I have a game for you. You all used to play them when you were younger, so you should be good at this. I have two pictures for you; tell me what is different about the two.
Let's do a warm-up round:
I think you're ready for the speed round:
Let's do a warm-up round:
I think you're ready for the speed round:
Let us begin with a bit of preface: I know I don't do this very often (the writing, not the prefacing....apparently I am incapable of writing a sentence without 1500 asides/prefaces..etc) but I thought I would jump back into the blog world for a few-and-far-between type post. In actuality, I have been doing a great deal of writing, probably more than I ever have, but it has just not been bloggable. Sorry to keep the masses waiting, but today I was inspired.
Preface #2: If you are squeamish about a 20-something talking about aging, you are welcome to hit the BACK button, because this is not for you. Fair enough? You've been warned.
The last year or so, as I may have mentioned before, has been a progressive realization about how different life is becoming. Without question, I am getting older. Some tell-tale signs:
1. I am prone to soreness. Stupid as it may sound, this has been the first year EVER that I have had to stretch. I have been an active athlete for my entire life, and I'm not talking about stretching for the added benefit of flexibility or competitiveness; no, I am talking about HAVING to stretch in order to drag my tired legs up and down a court or city street. It is damned irritating, and if I don't do it (not just before, mind you, but most especially afterward) I pay for it later. I will play basketball in the morning, and I promise you I will feel like a small child is living inside of my hamstrings tightening it like a bow and arrow.
2. College kids (yes, kids) irritate the hell out of me. Wasn't it just a year or so ago that I was one of them? Well, not anymore apparently. Now, I neither relate to them, nor tolerate their youthfulness without rolling my eyes or exiting the room. Yes, it makes me a curmudgeonish bastard, but its becoming increasingly true. That gap is widening by the day.
3. I don't get carded anymore...ever. There is the occasional rule-follower-guy at the bar or restaurant that asks for my idea in the same way that he would for my mother, but apparently I don't look like a child anymore (even after I shaved the beard down to stubble...oh, yeah, I shaved the beard down to stubble). I thought I would relish the day I no longer had to pull out my ID for the purchasing of alcohol, but it's a little sad.
4. More friends than not either have kids or are planning in the near future to have them. This was not too long ago a statistical anomaly that the Gerlt's filled in my life, but now it is becoming increasingly stranger to those that I meet that I DON'T have children.
5. My closest friends are doing real careers. The aforementioned Gerlt's, as most readers of this blog know, are big-wig chicken sellers, Will actually runs a successful church, my long-lost buddy Shaun runs a very successful web-based company: Randomshirts.com (check em out if you haven't) and...you won't know many other names of my friends probably. My wife, by the way, is interviewing with some of the largest firms in Dallas for positions that still sound absurdly too professional for two kids from DBU.
This last bullet brings me to the actual point of my blogging exercise today. I had a great surprise this morning at church. I have fallen off the church wagon lately; my attendance his been far more miss than hit, and I still have not found a place that I am comfortable with (another post for another day), but I went to Church of the Incarnation today. It is an Episcopal church that I have heard about since my undergrad days at DBU, and it is no more than 5-minutes from our apartment, so I sneaked in as the service was starting this morning. The liturgy was great, but then when it came time for the sermon I was greeted with a wonderful surprise: my DBU friend David was delivering the message.
Dave was one of those guys in college that always seemed so serious and focused. I have been fortunate enough to live in a community of academic idealists/dreamers, the majority of which are still pursuing post-graduate degrees of different varieties, but, even among this group of high-minded ideal-mongers, Dave stood out as particularly committed to his path. He was sure from the time he was pretty young that he would be committed to Christian ministry, and apparently he is following through. I don't exactly know the hierarchy, but he is what amounts to a seminarian in waiting in the Episcopal Church. He is something of an understudy as best I can figure.
His sermon was fantastic, but I found myself secretly satisfied while I listened that it was one of 'us' up there on stage doing something special. Most of this group of friends have spent the better part of a decade pursuing some pipe-dream of intellectual accomplishment at the end of varying educational rainbows, and Dave is there. I was very impressed, and it helped me realize the most beneficial thing about growing up: you get to accomplish those things that you have been saying you'd do "when you grow up."
Well, Dave, I raise my Modelo to you right now. You brightened my day in unquantifiable ways.
