So, I got a new job starting a little later this month. It’ll be the first traditional employment I’ve had in 15+ years, but I’m currently burnt out on being a freelancer and want to get back to steady paychecks for a while.

In the course of going through the hiring process, my new company had me take a personality assessment quiz. The assessor – a one man company called Worthington Hurst in Chicago – evaluates a job history document, a job description from the company and a kinda unique 100-question personality quiz consisting of sentence fragments that you have to complete. Here’s my responses, along with the results that the company got back. (By the way, I found out companies are required by law to let you see any and all evaluations like this that. So, if you have something on file with your company, you probably have access to it, if you care enough to see it.)

SURVEY RESPONSES (fragments in bold, my additions in not-bold)

1. I was happiest when people were counting on me for things I love to do.
2. “When behind the wheel” is better than being in front of the wheel.
3. People under me are finding it hard to breathe, me being 250+ lbs and all.
4. Having people lean on me is satisfying.
5. Other people usually do things that are unusual.
6. It is tiring to exercise. Seriously.
7. When I’m put under pressure, I get all Capricorn about it.
8. She is something else.
9. Nothing makes me more furious than injustice for the weak.
10. At night I sleep soundly. Or work. Or… both.
11. Some day I‘ll look back on all this and laugh.
12. What people like most about me is most evident when I show up and play hard.
13. I miss being carefree.
14. It’s fun to daydream about winning the lottery – how much good could you do with that!
15. Brothers and sisters are mirrors – they make you proud, and cringe.
16. When it comes to seeing things, I need glasses.
17. What a man wants most in a woman can be counted on one hand.
18. Walking barefoot in the mud… um, no thanks.
19. When they laughed at me, I did nothing, to my regret.
20. I can’t understand what makes me pass gas.
21. Our family was terrible and beautiful.
22. The main driving force in my life floats around – it’s hard to pin down.
23. As for my legs, the less said, the better.
24. Praise makes me do better next time.
25. Anybody will work hard if they feel they have ownership.
26. I would rather do without small biting insects. Hate ‘em.
27. Nothing worse can happen to a man than to lose his sense of himself.
28. The part of my body hardest to hurt is the visible part.
29. My worst mistake was not telling it like I saw it.
30. If they tell me it’s dangerous, I find out why.
31. What one wants most in a friend is for them to show up.
32. Bosses are an opportunity for creativity.
33. A person who always smiles is not to be trusted. Usually.
34. Most people don’t know that I have a third nipple.
35. Discipline is a loaded word.
36. I get down in the dumps when I cast my past as a series of failures.
37. Giving me the authority is something you can feel comfortable with doing.
38. The future has yet to be written.
39. If the company is nice, invite ‘em over again.
40. I would like most to be photographed while skinny.
41. Having to stop learning is an impossible requirement.
42. If I’m alone I like it for a while. Then I don’t.
43. My only trouble is that I see trouble where it doesn’t exist.
44. The strongest part of me is my stubbornness.
45. If I had my way, people would always feel safe.
46. My father had courage when it counted.
47. Weakness comes from over-estimating your strength.
48. The thing I like about myself is that I can do and learn what it takes.
49. If I would only finish this, I could go to lunch.
50. My mouth needs help.
51. The world – what a crazy beautiful sad place.
52. People think of me as bigger than I experience myself to be.
53. Getting started is… This is one of those incriminating application questions, isn’t it?
54. Guns are just another manifestation of the human desire for control.
55. Every man is a gold mine of possibility.
56. Secretly I pick my nose.
57. When I look at myself in the mirror, I see something different than what I imagine.
58. I would like to be genteelly wealthy.
59. When luck turns against me, I storm and brood. And then I deal with it.
60. I think most conferences are too general to be useful.
61. What a woman wants most in a man is more than you can count on ten hands.
62. To be a leader is to help others find the leader in themselves.
63. The part of my body most easily hurt is the inside.
64. To get along in a group, one must be authentic.
65. The way a person looks is their story about how they see the world.
66. He, he, he.
67. When I let go it generally works out for the best anyway.
68. People over me are just like the people under me – one big human sandwich.
69. Money is something I notice more than I think I should.
70. As for my head, well… It’s bald…?
71. Being older would be inevitable. Wiser – not so much.
72. Nothing is so frustrating as the part in between starting to learn and starting to get it.
73. The best measure of personal success is that you defined it, and you reached it.
74. When work piles up, I turn to the messy geniuses (Einstein, etc.) for inspiration.
75. If people only knew how capable they are, they could relax more.
76. Marriage is designed to take you to the edge and make you decide who you’re gonna be.
77. My mother got lost somewhere. I wish she knew where.
78. Work can be the launching pad for life.
79. When I see hills, I feel at home.
80. If I only hadn’t eaten that last spoonful.
81. I will do anything to make sure it happens.
82. When others disagree, I get interested.
83. I like subordinates who don’t play small.
84. As far as my hearing is concerned, it survived my rock band days.
85. Getting dirty is a necessary evil, but only in yardwork and recreation, and… ‘Nuff said.
86. I prefer the company of those who love life.
87. The weakest part of me is making the initial commitment.
88. Being younger would be way more overrated than it actually is.
89. A “man’s man” is a guy who has thrown up the wrong fences.
90. There are times when I wonder, “where’s my other shoe?”
91. In the morning, I roll over.
92. When I have something to say, it’s taken me some time to get there.
93. I failed at speaking the truth in love.
94. At the end of the day, I look forward to the next morning’s perspective.
95. I like a car that gets me from here to there without interrupting my thoughts.
96. I suffer most from over-analysis.
97. When others do better, I get quietly competitive.
98. My greatest ambition is to express myself and have others do the same.
99. Children can be, and are, more than we can imagine.
100. Finding no one to help me makes me lonely. Teams are better.

THE RESULTING ANALYSIS

Quick-witted and creatively adept, this self-motivated man’s need for control is probably the primary reason he has never held a nine-to-five job (or at least one that he will list on an employment application) more than 17 years after graduating from college. Despite his assertion that he is leaving this work style presently because he is “burnt out,” it seems much more likely that his family’s needs and the downturn in the economy are forcing him to make such a move. Might find enjoyment-even professional fulfillment to a certain extent-from a more regimented work experience, but it will not be easy for him to submit himself to a work life of teamwork and responding on a regular basis to someone else’s dictates. And his potential for making a successful transition could be influenced by factors entirely outside the work place: his wife, also an artist, may end up with more freedom to pursue her own artistic muse.

In sum, this application represents, almost certainly, a nod to pragmatic personal and business concerns, rather than a sought-after career move in a new direction. Relatively sedentary, he is much more agile intellectually than he is physically. Though his pursuits appear rather narrowly focused on the arts, within that milieu he has a fairly eclectic range of interests from which he can draw creative inspiration. Is not used to punching a clock, taking direction, or having others to contend with when he is working. As he finds a level of acceptance with all these new aspects of working in an organization, they will draw energy and focus away from the talents that have brought him to this place. How well he adapts will determine his ultimate success-and, in a real sense, his value to the company.

If he has the technical skills and knowledge necessary for the job (Since, as he says, he is “completely self-taught,” there is no way to check credentials through completed course-work, certifications, etc.), he is judged Solidly Adequate for [name of job title], with the proviso that it would be wise to reach agreement on a probationary period during which he and the company can explore the relationship without committing to a long-term arrangement that might be unworkable-or at least uncomfortable-for either party. While he enjoys the attention his work has brought him, he is not a particularly forthcoming person. Will warm slowly to others and may be a challenge to supervise.

“Relatively sedentary, he is much more agile intellectually than he is physically.” “Solidly Adequate.” What more could a guy want from his personality assessment than that…?

Mornin’ all. It’s a lovely night here. The full moon is brilliant behind a ragged sheath of fog and clouds skiffing through the sky, and I can see the occasional star cluster glimmering through the clear patches.

“You’re a good teacher, Daddy.” I taught a web design intro class at a local ad agency yesterday morning – a place that could possibly be my future employer. I did well, and they got a lot of value out of it for their in-house print design staff. It’s kinda nice to be paid as a consultant for what I know without having to do any actual work. Anyway, Amira didn’t want me to go. Janece told her that I had to go be a teacher. It must have left a mighty impression on her, because when I connected up with the girls for lunch Amira kept repeating “You’re a good teacher, Daddy” with a tone of awe, I guess at discovering that I have these hidden super power skills that go beyond sitting like a frumpy, cursing toad in the dark corner that houses my work computer.

I suck at business. Speaking of cursing, I spent the previous night working 15hrs on a Flash soundtrack job that I was only getting paid 3 hrs for. I said a lot of bad words during those 15 hrs. I really should have known better that too accept the job, and I should know better each time it happens – which is far too frequently. Sigh. Anyway, here’s the result of my bloodsport:

Go get Adobe Flash Player!

Lots of good Obama news. Elections matter, apparently.

The healing has yet to begin. The agency I taught at yesterday is a Christian firm catering to Christian non-profits. So, you’d be right in assuming there are a decent number of McCain/Palin supporters there. I used Obama’s site as a stellar example of how to effectively design direct action/donation screens (which is what they do frequently for their clients). That got me a few snarky responses from the still-chafing loyalists — mutters of “That ‘Donate Now’ button should really say ‘Socialize My Wealth Now’” and so on. Kinda humorous. I fully expect that Obama’s serious and sober handling of his responsibilities as President will shut down this kinda silly noise over time.

Guantanamo is going to close and we’re going to stop torturing people. The Obama camp is looking at the best approach to investigating the widespread collusions with the Bush torture doctrine throughout the intelligence and govt agency communities. Maybe we’ll get some light shed on this dark period in our history sooner vs. later. Would it be too much to ask for a few war crimes prosecutions? Rumsfeld, Cheney – I’m looking at you.

Reason #478 that I voted for Obama – the White House Office of Urban Policy. In his words, “…strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America. That is the new metropolitan reality and we need a new strategy that reflects it…” Finally, a progressive President that gets the power and potential of the urban environment and ends the ridiculous small-town worship American politics has been obsessed with for decades.

Reason #479 that I voted for Obama – the creation of an official Chief Technology Officer of The United States. It’s long overdue, and you can bet that it’s something that never crossed McCain’s mind.

Obama can doodle with the best of them.

According to this article, “The doodle is an informal sketch of a moment in time on the Senate floor. It features Senators Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Dianne Feinstein of California and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. While not detailed portraits, the politicians are easily identifiable.” The sketches remind me of a New Yorker cartoon. Not bad for an amateur.

Get your own Obama dingbat font!

Great words of the day- Horripilation (“the act or process of the hair bristling on the skin, as from cold or fear; goose flesh”) and sidereal (“measured or determined by the daily motion of the stars; of or having to do with the stars or constellations”). You can get your own word of the day from Dictionary.com. I love it.

And last but not least, I love this picture and I love this woman.

Amira made up the word “plastigate” today (rhymes with “castigate”). Apparently, it means “sitting safe and sound inside the car”.

I don’t know where this came from, but with that kind of hilarious, I hope there’s more on the way.

There’s lots of things I’d like to write about tonight, but I’ve gotta catch up with all the work I didn’t get done from last week’s upsets.

Oh, and about that bailout, what Natalie said.

I heard this today on a Diane Rehm Show podcast. The guest was the guy who’s performed all of the Harry Potter audiobooks – lovely English guy, very funny.  He said this poem has been an inspiration to him. I liked it, so here it is:

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.

~ Christopher Logue, English poet (1926- )

The newsletter I got today from Veer featured Nick Shinn from ShinnType. He describes typography as “the junction of word and image, at the heart of culture”. I think that’s an excellent way to put it. The artistry of type design stirs my imagination, both in my love for words and the miracle and craft of language as well as the visceral and evocative impact of art and design.

Odile

(Read the rest of this entry…)

If you’re a writer researching a book or paper or column or whatever, this is the must-have online accessory of the year.  It’s called Zotero, and it’s a digital version of the 3×5 note cards to help you keep track of your ideas and research.  Come across a great item that you want to catalog, take notes on, remember for later, make searchable?  Just flag it with Zotero right in your Firefox browser window where it’s searchable any time.  You can even download online content to your machine so that you have the info you need if the site changes or goes down.

Amazing tool.  Janece turned me onto it today and we were both geeking out about it.  If any of you readers (all three of you! are starting in on book writing, take it for a spin and let me know what you think.

 Get the very excellent Firefox browser.

Get Zotero. Developed by researchers for researchers.

It turns out that there’s more evidence for what I posted about Obama’s facility with language.  A really smart guy named Drew Westen has written a book called The Political Brain dealing with why people make the decisions that they do in the voting booth. (Read the rest of this entry…)

I’m trying to write at least a little every day. I’ve been in a depressed “I don’t have anything to say and no one cares anyway” kind of funk over the last few weeks. It’s partially a result of my very heavy workload over the last few months and not getting a substantial break. It makes me feel like I’m nothing more than a worker bee pouring out the hours of my life to just grease the wheels of industry with nothing left after hours. It’s also partially a frame of mind that makes me feel removed from everyone and worthless as a contribution to anyone.

I’m clear that both of those things are just stories, and not very powerful ones at that, so I’m making a move to nip them in the bud and explore my brain in writing a bit everyday. The same goes for my music and vocal practice and, eventually, my piano practice. If I neglect them for too long, things start getting wacky upstairs. As with anything, the more I practice it the more I’ll find and the more I’ll have to say. And hopefully, the more meaningful it will be to anyone who finds their way in here.

If you’re a regular reader on this blog (you know who you are — all five of you! ), you may be consumed with questions about Paul — what brand of shampoo do I use, why do I always rub my finger across my eyebrows in social situations, what’s the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done, when did I last cry, etc etc. Or you may not. But, whatever…

I’m opening up the floor to requests for posts. What would you like me to expound upon, answer, critique or plagarize? Feel free to leave your requests in the comment section and I’ll answer each one in the order I recieve them. Sky, I’ll start with your request about church as my first outing, although I may not be able to get to it right away due to work load…

I was perusing my friend Sky’s blog a little closer than usual, and came across this link he has to images of work by Andrew Goldsworthy, one of my favorite artists.

Now, even though I graduated with a fine art degree in sculpture, I’m not a big fan of “artsy-fartsy”, whether it comes as an excessive effluvia of adjectives about the philosophy/critique of art that requires a link to dictionary.com just to be barely understandable, or excessive wearing of black, or that nasty little tinge of “cooler-than-thou” that emanates from those who use art mostly as a way to keep them distinguished from the unwashed masses. And the reason I love Andrew Goldsworthy’s art and personal style so much is partially because it’s a million miles from the sterile circle-jerks that plague the art world.

If you haven’t already, you really need to see Rivers And Tides, a gorgeous documentary about Andy’s work. (Hope he doesn’t mind if I call him Andy….) The film does an amazing job of capturing the visceral power of his art in the setting he creates it in. For those Andy newbies out there, here’s the skinny:

Andy is a extremely low-key Brit living in Scotland who creates mostly installation art pieces out in natural settings, using only local natural found objects to create the work. On occasion, he’ll create a planned piece using materials gathered elsewhere, but the majority of his work involves spending some time in the environment — a Scottish meadow, a desolate northland snow plain, a stream — until he has “read” the landscape to where he feels like he understands it. And then he literally gets his hands dirty melting icicles together into impossible structures, using thorns to weave leaves together into gorgeous streamers of motion and texture, stacking and piling and weaving twigs together into mysterious frames through which to view the landscape, sculpting holes into snow and trees and earth, cracking or crushing or stacking stones, and in his larger works, erecting mysterious barriers and mounds that weave through the landscape.

His genius takes place on a couple of levels. Most obviously, he is a master of the materials he works with. His themes of holes/entrances/exits, serpentine “energy lines”, rock towers, spirals and other ancient and mysterious shapes are endlessly and inventively reinterpreted in ice, snow, branches, leaves, mud, stone, and other mundane materials. On another level, he is a transformer — arranging the mundane, pushing it and wrestling with it (literally – it’s almost maddening to watch him patiently stacking stones), until it suddenly all at once becomes effortlessly transcendant and unearthly beautiful. His method embodies the creative pursuit. On yet another level, his art is deeply poignant because it taps into the inability of those same mundane materials, and the best of human endeavor as well, to retain their beauty permanently. The ice melts, the leaves pull apart and blow away, the sticks and stone towers collapse, and the materials return to the earth to be used again. The only record of the beauty that sliced into the world for a few minutes is the photographs or video (incredibly artful in their own right) that he takes of the work. And on a deeper level, the landscape actually works on him, and us. He is a example for how to listen to the world, find our way into the channels of meaning and movement that lie under the buzz of everyday surface perceptions, call them out with hard work and perserverance and craftiness, and in turn be shaped and molded by them.

The raw passion, doggedness, obsession (serpentines, holes, and spirals – oh my!), and visceral power of his work put him way outside the “cocktails and canapes” crowd in my book. His art makes me feel refreshed, connected, stilled, and, dare I say, strangely healed. Any way, go netflix Rivers And Tides. You won’t be sorry.

“I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue.. .” ~ Andy Goldsworthy

P.S. It’s actually completely coincidental (but probably subconscious) that my blog header graphic looks a lot like a Goldworthy art project. It’s a photo I took at night in my back yard, and then just kinda carved a hole in it with the graphic. I’m so easily influenced…

I was cruising one of my blogmarks — Every Tomorrow — and I came across this entry. It got me thinking about my own reluctance to have kids for all of those very compelling-sounding reasons I had, and my complete transformation into a ga-ga daddy zombie over the last four months. Here’s the (rather long-winded) comment I left:

My wife and I called ourselves “baby agnostic” — we didn’t know if we believed in having kids or not. We debated the issue here and there for 10 years. We’re best friends, and have been since college, so we didn’t want anything to ruin that vibe. We liked the DINK lifestyle — bopping out to a movie at 11:30pm on a whim, etc — and we somewhat pitied our friends who had kids for being burdened, tied down, and ground under by child responsibilities. We also secretly feared our own capability to raise a kid. We have a ton of pets, and love them, but a kid’s another whole ballpark. Screwing them up means a world of hurt down the road. So, we just kind of let inertia take over and avoided kids altogether — making our decision by proxy.

And then we found out we were unexpectedly pregnant in Jan 2004.
(Read the rest of this entry…)

Sure, it’s that magazine with the sexy/sultry movie babes on the cover and wink-wink-nudge-nudge article titles like Everybody Get Naked: The thinking’s man’s argument for more onscreen nudity. Tastefully done, of course. But what astounds me about the magazine in almost every issue is the insightful, smart, bold writing, the insightful dissection of culture and life and political power, funny and compelling documentary pieces, and the often frank revelations by public figures about their lives and the culture they see every day.

Take the latest issue for instance (starring the lovely Scarlett Johansson!). In an article called 52 True Things About The Future Of American Culture, Tom Junod disects the struggle of conservatives against culture, and the whoring of liberals for culture in these provocative assertions:

• 21. If conservatives see redress for their cultural estrangement in political partisanship and liberals seek redress for their electoral estrangement in cultural sophistication, who are the dupes?
• 22. America is being divided by its extremes. Conservatives are moving toward religious nationalism. The culture is moving toward a kind of pornography. Liberals have been kidding themselves, thinking that the culture is on their side. The truth is, they don’t have a side.
• 23. The kind of pornography that the culture is moving toward is not necessarily sexual. It’s omnivorous. It’s a culture in which human beings are defined by their sheer utility — sexual, economic, or otherwise.
• 24. The humanism that is the beating heart of liberalism — the humanism that exalts the power of the individual human conscience — is threatened not just by the rise of religious nationalism. It’s equally threatened by the pornographication of the culture.
• 36. And yet… The culture does in fact teach values. It is extremely effective at teaching values, even if the values being taught are not overtly moral.
• 44. The question is whether a liberal culture can also be a decent culture, a generous culture, an optomistic culture, an idealistic culture, a humanistic culture. The answer will come only when liberals do what they have been loath to do:
• 45. Learn to engage the culture as conservatives have — politically and morally, instead of merely as consumers.
• 46. Liberals have to find something to root for in the culture, values to champion. They have to be willing to go beyond tolerance.

Hmmm. Not bad for a “girlie mag”, eh? Of course, as a liberal-leaning Christian, I would say those values are inherent in the Christian faith and that they’ve been hijacked by fundamentalism and opportunism. Is it any wonder that I feel like dropping out of politics altogether if both the left and the right, who currently dominate the public space with their incessant arguing, have both lost track of those values?

Anyway… Esquire Magazine. Highly recommended.

I got blogmarked by TangerineSpeedo (aka. The Squatch) sometime in the last couple of days. (Thanks, by the way!) The name put me in mind of a few band names that my first band kicked around when we were forming in the early 90′s here in Seattle:

• Tweed Speedo
• Fuzzduck
• Apple Maggot Quarantine Violators
• Supermoist (named after the Betty Crocker product, with our first album being named, of course, Pudding In The Mix)
• Rosechamber

Thankfully, we ended up choosing Springchamber. (The link leads to the very first web site I ever did, btw.) As you can tell, we spent more time shooting the shit and being clever than we did writing songs, but it was fun nonetheless. I have that band to thank for four of the coolest men I know, their cool wives, and all of the associated crazy strange absurd times we had together over the 6 years we were together. Think about them makes me want to play in a band again.

As for Tweed Speedo, it never made it past the “guys, what do you think about this name?” round, but we did end up naming the horrific and sinister band van “Fuzzduck” because we knew a good thing when we saw it…

Good topic. I’ll do more on my bands later… Meanwhile, here’s a link to a Springchamber tune I wrote.

I’m 34 today. What this means in cold hard facts is a certain amount of cellular deterioration and change, and another collection of 365 days worth of experience stored away in my notoriously spotty memory pathways. What this means subjectively to me is a little more unclear.

I’ve always measured my relative accomplishments vs. age by the life of Jesus. He began his public ministry at age 33. At this point in his life, he had already driven the money changers from the temple, turned water into wine, gotten the blessing of John the Baptist, talked to the woman by the well, pulled off the miracle of the loaves and fishes, was well on his way to pulling together his crew of disciples, etc. etc. Get the full list here. Me? I’ve been in four bands, bought a couple of houses, moved a bazillion times, written most of a worship album, led worship, decided I wanted to back away from the faith, and decided that I wanted to come back. Let’s say I’ve been a little less focused that Christ by this point in his life. Which depressed me until I read this: Life expectancy in the city of Rome in the first century B.C. was about 20 years at birth. If the perilous years of infancy were survived, it rose to near 40, one-half our present expectations. (BTW, check out the rest of the slides. There’s some fascinating info about the change from agrarian societies to city-based societies.) I figure that means that Christ was actually more like 60 years old in our equivalent terms.

What does that all mean? Well, it could mean that I should probably stop comparing myself to the Son Of God unless I’m planning on a bunch of miraculous healings in the near future — you know, compare myself to someone a bit more on a level playing field. Or it could mean that I still have 30 years to futz around before I get serious about doing something important with my life…

All silliness aside, here’s my take-away freebie lesson today: I had a long walk this morning in the crisp, 27-degree weather with ice and snow crunching satisfyingly under my feet and my awesome dog Tova trotting along beside me. I knew that I had a warm comfortable bed waiting at home for me, occupied by my amazing wife and my beautiful little baby girl. I live with great in-laws and great pets in a comfortable house with a creek in the backyard that has grown quite a bit in value since we bought it three years. I can design. I can sing. I can write music. I can create art of various kinds. I have an incredible group of friends and acquaintances. I live in a country that is so free and open that I can reinvent myself and my work and life as many times as I want with no one to tell me otherwise. I’m relatively healthy and young. My life is good, and I can taste it’s goodness and I can thank the One who is the source of all goodness. This year, I will continually strive to not let selfishness or fear rob me of that taste, that sense of understanding how I’ve been graced with good things and how I am free to grace others in return.

For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

~ Ecclesiastes 9:1-11

Here ends the lesson.

Epilogue: I just found this site today via The Least Of My Worries at BlogExplosion (thanks much for the blogmark!). It’s called California Hammonds, and the wife of the couple died of cancer April 2004. (On the left side of the blog, click on “Cheryl Links” and then “Cheryl’s Farewell Letter”.) It’s an email she sent that the husband found after she died. It’s mostly personal notes to her family and friends, but these phrases stuck out: “Take care of each other; take care of each other; take care of each other”, and “Remember everyone: live, love, laugh.” OK, Cheryl — I’m listening. Thanks for the reminder.

I’m a word nerd. How do I know I’m a word nerd? Because not only do I let my mind wander around and make stuff like this up, but because when I do it makes me giggle:

• Obligheddon: The sudden and spontaneous act of blowing off all your responsibilities in one catalclysmic reaction to having overscheduled yourself.
• Q: Why did the dragon stop eating ultra-Orthodox Jewish villagers?
  A: Because they made his stomach feel too Hasidic.

That’s what you’re in for if you frequent this site. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…