10,000 Hours

My friend Eric offered a thought-provoking post a couple of days ago on the observation that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of doing something to become an expert at it. So many implications . . .

Here's a link to his post: Ten Thousand

Back to School

My son Oscar cried himself to sleep tonight because he starts 1st grade tomorrow. He's not scared or anything, he just doesn't like to have to do "work and stuff." I wish life were that simple.

Edie then called me to her room and said, "Dad, I'm not so sure I like school anymore because Oscar doesn't like it." Empathy through and through.

We prayed a special prayer with each of them tonight--for them, their peers, their teachers, and the staff for this school year.

They grow up too fast.

Trust

This is a working definition for me:

Trust=Calculated Risk

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If you can't say anything nice . . .

After this post, it will be obvious that it's a good thing I usually filter what I'm thinking before I say it . . .

Do you ever do something that makes you mad, just to make yourself madder? I think that's me with Facebook. I've grown to hate it, well at least some of things people do on it. Here're a few things that are stickin' in my craw (not in any particular order):

#1--I hate the stupid quizzes people take, and I guess I hate reading the results even more. For example "Which Hollywood Diva (Hunk) Are You?" The person taking the quiz could be the homeliest person on the planet and yet the results are inevitable: "You are Julia Roberts (or George Clooney)" They should quit wasting their time and actually take the quiz "Which fantasy world do you live in?" The result? Backwards world.

#2--I hate it when people fake humility. For instance, "Buster Compton is really tired today after completing marathon in the morning and swimming the Atlantic Ocean in the afternoon." Or here's another one, "Wily Dedridge is feeling humbled after sharing my proposal today with the mayor of (name big city) and her entire cabinet." I'm sure the mayor thought about as highly of you as I do right now, so go get a life.

#3--I hate it when people send millions of invitations to join things I don't know or care anything about. Like this: "Jane Posetta invited you to join 'I like the old Facebook--you know, the one before they moved that one button on the bottom left-hand corner two centimeters to the right'." Or "Samson Franks wants you to join, 'I bet we can find fifty million Facebookers who wear loafers'." Hey, here's one: "Andy invites you to join 'Look Ma! No Life'."

Seriously, am I alone in this?

Getting Sick on Vick

So how screwed up is it when we pay a recent criminal $1,600,000 this year, and $5,300,000 next year, to play a silly game like football, while untold thousands of men, women, and children in our country (not to mention the rest of the world) languish in abject poverty?

I'm all for second chances, but come on.

The Furious Love of God

I recently showed part of this message from Brennan Manning to Emmaus Road Church. It spoke powerfully to us. Perhaps God will use it in your life. I hope so.