Stuff That Matters in Life

October 8th was the local Walnut Parade. The solar car was featured!

Elliot, holding the sign with Vickie, came back from school to join them.

Chris Lui was the driver.

Some members of this year’s new team came to help promote the project. It was a lot of fun. Audrey is noticably missing – she had to take the SAT.

10/27/2005 Images resized to 450px -Elliot

The shoe phone…the cone of silence…”Would you believe…”…”Sorry about that, Chief.”…”I told you not to tell me that.”

If you are a Get Smart fan, those phrases elicit laughter at the thought of Maxwell Smart, agent 86. It was one of my favorite shows when I was young. In recent years, I introduced Smart to my children when we watched reruns on TVLand. (It was taken off their schedule a couple of years ago.) We were never tired of the silly humor, and find ourselves quoting some of his famous lines. (I tried to get the same amusement by watching Green Acres, but nothing matches the level of witty buffoonery of Smart.)

Get Smart ran only 5 seasons on TV, but twice won the Emmy for best comedy series, and Don Adams won three Emmys for best comedy actor. On September 25, 2005, Adams passed away. While Maxwell Smart made him famous, Adams was not able to get out of the type cast to act in other roles. I hope he was gratified to know that he still has a following. Whenever I think of one of those funny lines from Get Smart, it’s reminiscent of the good ol’ days. I continue to be one of his fans.

Today I drove past a corner lot on the way to work as I have often done. Today, something was different – the building that was there before was gone. It used to be a bank, then it was occupied by a small ethnic market, and most recently it was a bakery restaurant.

Now it is an empty dirt lot.

There used to be a strong stucco building with an attractive entrance. It was not dilapidated in any way, shape, or form. It is amazing to me that a perfectly good building that seemed like it should last a long time was flattened overnight.

This makes me think of the temporal nature of this world. Anything that we consider strong and immovable is not that at all.

The lesson for me here is, don’t take myself too seriously. Who I am, what I have, what I have accomplished may seem secure and powerful at the moment, but some day, it will be dirt.

USC celebrates 125 years this weekend. It is also the School of Engineering’s 1100100 year (100 in binary).

We went for their free breakfast at the Engineering school, and tour some exhibits and demonstrations.

It’s a good thing USC is not a huge school. I am tired from all the walking already.

I reflect again how wonderful it is for Elliot to be in college. I told him he has the best life. He says, “Yeah!”

“There’s always a temptation, in the middle of a long struggle, to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world, and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder. This would be a pleasant world, but it’s not the world we live in. The enemy is never tired, never sated, never content with yesterday’s brutality. This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory.”

This excerpt from President George W. Bush’s speech sounds more like the Christian life than the war on terrorism.

We too grow weary of our struggle to live the Christian life. We want to give up and seek a quiet, easy life – Why can’t I just do whatever I feel like doing, spend my time and money in whatever way I want? Why do I have to care about my neighbor? Why can’t I overindulge once in a while? Why do I always have to be the controversial voice in speaking up against wrong? What is so wrong about wanting things for myself?

Giving up the fight is exactly what the enemy, Satan, wants us to do. He is never tired. If we give up, he is assured of victory.

So let’s keep our nerve, keep our focus on our Leader, and He will lead us to victory.

This gives some insight into the current process in choosing and voting for a judicial nominee by President Bush.

A head-on fight as Bauer suggested would have surely defined our Senators, which would be a good thing for the American people to know. Of course with our California senators, it’s no secret how they would vote. (BTW, I did not vote for them)

I actually expected Bush to nominate a known conservative, and if voted down, then go down the list to the second choice. I am disappointed that with a Republican Senate majority he didn’t even try.

I am not an activist in any way, but every citizen should be familiar with the issues of the day that will ultimately effect our way of life. Cultural changes are made one voice at a time.

A woman is worried about her future until she finds a husband;
A man never worried about his future until he found a wife.

A woman marries a man thinking he would change, and he doesn’t;
A man marries a woman thinking she won’t change, and she does.

A man has 5 items in the bathroom: soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, and a towel from the Marriot;
A woman has an average of 386 items in the bathroom: no one has successfully identified what they are.

I learned a lesson today from a fellow PTA mom.

She and I put together a Volunteer Party at the school to recruit volunteers. After the rather successful event, she called me to thank me. She did not wait till I saw her at school the next day. She did not call me to ask me to do something for follow-up (which we still have to do). She called with the expressed purpose of thanking me. (Honestly, I thought she did more work than I did.)

I learned that I should take an extra step to thank people every time I see them doing something nice.

I learned I should not take people for granted. Their time and efforts are valuable. They deserve an extra word of thanks from me.

I learned to not wait until a convenient time to thank someone. Just a quick phone call means a lot.

I learned not to think of who I can ask to do something, but rather think of who I can thank for having done something already.