More Sweat

Yesterday, I hiked up and went rock climbing on Old Rag, and more sweat left my body than has ever done so in a 24-hour period.

All the Ways I Succeed

Today's post is about how I do awesome things. I really do. I have great experiences all the time. My own big problem is that I don't push myself quite enough. I stop just short of a pain point, mostly--exertion, but comfortable exertion. It must be bad, spiritually. Anyway, I've decided to list all the ways I succeed on here, in an effort to get myself motivated (and making blog posts). Once my new camera arrives, you might even get photos. The main kinds of photos you'd get, though, will be of a sweaty me after a workout, because that is one of the primary ways I intend to succeed. In fact, I have just finished a 30-minute workout video, which I managed to complete in its entirety despite glitches and copious unwanted perspiration. It wasn't that hard, in hindsight, but at the time my body felt whiny. So, there's one!

Speak Less

Lately, I've had this awful post-cold cold symptom of coughing my voice to bits. This means that I really can't talk very much (and when I do, it sounds truly dreadful). Over the weekend, then, when I was meeting some new people, I found myself quite silent around them. I consciously spoke less and was less chatty than I normally would have been. And I became aware . . . that this was a good thing! I could show good will and inject a modicum of charm and humor, with only a few words over the course of several hours. It's great for humility to realize that people might not really be that keen on listening to your chatter in the first place. I might try this silence thing more often.

Splatter

My friend just linked to me, and I can't help but wonder, "Why am I linked?" People with other blogs, including my friend, actually write on them. They use concepts such as sentences and paragraphs. Fancy. They also add graphics sometimes. When I make use of this little blog-thing, I can't say with honesty I set out to write anything. Really, I just splatter.

Chia Tattoos

me: if you get a tattoo on your leg, do you still have to shave it?
Kathleen: unless it's a tattoo of a furry animal

Write More Letters

I have been thinking to myself that I need to write more letters. I haven't actually written any yet. I'm just thinking about it so far.

Murder

I've been seeing the headlines about the killing of Trayvon Martin, a horrible tragedy. I have to pause and wonder, though, why we need to bring RACE into the forefront so severely as to have rallies about it. I am not saying that racists don't still exist--clearly they do--or that Trayvon's killer was not racist, as he most probably was. My thought, however, is that the larger problem besides racism is actually hatred. That someone could amass enough hatred in their psyche to murder another human being is the real problem. And there are plenty of other families whose children are killed, murdered, for this very reason. It might not be because the child was black or hispanic or any other race, but simply because the killer (a high school student who shoots his classmates, for instance) had enough hatred to murder. So what is the answer to racism? Racism isn't the problem. Hatred is the problem. Hatred for ANY reason, because any reason to hate is a bad reason. We hear so often that such and such murder was "a senseless tragedy," but what does that say about Trayvon Martin's murder? Because it was likely racially motivated, does that make it any less "senseless"? Are we acknowledging that in general there's a lack of logic in intense, murderous hatred, but not in racially-motivated hatred? Clearly not. We need to pray for conversion, and for the opposit of hatred, love: that love and examples of love will be offered to young people, and that they will reject the values of revenge and hatred. That is the only realistic path to stopping murder in all its forms.