Sometimes Life is a Sewer Pipe...

Saturday, November 11, 2006

...and you have to crawl through it...if you ever intend to see Zihuatenejo, that is. I know, because I'm still in my personal sewer pipe. It seems to be getting more spacious these days though...less vile. So that's encouraging. I always wondered though. What if Andy Dufresne (Shawshank) had gotten to the end of that sewer pipe and there had been some kind of steel grate blocking him in so that he had to turn back? I realize now that you wouldn't turn back. You would chew through the grate with your teeth or die. Who knew life would be a sewer pipe? Who knew it would be Shawshank prison...or a damp little jail cell in ancient Egypt? I'm being cryptic on purpose now. Kind of fun. Heck, it's a Blog. I don't know a single soul who will ever actually read this. Maybe my HS kids will eventually. Although I'm told that I am too old to be Blogging. Kinda freaks them out when we 30 somethings do it, because they know that there was no such thing when we were cool enough to do it, so why would we be trying to be cool with technology now. Something along those lines.

And yet, here I am. And at half past 3am, no less. Tomorrow morning should suck. I guess it's this morning now.

Ryan was telling us about basketball practice tonight. 2 1/2 hours every day of the week except for Sundays. I asked if he was sore. He paused for a minute and then said..."Yeah. I'm sore. But I guess it's suffering, you know, suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." I was impressed. He's a freshman. You don't often hear freshman boys quoting scripture, much less ones on the value of suffering. It's taken me 34 years to begin to see the beauty in suffering. I finished it for him, "And hope does not disappoint." I have to believe that...I'm still in my sewer pipe, believing in a Zihuatenejo I've never actually seen.

It really is my grip on the scriptures that keeps me going these days...That and Steve's broad shoulders. Things like, "Love always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres."
That one stays on my mirror. This week I added, "Faith is the substance of what you hope for, the evidence of what you don't yet see." They get me through. I'm often surprised by the truth there...often surprised when I come across something that I've heard all my life and never realized how important it was for it to be true. Like "hope does not disappoint." What else is there to hold on to out there? Reminds me of Peter, "Where else would we go Sweet Jesus? You have the words of life!"

We would go to bed...that's where else. And I really must now.

And I close with two thoughts.
One from:
Robert Fulghum:
" I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death."

and another from:
Friedrich Nietzsche:
Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.

And I guess I'm becoming the optimist you always wished I was, Tim. I'm definitely going to go with Fulghum on hope and reject Nietzsche this time!

...And this one (I love a good quote)...ought to be discussed in my next blog:
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the way you think...