The Burning Heart

"We cannot kindle when we will
The Fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight will'd
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd."

-Matthew Arnold (as taken from My Utmost For His Highest, by Oswald Chambers)

Upload … 33% Complete

B-moment commence. HOORAY!

Well, close enough, anyway.

I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through my life-expectancy, give or take a few years, and I've officially entered my 30s. My dad said his thirties were the best years of his life (though I'd wager he has a few more of those best years still ahead of him)—so, I assume he meant physically, mentally, and socially speaking. Here's hoping he's right!

And now, for the second verse of my foolishly-hopeful-though-highly-unlikely perennial birthday song.

"[Blankety-blank] Years Young" contin'd… [Verse 2]

(sung to the tune of Camptown Races)

Dance all night, gonna ride that hoss, boo yah, boo yah

Might fly off track till my wires cross, oh the boo yah hey!

Let my joy carry me outta dis hole, boo yah, boo yah

Can't touch sadness wid a ten-foot pole, oh the boo yah hey!

Ha-vin' fun all night!

Ha-vin' fun all day!

Here's some money in a fold-out card

That, and you don't have to pay.

Random Thought of the Day: What's the matter with doctors?

I just got back from the hospital today, having gotten my cast removed from a snowboarding accident last month, and I was again struck by how odd some doctors are. No, not some doctors—all doctors! Some are odd in how they appear: be it their hairstyle (or lack thereof), the way their eyes are set (or the glasses they wear over them), the clothes they wear (or wear badly), or the slightly off-kilter or far too erect posture they display. Others are strange in how they do things: whether it be the way they talk, or the way they walk, or the way they write their name (okay, so they're all guilty of that one). Still there's an indelible … strangeness … nay, oddity—no wait, queer factor!—that's it, there's an indelible queer factor (QF) about doctors that makes them simultaneously funny and confounding. Could it have something to do with the exorbitantly long periods of required education and certification they go through? Is it from prolonged exposure to formaldehyde? Something about the lab coat and stethoscope? What exactly?

Take a moment to consider all the ones you've dealt with in the past, and see if you can come up with what's to explain for your MD's QF?