September 15 – journey continues

journey continues
highs, lows, both unexpected
Jackie bought doughnuts

Reportedly, the share of American young adults living with their parents is the highest in 75 years.

33% of those aged 25-29 or 3 times as many as in the 1970’s.

Our son, Jackie, known as Jay, lives at home.

I guess I should say he stays at home as he live online in the gaming world when he is here.

Last night he came home with a dozen chocolate covered, cream filled, Dunkin Doughnuts.

How can so many highs and lows be tied into a food item at the same time.

Start with a deep fried cake, fill it with creme, coat it with a sugar glaze and cover the top with chocolate icing.

But the calories.

Oh the sweetness.

Deep frying?

Fluffy cake.

How fast it disappears.

The sugar high.

Bliss of kinda doing something wrong.

The ‘thunk’ when it lands in my stomach.

Do I need this?

Do I want this?

I shut off the discussion, tabled the question and called for an end to the debate.

Then, ate a doughnut with a clear conscience.

September 14 – in spirit, same mind

in spirit, same mind
tenderness and compassion
having the same love

based on:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Philippians 2:1-2 (NIV)

What happened to compassion today?

Where did it go?

Once my brothers and sisters came home from Crestview Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and we told our Mom that there was a family of kids with no winter coats.

It was fall and starting to turn cold and these 3 or 4 kids arrived at school and went out for recess without warm coats.

Our Mom, without telling us, called the Principal, Mrs. Adams (as I said at my Mom’s funeral, Mom knew Mrs. Adams really well, for some reason, I sure didn’t know why).

And Mom made arrangements to get these kids winter coats right away.

Mom did not want the kids or us to know about it but Mrs. Adams had the kids write thank you notes which we found later.

Compassion.

September 8 – Our History

when pulled backward
unmistakable pattern
rally, move forward.

Andy: Hope.
Red: Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You’d better get used to that idea.

Andy: Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies

From the 1994 movie, The Shawshank Redemption, written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

September 7 – The American Dream

The American Dream
of House, Cars, College, Career
American Burden

It happened before my very eyes.

My oldest brother got a job right out of college and worked for that company for the next 40 years.

Now retired, owns his home and works in his garden.

The American Dream.

I have worked for the same company for 20 years but never a day passes that I don’t worry about the job being eliminated and I find myself having been made redundant.

I look forward to a future funded by my Social Security benefits and a plan to cook at the nearest Waffle House 3 days a week.

For my kids? Welllllll . . .

Over the last 40 years wages have stagnated in real terms while the price of college has risen eight times as fast and the price of health insurance has also outpaced earnings.

If I want to worry I think about the future.

If I really want to worry I think about my kids future.

I understand that the American Dream couldn’t last.

That it had to change.

Did it have to become a nightmare?

September 6 – OHHH Friday

Weekend starts tonight
I leave work at 5PM
My mind left last night

I worked three days this week and somehow it has been a long, long week.

Somewhere, Jim Harrison has a passage about how we have yet to equate the energy drain of mental work with the impact of physical labor on a human being.

I quit worrying about ‘job satisfaction’ a long time ago.

Sad that rather than the job well done, I want the job done

Just done.

Done and without a long tail that comes back to me.

I also cannot understand how I came to embrace the TGIF philosophy.

I felt I could enjoy each and every day.

I thought I had that much faith in each day.

Narratives within narratives.

Not sure what that means in this context.

But I liked the phrase and it is too difficult to hammer into a haiku.

The story not yet told.

Anyway, it is Friday!