You're Not So Welcome

Manners are important to me.

I strive to observe them and I endeavor to teach their use to my kids.

The lack of manners exhibited in people today is one of my biggest pet peaves. Our culture is quickly dispensing with the basic use of "Please" and "Thank You".

Here's an interesting piece from Boundless Line about the replacement of "You're Welcome".

http://www.boundlessline.org/2008/10/whatever-happen.html

Presidential Peace

In regard to next week's election, I now have a peace. I'm not
anxious.

My candidate may or may not win. I will vote, and I will be disappointed if the results go against my cast, but at the end of the day, I will not get down.

The source of my new-found peace is this verse that I read yesterday:



The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1 (ESV)

Michelle's Prayer

I thought Michelle's prayer from her comment on the 'f-bomb' deserved it's own post.

"O LORD, teach me to impart Your truth so it remains even when I fail."

Droppin' the F-Bomb

It was bound to happen.

This week, my kids asked us what the f-word was.

At the tender ages of 7 and 9, they finally got introduced to the mighty and terrible mother-of-all-cusswords. Frankly, I am amazed that we managed to insulate it from them thus far in their lives. After all, that word permeates so much of our culture now.

“Where did you hear this word?” their mother and I calmly asked.

There were lots of answers that I expected to hear:

“From one of the big boys at the skateboard park.”
“From the TV.” You try and watch out for this one, but with cable, you never know, right?
“From some ‘Hell’s Angels’ biker who broke down on our street.”
“From Mom - she says it all the time.” Just kidding Michelle.

But, alas, it was none of the above. Where did my precious, innocent children hear the Mt. Everest of swearwords? It was from a soccer mom, living in our corner of suburbia, who was yelling at her own kid from her driveway. Apparently he had locked her out of the house, and she, on one side of the door and strongly desiring to be on the other side of the door where her child was, shouted “Open the f-ing door!!”

Nice, huh?

Makes me wonder where her kid first heard the f-bomb.

Would Narcissus Twitter?

I'm not a good blogger. I used to think I was an OK writer, but I soon learned that my creative pool was pretty shallow. I discovered this through trying to maintain this blog, and keep it updated.

I guess I also feel that blogging can be a bit narcissistic. You remember Narcissus? He's the guy in Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection. Wikipedia (who gets credit for the picture of Narcissus, isn't he handsome?) defines narcissism as the "trait of excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego".

It feels a bit egotistical for me to assume I have anything meaningful to say that I want the whole world to have access to. "HEY EVERYBODY, LOOK AT ME!! LISTEN TO ME!! RESPECT MY OPINION!!!".

Now they even have this 'Twitter' thing, right? So you can update the world minute by minute on what you're doing.

"I'm at my favorite table at Starbucks".

"Seinfeld reruns still make me laugh".

Where does it end?

"I'm in the bathroom. Bad burrito."

Narcissus would have loved reading his own Twitter.

On the other hand, I love reading blogs. I use an RSS feeder so I can keep up with all my favorites throughout the week.

Maybe I'm just jealous because nobody reads my blog except for my wife. Maybe that's not so bad. After all, her opinion matters more to me than anyone else's.

So, Michelle, this blog's for you. Women always say that we don't communicate enough anyway right? So visit often babe, and always leave a comment. You can even start your own blog -- I'll read it faithfully.

Anyway, I gotta go. I'm off to Starbucks for a latte. I'll Twitter you when I get there.