Blogging is the new jogging.

I've suffered a lot of realization this past forty-eight hours. I'll share a few of my mind-blowing revelations.

Pretend you're pushing a wheelbarrow, pulling a red wagon, and wearing a backpack. All of the things that you have to do, work, meetings, obligations of all size and shape... these things go in the wheelbarrow. The things you want to do, the things that are just for fun, the things that you look forward to all week... they go in the red wagon. Your family and friends, the people who, regardless of their situation, aren't an obligation nor are they an event designed to release stress... backpack. Now, if you let that wheelbarrow get too full, it's gonna tip over. And if you don't put enough stuff in your red wagon it'll impress itself in your mind as useless and you'll leave it behind. (But you can't fill it with too much or some of the things will spill out and you'll have no choice but to put some of those wagon items in your wheelbarrow.) And your backpack... well that's bottomless. So, it's very important that you strike the proper balance between the weight you push, the weight pushing you, and the weight you carry.

Lately I feel like I've been pushing two wheelbarrows.

At my age I don't really have peers. I have a few good friends whose company I enjoy and whose opinions I value, but we don't compare salaries and we don't try to dress the same (although, the wife of one of my friends did buy us matching shirts once) and we don't have the same lifestyles or diets or tastes in movies, music, or television. We have, primarily, ourselves in common, and a desire to live our lives, in whichever class those lives may land, according to God's will. We aren't jealous of each other (apart from the occasional drooling over someone's new TV or perhaps admiring that some of us have hair where one wants hair and nowhere else) and we aren't antagonistic. Words are rarely harsh (except when video games are involved) and when they are they are never meant (for very long). We are all pretty honest and sincere with one another and none of us tries to be what we aren't. How could you not love friends like that?

I'm not taking very good care of my body. This is no secret, but the depth of this truth just became clear to me as I was writing this blog and found myself a little out of breath.

My mood is greatly improved when I have a project to work on. If I'm idle, I feel ruined, wasted. I have so many ideas but so few of them are daycare-friendly. I'm not talking about explosives... entirely... but I have a lot of ideas that might require me to be working on my computer or carving tiny parts for a crank-operated machine. Kinda hard to do that when your job keeps pooping its pants. So what I need to do is find small, easy-to-set-aside projects that don't involve power tools, acids of any kind, or napalm.

All right. That's enough for now. You kids have a nice time.

Thank you,
      Matt Beers