Warheads

Back in the days of desks and cubbies, the days of silly bands and Japanese erasers, the days of recess and walking-in line down a hallway, me, myself, and I had party tricks or as they'd be called nowadays "weird flexes" as numerous as the pines on a pine tree. A double-jointed shoulder, the ability to flip my eyelids, a wide variety of tongue tricks, riddles for days that could stump anyone, a hitchhiker's thumb, and an ability to vibrate my eyes contributed to this bag of oh so important skills to impress my peers. My proudest flex, however, was my sour tolerance. I would eat lemons whole. Warheads that make people pucker up, I could eat by the handful without making a face. I'm not sure why this was so pride inducing to me the sour part of warheads didn't taste that good. The sweet part was great, but not much better than normal candy, yet the journey to get to the sweet part made it much better.

Here are my warhead ingredients:

99 sins and counting

3 jars of peanut butter

68 cent bundle of bananas

5 online classes

16 paparazzi members

2 old men

1 cute nephew

99 sins and counting- I got to go to confession a week or two ago. Confession is the best, but it is also kinda painful. I know nothing I do can change God's love for me, but I still feel ashamed with having repeat sins or just sins I don't know why I committed. I frequently commit the sin of pride, especially in judgment/comparison, and soaking in my own glory. With the former, it's typically a quick judgment that gets washed away by a desire to know someone and understand them, but I hate that it is even there. The priest told me a quote, I believe from Saint Paul, that goes something along the lines of "what good do I have that is not a gift from God." Saint Anthony, my confirmation saint heck yeah, writes similarly in a quote I found this morning: “Attribute to God every good that you have received. If you take credit for something that does not belong to you, you will be guilty of theft.” These quotes and reflection need to be stirred around in my heart to realign myself with the ways of Christ.

3 jars of peanut butter- Jack and I have 3 jars of peanut butter in our apartment at any given time. I like to think about the process of peanut butter being made. I like to think of George Washington Carver. I like to think that this hard-shelled salty plant becomes a smooth sweet creamy food. If that hard-shelled salty guy has hope to become sweet, who does not have hope. It's also amazing in my smoothies.

68 cent bundle of bananas - Being a frugal fella, the price of bananas is wonderful. They are filling and a great medium for the aforementioned peanut butter. They are also wonderful to freeze and put in smoothies. Then, today I listened to a podcast while I was working out. Yes, I do it while I workout because the kinesthetic and auditory learning really cements things in my brain. I also like history podcasts (but I hate history class) because they often tell multi-perspective stories and reform my outlook on things. Anyway, I learned bananas are so cheap because of a greedy businessman Minor Cooper Keith. The stories of how the banana business went booming or should I say bananas are tragic and horrifying. Labor and land exploitation beyond imaginable. Just a ton of death and the danger of banana harvesting still exists to some extent today. It is a truly interesting story of persistence and greed and it makes me wonder how great our world could be if we had the same drive to pursue our positive passions.

5 online classes- Every single freaking one of my classes is online. My rump is tired of sitting upon my couch. It is where I work, eat, watch tv, talk to my family, friends, and girlfriend. It is where I am writing this blog. I move to workout, do PSUB, and cook. I just don't feel all that comfortable with going out and it is so easy to complain about this situation, but man I am grateful. I am grateful for online classes that allow me to visit my girlfriend more often. I am grateful for a computer, access to college education, understanding professors, and the opportunity to learn. I think as a fortunate man in many ways, I forget how much of a blessing education is. Today, in this blog, I'm saying thank you Lord because what do I have that is not a gift from you.

16 paparazzi members- Good golly, I have 16 members in my PSUB publicity committee. I'M LEADING 16 PEOPLE. There ain't that much to do first of all. Second, how do I include everyone in meetings with half virtual and half in-person? Trying to hear all of their ideas, uniqueness, humor, etc. is gonna be hard. I really just want them to feel heard and known, but even that'll be difficult. Jesus kept 12 not 16 for a reason.

2 old men- lf political activism and opinions were like a spice chart at Bdubs, I would be honey bbq, or mild, or a dry rub. Maybe something a little hotter like medium, but on the side. There are two old guys, as per usual, running for office that are so polarizing. They are opposite sides of a magnet that don't attract and it feels frustrating to me that this is my first election. Now my vote and party affiliations will not be discussed right here. I just want to say something about political culture. It is one of the most hateful environments. Would you take a class/job that everyone says is ridiculously hard, a horrible professor, not fun or rewarding, and even when you do good things it comes with backlash. NO! So how can we expect to have candidates who emulate love and moral integrity when it's not the culture we are creating. The culture is fueled by our complaints and to me, it seems like a downward spiral. Let's rewrite it starting locally to produce a more positive, less hateful culture. We can still fight for what we believe as we should, without trashing on, becoming violent, presumptive, or vengeful. Maybe that's naive and incomplete, but it is my take.

1 cute nephew- Milo James is the cutest baby around I'm convinced. He's 2 1/2 months and precious. He has already taught me so much. I realize everyone came from this humble beginning of utter dependency. He literally can't do anything but poop on his own. It amazes me even more that Christ came into the world that way. Completely dependent when God is the ONLY self-sustaining being of the whole universe just wow.

This last confession my priest said my penance was to make a plan with God to help with the sins I was struggling with. I LOVED this penance because it was my own accountability. So the first part was to pray on my knees every night for a week to say the litany of humility. The second part is what wraps up this blog altogether.

Minor Cooper Keith, peanut butter, my nephew, the political culture, my committee, my online classes, and my confession have taught me we have to be persistent in the pursuit of love. Heck, I'd put that quote on my wall or Facebook page "be persistent in the pursuit of love." Right now, many of us are in the sour part of the warhead or we've tasted the sour parts of other people and spit it out. Places we lack love and gratitude once experiences something distasteful end up only growing away from love i.e. the political culture. We have to love through the hard shells of the peanut butter. We gotta see the glory in having online class. We have to be dependent on God like Milo is dependent on his parents. We gotta take on big tasks like leading and loving 16 peeps. We gotta pursue through difficult circumstances knowing the reward at the end is great the way Minor Cooper Keith knew his persistence would lead to money.

So what was the second part of my penance? I told myself if I caught my thought (caught my thought nice rhymes) in a state of judgment, comparison, or just struggling to love my neighbor, I would pray "God loves him/her, so must I try." Let's take our current situation, society, and surrounding people and reapproach them with a renewed love.

Bless up and have a glorious week.