A minute ago...

Ten minutes ago there were half a dozen things flitting around in my mind that I wanted to blog about. I'm going to have to try and remember them.
Maybe it's that my brain is just tired. Not from too much activity but just from lack of sleep. We went down to Birmingham this weekend for a wedding. We saw so many of our mids from the class of '05 and their spouses. It was great. But there were some gapping holes...some of them are in Iraq and they were missed. I'm not sure that the mids (they will always be mids to me, even if they make Admiral someday) know how much they are loved by me. Their lives move on, and that's good, but I long to remain a part of their lives. I think it's much the same with parenthood. It's a process of letting go. It's a challenge to do that gracefully. And it's a delicate tension to show interest and care without being intrusive.
There were two babies there. I spent a good bit of time with one of them in my arms. The most precious memory I carry is of one of them that had been asleep on my chest. She woke up and my first thought was "I hope she doesn't cry." Instead she pulled her head back, looked me in the eye and grinned at me. It was a sweet moment.

I've read a couple of good books lately...a biography of Lady Emma Hamilton., Paradox of Choice, Freakonomics, and now I'm reading The Earth (World?) is Flat. The bio was a little embarrassing to check out of the library, but I'm glad I did. It was easy to read and really opened my eyes to some things.
First, debt is not an invention of the 20th century. I was amazed at how people even then lived on the brink of financial ruin. And decadance does not belong to our culture. It is intrinsic to human nature. It also made me think about morality and circumstance and the impact of one on the other.
Paradox of Choice is great. I don't know how many times I've mentioned it in conversation. It seems that some of the principles mentioned are applicable to multiple life situations.
Freakonomics was interesting reading. I'm just not sure about some of it. He says that who you are (genetics) makes a difference to how your children turn out but that what you do is irrelevant. On the other hand he says that the upsurge of abortions in low income areas has dramatically reduced crime in our nation. So then, by his logic, is he saying that those in low income areas are inherently criminal in their nature? If so, I don't buy it. They are no more so that any of us. And I cannot believe that the way we train our children makes no difference. Nonetheless it was an interesting book. I just wish I knew enough to check his 'findings.'
I'm now reading The Earth is Flat. It's a bit of a tougher read if only because I really don't understand the Internet. I had no idea prior to this that the World Wide Web and the Internet were two different things. I didn't even know that fiber optics transferred information through pulses of light instead of electrical currents. I feel a little dumb. So in that sense I'm really glad Im reading it, it's just not as easy as the other books.
While we were at the wedding we met the guy who led the groom to Christ. I started talking to him and found out that he and his wife have a ministry to nomadic homeless kids. Pretty incredible if you ask me. As he talked I was amazed that this subculture exists in our country and I'm not even aware of it. These kids hop freight trains and hitchhike to travel the country. They get together by the thousands in national forests for gatherings. It's almost a tribal mentality. We were touched by what he had to say.
As we drove back to our hotel we were telling our girls about what he and his wife do. We said that these kids travel, often by night, with just their backpack and sometimes a dog. They look unkempt, that's often on purpose. The smell of soap gives them away to search dogs. Just as we were talking we passed a young man walking by the side of the road with long hair and a backpack. We saw him walk into a gas station. My husband followed him in and said, "I'd like to buy you ten dollars worth of food." The guy said something to the effect that he didn't know what to say, no one had ever done that before, he couldn't think of what to buy. So my dh helped him make some choices. Then he told Dale (the young man), "Remember that God loves you, and when you get to the end of you rope, Jesus will be there for you."
I hope I remember to pray for Dale.