Category: Uncategorized (Page 154 of 188)

i promise, last day of husband bragging for at least a week. but it’s a great story, way beyond the fact that i’m married to a pretty nifty guy.

several weeks ago, while the gals got together for cookie exchange, jj was in charge of picking up the wings from bw’s for guys + babies night. as he was leaving, he noticed a car going a bit too fast, and then it slammed into a parked SUV. the car took off as if nothing happened. so jj started following him, flashing his lights and honking his horn. the hit-and-runner went faster.

there was apparently a bit of a chase (which was nothing less than thrilling to jj, i’m sure) and he got the license plate. the guy went into walmart’s parking lot and jj lost him (once again – walmart, the root of the perils of evil!). so jj called the sherriff to make a report, and even went the extra step to going into bw’s to tell the manager and give the license plate to the owner.

so today jj got a call from the owner of the SUV. apparently it all went to court and jj’s legwork contributed greatly to the case. the kicker is, the owner wanted to send jj a gift card to bw3s.

i’m just impressed upon impressed, by both the actions of my husband and the owner of the SUV. now, this isn’t anti-typical of jj. he’s a guy who believes in rules and fairness… he’s also the guy who will get far enough over in traffic so that when merging people can’t come flying from behind and merge at the last minute. it drives me crazy. in the past i just haven’t seen the sense in playing caped crusader with traffic rules.

but this time as jj patroled the streets, mandating fairness among all drivers, it mattered to someone. it mattered so much that it was reciprocated into bw bucks.

a friend called to announce a resolution yesterday; i said that if she was successful i’d be exceptionally jealous. she wants to pay better attention to the things that matter to people. i think it’s an admirable attempt, one that benefits personal character along with other people’s happiness. i mean, really – what strengthens a relationship better than showing that you notice – or even more so, that you care.

it could be noticing your car just got slammed into, or that you’ve lost a few pounds, but i think the small things DO matter to people, so i’d love to find ways to a) notice them and b) acknowledge them.

it reminds me of the EBB quote i have at the bottom of my email:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes-
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

from my recent read, a tree grows in brooklyn, by betty smith:
“Mother, I know there are no ghosts or fairies. I would be teaching the child foolish lies.”
Mary spoke sharply. “You do not know whether there are not ghosts on earth or angels in heaven.”
“I know there is no Santa Claus.”
“Yet you must teach the child that these things are so.”
“Why? When I, myself, do not believe?”
“Because,” explained Mary Rommely simply, “the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. I, myself, even in this day and at my age, have great need of recalling the miraculous lives of the Saints and the great miracles that have come to pass on earth. Only by having these things in my mind can I live beyond what I have to live for.”

[you miss a bit of the depth by lacking the backdrop of story in which this lies, but it’s good nonetheless]

we had dinner tonight with 2 people who i think possess some of the most imagination i’ve encountered. i’m lucky enough to be related to them and have been known to try to steal some creativity-by-association (can you say “international copyright law”?), but tonight, especially after my bathtime reading fun, the value of imagination and creativity really lept out at me.

LBW has an amazing gift of seeing something beautiful and arranging things so that beauty is enhanced. you can see it from her dwellings… she loves beautiful things, but the way she is able to gather and display them, either in simplicity or in complex arrangments, brings the beauty into 3D. sure, that’s a nice picture. but put it with this fabric or stack it on that table and suddenly it just pops. i think that’s why i don’t own a lot of pretty things…i just don’t know how to help them live to their full, beautiful, potential. not only can she see beauty, she knows what to do with it.

BRW also has a knack of seeing something where there’s nothing, but rather than beauty it’s the $$ that motivates. however, you can’t argue that there must be an ounce of imagination and creativity (not to mention a whole lot of cahones) to make some of the crazy ideas come together in a way that works – and not just for him, but for many of the people he has surrounded himself with in ventures to try and make a buck. i admire that there are people out there with a passion for things and he takes that and says (in typical wingfield fashion) “what if we…” and “a guy could…” and then suddently some sort of hairbrained scheme is born. and works.

i love the artistic skill of KLM. i had a friend in seminary who was similarly artistic and could draw and write and produce music in a way that creates something from little. but tonight i could see the true value in an imagination that is outside of art. LBW and BRW have a creativity that does, as “mary” says above, inspires hope. and that’s what it’s about, right? not who can draw the prettiest picture, but what that pretty picture inspires us to believe, and then do. and there are so many ways to inspire hope… it just takes a little imagination to see it.

it’s not so much a block of writing, or blogging, but just a general lack of anything interesting, which is a shame. i’m pretty sure that until this morning i hadn’t left the house since thursday night. really. at least 2 of those days, i never got dressed.

in some ways, i revel in the the nothingness. jj and i played some wii, i did a lot of catching up with facebook, and had some nap therapy. cooked a little bit, read a little bit, and drank more coffee than i probably should have. but those are all good things.

typically, such slowing down actually incites random thoughts of the blogworthy sort, but not really recently. i think the lack of interaction and meaningful discussion with friends or the like has kind of dulled my brain. that, or the lack of KLM couch & wine time. when you spend your days concerned over incoming teeth or nap schedules, you kind of forget to ponder the world’s perils. i really do miss having a job that requires thinking about “bigger things”. today my biggest thought was an annoyance at a guy trying to pass a drug screen who turned in a cold sample. seriously. you couldn’t even heat it up first?

i have been reading a bit more of Anne Lamott. i’ve developed a firm conviction that everyone should read at least one author that they don’t always agree with but can respect. Lamott is that to me. I love her style, her honesty, and many of the times, her views on the world. Sure, there’s lots of the practical side of her theology that i don’t get behind, but her heart is pure and i’m developing an appreciation for hearing a different type of story.

so, that’s the explanation for the dull posts as of late. if you’d like to contribute to the cure, you’ll just have to invite me for coffee and see where the conversation goes. then maybe i’ll be on a creative streak again.