"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

 

There lives within me this all-encompassing desire to succeed, to make something of myself.  I'm not sure where it comes from, but I do know that I've had it my entire life.  It's not necessarily the need to make a lot of money, although that will be hella nice, when it happens.  (Can you feel the confidence there?   )  

He has to love kissing.  The person I've been intimately involved with for the last several months hates kissing.  I miss it.  (I've mentioned my love of kissing before.)  It is such an intimate and personal act, and I've realized that I don't want a relationship without it.

 

He has to be smart, but still able to be goofy.  I want someone who can have a serious conversation, but who can appreciate me when I've got the giggles, too.  You don't have to be stuffy to be intelligent, and you don't have to wear your smarts on your sleeve.

 

He has to get along with my family. You all know how important my family is to me.  This shouldn't surprise anyone.

 

He has to love to travel.  I plan on spending a significant portion of my life experiencing new places and cultures, and I want the man I love to do that with me.  I recently went on a couple of dates with a man who had never been outside of the midwest U.S., and he had no desire to, ever.  I just can't imagine that.

 

He has to be able to laugh at himself.  And laugh at me.  And laugh during sex.  That's something new that I've discovered I really, really like.  There is a tremendous level of trust and comfort between two people when they can try new things and laugh when they don't work.  Or when they do, and it's oh-so-good.  I love to laugh, and I want someone who embraces the joy of life as passionately as I.

 

And most importantly, he has to love Braeden.  As if he were his own.  This comes much later, of course, but it's still a requirement. 

 

"Think of the possibilities!  Think of how great it could be.  You know that if you just wait it out, everything will turn out the way you want.  If you continue to spend time together, he'll realize how awesome and special you are, and he'll realize that those things holding him back are superficial and don't matter."

"He should think you're awesome already.  You've never been the kind of woman who goes into something wanting someone to change - why do it now?  The requirements that he has for a woman are important to him, and there is nothing you can do to meet those.  You need to get out NOW, before you're in so deep that you break your own heart."

There will be more men.  (Lots of them, probably.   )  But this one, this one was special.

DARRELL SCOTT TESTIMONY
 Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm?  On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee.  What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful.  They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well.  It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert!  These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal.  There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness The following is a portion of the transcript:

 "Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

 "The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.
 "In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.
 I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. "I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:

  Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
  Your words are empty air.
 You've stripped away our heritage,
 You've outlawed simple prayer.
 Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
 And precious children die.
 You seek for answers everywhere,
 And ask the question "Why?"
 You regulate restrictive laws,
 Through legislative creed.
 And yet you fail to understand,
 That God is what we need!

 "Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and reek havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately s eek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. "Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
 "As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes-He did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America, and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA - I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!
 My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"

 

For those of you not familiar with this tragedy, you can go here to read more.

This was my response:

I think he's right when he says that we can't blame the NRA and people who own guns when something like this happens.  That old cliche 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people' is trite but true.

As to the other stuff, i.e., prayer in school, I don't think it makes any difference.  Think about the example he starts off with - Cain and Abel.  Of all the people in the history of the world, I can't think of any kids who would have had more religious and godly parents.  I mean, come on, they actually met the Big Guy.  And yet Cain still killed his brother.  Evil is not going to be vanquished by having a teacher stand at the front of the classroom and say a prayer every morning. 

Even when prayer in schools was the norm, there was still evil.  Think about all the killings that have happened in our history - not only in America, but all over the world.  Think about the civil rights movement and all the murders and senseless beatings that occurred.  All of those were perpetrated by people who grew up with Christianity in schools.

And there have always been killings 'in the name of Christ' as well.  The Crusades, all the abortion clinic bombings, homosexual beatings and murders.  These people pray on a daily basis, and yet evil lives on.

For Mr. Scott, I feel an incredible amount of sadness.  He lost his child, and now that I'm a parent myself, I just can't imagine the pain that he must be feeling.  However, he ridicules those that try to blame 'evil' on a cause such as gun control, and then he does exactly the same thing.  Isn't it normal to try to find SOMETHING to blame whenever a tragedy occurs?  But saying a prayer over the heads of those two Columbine killers wouldn't have made a difference.

People are always going to want an explanation - but are never satisfied with the very simple explanation that some people have something wrong with them.  Some people are, very simply, evil.

What do you think? 

"A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question: was it good or was it evil?  Have I done well - or ill? -John Steinbeck

 . . . to Texas to visit my mom and Mike#2 when I was a junior.

 

 . . . to Washington, D.C. for Presidential Classroom as a senior.

 

 . . . to Spain for vacation.

 

 . . . to Costa Rica for vacation.

 

 . . . to Mexico for vacation.

The second day of school, I was in second period science class, with Mrs. Sovereign.  She was doing roll call, and when she got to one of my best friends, Amy Dunham, she noticed that she was absent.  Her response - "That's great.  Only the second day of school, and she's absent already."  By the time the evening news came on that night, we all knew why Amy wasn't at school.  Early that morning, her mother had shot and killed her father and her baby brother, and then loaded Amy and her other brother into their truck.  She drove to downtown Anderson, and then drove the truck into an oncoming train.  They all survived, but Amy went to live with relatives in Oklahoma.  I never saw or talked to her again.

 

 

Later in the year, one of my friends, Kim, was upset in our art class, because her father was having surgery the next day.  Her father was a state policeman who had been shot by the associate of a man he had previously arrested the year before.  The man had found out where Officer Harper lived, and was hidden behind the house, and when he went to the kitchen sink to open a can of peaches, he was shot.  He survived, but he was having this surgery as a result.  As we were all trying to comfort Kim, Christeney said, "What's the big deal?  It's not like he's going to die or anything."  Officer Harper died the next day, on the operating table.