I commute to work every day via train, and while most would probably complain about the interesting sort of challenges you experience riding public transportation (train running behind schedule, passengers with varying levels of body odor, packed seats and nowhere to stand some days), despite all that, I still enjoy it.
A lot.
There is a freedom in being untouchable, in a sense, for 30 minutes a day, twice a day, and there is a bit of therapy in being able to do what I want (which is read, write, or make up exciting stories about the passengers' lives) for 60 minutes a day.
Anyhow. All that nonsense to tell you this: I commute via train, and on the way in to work, I've seen this billboard recently:
Read the Holy Bible
Follow Jesus
And, while I praise the ad's simplicity of message; I get a mixed feeling when I see that billboard, because it is and it isn't that easy...
Christianity, in my opinion, cannot be boiled down to those two sentences, and not only that, there's more to it than that.
And yet at the same time, I disagree with myself, and think, you know, it's not that difficult; what's difficult is for us to remove all the barriers of schedules, to-do lists and other life committments, that keeps us from doing these two simple things.
So, hence the thought: it is, and isn't that easy.
I've shared my thoughts, so what are yours? I'd be interested to see :)
3.30.2011
3.12.2011
Dad
So, yesterday I saw my father over the lunch hour, a rare treat for me, as he is constantly busy with work, and oh yeah, lives in Austin, so we don't get to spend tons of quality time together, besides the busy, insaneness of spending holidays together, where the primary focus is trying to connect quickly, and then we are off again, leaving much too soon...
Modern life-can't beat it, right?
Anyways, so like I said: yesterday was a rare treat-a slow lunch hour with my father to discuss anything and everything.
So, being the fun nerds we are, we had a fascinating conversation about science and nature; trajectories and force. Fun, right? Wouldn't you have loved to hear that one?
Though, in my defense, I have to say that I still retain my coolness since I was not the one who read an entire book about the history of salt. I still wonder how he got through the first ten pages on that one.
But I digress...
Anyways, the point of this whole story is this...As I watched my dad step into the cab on his way out of town, I watched, waiting for him to neogitate with the cab driver and drive off.
I waited, like a parent waits for a pre-adolscent; pretty sure that the child is knowledgeable that they can take care of themselves; and yet still concerned about any vulnerability that they might portray; worried that other people and life in general would take advantage of them.
That’s how it is I guess, with aging parents; you love them, you let them go, a bit hesitantly.
You love them, you trust them, but you see them as former giants in their day; being so heroic in your youth, and now you see the age spots, the white hair, you notice you have to talk a little louder, you notice there is a humanness and a vulnerability that wasn’t there before.
All of the sudden Superman has lost his cape, and Wonder Woman has misplaced her bracelets, and you wonder whatever do you do now, knowing you have become superhero to not only your children, but your parents as well?
Modern life-can't beat it, right?
Anyways, so like I said: yesterday was a rare treat-a slow lunch hour with my father to discuss anything and everything.
So, being the fun nerds we are, we had a fascinating conversation about science and nature; trajectories and force. Fun, right? Wouldn't you have loved to hear that one?
Though, in my defense, I have to say that I still retain my coolness since I was not the one who read an entire book about the history of salt. I still wonder how he got through the first ten pages on that one.
But I digress...
Anyways, the point of this whole story is this...As I watched my dad step into the cab on his way out of town, I watched, waiting for him to neogitate with the cab driver and drive off.
I waited, like a parent waits for a pre-adolscent; pretty sure that the child is knowledgeable that they can take care of themselves; and yet still concerned about any vulnerability that they might portray; worried that other people and life in general would take advantage of them.
That’s how it is I guess, with aging parents; you love them, you let them go, a bit hesitantly.
You love them, you trust them, but you see them as former giants in their day; being so heroic in your youth, and now you see the age spots, the white hair, you notice you have to talk a little louder, you notice there is a humanness and a vulnerability that wasn’t there before.
All of the sudden Superman has lost his cape, and Wonder Woman has misplaced her bracelets, and you wonder whatever do you do now, knowing you have become superhero to not only your children, but your parents as well?
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