Ramen Noodles and Occupy Wall Street

Remember Occupy Wall Street?  That group of capitalist-hating hippies that thought they’d be allowed to take down the system by camping next to it.  Those smelly, intimidating trespassers resembled a ten-year-old’s club rather than a serious group of people trying to affect change. 

The problem with them isn't their message that the rich are too rich.  The rich are too rich.  There are people who own more than they’ll ever need.  They are destructively rich.  They are Kardashian rich.  That’s my new word for ostentatious, arrogance, and tacky with a little fear of contraction aftertaste:  Kardashian.  

They’re too rich.  Dad has a plane company so the family gets a television show that has been going on forever and has never had any reality in it.

Too much money has been destructive to so many.  Country clubs have turned into yacht clubs, have turned into living in a building you own club.  Silver has turned into gold, into platinum.  Rubies were traded in on diamonds and now diamonds are so passay that they’re becoming bigger and bigger and now they’re coming in different colors.  The well-adjusted super-rich is the one with a good PR team.

The problem with the message is that it went to the wrong people.  The message was some people have too much money and we should take it from them.  The message should have been some people have too much money and they should try giving some of it away. 

Now wait one second you think you’re free.  You say I've never owned a building and I've never checked my bank to see if I could afford a trip to space.  You think you’re off the hook because you didn't have to build a bigger garage for your huge collection of cars.  Think again.

You semi-rich person, you may be too rich.  You may have too much stuff.  You may have eaten Spaghettios twice last week and still have been too rich.  Your paycheck may want to argue but I’ll win because I’m a human and can talk and so the pay check won’t be able to argue.

You may be late paying the power man.  You may be late paying the water bill.  You may be just on the verge and yet you, I, we all might have too much stuff and be too rich.  I’m not talking about how we’re the first world and our poorest people are richer than 95% of the rest of the world give or take a percent.  I’m talking about the possibility that you may be living a satisfied life.

Ecclesiasticus 18:30-19:3

³⁰ Do not be governed by your passions, restrain your desires.

³¹ If you allow yourself to satisfy your desires, this will make you the laughing-stock of your enemies.

³² Do not indulge in luxurious living; do not get involved in such society.

³³ Do not beggar yourself by banqueting on credit when there is nothing in your pocket.

19¹ A drunken workman will never grow rich, and one who makes light of small matters will gradually sink.

² Wine and women corrupt intelligent men, the customer of whores loses all sense of shame.

³ Grubs and worms will have him as their legacy, and the man who knows no shame will lose his life.

This is how Ramen noodles and a can of veggies and maybe a little bit of spam all mixed together can be too much.  He’s right, this Jesus, that opulence has a great psychological price that has to be paid.  He doesn’t seem to go far enough though.  It is the fulfillment of desires that makes you weak.  You got a special place you go to in the park every Thursday and eat a homemade bologna sandwich?  Take a few weeks off.  Do you let yourself get whatever you want at the dollar store thinking that here is where you can splurge?  Go in with a hard limit on four things, or three, or one.  Do you watch soaps and thinks it’s your guilty pleasure but it’s okay because you’re on the treadmill while you watch?  Take a week off.  Read a little on the treadmill.  Are you addicted to the treadmill?  Take a week off. 

Whatever you’re addicted to, take a week off.  It is your desires that trap you and ensnare you.  It is your routine that makes you less free.

In the interest of full disclosure, this one’s tough for me.  I like a lot of little habits.  And I love cheap stuff.  I like getting my money’s worth.  I like watching too much TV.  I think I earn a break from life after working a couple of 14-hour days.  I bargain with myself saying (Thinking them, not saying them out loud; I’m not a crazy person.) things like, “I can afford it.  I have earned it.  I’m worth it.  Why not?”  But are those the questions one should ask? 

Try asking your friends and family what you’re addicted to if you dare and take some time off.  It’s scary.  It may even be something good for you.  Take a break from your desires.

If you don’t want to do that then at least ask some different questions than the ones listed above.  Ask yourself if you need it or just want it, not CAN you use it.  Don’t ask if you’re worth it but ask what you could be worth without it.  Ask yourself what you've wanted to do all your life that you never got around to doing, this desire might be in the way.  Don’t go sit under a lotus tree and wait for desire to die inside you.  Become a detective get the facts quick and then attack your desires.

You know Jesus, the one who was the son of God, not the one who wrote this book.  Well Jesus asked some people to give all they have to the poor and follow him.  He wasn't saying that’s a universal prescription but he was recommending it to so with dire prognoses.  Are you one that he wants all of?  Yes.  Are you one that gives him all that you desire?  Probably not.  Don’t worry, you’re in good company.

And for that .0001 percent out there, I’m not going to take your stuff but an accounting of what you did with it is going to be taken from you and Woe to you on that day if your desires have run amok.  To you who can do great things like buy yourself a helipad, please consider that what you have doesn't have to belong to you.  Please believe that ‘tis better to give than to receive.’

Words are a Balm

Once upon a time someone said something to you and you felt glorious. 

One time my grandmother said I was more well-read than her.  This is more amazing when you meet the woman.  She was a Librarian at a school and now she volunteers at a library annex.  Once a week she takes her cloth book bag that in a simpler time would be called a nap sack and she fills it up with pulp fiction.  Mysteries and cop dramas all, and I mean all make it into her bag.  She’s read everybody who’s anybody.  She could put away the history of the Oprah book club in a couple months.  She reads and reads and reads and because my tastes are little more eclectic she laid that whopper on me.  It made me feel like the word compliment was all of a sudden out of style.

One time a man who is known as God Jr. because of his encyclopedic knowledge of the scriptures read my book.  He said, according to his wife, mid-read, “Drew is a better writer than me.”  This man who had written a thousand theological treatises found my literature not-wanting.  He had written a book and had alongside of a healthy sense of arrogance and hubris made the judgment that I was good at writing.  He said that I had a message, a voice.  The word compliment just doesn’t do it. 

Someone has told me I looked handsome.  Someone has told me that I’m smart.  Someone has tried to explain that the crazy stuff I say really makes them feel less crazy.  Someone has complimented my shoes and hat and pen-in-my-hat.  I’ve been told I look like Tom Cruise and Matt LeBlanc because I guess to Asians WE all look the same.  Compliments can be ho hum.  Compliments can make you think that people are messing with you.  Telling the whale that gray makes them look slim; they know is just a veiled insult.  Telling the squirrel that a lot of chicks like them because they’re little is wrong because it’s just so condescending.  Telling the rat that it’s industrious for getting in the trash isn’t a mercy it’s fake sincerity and that’s just insulting.

¹⁵ My child, do not temper your favours with blame nor any of your gifts with words that hurt.

¹⁶ Does not dew relieve the heat? In the same way a word is worth more than a gift.

¹⁷ Why surely, a word is better than a good present, but a generous person is ready with both.

¹⁸ A fool will offer nothing but insult, and a grudging gift makes the eyes smart.

Here’s a special passage you don’t have to think too hard about to KNOW it’s true.  Like these two compliments I’ve mentioned I’m sure there are some hum-dingers that you’ve tucked away into your good things about you bank.  I know that there is something that you remember so that when Peter demands a reckoning at the pearly gates, you’ll be ready.  So-and-So said I was blah blah blah.  It won’t work, but you’re cataloging the good stuff anyway for fear of the Bad and the Ugly.

This blog started because I wanted to spend a little extra time paying attention to wisdom.  I haven’t been doing a good job posting because, I guess, I haven’t been paying attention to wisdom.  I’ll try to remedy that situation soon.  For now, why don’t you think of 10 really good compliments to pay someone? 

Rules for Compliments:

1      - Pick your significant other.  Duh.

2      - Try to pick very few or your closets and most loved.  (Add them to the completed list of ten if you feel you should complement them more.)

3      - Do not decide on nice things to say and pigeon hole your list into those compliments.  (Design a perfectly tailored compliment for each person on your list.)

4      - Choose something based on their character or their God-given ability.  (Don’t tell someone they always know what to wear.)

5      - Give it to someone who needs it.  (I don’t want you to tweet how Lebron James is good at basketball.  He knows.   Trust me; he knows. 

Remember this is about making you wiser not making the world a better place.  While this has the opportunity to improve your relationships with friends, acquaintances, and family its purpose is to help you grow in wisdom.  And how does this do that, you ask?  I’m not sure that I’m not fully invested in the first benefit.  If you however, wanted another reason to believe that this is good for you rather than just other people, nay even the rest of the whole world.  If the term, ‘pay it forward’ is no longer enough, maybe this will help.

Wisdom is knowledge that is used to an end.  And watching for the really valuable stuff in the lives of others is going to teach you about them.  Learn what a woman wants to hear and say it for crying out loud.  Christ is a great example of wisdom coming from watching people.  Christ is a great example of telling people what they needed to hear not what they wanted to hear.  Christ is an example of omni-everything made flesh and you’ll find him among the people giving them great compliments like, ‘You can follow me.’  ‘You can be reborn.’  ‘You can meet God.’  ‘You are perfectly crafted, the handiwork of the creator of the heavens and earth.’  ‘I love you so much that I’d lay down my life for you.’

Of course I know the making the world a better place would be good enough reason to compliment others but to actually follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus while he follows the advice of this Jesus in Chapter 18.

An Emaciated Mercy

I've been going to a small church for a couple of weeks.  I wanted to go to a church nearby my house.  I feel like it's a negative thing to travel far and wide to get to a church that’s just right for me.  It's not a sin or anything but I felt that if I was looking for a church that was just right for me then I was looking for a church for the wrong reason.  There is faith and hope needed in every corner of the world after all.  I wanted to be useful where I went to church, so a smallish church.  I wanted to be able to go there anytime so nearby.  I like communion every Sunday and I choose accordingly. 

The church that I choose will remain unnamed.  They are driving me off.  I want to be an instrument (St. Francis) but can God use me in this place so bereft of grace to work hope back into dry bones?

There I sit in the pews and I hope someone will engage me in conversation so I can give them a piece of my mind, but that may not help.  How will a bunch of crusty old fuddy duddies listen to what I have to say?  If I have the boldness that God commands and exhorts in Joshua will they have ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches?

What is their soul crushing, joy sucking message?  You can’t sin.  This church seems like a relic in this era.  Most churches are too far on the other end of the pendulum.  They are too grace filled???  Nothing matters, but your faith and love.  I have a message for them too but this church, flying in the face of humanity and history expects true perfection after Christ’s forgiveness. 

What arrogant rubes?  It brings to mind this passage from the 17^th chapter of Ecclesiasticus.  Yes, there is a chance to leave sin behind every day, but there is power in our weakness.  Praise God for his mercy he lavishes it on all who turn towards him.   

25 Return to the LORD and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.

26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.

27 Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?

28 The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.

29 How great is the mercy of the Lord, his pardon for those who turn to him!

30 For we cannot have everything, human beings are not immortal.

31 What is brighter than the sun? And yet it fades. Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.

32 He surveys the armies of the lofty sky, and all of us are only dust and ashes.

I think that modern Jews sort of believe that their good and bad deeds are going to be weighed at the end of the world.  They believe that God has mercy and will give mercy to those who seek it, those who were close to even.  That’s probably a little obtuse version of it.  We Christians sort of believe that too; just that Christ Jesus is the tool by which we receive grace.

So too, back in the times of this Jesus after the return from Babylon and Persia that they believed that there is power in being sorry.  There may be more power in being sorry than having nothing to be sorry about.  After all, how boring would creation have been if there were nothing but greatness?  If Earth was populated by giants of intellect and morality Jesus, son of David would have been a blip in history and no one would have put up with your awful B.S.  If everyone was good enough there’d be no beautiful choice, no reaching up from the bottom that society and humans hit.  There’s no greatness if there’s nothing but greatness.

This little church believes that you’re going to give an account for what you believe and do.  This church’s preacher starts every sermon with the specific albeit frightening assertion that we will all be on the hook for what we’ve done.  This is, basically, a gospel-less gospel.  This is a Church of Christ where Christ doesn’t make sense.  This is a salvation without a savior. 

But we believe that God looks down on you, with your foibles and quirks, and loves you.  Sometimes he loves you in spite of your faithlessness.  Sometimes because of your broken spiritual wings.  He loves the lame, the frightened, the meek, the week, the sad, and the lonely.  “Man cannot have everything.  Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.” But God… 

I don’t know where you are on the pendulum of God’s grace.  Somewhere all the way over towards God’s demand for works.  Faith without works is dead of course.  Maybe you’re a figurative member of this church and are hoping to get a ticket into heaven without using Christ as your only ticket in.  Maybe you’re in a church or in a place in your life where you think God is so grace-filled, he really doesn’t care how you behave.  You may think hippie faith is the answer to the world’s problems.  Wherever you are on the spectrum; spend a day on the other side. 

For the fans of James spend a day contemplating and meditating that, “It is the gift of God so that no man may boast.”

For the Pauline lovers maybe you should spend a couple of hours a day or a whole week trying to turn towards God again.  Let’s strive for faithful observance because if you don’t have proofs of faith then your faith is shallow and even the demons have faith in God.

Because Sometimes There's More Truth in a Lie.

24 Lying is an ugly blot on anyone, and ever on the lips of the undisciplined.

25 A thief is preferable to an inveterate liar, but both are heading for ruin.

26 Lying is an abominable habit, the liar's disgrace lasts for ever.

I don't know if anyone has ever told you, but truth is malleable.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  When is the last time you heard someone hedge something they said?  "I had no knowledge," that means you told someone not to tell you.  Mayor Ford in Toronto said he didn't believe there was video of him smoking crack.  He failed to say that he didn't smoke crack.  Politicians do this a lot.  They've raised it to an art form, haven't they?  Like they think they can say they didn't pay someone money for sex because someone else paid.  

If a lie like that is malleable can truth be as well?  Truth.  They say truth is elusive.  They say to get to the bottom of things is the only place you can find good truth.  It is as if you have to break open a truth peanut to get to the actual truth.  

Still there are all those questions women ask their men about whether they look fat in this dress, or if they'd still love her if she was terribly disfigured in an accident.  Truth maybe frightening.  Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if this place in life is where you want to be.  Be honest.  Was that the right job, degree, city, house, car, church?  Should I wear a bob, ladies?  Should men wear a mustache, sideburns?  It's okay, maybe even healthy to have some honesty about not being completely happy. 

Now look in that same mirror and beware...too much honesty can be bad too.  When you start looking for that ingredient that you left out maybe you start thinking about a whole new recipe.  You haven't been happy with this car so you get a new one.  You've never liked this chin; let's get a new one.  You hate your wife's nose hair; buy her a nose hair trimmer before you get a new girlfriend.  I think Oscar Wilde said in the Importance of Being Ernest, to keep your eyes wide open when looking for a spouse and half shut when you've found one.  Another way to say that is, seek truth but not too much.

Here comes Jesus II talking about truth and he wants to boil it down to false witness.  But, 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' isn't always the truth.  I said you look bookish.  To me that is a good thing.  To you that isn't a good thing.  I said I hate it when you do that.  You thought I said I hate you when you do that.  I asked what's happening with this sit. as an abbreviation for situation; you thought I said sh**.  

Jesus II and the ten commandments seem to have this view of lying that is very pigeon-holed.  Maybe that's a good thing.  One thing is clear is that we think it's worse than theft.  Lying is abominable.  It lasts forever.  It is a nasty discharge on your face and it will not go away.  It is an open sore that you can't put a bandage on.  I'd rather enjoy the company of a person who punches me in the face than lies constantly.  Liars...well...they're collectively the Grinch.  

James points this out too.  And I think he has a more sensitive view about the shackles of truth.  He knows that a gossiping tongue telling the truth is still dishonest.  He knows that a verbal attack on the lips can trump a violent one on the fists.

Jesus, the best one, tells us not to make pledges or promises but to let our yeses be yes and our nos be no.  I think he is clearly trying to push away the infantile statements about innocence that a politician may keep on hand.  I think he seeks a person who is actively in search of the truth.  After all truth is more than facts.  Facts can sometimes lie, if you haven't heard.  

Truth is...well it's God.  It is love and in love their can be no dishonesty.  Whether it is true or not.  You ever think about that?  God will one day make you perfect, a lie that all creation is waiting for, for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.    A substitute is making us clean so that we may be what we aren't and have what we haven't earned.  Our nature being with God is an unholy lie but Christ is the way and the...what...the truth and the life.  Isn't that the answer Christ gave Pilate when he asked what truth was?  The answer was Christ standing before him soon to be lifted up. Truth about to be killed for something he was innocent of...a lie.  Truth traded in for a lie but God's love makes it truth.

Welcome to the World

22 Have you cattle? Look after them; if they are making you a profit, keep them.

23 Have you children? Educate them, from childhood make them bow the neck.

24 Have you daughters? Take care of their bodies, but do not be over-indulgent.

25 Marry a daughter off, and you have finished a great work; but give her to a man of sense.

26 Have you a wife to your liking? Do not turn her out; but if you do not love her, never trust her.

How pertinent is it that I'm writing a blog about raising a daughter when my sister has just hours ago given birth to her first little girl?  I'm pretty stoked.  I love having niephews.  Yes that's a word, Spell Checker.  I love all the ones I've had so far.  I love Seren Eclaire, and Everrito, and Caediboo, and Williamino, and Murphy the Mess, and JDOC, and Luke-ee (Not sure how to spell this.  It seemed more creative when I said it than when I wrote it.  It sounds like, "Follow Duke-ee," from a single episode of a Gummie Bears Cartoon.).  Here, into the fray comes...I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell the world.  I've been sworn to secrecy.  

So it's pertinent.  But is it too presumptuous?  Probably.  But I hope I'm not making up the wisdom that I'm eschewing.  I hope I'm trying to give a sense of this Jesus' stuff.  I hope I'm introducing you, not berating you with wisdom.  After all wisdom has a still, kind, sweet voice.  Yes, sometimes she stands on the street corners and yells when no one can hear her.  But the voice of wisdom is a soft yell.  She shouts with a bedroom voice.  

Now let me just tell you that I think verse 26 needs a little less chauvinism and maybe mix in a little less crazy but hey I've never been married.  Plus, I wish he hadn't compared raising children to the raising of cattle.  Then again, I'm not a parent.  Maybe raising a kid is like raising a kid...get it?  Young goats are called kids, right?  Is that right?  I'm going to Google it.  Yep.  I was right.  Still a dumb joke, though, I know.  Anyways, I always give parents the same advice about how to raise a child.  One, brand them on their lower back not their thigh.  Two, don't force them to potty train.  I think they should beg to learn the ways of the toilet about the time they're ready for fourth grade.

So since I obviously have no idea what to say to parents about raising a child lets see what Jesus II has to say.  One, teach them so that they will profit you.  Two, keep the goal in mind.  

I hope I'm not stepping on any toes but your children will one day be good for you.  I'm not talking about that moment when they pop out and your heart feels good.  I'm not talking about them letting you move in when you're a hundred.  While this was part of the message then; it's more now.  Children are part of you becoming a better adult.  They refine your thinking.  They teach you grace and patience.  They make you smarter and if you're wise you can learn from their wisdom later in life.  They are a bread basket of lessons.  Take and eat.  The lessons...don't eat the babies.  Sit down and make a list of the things you've learned about people from watching your kid.  How do you want to be more like a child?  Are you learning anything through them?  Start paying more attention, you should be learning a great deal.  They are your teachers as you are theirs.

And parent with the end in mind.  I know we get this message when starting to look for a job, or train for a marathon, or bake cookies.  However, do we need this advice when we talk about child raising?  I'm not saying pressure them to become a Quarterback.  I'm saying that there are traits that you think they'll need.  There are ways that you wish you were raised differently.  Don't be flippant about the things that will make your baby into an adult the world can be proud of and God can really use.  Don't put items on the list like, "I want my baby to forgive."  That's to simple and amorphous.  How will you get them to forgive?  "I want my baby to climb every mountain," look! this isn't a Miley Cyrus song(get it?) this is your child's life.  How about this one.  "I want my child to play an instrument because that kind of determination and hard work will serve her in every endeavor and that talent is something almost every adult wishes they procured growing up."  That's parenting with the end in mind.  

"I want my kid to excel in all subjects.  If he can't, then I want him to try thoroughly and never give up because you don't have to excel in school to excel in life but you can't give up."  That's parenting with the end in mind.  Some parents want their kid to be spiritual but don't have the sense to purse spirituality.  Some parents want their kid to read but they don't read enough to them.  That's not parenting with the end in mind.

In the comments feel free to leave bad advice for parents, as a joke.  Make sure it's funny.  In private make a list of the traits you want your kid to have and some ways you can help them achieve them.  If you don't trust yourself (in conjunction with your spouse), have a trusted friend look over your list and make sure you're not putting too much pressure on your kids.  Make sure that you're not trying to live your life again through them.  We've seen that on enough t.v. dramas.

Wisdom is Better than Sexy!

Ecclesiasticus 11:1 A poor man with wisdom can hold his head high and take his seat among the great. 
2 Do not overrate one man for his good looks or be repelled by another man's appearance. 
3 The bee is small among winged creatures, yet her produce takes first place for sweetness. 4 Do not pride yourself on your fine clothes or be haughty when honours come to you; for the Lord can perform marvels which are hidden from the eyes of men. 
5 Many kings have been reduced to sitting on the ground, while a mere nobody has worn the crown. 
6 Many rulers have been stripped of their honours, and great men have found themselves at the mercy of others. 

Thou shall not see with normal, materialistic eyes.  Thous shall look at the world not as the rest of the world sees it but as God sees it.  The Ecclesiastes author might tell you to not overrate someone because there'll be a season where their beauty will go away.  Kings may have been made to sit on the ground because it was just a time to sit on the floor as opposed to a time to sit on the throne.  However, this is the writer of Ecclesiasticus and this author is much more concerned with what is wise.

That is why this author starts off with the richest person in the pericope.  A poor man with wisdom is a sage character in literature throughout history.  Lao Tzu, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, even Christ; these days we think you can't be a holy man full of prophecy and wisdom without smelling like the beasts of the field.  I know Mohammed wasn't always dirty, but he received the Koran in the wilderness, right?  Buddha rejected all the world's creature comforts(including toilets(I know toilets weren't invented yet, it's just a silly example.)).  This is what great philosophers and meta-physicians do.  They sit under the stars and think.  Theirs, according to this passage, is true wealth.  

So who cares if Brad Pitt looks more handsome than I do in a tux?  Or in any clothes whatsoever?  Or not in clothes whatsoever?(Verse 2)  Okay, yes all women care, but should I?  I seek wisdom.

Who cares that the bee isn't as big as the eagle?  Who cares that no one ever pointed out the pretty bee like they do the pretty jay or robin?  Maybe the lark or dove isn't batted at by everyone who ever sees one unlike the bee.  However, honey IS sweet.  Ain't ever seen a farmer of peacocks but a lot of people keep bees. (verse 3)

Who cares if you are rich of bank and house and car?  Who cares if there are more bills in your wallet than there are cobwebs in most?  So your shirts are from Italy, suits are from England, and your lapel pins are diamond?  Who cares that you have a sports car for every day of the month.  Who cares if you're a 1%-er?(verse 4)  I still seek wisdom.  

Wisdom in comparison to that is dross.  Wisdom is a kingdom that cannot fail to defend itself.  Wisdom is the finest duds you could ever drape yourself in.  Wisdom is the sweetest fruit you can labor to produce.  Wisdom is sexier than Brad Pitt.  (Too bad for me Brad Pitt has enough wisdom to keep his considerable advantage in the handsome/wisdom race a run away victory.  I have to guess that if he was without wisdom then...)

Wisdom is more than reignments, but it IS the Emperor's finest uniform.  Wisdom is more than luxury, but it IS the opulence.  Wisdom is more than beauty, but it IS a vision.  Will you seek wisdom before a 401K?  Will you seek wisdom before stuff?  Will you seek wisdom before extras?

In the comments say something that you will do to seek wisdom before seeking something that is, in effect, superfluous.  Don't cheat; it must be something superfluous that you were going to get and try to redefine what actually is superfluous to yourself.     

Late for Lent

Ecclesiasticus 11:7

7 Do not find fault before making thorough inquiry; first reflect, then give a reprimand.

8 Listen before you answer, and do not interrupt a speech before it is finished.

9 Do not wrangle about something that does not concern you, do not interfere in the quarrels of sinners.

10 My child, do not take on a great amount of business; if you multiply your interests, you are bound to suffer for it; hurry as fast as you can, yet you will never arrive, nor will you escape by running away.

11 Some people work very hard at top speed, only to find themselves falling further behind.

Tomorrow morning when you wake up from a night of sleep you will be blissfully unawares that your least favorite blogger to read has in fact done what we all hoped he wouldn't do and that is continue his quest to wrestle with this book tucked gently away inside the Catholic Bible.  

It has been such a long time that we were all hoping that he would have given up the idiocy, that a world so concerned with technology might have the stomach for a blog about wisdom.  He didn't.  

We bet that there was a chance he would recognize that a world with too many blogs wouldn't need another phony expert telling phony supplicants something that has already been said and learned by far better, wiser, and smarter people over the last 2000 years.  He didn't.

However, he did decide that we need more wisdom and that he should redouble his efforts to put out there both the wisdom and encouragement for all to seek such wisdom.  Those people who've taught and learned better than us throughout history are more in need of a bath than we are and less of a need of wisdom although I will admit that is very historo-centric.

And so now we do turn once again to the cauterizing of a wound left by the sword of lethargy and ineptitude.  We are struck by the tools and gadgets that we made to help us and have hurt us.  We live thoroughly unwise lives.  And another guy named Jesus born a while before everybody's favorite Jesus has a book full of wise sayings to help us acclimate to a wiser existence.

First, hear the suggestion in verse 10 of chapter 11.  Do not take on a great amount of business.  If you multiply your interests you are bound to suffer for it... 

Granted I need to hear this admonition.  If you don't know me here's a little list of hobbies to give youa  little picture of what I'm like:  I like comics, movies, t.v., books, and music.  I like classic cars and coins and shoes.  I wear pens in my hat, I wear funny socks and interesting underwear.  I like to blog and I go to school.  I have three jobs to include going to school.  I like to infuse liquors with interesting flavors and I do so way more often than I drink.  I like to dance, sing karaoke, run on my treadmill, play basketball, BBQ and we aren't even half way through I imagine.  All of that stuff makes me sound schizophrenic but it really just makes me...well...schizophrenic.  

This passage is about putting all of your eggs in just two or three baskets.  I know there is this quote by Robert Heinlein, "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."  

All my life I've agreed with this statement and wanted to be a jack of all trades.  But think about the course of study for this list of capabilities.  It's too scattered and amorphous.  Let's see if we can't get Mr. Heinlein, the creepy orgy-ist, to agree with the writer of Ecclesiasticus.  How about we specialize for seasons?  How about each of us pick one of the things on this list of capabilities of human beings and just try to add that to our repertoire?  And if you've got enough on your plate how about knocking a couple things off?  I know, I know, what if you really need to conn a ship (steer a boat)?  Tough.  

Heinlein and the author of Ecclesiasticus both want us to do things in this world.  Neither want us to have the specialization of ants. However, between being a worker bee and excelling at nothing because you're kind of crappy at a ton of stuff are two opposite points on a pendulum with an entire civilization in between.

Try this.  Take an inventory of things that you do in life.  List your talents, abilities, hobbies, goals, dreams.  Now make a list of the things that aren't on that list you'd like to be.  (Don't go crazy, no one would expect Beethoven to wire his house's electricity or Einstein to...comb his hair?)  Now cross some off of the first list.  This isn't optional.  Pick the top three.  Family should be one, and job, and three should be...what?  Don't tell me.  Tell yourself.  Next, put just one from the second list on the first.  Pick a time period like three months or three years and make it happen.  

Think of the possibilities for this exercise across the spectrum of our species.  What do we learn if we all add a skill, talent, hobby?  Some people will choose something dumb.  Some would choose something evil, but if the rest use this as an experiment in gaining wisdom then the world will push back from a thanksgiving binge undo it's top button and let go a sigh of such complete satisfaction the likes of which aren't known..  Anyone care to take the challenge?  Comment what you're giving up for a season and what you're adding.  

P.S.  This would have been a good post to make in conjunction with the beginning of lent.  #Fiddlesticks #41days2late #stupidnontwitterhashtags