Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXLIII

I heard a little story that I thought was somewhat amusing, but it also started my wheels turning as I got to thinking about what it really means. There was a particular Indian tribe that had developed quite a reputation because of their success with the rain dance. Word had traveled far and wide about how, if you need rain, you should call on this tribe, because, when they dance, it rains. Finally, one newspaper reporter got lucky enough to land an interview with the chief, and the first thing he said to the old leader was, "I've heard so much about what good rain dancers you have in your tribe, and what everyone all around the country wants to know is, how do you do it? Are there some secrets about how you dance that make you more successful?" The old chief thought a minute, then replied, "No...no secrets. We just dance 'til it rains." There's one little phrase that comes to my mind as I think about that story: "Perception is reality."

Those of you who know me or have read several of my blogs will know by now that I'm a marathoner. Running 26.2 miles is quite a challenge, and it requires weeks and weeks of intense training, which we do four mornings a week, every week. Our most common starting time is 5:30 AM...which means that we're out running before the sun comes up. We know that if there are going to be some hills in the marathon, then it is much better for us if we do some of our training on hilly terrain. One thing that we've talked about that seems to make our training a little easier is if we can hit the worst hills before daylight, we can't see them as well, and they're easier to climb. Those hills are just as high and just as steep at night as they are in the daytime, but there's just something about seeing them that puts these negative thoughts in our minds that this is going to be tough...and when we think it's going to be tough, it is.

Now, with that in mind, I just had a whole new revelation concerning the hill training. When we're actually running in the marathon, we never run while it's still dark...it's always broad daylight, and we can see those hills clearly. Too clearly. And they're scary. That leads me to ask this question, "Would a blind runner have an easier time in the hills?" Probably. Fortunately, none of the runners in our group are blind, so we need to come up with another solution. Here's what I've come up with: During our training, we need to see the hills. We need to prove to ourselves that we have what it takes to conquer them, then when we face the hills during the actual run, we won't feel so intimidated. I'm willing to try anything that makes us believe that those hills are easier to climb.

Maybe we should do a hill dance. The first time we try it, we may not be able to notice much of a difference, but I'll bet if we dance every day before we do the hill training, and do it four days a week, those hills will eventually become easier to climb. That should work with just about any area of our lives. One man was telling me about some over the counter medication he would take when he got the flu. He said it was guaranteed to have him well in just seven days, but when he didn't take it, he sometimes had the flu for a whole week. I used to sell some titanium filled necklaces that were supposed to give additional energy to athletes, so I tried one of them during one of my long runs. The next week, I ran without it. I couldn't tell any difference, but, I have to admit, I was skeptical before I ever tried them. I understand that some of my friends who believed in them from the start received a lot more benefit from them than I did. I did look pretty cool while I was wearing it though...at least that's what I believed, and, after all, perception is reality.

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXLll

Okay, stop, close your eyes, and think about....no wait! Don't close your eyes, because I want you to read the rest of what I have to say. Just leave your eyes open and think about someone you know who is always late for wherever they are going. Can you think of someone? Yes, I can too. I made a determination a long time ago that I did not want that to be a part of my reputation. I can remember so many times when I was a kid, hearing my grandpa saying, "They wait until it's time to get there before they leave the house." I'm now following in his shoes, because I've said the same thing many times myself.

I can think of people that I've been around for many years who can be counted on to be fifteen minutes late every time. At least they're consistent. It just seems to me that after about five years of being fifteen minutes late, they would figure out that if they would get up fifteen minutes earlier, they could make it on time. That leads me to ask this question: Do they care if they're late? The answer is obviously, "No." That's the part that I have a hard time understanding.

I've been helping teach a class at church on Wednesday nights on "Parenting," and the one subject where we've spent the most amount of time is on "discipline." Naturally, when we think of discipline, we automatically compare it to the word "punishment," but there's much more to discipline than that. Discipline is setting boundaries and living within those boundaries. One thing we've learned is that if we expect our kids to live a disciplined life, we as parents must do the same. Our kids will be much more prone to do what they see us doing than what they hear us saying. The reason I'm saying all of this is because being on time is part of a disciplined lifestyle, and we can tell our kids how they need to be on time until we're blue in the face, but if they see us being consistently late for the things that we're trying to teach them are the important things in life, we can only expect them to follow the same pattern when they grow up and get out on their own.

I can also close my eyes and think about people I know who are consistently either on time or early for every event. And it's always the same people, either way. If you were to attend an event where you were meeting everyone there for the first time, and some of them were on time, and others came in late, what would be your first impression of each of them? I believe, maybe without even realizing why, you would automatically have a more positive first impression of the people who made it on time. There's just something about promptness that gives the indication of someone who "has it together." I know there are times when someone's car won't start, or they have a flat...those unexpected events can be expected. But I don't know anyone who has that type of problem ninety per cent of the time. I think the real difference is that the ones who are always on time put a priority on being prompt. It's a part of their reputation that they care about. It's a part of their lifestyle.

None of us ever know exactly what other people think about us, but I'm making an effort to be known as being dependable. And being dependable means being consistently on time.

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXLI

I obtained my first part time job when I was a teenager in high school, working at a little country store/gas station. My uncle owned and operated what we now know as a convenience store that was located right next door to our house, and I worked there in the afternoons when I got home from school. The first thing I had to do when I got to work was to take all the empty soft drink bottles, organize them by brand and size, and get them ready for when the delivery man made his weekly trip to the store. There probably aren't very many people under the age of thirty-five who even know what I'm talking about, but when you would buy a Coke, you would pay a deposit on the bottle, which was made of glass, and when you came back to buy another one, you were exempt from the deposit if you returned your bottle that you had already paid for.

At about that same period of time, there was a company called "Shasta" that came out with a drink that could be purchased in a metal can that could be thrown away after use, thus eliminating the need for a deposit. That idea was slow to catch on, but over time, other companies began to migrate toward that idea, and in the process, they made the glass bottles start moving toward extinction. Next came the plastic bottles with the slogan, "No deposit...no return." Then came another revolutionary idea that made many people say that its originator had to be an idiot...selling water in plastic bottles. I wish I would have been the one who came up with that crazy idea. Now, when you walk into a convenience store, you will have a choice of at least a half dozen brands of drinking water...all in plastic bottles.

Here's what I find ironic about this whole process: Back when we were strictly using glass bottles for our soft drinks, no one ever gave a moment's consideration about conservation or the environment. Now we rarely go a whole day without hearing someone using a new term, "being green," which has almost nothing to do with color. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a "tree hugging" radical, but I do have to say that I too am concerned with the amount of plastic that we are simply throwing away. And the thing about it is, if two hundred years from now, someone digs into one of our landfills, they will find those bottles almost as intact as they are when we put them there. In addition to the plastic bottles are all the diapers that are also being deposited into the landfills by the hundreds of thousands every day. During the time when we were drinking our Pop from returnable glass bottles, we were also clothing our babies with reusable cloth diapers. Not many people do that any more. I recently heard one young mother say, "I decided I wanted to go green and start using cloth diapers, and it worked okay until my baby pooped in one of them. You can't reuse that!"

Now, on a daily basis, innovators are coming up with all kinds of revolutionary ideas about how to recycle many of the products that we carelessly toss into our trash cans without even thinking about it. My son, who works for a uniform company, was telling me about some suits that they have made for the employees of a large hotel chain that they service, and those suits are made totally from recycled plastic bottles. That's just one of thousands of ways that we can help to care for the natural resources with which God has provided us . The biggest obstacle that we face today is persuading the general public to think "green." It seems like the area of the country where I live is much slower at catching on to this new way of thinking than some of the other areas I have visited, but part of that may be due to the difficulty in finding ways to recycle. The grocery store where we shop now has bins in front of their stores for plastic bottles and bags, and it appears that more and more people are beginning to use them. I'm glad to see that, and I'm determined to do my part. But to quote Kermit the Frog: "It's not easy being green."

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXL

Some days I just feel like being lazy. After all, when God created us, he provided us with an example of how we're suppose to carry out our week when he rested on the seventh day, and who am I to try to improve on God's plan. I know there are some people who like to take this "rest day thing" to extremes by making several days out of every week into rest days, but I've been giving it some thought lately and I've come to the conclusion that that's not such a good idea either. There again, God worked six days and rested just one, and then instructed us to do the same.

Just a couple weeks ago I was working a trade show in Jackson, MS, and the first day of the show was extremely slow, so I basically sat in my booth that entire day with practically nothing to do. The next day was the exact opposite...I barely had time to even go to the restroom. Here's the part that puzzles me: On that first day when I had nothing to do, when I got to my hotel room that night, I was totally exhausted; but on the second night after a very busy day, I felt more refreshed than I had the night before. Why is that? I don't have a definite answer, but, like I said, I've been thinking about it and I do have some possible theories. Maybe on that first day I was stressing because I knew I needed to be busy and business just wasn't coming. Another theory could be that there is a calming effect on a person when he knows that he is actually getting some things accomplished. Or maybe it's a combination of the two. Whatever the truth is, I'll take a busy day any time over a slow day.

One other theory I've come up with is that our bodies and our minds may get into a slothful mode, making us not want to get out of our restful state, therefore the tired feeling at the end of the day. And then the opposite could be true when we're in a productive mode, making us have the desire to keep producing. I'm obviously not an expert on the human mind or body, so really all I'm doing now is just surmising as to what causes us to react to certain situations the way we do. I guess that just brings us back to the first paragraph...we're better off if we follow the example and instructions that God provided for us.

My rest day is Sunday. First I get up and head to Sunday School and Morning Worship, which is actually a form of rest in itself, and it takes up my entire morning. After that, we have a nice meal, and then we crash for the rest of the day. We'll take a short nap, and then it's time for relaxing with the family. I love my Sundays. Thank you Lord for showing us how to do it. There's no telling what we would have come up with if we would have had to figure it out on our own.

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXXXIX

The noise in the stadium was deafening as thousands of fans were chanting my name after I had just scored the winning touchdown, giving our championship team a perfect season. I guess you could call that a "virtual" event since in actuality it didn't really happen. The only place that event ever occurred was inside of my own imagination. That's just one of the places that my ten year old mind took me. The next day I was elected President of the United States, marking the first time in history that a world renowned rock star had achieved that honor. The neat thing about it was that, even with all of the wealth I had accumulated and the fame that had found its way to my door, I remained the same good old down-home boy that I had always been, staying in close contact with all of my good friends back home.

Surely I'm not the only kid who ever had those kinds of dreams, am I? I feel quite certain that practically every person reading this article right now can identify with what I'm talking about. But then reality sets in and we come back down to earth to the realization that fame and stardom have evaded us as we settle into our lives that are pretty much the same as everyone else around us. Then, however, the dream re-emerges, only this time it is for our kids instead of us. Maybe this is just a never ending cycle, and I don't have a problem with it as long as it just remains a dream. Dreams are what lead people to bigger and better things. The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced that we're better off when the dreams of becoming a major celebrity remain just that--a dream.

Both of my kids are grown and married now, and I'm happy with the way both of them turned out. I'm thankful every day that I'm not the father of a Brittney Spears or a Lindsay Lohan. I'll take my kids just the way they are. I just finished reading an autobiography of Ronald Reagan, a poor kid from Dixon, Illinois, who achieved the goals of becoming a movie star and President of the United States. He said that although he did enjoy being President, he sometimes felt like he was trapped inside a prison called the White House. After he had reached the place in life where he no doubt had the most recognized face in the world, he dreamed of just being a normal guy so that he could walk into a drug store and buy his wife a Valentine card without attracting large throngs of people, some of whom wanted to do him harm. One day he decided he would do just that, and he told his staff that he was going to a small gift shop near the White House to buy Nancy a card. He said it created such a stir, and so much preliminary work had to be done by the Secret Service, that he decided that he would never put another merchant through that kind of trouble again.

So I guess you could say that I've had some unfulfilled dreams, but I'm reminded of a song by Garth Brooks that says, "I'm thankful for unanswered prayers." Actually, when I stop to think about it, maybe I achieved my dreams after all, because I'm as much of a star right now as I ever hope to be. My kids are stars as well when we consider the fact that they are idolized by the people who really matter. I'll never see my name in lights or hear thousands of adoring fans chanting my name in unison. I'm glad. This is just the way I want it.

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXXXVIII

How old is too old? It obviously depends on what we're talking about. Is it fair for the government to set an arbitrary age limit on issuing drivers license? It depends on the individual. Some people have passed the point of being a safe driver while they're in their early seventies, while others may still do okay at age one hundred. I guess the best scenario would be for each person to realize on their own accord that he or she has reached that stage of life, although I believe it will be a sad day for me if I ever have to come to that conclusion about myself. There are countless other areas where age becomes a factor in how well an individual can perform, and sometimes it's a decision that the person can decide for himself, and other times that decision has to be made by others.

It's hard for me to get my arms around the fact that I will be turning sixty years old next summer, and as bad as I hate to admit it, I can feel the effects of aging on many of my activities. One of those activities that seems to become more of a challenge with each passing year is the ability to run a marathon (26.2 miles). But, just for the record, I'm not giving up yet. In fact, by the time that many of you read this, Angie and I, along with several of our good friends, will be on board a Southwest Airlines flight en route to Minneapolis to try it one more time. If I can complete this one, it will be my tenth time to achieve that goal.

I remember so well after I had completed my first one that I said, "I ran this marathon because for a long time I've wondered if I could do it. Now I don't have to wonder any more...I did it!" Eventually, there will come a time when I'll have to face the fact that I've passed the stage of my life where I can run 26.2 miles, but even then I just can't see me stopping. More than likely what will happen is I will just lose that desire. Now that I think about it, I think that may be the way elderly people make the decision to discontinue many of the things that used to get their blood pumping. Hopefully, when that time comes for me, I'll just pull back slowly and begin to run half-marathons instead.

As of right now, I still have the desire...if for no other reason than to just prove that I can still do it. I have no illusions that my completion time will be anywhere near as fast as it was eight years ago in Chicago when I ran my first one, but it will be my fastest time since I've turned fifty-nine,whatever it is. Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, this is a challenge, but it's one that I believe I'm ready for. So this Sunday, October 3, at 8:15 AM CDT, please think about my friends and me and say a little prayer as we begin this journey one more time.

Oh, and let me add one more thing...regardless of how I do on this attempt, I don't expect it to be my last.

Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXXXVII

This is not the first time I've talked about this, and without a doubt, it will not be my last. It all goes back to a statement that I've heard from so many people, but it's one that I've also said that I have a hard time believing. Now that I think about it, however, it's becoming more and more believable. That statement is, "I don't care what other people think about me." Since I do care what they think about me, I always found that statement a little hard to accept. I think my opinion really began to change when I first got on facebook, and I starting reading what everyone posted as their status. I was not prepared for the number of misspelled words and grammatical errors that were showing up on post after post and, I must admit, I was a little surprised at just who some of them were coming from. Now I have no doubt that there are many people who will be reading this article that can point out a number of mistakes I've made in this one writing alone, but I think the difference is, I do care and I want to do it right. None of us will get it perfect every time, yet I'm convinced that the ones who are concerned about how it makes them look will have much fewer errors in their writing.

Several weeks ago in one of my "Thinking Out Loud" columns, I made the statement that we will reap what we "sew." Then one of my really good friends pointed out that, when used in that context, the word should have been "sow." I knew the instant that I saw it that she was right, and I had to resist the temptation to send out a correction. When we speak or write, our words, and how we use them, will automatically give an impression of us and our level of intelligence, whether we like it or not. I don't know about you, but that concerns me.

Probably the most common error that I see on facebook is the misuse of the word "your." For example, someone will say "Thank you" and the response will be "Your welcome." The correct way to say it is, "You're welcome." "Your" shows ownership, while "you're" means "you are." That example is just the most common error, but it is not the only one by a long shot. Coming in at a close second place is the failure to separate sentences with periods. I have a hard time figuring out what a person is trying to say when all their sentences run together. Now, let me mention just one more thing before I get off of my soap box: Speaking with a southern accent does not make a person seem dumb, but butchering the English language does.

I just thought I'd mention a few of the things that "jump up" at me, because when I mess up, I want someone to point out my error so I'll be less likely to make the same mistake twice. But, of course, none of what I've been talking about really matters unless we care.

Okay, so now I'm worried that maybe I sound angry...but I promise I'm not. See, I told you that I care about what other people think.

Preston