So, I'm sitting in a Panera Bread restaurant yesterday to do a little writing and suddenly I needed to use the restroom. (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I had four cups of iced tea while working on my latest writing assignment.) That's when I was faced with the old dilemma—do I trust the guy next to me and ask him to watch my laptop and all the rest of my stuff or do I just hurry to the bathroom, hoping that my laptop will still be there when I get back?
Have you ever wondered why we trust the "guy next to us" in such circumstances when we don't trust anybody else? For the record, I don't think it's a good idea to trust strangers who are either next to us or across the room from us in such circumstances. People are people—flawed and often choosing to do the wrong thing when faced with temptation. But sometimes you just have to. I certainly wasn't going to pack up all my stuff (computer, file folders, paperwork, sunglass, etc.) each time I needed to use the restroom. Yeah, I used it more than once. I was there for four hours doing what I call BIC (butt in chair) time. Sometimes, when writing assignments back up on me, I force myself to sit and write until I've finished the article or chapter I'm working on (stopping only for the occasional restroom break). Yesterday was one of those days.
I opted to not ask anybody to watch my stuff and just hoped that it would be there when I got back. Thankfully, each time I did come back, all my stuff was there, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I think that coffee shops/restaurants need to hire security guards to watch stuff in circumstances like this. Or maybe they could install video monitors in the bathrooms so people in my predicament could watch their belongings while in the restroom. Okay, that's a bit much, but it would be nice.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Midweek Quotes
Five quotes from G.K. Chesterton:
"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."
"If there were no God, there would be no Atheists."
"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."
"I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees."
"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."
"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."
"If there were no God, there would be no Atheists."
"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."
"I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees."
"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Marketing
Do you ever feel like almost every interaction you have with new people is part of some big marketing strategy? I never used to, but that's changing. Everything seems to be marketing related these days. Not only did we have a day called Black Friday last week—something I had never heard of until this year, but now we have Cyber Monday—the day when all of the online Christmas shoppers are supposed to be hunting for the best deals online. It's almost unbelievable how easy it is for a marketer to come up with such terms and then watch it trickle down into the culture.
In addition to the new Christmas shopping terms, our computers are flooded with spyware and cookies—mostly so advertisers can snoop on us to figure out how to target us with specific ads that we might be interested in. Every time we use a membership card at bookstores, department stores, or grocery stores, our buying habits are stored in databases and used to target us with advertising. When we fill out financial forms, we list our birthdays and our banks or financial advisors send us birthday cards—done with the intention of making us think they care enough to remember such a thing, when in reality, it's another marketing tool. When we trade business cards at trade shows with prospective clients, it inevitably leads to more junk e-mail and faxes asking us to buy things we have no interest in buying.
It's enough to make a person paranoid. But what's the old saying? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
In addition to the new Christmas shopping terms, our computers are flooded with spyware and cookies—mostly so advertisers can snoop on us to figure out how to target us with specific ads that we might be interested in. Every time we use a membership card at bookstores, department stores, or grocery stores, our buying habits are stored in databases and used to target us with advertising. When we fill out financial forms, we list our birthdays and our banks or financial advisors send us birthday cards—done with the intention of making us think they care enough to remember such a thing, when in reality, it's another marketing tool. When we trade business cards at trade shows with prospective clients, it inevitably leads to more junk e-mail and faxes asking us to buy things we have no interest in buying.
It's enough to make a person paranoid. But what's the old saying? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Serendipity
Do you have a favorite Christmas movie that you watch every year? Mine is Serendipity—the syrupy love story starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. I went to see it when it was in the theaters in 2001 and I just adored it. Here's a brief synopsis from amazon.com:"Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas met while shopping for gloves in New York. Though buying for their respective lovers, the magic was right and a night of Christmas shopping turned into romance. Jon wanted to explore things further but Sara wasn't sure their love was meant to be. They decided to test fate by splitting up and seeing if destiny brought them back together...Many years later, having lost each other that night, both are engaged to be married. Still, neither can shake the need to give fate one last chance to reunite them. Jon enlists the help of his best man to track down the girl he can't forget starting at the store where they met. Sara asks her new age musician fiance for a break before the wedding and, with her best friend in tow, flies from California to New York hoping destiny will bring her soul mate back. Near-misses and classic Shakespearean confusion bring the two close to meeting a number of times but fate will have the final word on whether it was meant to be."
I don't necessarily believe in the soul mate theory, but I love the idea of two people in love not giving up on one another. In an age where people walk away from love too easily, this message is refreshing.
I love the fact that Jon and Sara acted when they couldn't stop thinking about each other. After they couldn't find each other after their initial meeting, they both eventually moved on with their lives, but when they both came to the conclusion that they may have missed the opportunity of a lifetime, they took risks to try to find each other. Life is nothing without risk.
And of course, being the chick-flick lover that I am, I love the fact that they find each other in the end. I love the last scene where Jon is lying on the pond of ice in which he skated with Sara all those years ago on that magical night they met. As he lies flat on his back looking up into the falling snow, with one of the gloves in his pocket that he and Sara split up and gave to each other, he's pondering what might have been when he sees a matching glove fall from the sky. He pulls out the other glove from his coat and realizes that Sara is near. My stomach flips every time I see this scene.
Surely there are more traditional Christmas movies available, but this one is the one I pop into my DVD player every year about this time. And I can't wait to do it again this year.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Black Friday
Blog prompt Friday: Are you participating in "Black Friday?"
I've never even heard the term until a few days ago, but once I understood that it meant standing in line at Wal-Mart before 5:00 am waiting for the doors to open on the day after Thanksgiving, then the answer couldn't have been a more definitive NO. I'm not in touch with my shopping side. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't even have one.
I don't despise Christmas shopping, but the idea of battling large groups of people to get a head start on my list doesn't make a bit of sense to me. I'm sure there are lots of great deals today. My Friday newspaper, stuffed to the breaking point with shopping ads, can attest to the many great deals. But great deals exist nearly every day, don't they? So, why not start shopping on the day before Thanksgiving? Or the weekend before—if you really want to get started early?
I went online yesterday and bought more than half of my gifts. I'll pick up the others as I go about my daily routines over the next few weeks. I love the convenience of online shopping, but I'll admit that something about the depersonalization bugs me a little. By not interacting with store clerks or fellow shoppers, I'm certainly missing some great opportunities for old fashioned community. But I can't help but wonder if this particular day might be the worst time to try to find such a thing in a department store or strip mall.
Instead, I think I'll seek some community around the television set this afternoon with some friends while we watch a little football, eat a few chips, and talk about our plans for the coming days and weeks.
I've never even heard the term until a few days ago, but once I understood that it meant standing in line at Wal-Mart before 5:00 am waiting for the doors to open on the day after Thanksgiving, then the answer couldn't have been a more definitive NO. I'm not in touch with my shopping side. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't even have one.
I don't despise Christmas shopping, but the idea of battling large groups of people to get a head start on my list doesn't make a bit of sense to me. I'm sure there are lots of great deals today. My Friday newspaper, stuffed to the breaking point with shopping ads, can attest to the many great deals. But great deals exist nearly every day, don't they? So, why not start shopping on the day before Thanksgiving? Or the weekend before—if you really want to get started early?
I went online yesterday and bought more than half of my gifts. I'll pick up the others as I go about my daily routines over the next few weeks. I love the convenience of online shopping, but I'll admit that something about the depersonalization bugs me a little. By not interacting with store clerks or fellow shoppers, I'm certainly missing some great opportunities for old fashioned community. But I can't help but wonder if this particular day might be the worst time to try to find such a thing in a department store or strip mall.
Instead, I think I'll seek some community around the television set this afternoon with some friends while we watch a little football, eat a few chips, and talk about our plans for the coming days and weeks.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving Thoughts
Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to God for his unending mercy and grace, for His many provisions, for answered prayers, and even for the times He brings correction into our lives.
While Thanksgiving is all of this, it's also a time of many other things. A time for college students to launch out and maybe start their own traditions as they spend their first Thanksgiving hundreds or thousands of miles from the place they've always called home. It's about newly married couples or single adults who are seeking to do the same. These are exciting and scary times for people at this stage of life and I'm hoping that many of them find happiness today.
But I'll be honest, I'm thinking much more about the man I know who lost his wife a few months ago and how he's about to endure Thanksgiving without her for the first time in several decades. He's planning to spend Thanksgiving with friends, but you just know that his heart is going to be breaking as he thinks about the way his wife used to make the turkey and all the trimmings. Or the way she used to set the table. Or the way she used to call everyone to dinner at a certain time—the same time she did every year. Or the plates she used at Thanksgiving. Or the way she handed him the carving knife. Or the smile on her face at the end of the night when everybody took home gobs of leftovers. Or countless other things that he'll never get to hear or experience again.
I'm thinking about my uncle who also lost his wife a few months ago who has never cooked a day in his life (thankfully his daughters are rallying around him and doing what needs to be done). Nobody expected his wife to "go" first. She was always going to there—at every Thanksgiving, at every Christmas, and for all the "mundane" days in between. She would be there to make sure he took his medicine, got to the doctor, could hear the telephone (he has hearing problems), had someone to pray with each morning, and dozens of other things that had become part of their routine. But she did go first and now my uncle is left to try to pick up the pieces. He'll be surrounded by family today, but none of them will be his wife.
I'm thinking about the singles, the divorced, the elderly, and the sick who don't have anybody to share the holiday with. They are going to be utterly alone and consequently, they don't have any delusions of grandeur. They've been dreading this holiday and now it is here.
The two men who lost their wives have adult sons and daughters who are about to spend their first Thanksgiving without their mothers. They are going to try to appear to be strong for the fathers, but their fathers will know the truth. Everybody will eat their turkey, and watch a little football, but things will never be the same.
Everybody is in transition and not every smile you see today will be real. When you do see a real smile, then rejoice with those who rejoice. When you see a fake smile, don't forget to mourn with those who mourn.
In the end, I don't think anybody who is hurting is really looking for "answers" about how to endure a difficult holiday without dear loved ones. What they really want are other dear loved ones to surround them and to simply understand that they are hurting. And I'm guessing that they would be extremely thankful if that happened. But I'm also praying that they, along with those will be spending the day completely alone, will lean in close to a God who knows what it feels like to lose a Loved one.
While Thanksgiving is all of this, it's also a time of many other things. A time for college students to launch out and maybe start their own traditions as they spend their first Thanksgiving hundreds or thousands of miles from the place they've always called home. It's about newly married couples or single adults who are seeking to do the same. These are exciting and scary times for people at this stage of life and I'm hoping that many of them find happiness today.
But I'll be honest, I'm thinking much more about the man I know who lost his wife a few months ago and how he's about to endure Thanksgiving without her for the first time in several decades. He's planning to spend Thanksgiving with friends, but you just know that his heart is going to be breaking as he thinks about the way his wife used to make the turkey and all the trimmings. Or the way she used to set the table. Or the way she used to call everyone to dinner at a certain time—the same time she did every year. Or the plates she used at Thanksgiving. Or the way she handed him the carving knife. Or the smile on her face at the end of the night when everybody took home gobs of leftovers. Or countless other things that he'll never get to hear or experience again.
I'm thinking about my uncle who also lost his wife a few months ago who has never cooked a day in his life (thankfully his daughters are rallying around him and doing what needs to be done). Nobody expected his wife to "go" first. She was always going to there—at every Thanksgiving, at every Christmas, and for all the "mundane" days in between. She would be there to make sure he took his medicine, got to the doctor, could hear the telephone (he has hearing problems), had someone to pray with each morning, and dozens of other things that had become part of their routine. But she did go first and now my uncle is left to try to pick up the pieces. He'll be surrounded by family today, but none of them will be his wife.
I'm thinking about the singles, the divorced, the elderly, and the sick who don't have anybody to share the holiday with. They are going to be utterly alone and consequently, they don't have any delusions of grandeur. They've been dreading this holiday and now it is here.
The two men who lost their wives have adult sons and daughters who are about to spend their first Thanksgiving without their mothers. They are going to try to appear to be strong for the fathers, but their fathers will know the truth. Everybody will eat their turkey, and watch a little football, but things will never be the same.
Everybody is in transition and not every smile you see today will be real. When you do see a real smile, then rejoice with those who rejoice. When you see a fake smile, don't forget to mourn with those who mourn.
In the end, I don't think anybody who is hurting is really looking for "answers" about how to endure a difficult holiday without dear loved ones. What they really want are other dear loved ones to surround them and to simply understand that they are hurting. And I'm guessing that they would be extremely thankful if that happened. But I'm also praying that they, along with those will be spending the day completely alone, will lean in close to a God who knows what it feels like to lose a Loved one.
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