235
Tuesday November 17, 2015 5:38 pm
Most of today while at work I was thinking about life in general, but I also had specific thoughts as well. Anyway, I was wondering how much of last year I lived a completely wasted life!
I honestly struggled to find even one specific instance where I did anything that really mattered? Then I had a thought... a series of thoughts really: hence my title, "235." I offer my somewhat sardonic thoughts on how I can prove this last year wasn't totally wasted... now, onto my proof!
In this past calendar year I have done the following:
I watched three complete seasons of Sherlock, with Cumberbatch. Now, that might seem like a complete waste, right? If you said, yes, I would normally agree, but what if I learned something from it, would that make a difference?
I learned that a know-it-all, even if you really do know-it-all, it doesn't make for a pleasant person.
In addition, I watched all 44 episodes of, The Killing. A waste, you say, but what if I learned something from it?
I learned how to kill people... and get away with it! Apparently this homicidal cop did not know that when you kill scores of people you need to bury the bodies! You do not just scatter them around like wind-blown chaff.
I watched 70 episodes of Poirot. Again I learned from it.
I learned a man can not walk like a pansy, dress like a pansy, and talk like a pansy, without... surprise! People thinking you are a pansy!
I watched all 43 episodes of Longmire ( a series I would highly recommend) and I learned something. Well, really I kind of knew this all along it's just that watching this series solidified that knowlege.
I learned that Katee Sackoff is not, I say again, NOT a good looking woman!
Now to my title... 235. Yesterday I finished episode 235 of the series Friends. All ten season watched in 22 minute episodes: watching without commercials is great!
As before, I learned something.
In season 4 there was an episode where Ross showed something he did when he wanted to tell someone to stuff it but he didn't want them to actually know what he was doing? Anyway, I have now used that on a few occasions while driving whenever anyone makes me mad. It is something that requires the use of both hands to do it right... but no worries, whenever I have had to employ this sign I just temporarily drive with my knees.
So, not only did I learn something useful I also have used it in my daily life, now that can't be all bad... can it?
Besides, a lot of the shows I have watched I have done so during the time that normal people sleep. So, not so bad a year... right :)
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Saturday November 14, 2015 10:03 am
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, begins one of my favourite poems. I have often contemplated this poem and always wondering... what lay down that other road? Because I do not know I am ever fulfilling the beginning of the last stanza of this poem;
I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...
After certain evil men carried out their cowardly acts in Paris yesterday I thought if I wrote anything today it would be about those IS bastards! And the fact that I can hardly wait until they actually meet God one day only to be cast, first, into Hell and then after the general resurrection of the damned to finally be cast into the Lake of Fire! Their punishment will be well deserved!
However, after I sat down and tried to gather my thoughts I began thinking about all of our choices in life that bring each of us exactly to where we are today...
exactly to this place, and time, and circumstance... regardless what our present circumstances are? It is true of the cowards in France yesterday and it is true of me sitting at my desk typing this Saturday morning and it is true for everyone else who might read what I write today.
Looking at my own life I see that many times a decision I made long ago that seemed almost insignificant at the time, has led to major changes in my present life today! Though that is completely true, I also see that in every one of those decisions, either big or small it was my decision to make... so in that sense every hurt, or sleight, or anything else in my life that has caused heartache to me personally, I have been directly responsible for all of it.
While logically I can reason with myself and point out the obvious: e.g., I am here today doing what I presently do because of my own decisions... that truth offers no comfort whatsoever. It is sort of like a jarring slap to the face, which might be good to wake a person up, but it doesn't feel all that good. (Trust me, from personal experience I know.)
Once a person understands that a single choice, or series of choices, some good and some bad has brought each of us to where we are... then comes the harshest truth of all! And that truth is there will come a time in life when a person realizes that those choices can not be undone, and neither can amends be made. No do-overs, no mulligans, no second chances, i.e., and that is when you realize you are now between... the proverbial rock and a hard place!
Mr. Frost, if I ask nicely... can I please see what lay down that other road? Just a glimpse please. I'm not even saying I want to walk it, but if I could only see what it was like?
ISAIAH 26:3-4
November 9, 2015 10:42 am
I heard some sad news and that made me want to reach out and offer help and comfort, but I don't know how to do that :(
So, for what it's worth coming from me all I can do is pray... and that's what I have been doing. I will offer this: the Bible declares, that, we 'see through a glass darkly' ... that is on this side, what we refer to as life. But at death, for the first time we see with eyes wide open. And for that fact, though it is impossibly hard now to understand... it is a reason worth celebrating.
I will include a poem, and my prayer is the truth expressed in these few penned words will give some comfort for those who are grieving :(
Death Is Nothing At All ~ Henry Scott-Holland
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again.
