Miss Manners

Does anyone else share my Miss Manners column closet obsession? It's not just that she refers to herself in the third person, nor is it that people write in about the most absurd dilemmas, it's the sarcasm! Consider the response that she provided to a teenage girl who was inquiring as to the appropriateness of wearing a chastity ring on the ring finger of her left hand: "Allowing prospective suitors to believe that you are engaged is certainly one way to preserve your chastity."

I've also started taking a tally of my own social faux paus, and believe me, the list is long and varied. However, at least I now know that it is not polite to pass gas while on a date, and that telling well-intentioned inquirers that your child is being named after your cat is perfectly acceptable.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/Relationships/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=27876

Golden Calf

Verse of the day: "He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'" Exodus 32: 4

Exodus a somewhat crazy book of the Bible. I mean, if you really read it as a story, these people are doing some insane things. I was reading about the whole gold calf situation that occurred when Moses went up to get the 10 commandments, and this note in my Bible jumped out at me. Apparently, archaeologists found this golden calf in Palestine in 1990. Now get this--the calf was only a few inches tall! The thing that strikes me as funny about this is that not only are these people worshipping a cow, they're worshipping a cow that's the size of a chicken nugget. And then, on top of that, they attribute the miracle of being brought out of slavery in Egypt to it! So, as I'm chuckling to myself about these ignorant people somewhere in the Middle East back in the day, it occurs to me that there has to be a reason why this story is in the Bible, and that perhaps I better stay away from pointing any fingers.

The Pool of Shared Meaning

A lot of buzz has been generated in my office surrounding this book entitled Crucial Conversations. I wondered what exactly a Crucial Conversation was--it sounded important and adult. The book explained it to me in layman's terms: a Crucial Conversation is when opinions vary, stakes are high, and emotions are strong. Not as interesting as I hoped for, but I plowed ahead, hoping for a few nuggets of wisdom. Boredom was setting in until I began reading about "the Pool of Shared Meaning"--a place where people share relevant information in order to solve a problem. I like to swim--this was good stuff!

I decided to test some of my new found psychological skill and engage Korey in (wait for it)..... a Crucial Conversation. I was pleased: everything was going as planned and my Crucial Manipulation..er..Conversation was working! There was just one snag: Korey had not read the book and lacked the great knowledge and insight that I had now gained. The conversation ended with Korey taking a whiz in the Pool of Shared Meaning--not exactly the outcome the authors had assured me of. Suffice to say, I have resolved to leave the Crucial Conversations to the experts and be happy with plain old vanilla conversations.

The 401K and Eternity

My coworkers have been hassling me lately about the fact that my desire to retire at 30 years of age does not exactly jive with my nearly empty 401K. Yes, this is a conundrum. I'm wondering if perhaps Jesus will return prior to the need for the 401K arising. All those years of dropping that magic percentage into the big black abyss of the 401K, and then poof--Jesus returns and there is no need for any of it! I am all for saving the future, but sometimes it's a toss up determining if the mad race to amass wealth is really worth it. Will I really be sitting in heaven going," So Peter, I know you were shipwrecked and beaten and all that craziness for the gospel, but did you know that I managed to get my employer to match 5% of my pre-taxed income?" Don't get me wrong--I realize that the mist of social security will have all but evaporated by the time that I am old and decrepit. If the rapture still hasn't occurred when I'm a tottering old women, I do have a back up plan: Korey's 401K.

Line of credit

Verse of the day: "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory." Eph. 1:13b-14

It's funny how the mind works sometimes.... I had been putting together a list of definitions of credit terminology for a project and it included words like collection, collateral, and deposit. So then I started thinking about the Holy Spirit as a deposit and that gave me a totally different look at his role. I mean, it seems like this verse is saying that the Holy Spirit is God's collateral on our souls. And that collateral is just a small percentage of the inheritance to come. It's kind of wierd to think that God is opening up a line of credit, putting a down payment on us, and paying us an inheritance in the future.

So, now that I have my own blog, I feel really trendy. I mean, publishing on the internet is the thang now. What I am wondering is if anybody ever reads these things. Is it actually more efficient to read somebody's blog than to pick up the phone and call them? Yeah, we'll see if anybody actually posts anything on here.