Dozens Screwed
Just heard this story on our local NBC station.
There is not much I can say except kudos to the man driving the truck. Not the part where he, or someone, didn’t batten down the hatches well enough to keep the nails in the truck, but the part where he led the line of 40 cars directly to the local tire company and said, “Fix’em and put it on my card.”
It is not stated whether the driver was also the owner of the company or what prompted him to be as concientious an employee as he was….
“We watched him, he walked up and down the whole highway, making sure people got a card and people were taken care of,” said one of the drivers whose car needed repairs.
…but, he is one of the most valuable folks this company employs.
In a time when people are running away from responsibility, it’s encouraging to see other running straight toward it.
GOOD JOB, MAN!
Callithump
Merriam-Webster
Google Define
Textual Inspiration
That was tougher than I thought it would be. Turns out that ‘callithump’ as a word generates a huge number of results that are nothing more than definitions of callithump. Not surprisingly at flickr I had to search for ‘parade’ instead.
Fr. Gee captures an interestingly mundane moment in the life of Jesus and I think makes a great connection between the Apostles’ decision and those of ordinary people.
I like the idea of a decision that is not a decision. It makes me think of two possible ways for this to happen: one, thought about the decision ahead of time and have been waiting for the crux; two, the decision is simply ‘undecidable’ and there is no crux.
Oh dear God. I believe I have stumbled into the discussion between fate and free will. A debate which I find neither compelling nor worthy of my time.
Let’s pretend I didn’t….
Pre-decided: I have taken the time to consider what paths lay before me and made many of the choices I expect to encounter in the future. This option demonstrates the capacity for analytical extrapolation and essentially allows the decision maker to remove or at least mitigate the influence of emotion. This way you can plan to go to McDonald’s for lunch rather than being swayed by the flashy sign you see at Taco Bell as you are driving around town not having considered lunch till the value menu splashed across your windshield. This is the tack that the Just Say No drug plan operated under.
The part of this that appeals to me is that I get to think about stuff ahead of time. I daydream with some boundries. I get to say ‘Yes’ to an ‘Or’ question then fanticize which will(would) have been better.
Undecidable: not ‘undecided’. Here I am so compelled by one leg of the bifurcation that the other leg is invisable. In contrast to the above, this option demonstrates the capacity for faith–or laziness, depending. An unthinking trust that the outcome will be so pleasant that no effort is required. Ironically–this is the lazy part–this also applies to decisions that are so minor as to barely merit attention. Like whether McDonald’s or Taco Bell are better for lunch.
House Cleaning
It goes without saying that if you have been reading this blog–and I know you haven’t–that I have demonstrated neither purpose nor focus nor regularity.
In the version of the excuse where I am the victim, I chalk this up to my lack of audience. What is the point of my performing to an empty hall? Shouldn’t I be allowed to sit stage center and do jack all? Well sure.
In the version of the excuse where I am at fault… I am at fault. I have done nothing to promote this blog neither by mechanical means like Blog Explosion nor qualitative means like posting some content.
So, I am instituting the BX bit and will keep a small percentage of traffic rolling through here though more of it to I am not Dustin and in general I would like to recommend that you take a moment to read: Coroner Stories as well.
As for the quality part, I will be instituting some pump priming so to speak. The artificial mechanisms I use to get a post up here everyday–more for me than for you–will be to search google or flick or similar with the word of the day and comment on what I find at the end of that search. I will be filtering the search results for suitably commentable items, but by and large won’t be messing with the outcomes too much.
Look forward to a variety of topics.
Off to find one now….
Subbing for a Science Class
On this morning ten years ago, I was just looking for the attendance list for the Science class I was about to substitute teach.
It was the beginning of the third hour, this was an inside room, they were doing contruction on the exterior wall on the west side of the school when we heard a slamming noise like the dropping of sheetrock.
The teacher in the room across the hall with an exterior wall ran out into the hall looking into the room I was covering to see if I had heard anything or if I was alarmed. Since it was a common enough sound for construction I hadn’t worried about it.
Later the day we spent lots of time watching a television during down time and between classes and at lunch.
In the weeks ahead–at my waiter job–I served many of the emergency workers helping with the clean up. They often remarked how much friendlier OKC was than was NYC during the first bombing of the WTC.
Before I left for Philmont, Tim Frielich and I went to the site and surveyed the distruction.
That’s what I remember.