Eric’s Sunday Sermon; Life is so tough

I do not have a selfie from Cancun. Sorry. I still have not figured selfies out.

I have serious problems. At least most would say so. My doc. says I do and then laughs. Shucks we laugh. My blood tests are not so good but he likes the color pink. I try to tell him a Mauve looks better on him. Health issues are irritants not defining stuff. Shoot I set appointments with the Doc. just so we can catch up. And do not tell my wife about my boyhood type crush on Sylvia my nurse.

That soccer net needs more anchors, I am working on a good spiral with my left hand and my putting needs some more work. My garden is pissing me off with all the crab grass and we are in a drought. My young son plays too much screen time but can fix my phone and laptop. I have a tough life. Washing two cars every week is hard work. Trimming my trees makes me get up on a ladder. My ladder or my neighbors. I have to take out the garbage on Mondays. I have a tough life. Don’t even get me started on the Olympic + public swimming pool and public library where children run rampant. And I had to pick up some garbage on my nature walk yesterday. I can buy and consume too much organic type food and my TV is only 40 inches by 40. My washer and dryer are acting up and my microwave stinks. I have a tough life.

Oh well. Maybe someone in New York has it tougher but I fail to see how. That fellow in the slums in Mexico does not have all this to worry about. Shoot he might not even have a loving wife to deal with. Churches stink and politicians are horrible. I bet in dictatorships they do not have these problems. We walked on a clean up of the beach the other day and only got a handful of stuff. I wanted a bag full. Life is tough.

I went on a nature 4 mile trek and the danged trail was even just right so people stayed on it and the land around was pristine. How irritating there was no evidence of human activity. I went by a homeless shelter and there were near on 100 people being housed and fed. Get a job. Life is tough.

Oh I have plenty to complain about. Yes I do. I think I will call up a buddy and complain about sports, politics and religion. Well by golly maybe I do not need to be a taker and need to be a giver. Maybe just a wild thought. There was a man who once asked, crazy as it sounds “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. Oh well I will just go back to being angry. What are you going to do? The street sweeper stirred up some dust as he scrubbed my street. Now I will have to use my hose with ample water supply and clean my sidewalk. Recycling. Hmm what a pain to take care of my planet and teach my son same and have some cash for some ice cream. I tell you, life is tough around here.

It is my understanding that the higher the speed of electronics the higher the ambient stuff in the air. Makes sense actually, speeding molecular stuff makes other molecular stuff speed. So I am real pissed that I have to wait an extra 2 seconds getting stuff on my computer. Besides it gives me time to think about what to eat and that makes me fat. Life is tough. Get this one; my wife comes home grumpy sometimes after a ten hour day of running 3 construction type crews. She is not pleasant for a bit and I have to leave her alone but put my boy on her who makes her all relaxed. Plenty of money from her work. Can you see what I have to deal with? My wife buys my son too many shoes and toys while I buy my non name brand socks at a discount place. (don’t tell anyone but I am bothered by shopping for deals ;-)

My boy is ready for team stuff. We think all three. Music, Boy Scouts and Basketball. Do you realize that I will have to haul him around and watch him do all this stuff and even contribute as a helper in all. Did you know that in the car time means you can talk about stuff, or is that “have” to talk about stuff? And around all those people who love their children. Some 9 year olds just come home to an empty house in the afternoon, or maybe worse. Thinking about it makes me sad. See how tough my life is? I cannot even feel good about our lives without it being ruined by thinking of others.

So into the gates of hell as truly outlined above we plunge. We only get 7.5 hours of sleep a night on a full stomach. Last night I forgot to put a clear clean glass of water on my nightstand. Can you imagine my agony of walking 14 steps to my kitchen refrigerator to get a drink?

Blessings. Yesterday I brought a stool into the kitchen and sat. I closed my eyes and envisioned all my blessings. My head went all manic. I could not process the high count of blessing fast enough. For every single thing I could complain about I found some kind of good. So optimistic and boring. Confrontation and anger is more fun.

Making Fun. When I moved once I had a Volkswagen bug – 1973 model. It only took 1 trip to move. Yes I had a roof rack but still, that is how little I had. People would come by my college dorm room just to laugh at how little I had. For about 2 years I lived on a small boat with only a couch thingy for a bed. For about 3 years I lived in a 10 by 10 room, with my ironing board for my desk. When I go hiking I do not carry a tent. Unless in snow. Perhaps less is more. I had more freedom back then. Or did I?

With all of the above stuff I have, maybe I should wish you a tough life. If you had less stuff you would have a simpler life but no stuff. My youngest daughter and her beau are thinking of moving into a “tiny” house but they will need storage for their sports equipment. They live in a tiny town where the biggest store is a small grocery store.

Now there is a bottom line here. Sometimes more is better and we all know I am talking about love. With too much love life just gets better. Too much love never made life tougher. Too much love and you could have a love sale instead of a garage sale. And you would not have to count money or bargain. But if you had a ton of money you could give half a ton away and still have half a ton.

Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot. Love, love the magical thing, the more you give the more you bring. Go forth and prosper and have a tough life.