"My story is about a guy pretending to have an Art History degree and signing up tourists for fake tours of the Uffizi. I saw Return to Forever play as the opening act for the Mahavishnu Orchestra at Jadwin Gym in Princeton, NJ, in 1973. His band included Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and the amazing Bill Connors on guitar. Chick put a little Topo Gigio doll up on top of his keyboard for this, a Spanish-influenced jazz-rock fusion tune that mixes delicate, almost humorous passages, with big, bombastic ones. Listening to it as a fourteen-year-old, watching these musical magicians (Stanley Clarke!), I felt like a rocket ship was blasting off inside me. The connection has something to do with the place where irony and sincerity can meet and coexist, I guess." -Geoffrey Becker
James is back. I felt like Peyton when Julian showed up in town. But there he was, just standing there on the tenth as if there wasn’t anything dramatic to it. He starts work at my company in less than a month. And it made me realize that no matter how ‘normal’ we may think our lives are sometimes, it can be very much an episode of Grey’s Anatomy if we’re not careful. So James is back. My opinion on this can’t be shared here or anywhere for that matter, because I am at a loss for words. Let’s just say that we’re all waiting to see what happens next season, which is good for viewers I guess.
I’m back from Melbourne. Seeing Eve Lom, eating tones of good food and attending Nate’s graduation of course. It was a great holiday with wonderful weather and lots of laughter, as was my other ‘summer’ this year seeing Dan in San Fran. Just wish it were the three of us more often than not. That’s the story of our lives and anyway it’s easier now than when we were younger. I know I say this all the time, by for all of you who have your siblings close enough to yell at them: you are blessed more than you know.
I wanted to spend some time reflecting on the year that is coming to a close. I asked Risk what she’s learned from this year, and is taking into the next. And then I asked myself. We have so much to absorb, so much happens in 365 days. And you can tell yourself you’ve solved every problem, leaped at every chance, and yet not be able to tell anyone how you did it. We get to the end and are so relieved we made it, that we don’t go back and see how we got there. And for me, it’s in the process where I’m learning all the good stuff. The hard stuff.
And so what am I taking into the New Year? Well if you were anywhere near me this year, you’ll know I’m a major work in progress, and that this year was barely survived: on the right side that is. Like King Jehosophat, I had the power of God in my early years, strayed and married myself to the wicked out of greed, lost the plot and misread all the signs, and then threw it back up to God, listened to the still small voice in me that appealed to God. And like Jehu said, I set my heart on God. So I made it back to win the war, and my learning has been accelerated by God more than I was prepared for, but that’s how it’s done these days. I learned the pitfalls of partial obedience, I learned it well. So I carry the scar and danger of that into the New Year, aware that the very same incident could happen once again. In Church they spoke about Christ’s return, and I got to thinking about the time I’m spending here on earth a little more carefully. And I’ve decided to chart out every single day, the next 365, to make it all count. To make sure I do something or get somewhere on my journey with God. The growth continues next year, with my revelation in hand. I need to get off the milk and onto the solid food, I need to be able to discern wrong from right faster than it takes me now. No matter what your plans are next year, ask yourselves where God is, in that plan. Because it matters. The next 365 days, matter.
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.” We don’t say this enough, we don’t say it at all.
We don’t know how character, can change everything. We head north because we know we can be good, and that God wanted us to be our original selves, so we try as hard as we can. And so we give out more chances, and it gets faster to stop.
And so I ask, who is that one person who catches you?
Hold the thought of that person in your mind for a second, hold it right there.
That person knows it all. That person was born in a home different from yours, and yet is still there.
