Today I figured out why my last relationship didn’t work out. It wasn’t the difference in faith, differing family backgrounds, lack of mutual respect. No these things were simply pebbles in the road of life. Rather the problem was yard work.
I swear to it as I rode the lawn mower today, swerving back and forth dodging chipmunks and snakes, it occurred to me that my last girlfriends father was OBSESSED with my lawn mower arsenal. From the day I moved onto this beautiful 2.8 acre plot his first question was “How you going to mow it?” To be honest I hadn’t thought about it. Scientific discussions of the validity of caring for a weed resulted in nothing. It was settled, I had to mow.
There in lies the problem, mowing that is. You see I hate mowing. With every fiber of my being I hate the very idea of cutting down a weed. For the past few months I have had a condo in Arizona and it is there I was first introduced to rocks. Out there people have smartened up and rather than planting grass they simply throw down some rocks. Biggest yard utensil you are purchasing there is a rake.
Back to the ex-girlfriend’s father…he GAVE me a lawn mower. Then to top it off her grandfather gave me one too. I simply had no excuse now as to why I couldn’t mow the lawn, heck I could use both at the same time to truly display my yard capabilities. What I didn’t realize when I moved in was that mowing this much land is an all day affair. You don’t wake up for a morning run and do your cool down around the yard. No, you wake up early in the morning and fall off the darn lawn mower that night.
A guy that travels like I do simply does not have time for this marathon mowing activity. I eagerly await the day a kid knocks on my door and offers for a small fee to trim my jungle. Crap, I will fricken relish that day. Unfortunately the kids around me are still too young. I keep my eyes open though, kid across the street mows the lawn with his kiddie mower while dad uses the real one. There is a kid with some aspirations. One day I will employ him. And one day he will have no problem picking up a southern gal, why? Because he is a guy who can mow.
I have been thinking a lot lately about devotion and effort. I know what you are thinking, devotion to the law shouldn’t require effort, blah blah blah. When you are in heaven shoot me a little smile but I am still a work in progress.
What stemmed all of this is a desire to create something. From the earliest of days watching TV and reading newspapers we are marketed to. For some reason, to this day if I hear the ninja turtle theme song I still have a strong desire to do my cool dance and go out and buy pizza. Why? It was marketed to me as a youngster.
With marketing so prevalent in our society it is no wonder that we place ourselves in a similar situation as single people. We market ourselves. “I think I will pick a little sweet guy, pinch of living life on the edge, dab of outdoorsy, and a ounce of crazy hair.” It is just a formula now that we throw out to the world as a face to what is really us.
So lately I figured out what it is I am marketing to the world. The conclusion I came to is that I was marketing the exact opposite to the man I really am. I am a geek, Gregorian Chant is on my iPod, Theology books are more interesting than TV, I love running, fast motorcycles make me smile, I don’t watch TV, and most of all, I am happy. There I said it. You see I think the trap we all fall into as young Christians (or fallen Christians) is that we market ourselves to the world around.
It is time to stop playing dress up and move beyond the superficialness we showcase. Stop making yourself “the one” and instead be someone’s “one.” I have a great hope in my heart that somewhere there is a young lady who would be loving some goofy, geeky, guy like me. I am going to stretch my “being Nick” muscles and workout more with God. Being devoted to Our Lord is happiness enough for me. Showing Him the devotion is showing me that marketing is like fishing with a boot. You might catch something but it isn’t anything you would want.
Catholics believe that Baptism is the washing away of original sin and not the acceptance of the Holy Spirit. This confuses a lot of Protestant Brothers and Sisters for two reasons:
We believe in Infant Baptism
Confirmation
Imagine my surprise from today’s Liturgy (Readings):
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
The bold is my emphasis, but I really wanted to focus in on that line. So a little background on Confirmation is that the Bishop (apostolic line, shepherd, etc) comes to the parish and lays hands on the confirmation candidates. It is very beautiful and stems from this very scripture from Acts 5:14-17. This is where a big part of confusion comes from when we baptize our infants. Baptism to a Catholic is simply washing away of the sin Adam and Eve left us. We are not expecting at that moment that the infant has accepted Christ, rather we are welcoming this child to the Body of Christ. At a Catholic Baptism the congregation raises a hand and promises to help raise this child in the fullness of the faith.
As scripture directs, a child will grow up being taught the faith. When they are old enough to be “born of water and Spirit,” they can receive their marching orders. It is at the time a young adult is confirmed that they are saying (or confirming) that they truly believe the teachings of Christ and the Church. Nifty eh?
I hope this clears up something, had to share after reading it.
I am reading through Theology of the Body again after many of times. I now use it more as reference material than actual reading, but tonight I started Chris West’s review. This is a review rather than the 129 lectures John Paul the Great gave.
The tidbit that jumped out at me tonight was about Genesis. The discussion of if it was a scientific recount of creation or not is irrelevant:
Consider the difference for a woman when her optometrist looks in her eyes and when her husband looks in her eyes. The scientist is looking at her cornea and records the scientific facts. The love is looking into her soul and proclaims something more poetic and inspired. Does the scientist disprove the lover? No. These are simply two perspectives on the same reality. The author of Genesis wasn’t a scientist, but a lover inspired by God to proclaim the spiritual mysteries at the origin of the world.
Did you brain just explode? Mine did just typing it
Hello from my IIci. The machine is fresh from the original boxes with the original manuals. WHAT A STEAL!? My mom’s one comment when it arrived was that it
Looked heavy with all those boxes
Makes a funny noise when that floppy is writing
The machine is currently sporting the original 7.0.1 with a future upgrade of A/UX 3.1 soon as the external SCSI CD-Rom arrives. News to follow on my adventures with A/UX…
