My take on this week

So this week has been one for the record books.  The weather has thrown Charleston, and really all the southeast, into a bit of tizzy. Two and a half days off for the kids and a delayed Friday start has left parents and others scrambling to rearrange schedules.  Bridges being closed has caused massive traffic problems all over the city. Stores and shops unable to open and those that did having no customers will eventually have a major financial ramifications.  The only thing left is for some crazy, right-wing Christian to declare this as God's wrath upon us, which probably won't happen because most of them come from the Southeast and that stance would hit too close to home.

As I've said before, you cannot always choose the circumstances you find yourself in, all you can control is how you will respond.  So here's my takeaway from it all: I'm thankful.  I'm thankful to live in a city that declared early that things needed to close down. It saved us all a lot of heartache and trouble.  This is not to say that I judge the leaders in places like Birmingham and Atlanta who did not move quick enough. I know people in both those places who got stuck and it sucks. But that's why leaders get elected and are paid. To make decisions. And sometimes they make the right ones and sometimes they do not. God knows how many times we have bashed school superintendents and officials for calling school off at the first sign of flurry, only to see scant else.  The leaders in the other city's had their reasons to do what they did. They swung and they missed.  And some will likely lose their jobs because of it, but that's what it means to lead, to be held accountable for decision, the right ones and the wrong ones. For now, I'm thankful that the leaders in Charleston got this one right.

I'm thankful for time spent at home in a warm house. It's times like these that make us appreciate what we have. Not everyone is so fortunate. I'm thankful for simply having someone take a look at my chimney so I knew I could safely build a fire (Thanks Jim). I'm thankful to spend time with my kids and my niece, playing and laughing, and even scolding and correcting. My son is becoming really good at Mario Kart because of the cold weather, and I celebrate that.  I'm thankful to have time spent with a wife who I do not see often enough and to play games like Farkle with her, even if we both have a feeling of dread about not 'doing enough work' this week (whatever that means). 

You see, there will be plenty of time to catch up. And what we don't catch up with, well, maybe it was never suppose to happen in the first place. Maybe that's the lesson here, keeping things in perspective. Just wish it didn't take a crazy weather phenomenon to teach us that. (And I am very sorry for all of those dealing with loss because of this storm. That goes without saying. Please contact those in your community for ways you can help. Or go shopping and eat out this weekend, those folks need your money.)

Life according to Kart

One of the things about me that shocked my youth at the church I serve when I first started was how good at Mario Kart I was.  Some of them even accused me of cheating when I beat them. What they didn't realize is that I have been playing Mario Kart in some form since before some of them were even born. I can thank Wofford College and my fraternity brothers to introducing me and forcing me to get good at the game. So like anything else in my life, I love to think about the lessons that can be learned from this video game.

First, experience is key.  I was not very good when I started to play.  But mornings and afternoons, and really the entire month of January for two years allowed me to learn the ins and outs of the game. Experience is important of life. Being told about something is one thing, but experiencing them takes things to a whole new level.

Secondly, in a lot of races in the game, things happen that are out of your control.  The power ups allow others an advantage and sometimes those advantages can affect you adversely. Sometimes in our lives things happen that are out of our control.  We cannot always dictate the situations and outcomes.  Instead, we can only control how we will respond.  We have to keep racing. No matter what happens.

Thirdly, in Mario Kart the bane of each and every player's existence in the dreaded blue shell. There you are, going along in the lead and out of no where comes the blue shell launched by some other player who is some way back. Life can be like that. Everything will seem to be going along and out of no where we are blindsided. This can come from others making poor decisions, health issues, or any other instance in which we are knocked off our feet.

Fourthly, you can either be a good character or a bad character. You can choose to be hero or villain, Mario or Wario, or in my can Yoshi or King Boo. This is life too. Several weeks ago I was expressing my disdain for a particular pro sports athlete. I really want to hate him, but then he goes and does something amazingly inspiring for some random some kid and I find myself kind of liking him.  I was explaining this to my beautiful and far more intelligent wife to which she responded, "Isn't that all of us? Don't we all have both the best and the worst inside of us?" Truth. You and I can build and be heroes or we can tear down and be the villains. All of us. And most of the time, we are both. Let's call it the human condition. 

Lastly, Mario Kart is a game and is suppose to be fun.  There is a defined finish line in which all racers are trying to accomplish. While I am not so crass to suggest that life is a game, I do believe we are suppose to enjoy it, having fun every chance we get.  And there is most definitely a finish line that all of us will cross one day.  And hopefully we will all feel like winners.

And by the way, I do play online on the Wii sometimes so get in touch and we can race. Just be prepared to lose!