Tanning session that’s safer than using a tanning bed.
Ozone-treated sauna session.
Cool shower. (Well, I assume you’ll go for that, just inside the door, right?)
A Ukrainian straw hat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Some precautions:
If you burn easily, or if it’s your first-ever venture into the great outdoors for any length of time, use sunscreen.
Wear a broad-brimmed straw hat, preferably one with vents in the crown. If your hands are tender, you might want to wear gloves, also.
Wet a small towel, such as a hand towel, somewhat drippy, and double it, lengthwise, over the back of your neck. Wear this the entire time you are outdoors, as a sort of coolant.
Take breaks every half hour. These breaks can include swapping out the washer/dryer, because you love multi-tasking. These breaks must include being in from the heat and using a fan to cool off a bit, drinking a huge glass of water that is not too icy, and resting in a seated position.
You may want to limit how much you do the first time out, depending on your age, sun-sensitivity, and tolerance to exercise. Check up on all that are appropriate from this list: pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar, even temperature, if you’re not sure.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989. The photo shows a part of a public photo documentation wall at Former Check Point Charlie, Berlin. The photo documentation is permanently placed in the public.
A startling change in events for this poor beleaguered family is on the horizon. Read about it here.
In order to submerge the individual and develop ideal citizens, Sparta assembled the males at [age] seven into barracks and entrusted their subsequent education and training to official guardians. Although such measures have been deliberately approved by men of great genius their ideas touching the relation between individual and state were wholly different from those upon which our institutions rest; and it hardly will be affirmed that any Legislature could impose such restrictions upon the people of a state without doing violence to both letter and spirit of the Constitution.Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923) at 402
Detail of Preamble to Constitution of the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How about that.
What ARE we doing?
Anyone brave enough to hazard a guess?
Whenever we hold hands with the United Nations, that is what we get. They tell us it’s all about the rights of children and other “disabled” people, but we really know what it’s all about.
(And I hope the last time I ever post about this stuff.)
One Friday, after my usual eye doctor visit I had another appointment, with my grandson, to attend his birthday party, which had been arranged specifically to mesh with my schedule.
We had a lovely time celebrating this lovely grandson and the hour arrived to let him get to bed, and us home.
It’s a long drive over narrow, hilly, curvy, crumbly, bumpy country roads, from his house to mine. Some of the roads have few markings, due to paint rub-off, due to overuse and under-upkeep. Some of the bridges are only barely wide enough to be two lanes.
Quaint.
Plenty good enough for me. I drive a Ford truck. One of the last of the Rangers. Just a bit jazzed up from the last owner . . .
However, I noticed someone following me almost all the way. It’s harder, yet, to drive at night with lights in your rear-view mirror. This person was not exactly tailgating, but sure was sticking like glue. Sighs.
Also, on these country roads, we often encounter deer, skunks, armadillos, dogs, cats, possums, etc. We always drive with attention to the woods along the road, looking out for the gleam of the eyes of something that wants to hop out before you just as you pass, so you can hit it. With the smaller creatures, it’s mostly too bad, but with skunks and deer, you can really acquire a messed-up vehicle if you hit them.
So I swerved a time or two.
We also sometimes encounter huge trucks, used to help chicken farmers keep their chicken houses cleaner, that we fondly call “Tyson’s Soup Trucks”. I don’t think you can Google that and learn what it is, so just use your imagination, okay? It’s gross. Anyone would rather go one-on-one with a cement truck than with one of those. Okay?
So, we really, really yield the right of way when one of those “soup trucks” is trying its best to maneuver a tight country curve. So I yielded, really yielded, once.
As I neared town, as the road smoothed and straightened and had a more substantial shoulder, I noticed my almost-tailgater friend also had blue lights atop his car. Sighs. I was in no mood for being spot-checked, but so be it–I stopped.
The officer was really handsome, young with a baby face to match, doing his level best to look stern and official. I’d take him for a son, if his mom didn’t want him. He told me I’d been weaving and driving on the shoulder, crossing the center line, etc. Well? I guess he was so busy watching me, he forgot to watch the road. I should have bumped a skunk for his driving pleasure?
Then he began searching inside my cab with his flashlight. Then he wanted to know where I’d been and where I was going. Wow. I am plenty old enough to be his mom. I’m used to asking those things of folks his age.
I’ve been to my grandson’ birthday party and I’m on my way home.
Not convinced.
Okay, before that I had an eye doctor appointment in the really big city, to get a shot in my eyeball.
That got his attention.
And here is the funny part.
You know how the thought of getting a shot in your eyeball makes you shiver, but doesn’t do that for me anymore?
He shivered. Not a little, barely perceptible shiver, but a big shiver, one due the enormity of the thought. His big hand stopped pushing that little pen and he lost his cool for just a moment. And after that, he decided just to give me a warning and then he let me go.
But not before he left his parting remark: “Well that explains your red, weeping eyes.”
Hmm. Driving a jazzed up truck, weaving, red-eyed granny–I’m sure he was disappointed.
I know people might read the title of this post and think I’ve decided to take a break from my usual hope-centered posts, but I haven’t; this post is also about hope.
A few years ago I was watching a show about ancient Rome on the History Channel. One of the most fascinating segments was on the incredible highway system the Romans had built throughout their empire. These Roman Roads were built to exact specifications to handle cart and foot traffic. This intricate network of roads facilitated trade and commerce as well as making it much easier for people to travel.
I suffered from going into the past to worry about a future that never came about.
However, I did stop worrying about the past-future-what-ifs and I’d like to share with you how to do it, in case you find yourself needing to know.
1. Stop imagining.
My kids tell a joke, disguised as a riddle, which begins: Imagine you are in a car rolling backward down a hill toward a lake. The troubles and frustrations described in the joke continue to the point of desperation. There is seemingly no way to survive being drowned in that lake when the question comes: What should you do? Once the victim of this joke tries every possible solution to this seeming riddle and then gives up, the joker gives the answer: STOP IMAGINING! At that point it is very funny.
If you tell it right, the relief in the air is almost palpable at that moment, because the listener latches on to the story because we all have imaginings like this from time to time.
You may have imagined worries, but you can have that palpable relief, too.
In real life.
Imagination is a wonderful tool, in its place—but stop imagining.
2. Take every thought captive and make it obey the truth.
Realize there is something or someone trying to take away your sanity and you need to fight to get it back. Tell yourself the truth, aloud, if needed.
Ah, but what is truth? How can anyone ever possibly know what might have happened?
Don’t go there!
Take that thought captive!
Here is the truth: You are not in control. You do your best with what you are in control of, and then other forces are in control of all the rest. You try hard to be in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time, and then, you let go.
The truth is that God is in control and you are not God. He rules the world. He determines. Not you. Not me. Not any malfunctioning gearbox, not any tornado, not any burglar, not any hormone, not any doctor, not any police.
God.
We read the stories all the time of those who escaped harm while doing the wrong thing. People hide from tornados in flimsy shelters and the whole building blows away except for the flimsy shelter. We read, also, of a tornado that swoops out of nowhere to pick up only one person and passes on to do no more damage. Burglars flee when someone rolls over in bed; other burglars take everything. Careless women have healthy babies; careful women deliver stillborn babies. And on it goes.
The truth is partly in the timing. When God determines it is time, then it is time. We all want to escape all danger, harm, shame, etc., but after doing all we can do, then the ball is in God’s court, and when it comes to THAT ballgame, God wins.
Of course, the fatalist will say, “Then why try?”
We must try hard to stay alive and to keep others alive, if at all possible, because life is a precious gift from God and we are to use it to His glory. We are not to become fatalistic or desponding, but to trust Him to make the best possible outcome from our entire life. We are to cooperate with Him, but not to worry about if He knows what on earth He is doing.
True freedom from worry over past-future-what-ifs came for me — and I hope, for you — with these thoughts:
My baby did not die that day. (It took me a while to get that part.)
Therefore, it was not God’s will for my baby to die that day.
Therefore, it was impossible that he could have died that day.
There could have been NO what-ifs that could have changed that. Since then I have even met a family whose son was run over, with no lasting harm coming to him. It’s all about Who is in control.
And it’s not about you or me.
The glorious liberty that comes from the truth, can set us free from all fear of death and all guilt.
We should do our best and trust God. He can and will take care of the what-ifs.
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