At Least They're Committed

The way I heard it was, “May you lead an interesting life.” It was a Chinese curse, I was told, but researching it now it really has no historical basis. It was allegedly translated into “May you live in interesting times,” which is an English curse. Interesting of course meaning difficult — or history-book worthy. Wikipedia says this:

“Despite the phrase being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no known equivalent expression in Chinese.^[2] The nearest related Chinese expression translates as “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos.” (寧為太平犬，不做亂世人)^[3]” 

No matter, here we are. I would say we’re living in interesting times — that is the end of the USA should Trump somehow buy, swindle, corrupt his way back into the oval office.

When I was out weeding the front garden yesterday, a slender woman holding a gas can appeared at the end of the sidewalk. She had lost her phone and wondered if she could borrow mine to call her mom to get her ex-husband’s phone number so she could call him and tell him she found a gas can and could meet him at the 7-11 for the fuel.

After making her calls, she stayed and chatted and told me she was finally given clemency and that she was autistic and was parroting and didn’t do any of the things they first found her guilty of and when she gets the settlement (wrongful conviction maybe?) she was going to start a program for mothers struggling with addiction so they can still be with their children with the guidance and support from others as they go through their healing journey. She said her son had been murdered and the stress of it all was what tore her and her husband apart. It was a shocking and sad story.

She said God and the devil are at work here. She said that you must have one with the other so the choices you make are meaningful on either side.

Amen sister on all of the above! And may God bless you and may we all support your important mission!

THAT special woman is living an interesting life.

History will judge us for the time we live in now. The corruption, the evil, the disparities among us in the government. Right now, we live in a looming global crisis.

Yet, in our own lives, interesting doesn’t carry such a broad stroke. Essentially it’s having a bad day or going through a troubling spell and getting through it.

I was thinking of that when pondering the apocalypse and thinking about how the Bible says that afterward for the few who survive there would be peace, prosperity, health and bliss.

That would be magical, wouldn’t it? But how can anything be perfect unless like my visitor said you have something to balance it with? How many glorious days can you have until glory becomes mundane?

Besides which, to make your world precisely perfect would mean making other humans wait on you – -unless robots are perfected by then — and that quite frankly sounds as if it’s not perfect for everyone thus not perfect at all, and utterly boring.

As I was watching my youngest grandson squish together four different shades of Playdoh, I thought how lovely that was! Yet, when the clay comes in the case it’s all one perfectly hued color. I thought how beautiful it was that as humans (and many other species) we have the opportunity to make such beautiful new colors. Those colors were bright on their own, and beautiful together.

So, is there really such thing as perfection? Of course not!

Today we paint the basement at the other house. The anticipation is invigorating. Will it look better? Will we make it worse? (I can’t imagine that, it having been painted mint green by yours truly when we first moved in 20 years ago.)

The contractor will have all the upgrades finished by Monday night, the house and carpet cleaners will come Tuesday and I hope to show it to the realtor on Wednesday or Thursday. She’ll schedule the staging and the photographer and get it on the market.

Will it sell quickly? Am I going to end up draining my IRA to make house payments month after month? Ah, the suspense is . . . . . . boring.

My brain playing over scenarios day and night and problem solving all times in between might be taking years off my life but it isn’t interesting in the least. And for now even though I’m completely consumed by this and other elder-family issues, it’s really rather boring even for me.

Yes, indeed, Iiiiiiiiiii have become comfortably dull. And maybe for me, my family, this country and the globe a new comfortably dull will be a nice respite. And maybe for that blessed woman I met yesterday, she will find success and in it the hope and comfort that she so deserves.