here, there, and everywhere

this is the state of my mind today. i've wanted to write for about three days now, and yet, time has been spent elsewhere. this has happened in part to having oh-so-much to do, and in part because i couldn't quite articulate what it is i wanted to say.

i've had various thoughts and ideas, but nothing has completely fleshed itself out. i've thought about writing about goal-setting because peter and i have some disagreements on the subject. i think if you set a goal, and fail to reach it, then you failed. he says that you set your goals really high, and if you fail to reach them it doesn't mean that you failed, because you've still made progress [as long as you actually made progress...]. while i understand his point, if you don't reach the goal you set i still think you failed. you may not be a complete and utter failure, and it's probably not all for naught because you accomplished something, but you still failed. [warm and fuzzy, i know]

anyway, then i thought i should write about entitlement. there's this whole big debate and discussion in congress right now [from what i hear, anyway. sometimes i wonder how much they actually do, but maybe that's just me...] about trying to lower the deficit and balance the budget. and there is a lot of discussion about entitlements, and what we do, or don't do, about them. the fact that they are called entitlements to begin with kind of throws me for a loop.

senate
{via nytimes.com}

most of the time when you talk about entitlements you're talking about something that no one is actually "entitled" to having. someone who has a sense of entitlement about something usually doesn't have any claim to it in actuality. [emphasis on usually]

i'm not in any way saying that people who need help shouldn't get it, but i do think that the church as a whole has largely abdicated its role in this regard.

when james says to care for the widows and the orphans he wasn't talking to the government. he was talking to the church.

i thought about discussing soccer coaching, or the lack of educating that takes place all too often in the education system in this country because we've decided to base the worthiness of a teacher simply on a test at the end of the year. i thought about mentioning the absurdity of the weather, yet again.

i almost wrote about the subject of adoption. peter and i are starting to discuss it more - it's something we've always wanted to do, and we've started throwing out different ideas. we haven't done any real research, but personally i want to adopt a little african baby, [and perhaps name him after a soccer player for newcastle - shola ameobi] but all of that remains to be seen.

shola ameobi
{via nevercaptainnickybutt.com}

truth is, there are so many things going on in the world and some are more significant than others. sometimes it's hard to decide what to focus on, and how to make sense of any of it, let alone make a difference somewhere.

far too often i get paralyzed by indecision. i'm a detail person, and i can get completely overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. and yet, at the end of the day you have to make a choice. even if you decide not to decide you've still made a decision. it's maddening sometimes.

peter is constantly reminding me to look at the forest. you have to recognize what the forest is, and what it should be before you can worry about editing the trees.

sometimes you just have to decide. sometimes it's not even about what you decide, but the fact that you did anything at all.

sometimes life isn't what it should be, but you have to try to fight the current to go nowhere so you won't end up drifting backwards.

sometimes it's one thing, sometimes it's another,

but it's always something.