S...A...Y...L...T...?
Saturday August 25, 2012 12:20 amSo, a few weeks ago I started doing something that Charles Morse said he was going to do. However, the movie ended before we ever knew for certain if he was able to fully accomplish it... he had made a start at it though. Anyway, today I was derailed: although I was knocked off track, tomorrow I will begin anew.
The best thing about failing, if there is a good thing about it... is that as long as a person is alive they can begin anew.
There is a reason I am writing about this now, rather than waiting until a pre-set date in the future (that I gave to myself) and then just announce whether or not I was able to accomplish what I wanted. In this way at some future time I will be able to look back and chart my progress, or lack thereof by my blog posts.
Charles Dickens, from one of my favorite writings by him... or at least the book I am quoting from has probably the best opening lines in all of literature. Anyway, in that book he said, "A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other." Have you ever noticed that... a person who you know so well that (to you) they are an open book, yet, at the same time they are still shrouded in mystery?
A Perry Mason episode is playing on television right now as I am typing this, and I am listening to it as I am also trying to finish this evening's blog. It's amazing what passed as "realistic" television 40 years ago. Even though it is a far-cry from good acting, I still like a lot of the old episodes.
I'm typing this blog on Deb's laptop. She is spending the night with Tammy. (Bob and the boys are on an overnight camping trip.) However, that is not why I am using this: because I really don't like laptops, but, my own computer is about ready to go to that big "computer graveyard" in the sky. Every few minutes, for no apparent reason, it keeps closing down all my open windows and then it reboots itself.
I will have an added incentive to finish what I started beginning tomorrow, at least I hope so. Regardless, even without it I still have a desire to try and see it through. With one eye on Perry cross examining a hostile witness, and with the the other eye I am hunting and pecking my way over an unfamiliar key pad, I have a question to ask. If God would reveal to us our own future, would you want to know what it was going to be?
Many years ago I thought I had all the answers... then, several weeks ago I understood that I had been asking the wrong questions? I determined to change that. I realized even then that there might be a few false starts in reaching my goals: but I am still resolute to try and see this through.
(I will have to work on this either later today, as it's morning now, or maybe tomorrow... Sunday. When I pick up where I am leaving off, I will leave this line of explanation in. I am going to do this so that any person reading this now will know that I haven't yet finished with this blog.)
I hope to try and explain
my own answer to the question I posed (the first time I started on
this blog) about knowing our future, and I will try and do it in a
way that might make some sense? In the Dickens's story, Scrooge is
visited by three ghosts. For me the most important is the last
apparition: in the story it is said that this spirit approaches,
"...like a mist upon the ground."
For the life of me I
could not imagine wanting to know the future, if the future which was
revealed was unalterable. I mean, who would want to see their life
played out if they knew that what they were witnessing would have to
remain unchanged. Unless, of course, your life and future would be
one of the few that seems to be perfect.
I do my best to
understand why things happen as they do... and even with long thought
and much study it seems that I can only echo the words of Penelope
Lively, "We make choices but are constantly foiled by
happenstance." I like that word, happenstance,
for it seems to (at times) fit perfectly into life.
Scrooge's only lament
about knowing his future would also be my own. He wanted to know if
what he was seeing in his own future "will be" or only
"might be?" The difference between will and
might could well be
the difference between a life happily or unhappily lived.
(I'll be looking to finish this the next time I write on my blog. After
I upload this small addition I will be saying Last Rites over my
computer (lol) before unplugging it... for good! I am hoping to have
my new one ready by Sunday after church. However, I still have two
tests to take before midnight on Sunday so I am not sure if I will finish this by then or not? In the last ten minutes this computer has
quit four separate times. It is now 12:30 am (Sunday morning) and I will upload this
and try to finish the rest of my blog as soon as possible. Have a
great day!)
OK, have you chosen? Would you want to know your future, even if it were unalterable? I'm not sure but I think if it were possible to know your future, and if any changes would be impossible to make... then I think it would lead to continual unhappiness in the present! (I awoke just a few minutes ago... it is 7:10 am Sunday morning and I decided to finish this blog before I showered and got ready for church. I am still using my crazy computer to write this: that is, if it will hold up for the next 20 minutes or so. I am picking up my new one after church and installing it this afternoon.)
On a different note, yesterday I was at the Ky State Fair. An old friend of mine who is now a missionary was back in town for the week and he and I worked the fair booth together. In four hours (together) we saw seven saved with quite a few more having been given some assurances. All-in-all it was a good day at the fair!
(My old friend Virgil is quietly snoring near my feet as I finish this up. I had closed my office door so I would not bother the girls as they are in the other room and getting ready for church. However, a persistent scratching on the door caused me to open it and he was staring at me with his (big) woeful eyes and apparently wondering "why" I was trying to keep him out? After I let him in he was sound asleep within two or three minutes. He's a great little guy!)
Usually I'd (like to) say by this time in my blog that I have reached some sort of a resolution in what I have been writing: but, I haven't... at least not yet. I don't suppose that in reality I can have a resolution without revealing more and at this time that would be impossible. It's sort of that whole "Catch-22" thing. (lol)
I can't say for sure... but tonight(?) hopefully I will have at least one of my short-term goals reached? Until I write again I'll leave you with some words from Walt Disney, "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."
OK, have you chosen? Would you want to know your future, even if it were unalterable? I'm not sure but I think if it were possible to know your future, and if any changes would be impossible to make... then I think it would lead to continual unhappiness in the present! (I awoke just a few minutes ago... it is 7:10 am Sunday morning and I decided to finish this blog before I showered and got ready for church. I am still using my crazy computer to write this: that is, if it will hold up for the next 20 minutes or so. I am picking up my new one after church and installing it this afternoon.)
On a different note, yesterday I was at the Ky State Fair. An old friend of mine who is now a missionary was back in town for the week and he and I worked the fair booth together. In four hours (together) we saw seven saved with quite a few more having been given some assurances. All-in-all it was a good day at the fair!
(My old friend Virgil is quietly snoring near my feet as I finish this up. I had closed my office door so I would not bother the girls as they are in the other room and getting ready for church. However, a persistent scratching on the door caused me to open it and he was staring at me with his (big) woeful eyes and apparently wondering "why" I was trying to keep him out? After I let him in he was sound asleep within two or three minutes. He's a great little guy!)
Usually I'd (like to) say by this time in my blog that I have reached some sort of a resolution in what I have been writing: but, I haven't... at least not yet. I don't suppose that in reality I can have a resolution without revealing more and at this time that would be impossible. It's sort of that whole "Catch-22" thing. (lol)
I can't say for sure... but tonight(?) hopefully I will have at least one of my short-term goals reached? Until I write again I'll leave you with some words from Walt Disney, "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."
posted by Robin Johnson @ 10:04 PM
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