Tower of Babel: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Want to join the party?  Go on over to From This Side of the Pond  for the Hodgepodge questions.

What's the biggest change since your childhood in the way people think or act?

I was going to say that people are meaner than they were when I was a child, but that's not true.  It's just that people now have more avenues to be hateful and bully people.  All the various sources of social media and electronic communication are wonderful, but they can also be dangerously destructive in the hands of certain people.

The Olympic Biathlon involves cross country skiing broken up with either two or four rounds of target shooting. Which part of that would stress you out more? Or would you love them both equally?

I've never done either one, but I think the shooting would stress me out the most because it has to be so exact.  I would be one of those people who miss the target and have to ski extra laps.  I think I would like to learn to ski and to shoot.

February is National Canned Food Month...what is your most often purchased canned food item?  What was in the last can you opened?

I buy sliced black olives in a can all the time.  I put them in omelets and salads.

What river (anywhere in the world) would you most like to cruise?

I think I'd like to get on a river boat, cruise the Mississippi, sip iced tea, and read Mark Twain novels.

It's the middle of the night and you can't sleep...what do you do? Count sheep? Toss and turn? Watch television? Or do you get up and do something productive?

I don't count sheep.  If I'm really tired and just can't sleep, I'll just lie there and think about stuff until I can sleep.  If I'm tired, but not sleepy, I'll read, crochet, or watch something on the internet until I get sleepy.  If I'm wide awake, I get up and find something to do to make myself useful.

How important is keeping your cool?

I think I've kept my cool for too long and let people run all over me.  I do, however, think there's a way for me to express myself without being hateful or too crude.

I've got white stuff on the brain so why not run with it? White lie, wave the white flag, white knuckle it, white wash a situation, or white as a sheet...which phrase could most recently apply to your own life in some way?

I'm white knuckling some things so that I don't give up and wave the white flag.

Insert your own random thought here.

I'm taking a slow, leisurely journey through the Bible that may take several years.  Genesis 11:1-9 brought out something new--new to me anyway.

This passage really speaks to the power of unity.  I'm sure God did a facepalm when the people used that unifying force to do something selfish.  "Hey, let's make us a name so that we won't be scattered upon the earth."  So God confused their language and they ended up scattering upon the earth.

This passage also spoke to me about fear.  I think the people were scared of the unknown and wanted to stick with the familiar.  So, they wanted to make themselves great right where they were.  The tower is kind of like a hoarder's cocoon of junk that's supposed to keep them safe and secure.

What are my fears?  What is my "tower of Babel"?  Where am I trying to "make me a name" so I don't have to venture out of my comfort zone?

Of course, failure is a big one.  But isn't living a life afraid to move forward also a sign of failure?  I read somewhere this week that there are two kinds of people in the world:  those who are overcome by life and those who overcome and succeed.  Of course, you had to buy their book to find out how to be an overcomer.  No thank you, I have enough books.  I will find my answers elsewhere.

It's not simply failure though.  It's the prospect of failing alone.  I read in one of John C. Maxwell's books (I think it was Failing Forward) that at the beginning of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, the work was falling behind and that many of the workers fell and were injured or killed.  Finally some genius figured out that they needed a safety net.  After the net was erected, the work sped to ahead of schedule and there were fewer falls and injuries.  Everyone needs a safety net in life.  Where is the "safety net" for those who must go at it alone?  I guess I'll soon find out.