Tomorrow begins my 60th August (not counting the four days of my birth year), and my thoughts turn from the luxurious leaning and loafing of July to the intentioned planning and preparation for another school year and trip around the sun that the eighth month requires of me.
Category Archives: Musings
“Why Does It Always Rain on Me?!”
Even though I know that there are few emotions more worthless, disabling, and pathetic than self-pity, especially if it is allowed to become chronic, I still struggle to “avoid the snares” of that particular devil. If left unnamed and unchecked, self-pity can metastasize into full-blown depression.
Tennis Anyone?
I took up tennis on a regular basis about ten years ago and have found it to be one of the most fulfilling and joy-producing activities of my adult life.
“Ain’t It Fun?”
Although the free spirit that lives in me (FYI: It’s not much.) found his encouragement liberating, it seemed to me then and still does that there are some experiences in the “real world,” many quite necessary, that just aren’t meant to be “fun.”
“Somebody That I Used to Know”
“We must choose to remember that we were all Americans before we were Democrats or Republicans, before we were pro-this or pro that, before we were red states and blue states. That is the common ground on which we can “all get along” and continue to “form a more perfect Union.” That is the proper interpretation of “America First,” not the way it is typically distorted to mean “America Only.”
“Get Out My Face!”?
I can think of very few things I would want “thrown in my face.” However, I also realize that there are many, many things thrown in my face every day that I’d really rather were not but I have little choice but to tolerate because, you know, that freedom of expression thing.
A Canary in the Catholic Coal Mine
I want to feel welcome in the church of my fathers and my upbringing, and I want to be a good Catholic if that means following the teachings of Jesus. But I’m finding myself wanting less and less to be a member of a church in which too many of its leaders and followers are more interested in turning back the clock to a time of women in veils and the Tridentine mass than meeting the needs of a modern, pluralistic, well-educated, and thinking constituency.
Trust
AI has made it increasingly difficult to trust anything we see in photos, on video, or read in print or online and at a time when there are few remaining safe public places. But until we make a leap of faith and are willing to risk trusting one another again, we will continue to spiral downward into an ungovernable state of enmity and anomie.
“Girls in Their Summer Clothes”
Perhaps, a part of my willingness to recycle myself is due to the fact that I struggle intellectually to put much stock in a cognizant existence after this earthly life is through. I keep the door open slightly to the possibility that I’m wrong, but I have found it easier to deeply appreciate my life and those who people it with the belief that my existence is finite rather than banking on what may or not be behind Door #2.
Teacher DEpreciation Week.
The coffee, cookies, and cards that we receive during this week of appreciation are nice, but I’d rather be thanked by your trust that I want what is best for our children’s education and maturation as much as you do. Otherwise, I would have been a busy-ness major.
Ty Roth 