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I remember the day we ran into some newlywed friends of ours. They just had that look, you know, hand-in-hand and grinning. The bride and my daughter started to talk excitedly about how the wedding went. When it was time to leave, I couldn't find my daughter, until I got into the van.
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Gym class can be a pretty unfair place in school. You've got your natural athletes, your average athletes, and your basic klutzes, like me, who are all lumped together in the same class. It's tough to get a decent grade if the teacher compares your performances. The natural athletes, of course, are going to play better, score higher, run farther than many others who are trying just as hard. And many a good student has had his grade point dragged down. Not because of a C effort in gym, but because of a C result.
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I have fond memories of family trips when the kids were younger; the adventure, the togetherness, the planning, the brochures. Did I say "and the waiting"? Yeah, there were times when the kids would be waiting in the car and waiting and waiting. They would ask Mom, "Where is Dad? Why doesn't he come out of that tourist center there?" She would respond with, "Oh, you know he's getting brochures."
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Now, it's hard to lose weight; I know that very well. But the real trick in weight loss is keeping the weight off. Years ago I dropped about 55 pounds. Oh, I didn't drop it; I mean, it went away thankfully a little bit at a time. I found out that it is possible to hang around the level of where you got your weight loss to. Of course, you can't eat grapefruit all the time, or celery, or diet bars for the rest of your life. No. That's the way a lot of people regain what they lost. No, what you've got to do is to learn new ways of eating that fit your metabolism. I call it making friends with your metabolism.
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I'm a newspaper man! No, I'm not a career journalist. I'm a guy who likes his newspaper. But, I have to admit I get frustrated occasionally when it's not there; which means the delivery guy has either goofed up or goofed off. See, there are many reporters all around the world who have worked to collect that news, and then there's this expensive process of getting it all laid out, and edited, and printed. And the products of all that expense and all that effort ends up on the doorstep of one probably paper boy; some guy who's going to deliver it. You know what? If he doesn't deliver it, all that expensive effort doesn't get to me...it never reaches me. You know something? We're all in the delivery business.
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The church we attended in New Jersey grew a lot over the years. So much so, that it was hard to spot visitors. So, our pastor would ask first-timers to stand and introduce themselves right where they were. He'd take one section of the sanctuary at a time, and ask the visitors to stand and introduce themselves.
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The other night I saw one of the most adorable scenes I've seen in ages. I was coming out of a restaurant, and right ahead of me was a mother and a father. In between them was their little girl who was obviously a rookie at walking. She was just learning, and she had both hands extended upward. Mom had one hand and Dad had the other. She was dressed in this pretty little pink dress. She also had this cute, frilly little pink cap on. You can kind of picture it.
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God blessed the Hutchcraft home with three very unique children. Anybody who knows them, nod your head now. Good...okay. I realize that's three more than a number of families, some of whom would love to just have one child. We've had some friends tell us, "Ron, we've been trying to have children for three years," or five years, or ten years. And today doctors do all they can to increase those possibilities. They'll suggest times of the month when the baby would be most likely be conceived; sometimes they'll give you fertility drugs. And many a childless couple does all that they can to conceive a new life, and the way that they do that is just to create the conditions in which the miracle could happen. And even though they can't make it happen, they can at least prepare for the life to begin.
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I'm seldom home for lunch. But one day, my travels had me at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, that one visit wouldn't encourage me to do it a lot more times. I had an early breakfast that morning, and I usually do get a good head start on things, and so by the time I finally got around to lunch, I was really hungry. I came in ready for a major lunch. Well, we grilled a hot dog in the toaster oven. That was a good start, and then my wife went to cook some more things on the stove for me. Would you believe that the stove decided not to work at that point? And she said, "Wait a minute! Nothing's heating up." I said, "Well, that's okay. I know there are some chips here. I'll just load up on potato chips." So, I went to get the chips out of the cabinet. What chips? My son had fed them to his friends. So, I enjoyed my lonesome hot dog very slowly. I ate everything I was served. I was still hungry.
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It's almost become a gag line; it expresses the attitude of an employee who just wants to meet the bare minimums of their job. You ask them a question, ask them to do some small task; kind of shrugs his shoulders, puts his hands in the air and says, "Not my job!" Well, that can be a lazy response or maybe a wise one in some cases. For example, if you ask me to repair your car, I probably should say, "It's not my job." Or if you ask the local mechanic to take care of your toothache, it would be good if he said, "It's not my job." Or if you ask your dentist to program your computer, it would probably be good for him to say, "It's not my job." See, you really shouldn't be working out of what really isn't your job and you don't know how to do.
