Insidious Adaptation

"Trick or Treat." "Yes, good, say that. We knock and we say that." My coaching is weak, I don't think I ever said "trick or treat" when I was a kid, probably just a "hello." But us fathers want our children to be better than us right? So, the follow through, the delivery, that is what has to happen here. Let's see if she sticks the landing. ... "Look at them run up there." A few houses in and a neighbor and new friend of our daughters are together, no longer needing an adult to guide, but convince each other this is safe, this is what we do. "Did you say thank you?" I ask my daughter, "Thank you." She says to a now-shut door. "Sweetheart, let's say thank you to them." "Ok." The walk from one house to the next started slow, apprehensive, turned into a slight jog for the children, then a run from the house almost going into the street. A few falls, a couple crash...

It is the manner in which we make sense of something, our justification. Like a dog peeing on the floor because they had to go to the bathroom and the door not being open to the outside, it is their nature to pee when they have to go. This nature, or natural event, is what leads to a puddle of pee. Pee, I have to clean, interfering with my time, thus putting my mind in a rush, for I had to clean when I didn't plan, and then looking at the time, seeing I was behind, getting the red lights on the way to work, getting to work late, sitting to a computer with a mind in a tizzy. Maybe that is what it takes for the perfect scenario of infiltration, a message as clear as a bell only to be heard in that mindset, one that teaches a life lesson. Whereas without the event, the dog doing what it does, I might not have been in that state of mind to get the message. It's too easy to make sense of an event as "coincidence" or "chaos" when in reality it was all part of ...

"The feels," given permission to take over as hormones are reason enough to indulge our desires. As though we have no control of who drives the car, only that we are in the passenger seat and we pray for no crash, or at least airbags if we do. Kids are having sex. Sadly I did, too young. I was too immature, not ready for the what I was giving up. No value to myself, only for others to see me as equal. Wanting to fit in with the world, a social group, peers, to discuss in the locker room with detail now, for this is what we do right? How we make sense of our actions, by measuring against those around us? It was dark, too dark, for neither of us wanted to see what was going on. I prayed for it to end, just to be done, for if I could have gotten a reprieve from this act and still claimed to have done it, I would have. The sex was not wanted, but to claim I had sex, for I couldn't go to college a virgin. A dark room, an adolescent kid, practice putting on a condom in re...

Cartoon depictions of worldly desires tend to make a situation more acceptable, more tolerable, less critical. The depictions of a friendly Santa, the cartoon ghouls, the jokey turkey with a personality fighting with a can of whipped cream. The comfort of child-like nostalgia, we are trying to recapture what we once had, innocence. Not innocence in what the the world has shown you through years of experience, but in knowing God as well. Ouch, see, that is the harsh stuff we don't want to hear. However, once one looks at what nostalgia in this world is, once one pieces apart why we feel a certain way, even a good way, we tend to see through the smoke of it all. Why do this? Why look into even the good emotions and see what causes them? Why would I stare at a box of Pop-Tarts, looking into why they provide comfort, a sense of slight warmth that all is right in the world, despite knowing it isn't? Because we cannot have one side of a coin without the other. We must understan...

It's too bad... When the principals of America, based on Christianity, are now defiled with corruption. There's not even anyone to blame. There is the devil, he finds this stuff all very fascinating. There are people who have inundated the devil in their life, by way of a justified purpose. There are people who continue to remain on the outskirts, not wanting to choose sides. There are the rights the lefts all of which have their flaws, man and sin and all that. It's when we look to the wrong of the other side more than we spend time on promoting our own that I find fascinating. Offense wins games. To go on the offensive, is to be active in an attempt to score, in an attempt to win of some sort. Defense protects, tries to stop the other team from scoring. However, what side is it that continues to devalue the opposing team completely? What game is that where we stand on the sideline, send out a tweet or make a meme not to promote anything, but to defile the other ...

On a drive back from a military funeral, one that a team and I performed as an honor to a lost World War II veteran, we hear it. "Want to look better, naked?" The phrase intrigued me. It was a commercial for a company that I would eventually work for. It was the breaking down of that phrase, that indicated to me, that being naked is our most pure form, in this world. There are no hidden flaws behind mountains of sweaters and scarfs. There is no makeup or cover-up. There is the self, vulnerable, exposed. Now, one may think that words like, nude, naked, bare, are synonymous with sex and immorality, and trust me, at the time, I too thought, I probably need a little help in the nude. Consumed by an all-or-nothing thought process of, "bigger is better,"   figuring that tight sleeves were all I needed, realizing that being shirtless, or even more intense, pant-less, brought about inadequacies. It was the idea of exposing my hidden parts, that someone else is ine...

There seems to be a culture of underlying corruption, one of questions more than answers. Really, is all one has to do to corrupt or detangle another's beliefs is question. Is all the serpent did with Eve was question whether or not God meant this tree, this one right here? This little guy? It's a simple rubbing of a sweater that causes a bare thread to pop out and then a simple tug from it's owner that causes the entire piece to go to into the garbage real quick.  Lies and deceit are not as apparent as we would like them to be. Instead, for I love the use of my favorite word ever, they are, insidious. Yes, lies are sneaky little comments, jabs, questions, that to a person not very strong in their convictions tend to waver, fall, look back and be like, "whoa, that was quick." In reality, things are not as much a surprise until we look back at themt. On Netflix there is a docuseries (new word for the dictionary) about the 90's. I found it kind of funny...