Not as difficult as you think Dave 🙂 I understand that this is a trick question, but it looks like others beat me to the punch.

Right off the top of my head:

1. I don’t know how or when I’m going to die. Could be tomorrow. Could be when I’m 100.

2. I don’t know what I’ll be doing for work in ten years. Let alone, what I will be when I grow up. Then again, I might be dead.

3. I don’t know what I’ll be wearing next year. Next week is pretty iffy. Shoot, tomorrow morning is as well. Then again, well.. see number one.

4. I don’t know if I’ve been a good friend, a good brother, a good son, or a good husband. Now a good father. We never really know what others think of us. And if I was sure of what I thought of myself – I’d probably be an asshole.

5. I don’t know if the net/net contribution of my life is good or bad. I’m hoping good.

6. I don’t know if I’m spending my time as thoroughly as I can.

7. I don’t know how big my heart can get, because it just grows and grows every day I have with Emma.

(I can go on and on… couldn’t do just five… it’s a great, thought provoking question)

Reposted from Philly Future:

I wanted to take a moment, at this early hour, to wish you all, the Philadelphia community, a Merry Christmas.

This Christmas will be the most special in my life, the first Christmas for my daughter Emma. And I can’t help but share with you my love and excitement.

And I can’t help but share how blessed I feel to be part of the great team of volunteers that run this service, or to be a fellow member of our online community.

But I feel hesitant. Because in the presence of so much personal joy, outside my window, there are countless families struggling with loss. From Star’s family to the the 400 souls who have been murdered this year, to the 1,100 children who are homeless and on the streets, times are hard for all too many.

So let me take this moment, and join Carol Towarnicky at the Daily News and share my liberal Christian faith and ask you all for a prayer.

That we may all be instruments of peace, love, faith, hope, joy and understanding in this coming year. No matter what religion we may follow. No matter what label we divide ourselves by.

Merry Christmas.

Scott tagged me 🙂 Okay, this is pretty hard considering all I’ve shared here over the years.

Lets see…

1. I spent a night in a county jail because a friend of mine lied when he told me he had permission to borrow his parent’s car. He drove us up to Connecticut to meet a girlfriend of his. Turns out he was helping her run away and that he lied to me about the whole thing. The police stopped us in a park we were hanging out in, across state lines. Me, not knowing why, was umm… more than a little stunned. I found out overnight while chatting with him in our cell. How nice. Anyway, his parents came up to pick us up. Charges were dropped. Along the way, his parents told me how much they blamed me, having the long hair, ripped jeans, and broken home, I was, well ya know, the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Obviously to blame. They dropped me off on the side of the highway (I-95) at the Philadelphia city limit.

2. I like Bon Jovi. And I like Metallica. And I like Poison. And I like Dio. And I like The Ramones. And I like Twisted Sister. And I like KISS. And I like Marvin Gaye. And I like Johnny Cash. And I like Pat Benatar. And I’m not afraid to say all that in the same breath. You know, Duran Duran had their moments too.

3. As a teenager with his own apartment, I tended to drink… a lot. I used to take hard liquor bottles (Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort, etc) and use them as decoration. Sad huh?

4. I thought I was going to die by the time I was 30. Glad I didn’t. In fact, you know all those folks who look back wistfully on their teenage years? Maybe you’re one of them? Not me. My teenage years and my early twenties were hell on Earth. I’m happier now then I’ve ever been.

5. Know that scene in Return of the Jedi with Luke looking at his gloved robotic hand after severing Darth Vader’s? That’s Luke realizing he’s on a path that mirrors his father’s. The father he never knew. It shocks him just enough to come out of his rage and throw his saber to the ground. I carry a fear that life works that way. And since I don’t know my father – I don’t have that knowledge as a clue to what I am evolving into. Hopefully it’s good.

Okay, time for me to tag some folks and break the rules (only supposed to tag five I think…)… Howard, Albert, Garret, Bill, Shelley, Katey, Ron, Antonella, Jessica, pesky, Matt, Frank, Rafe, Seth, Dave, and Jessica.

The following comic says a lot, doesn’t it?

source: xkcd

Viktor E. Frankl, a Nazi death camp survivor, famous psychologist, and author of “Man’s Search for Meaning” (on my to-read list), once said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Steven Covey made this a central tenet of his “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. There is a huge money making machine around the book and his tools, but I can never recommend the book enough.

Yesterday was Richelle and my 7th Anniversary (hi Richelle). We’ve been through hell and high water together. Among lovers people say things like “it was destiny”, or “we were born to be together”. But the truth of the matter is, if she didn’t make the choice to believe in me through my dark times, and if I didn’t make the choice to get over my fear, we’d not be here today and be blessed with Emma and each other.

There are cards we are dealt. We fool ourselves into believing we control the hand all too often. A lie we tell ourselves to make things feel better.

And then there is how we play those cards.

Read Dave Rogers’s latest post, “Social Hygiene: Love Better” (via Shelley Powers). It’s a little more than 500 words, and worth every one of them:

This isn’t an endorsement for the Salvation Army. I’m not saying everyone should go throw money they may not have at something. I’m saying that love is faith in action, and you have to find a way to make a choice to embrace faith somehow, as often as you can. A practice that reminds you of your faith, helps you find it. The kettles are probably not a great choice, because they kind of disappear as soon as Christmas is over. I have other practices, not enough probably, but driving is one of them too. “Don’t drive angry. Don’t drive angry.” isn’t the tag line here just because I thought it was hysterical watching a woodchuck drive a truck on Bill Murray’s lap.

But this is a good time of the year to help people get started. There are lots of good messages out there right now, but they can be a source of suffering for many too. But the only power anyone has is the power to choose. Lots of people are going to be getting those 50″ high definition plasma TVs, and Sony Playstation 3s; and maybe you’re hoping you can just put gas in your car. Maybe you wish you had a car. Maybe that’s not fair, but you have the power to choose. You can choose where to place your attention. You can choose to embrace faith instead of surrendering to fear. And you still won’t have a Playstation 3, or a 50″ high definition plasma TV, or even gasoline, but you’ll have something else that money, or attention, can’t buy.

And you won’t get it reading this blog, or anyone else’s for that matter either. So go on, get out of here!

But thanks for stopping by.

The usual disclaimers apply. As Dave would say, if you’re coming to this blog for advice on life, you’re coming to the wrong place.

Get off your chair and do something.