Insidious Adaptation

Toilet seat? Is that really a thing?  I have not had to worry about a toilet seat placement at any point in my life. I have not been corrected, but maybe one time. One time, most recently, my wife reminds me that I need to leave the seat down so our daughter can get up on her own to pull her little seat on top of the adult toilet seat and prevent her little cheeks from falling in the water. One time.  Arguments over money? Like, blaming the other person? Like, complaining that they are using it all?  Any discussions of finances on my end has never been on where my wife spent money. There have been a few between us about career choices, decisions, new jobs, and what this meant for bills, however accusations have never been my forte, nor have I ever felt that from her.  Blame, resentment, despise, contrite...you exist with those feelings?  Why the heck would I have married someone who I would hold a deep resentment for? Why would I want to be wi...

In the spirit of the season, I sometimes find it best to reflect on where we've come from to see where we're going. I find that looking at the very elements of a situation can assist in finding common ground in which to walk, versus the egg shells we sometimes tiptoe around or crush just enough to pierce the leathery skin on the bottoms of our feet.  I will refer to the Bible here, so if you aren't interested past this then, there ya go.  In Genesis, man was made, and woman was made from man. God did both.  In Genesis again, man sinned, woman sinned. God did not make sin.  The rest of the Bible and life as we know it is based on this original sin and how we react, cover, attempt to live life on top of it, all the pain of cycle after cycle, mess on mess, and now here we are blurring the lines of what a nationalized agenda-biased media depicts either way about sexual assault.  Ah, this season... No, this isn't for children, and there are n...

Recognition- 1.      the action or process of recognizing or being recognized, in particular. Or, as a move towards favoritism, or to alleviate guilt, one can recognize another. To recognize initially meant to indicate someone did something outstanding, recognizable  more than others, a contributor to the cause. Now, nothing more than a way to justify an organization or purpose, without carrying the weight being "recognized" once held. Now it is a sham of which the receiver is supposed to gain enough. something, to shut them up, have others strive for it, and the organization look good because they, “recognized” or are the “organization willing to give X amount of effort to some cause." Cynic? Look past who gets recognized and the upward to the organization getting the recognition. What are they getting out of it? Something I ensure you. At a job I held for a Medicaid insurance company, it was favorable to give three recognitions per month, almost a mand...

"So then you are choosing to suffer?" "No, I am not choosing to suffer, but I do suffer." "Well, that is a choice is it not? Suffering is about how we interpret, through choice, our environment and the circumstances instances we experience." "I guess" "So then, the suffering you experience is based on choice." "Maybe..." Double-click for suffering.  On an unexpectedly warm autumn day, the air conditioning inside my office is particularly frigid, thus the interaction between extreme heat and extreme cool condenses on any surface flexible with the temperature, my client looks at me with a blank stare. "So, how's your week been?" "Good." He does this. He comes to see me, yet, refuses to willingly give up information. Sometimes I feel like some kind of private investigator, having to snoop around the obvious to get client to subconsciously tell me something to grab on to. "Yea, t...

Infidel- as a noun, a person who does not believe in religion or who adheres to a religion other than one's own. I don't get it.  As I sat in the court room, looking at the judge, prosecutor, county attorney. I couldn't understand the "vibe" I was feeling in relation to the well being, of a convicted man. When one gets a taste of the privilege, of a situation they think ought to be more prestigious, more enlightened than their own, there is no place left to go with expectations, but a crashing downward spiral as reality rears its ugly head. "Well, we could discuss the instance where the guy said...." I cannot give details, for these conversations were something, "privileged" however, the depth of text was lacking. The feast turned into a Country Buffet line of which there was no meat, only a plethora of cheap breads, followed by frozen, sweetened-milk, (definitely not ice-cream) for dessert. I expected to come into this back court...

If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note. - C.S. Lewis, The problem of Pain The Old Testament, full of grotesque stories, wretched, horrible incidents, sacrifice, killing, animal sacrifice and many, many verses dedicated to the specific way and how and where to atone for wrong against the Law set forth by God himself. The Old Testament, as I see it now, was in fact, about sacrifice. I will venture a bit further and state that the entire Bible, human existence actually, is about human sacrifice. A preacher ordained in theology can break down certain sections of the historically accurate text known as the Bible. There are many intricacies and contextual components about the time and history of the timeline laid out. There are pieces that are read and read again, only to have them make sense at one time more...

Chameleons, are in fact, Chameleons. Not in what they are but in how they are a point of reference, an oftentimes derogatory one at that. "I was a chameleon." - A client in reference to mimicking behaviors. The same ones that interfered with his ability to grow as his own person. Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. These species come in a range of colors, and many species have the ability to change color.- Wikipedia circa 2018 What happens when what was originally meant to be an adaptive behavior, for we all adapt, turns into loss of self? When exactly is the threshold where a man, loses himself, takes on the qualities of the environment, and then suffers due to inauthenticity? If we all adapt and grow, then wouldn't being a chameleon, be a natural thing, like a good natural thing? There is a line that we all cross sometimes where an efficient behavior turns into a troubled one...