “STOP” button immediately.
Before I left I introduced myself, and he told me his name is Calvin. He introduced the woman and child, but I don’t recall their names. If I ever see him again, I’ll be able to say “Hi, Calvin,” and he'll say "Hi, Tom."
As I wrote last week, I’ve struggled with the whole Christianity thing recently. I seem to have it down pat except for the whole “Love thy neighbor” thing, which is pretty important. Tonight it dawned on me that Jesus said “Love thy neighbor” because he knew that loving the whole of humanity all at once would be impossible, so it's best to go one at a time, or "Bird by Bird" as author Anne Lamott (wonderful lessons on life and writing) might say.
Think about it. Jesus was not always the friendliest human being around. He used the phrase “You brood of vipers” once, he overturned tables of merchants: Jesus had a temper. Sometimes I think I’m living a more Christ-like life than I might think in that I’m very impatient and disgusted with humanity as a whole, but I find that one-by-one people are able to capture my heart, or at least prove tolerable. Jesus himself only let 12 people into his inner sanctum, and one of those betrayed him leading to his death. You can’t tell me he didn’t die a little pissed off.
As I walked across the street to my town home I looked up at the sky and saw the moon shrouded in clouds. The sky was crystal-clear and I saw stars. First one, then two, then suddenly it hit me that there are hundreds, even thousands of them. They’re further away than I could visit in a hundred lifetimes. Those tiny pinpricks of light are actually enormous balls of fire that are so large they would engulf our entire solar system if they were closer. None of those points of light are orbited by planets that harbor life. Ours is the only one.
Tonight I watched 60 Minutes and there was a sobering segment on how North Korea is preparing for what it believes to be an inevitable war with the United States. The West Wing graphically described the atrocities occurring in the Darfur region of the Sudan. People are killing one another, raping one another, stealing from one another, and all the while the infinite cosmos continues a silent, majestic, unimaginably complicated dance, unconcerned that the billions of inhabitants of that odd little blue planet can’t grasp that in the whole of the Universe they are the sole representatives of life and sentient thought, and should therefore be owning up to that tremendous privilege and opportunity by treating one another with dignity and respect. Dare I say love.
I now know Calvin and Calvin now knows me. That’s one less potential conflict the world has to worry about.
Four billion to go.
CALVIN
Some days it’s interesting, if not enjoyable, to be alive.
Today was one of those rare “count your blessings” days; an opportunity to look around me and see that as much as I bellyache, things really aren’t so bad.
My wife went out and about while I stayed home and did homework, and before she left we took inventory of our foodstuffs, anticipating a large grocery store trip.To our amazement we actually have a lot of food on hand. Enough for several meals; plenty to take to work for lunch, lots of healthy snacks, etc. There's no better feeling than having food in the house.
I cleaned house today and was struck by the fact that we have a nice home. A bit small, particularly in the wintertime when cabin fever sets in, but clean and solid and quiet. We have a vacant unit on one side and respectful neighbors on the other. That could change tomorrow—avid death metal fans could move in next door—but for tonight we’re guaranteed peace, and as much as I rant about mortality and the great scheme of things, you’d think I’d understand by now that tonight is all we have.
We had a great dinner: Pasta with seasoned chicken, peppers, broccoli and carrots. For dessert, a brownie with Hagen Daas. Afterwards my wife and I sat on the couch and I gave her a back rub. We kissed and touched and remembered what it’s like to engage in innocent physical contact; we reveled in a rediscovered knowledge that we’re allowed to enjoy the comfort of each other’s touch, going no further than a couple of chaste teenagers might on their second or third date.
I went to the workout room across the street and walked a couple of miles, watching “The West Wing” for the first time. The show really sucked me in, which is saying something given my general disdain for and distrust of popular culture, television in particular. As I stretched after my walk a man, woman and small child entered the room.
Normally I’d get worked up over this. I enjoy having the exercise room to myself, particularly because when others are present they invariably turn the television on full blast, oblivious to the fact that others are present. There’s one man I’ve dubbed “Malcolm” because he watches back-to-back episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle” with the volume cranked, his face two inches from the screen, as if receiving orders from Big Brother in Orwell's "1984."
Tonight, however, my workout was over and the intruders seemed friendly enough, so my blood pressure remained surprisingly low. The man asked how often I work out and made other overtures of small talk, and I followed suit. He got on the treadmill and I gave him a tutorial on how to use the machine, stressing that if he felt tightness in his chest or shooting pains in his left arm he should hit the big red “STOP” button immediately.
Before I left I introduced myself, and he told me his name is Calvin. He introduced the woman and child, but I don’t recall their names. If I ever see him again, I’ll be able to say “Hi, Calvin,” and he'll say "Hi, Tom."
As I wrote last week, I’ve struggled with the whole Christianity thing recently. I seem to have it down pat except for the whole “Love thy neighbor” thing, which is pretty important. Tonight it dawned on me that Jesus said “Love thy neighbor” because he knew that loving the whole of humanity all at once would be impossible, so it's best to go one at a time, or "Bird by Bird" as author Anne Lamott (wonderful lessons on life and writing) might say.
Think about it. Jesus was not always the friendliest human being around. He used the phrase “You brood of vipers” once, he overturned tables of merchants: Jesus had a temper. Sometimes I think I’m living a more Christ-like life than I might think in that I’m very impatient and disgusted with humanity as a whole, but I find that one-by-one people are able to capture my heart, or at least prove tolerable. Jesus himself only let 12 people into his inner sanctum, and one of those betrayed him leading to his death. You can’t tell me he didn’t die a little pissed off.
As I walked across the street to my town home I looked up at the sky and saw the moon shrouded in clouds. The sky was crystal-clear and I saw stars. First one, then two, then suddenly it hit me that there are hundreds, even thousands of them. They’re further away than I could visit in a hundred lifetimes. Those tiny pinpricks of light are actually enormous balls of fire that are so large they would engulf our entire solar system if they were closer. None of those points of light are orbited by planets that harbor life. Ours is the only one.
Tonight I watched 60 Minutes and there was a sobering segment on how North Korea is preparing for what it believes to be an inevitable war with the United States. The West Wing graphically described the atrocities occurring in the Darfur region of the Sudan. People are killing one another, raping one another, stealing from one another, and all the while the infinite cosmos continues a silent, majestic, unimaginably complicated dance, unconcerned that the billions of inhabitants of that odd little blue planet can’t grasp that in the whole of the Universe they are the sole representatives of life and sentient thought, and should therefore be owning up to that tremendous privilege and opportunity by treating one another with dignity and respect. Dare I say love.
I now know Calvin and Calvin now knows me. That’s one less potential conflict the world has to worry about.
Four billion to go.
posted by Admin Worm at 7:19 PM
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