Snow Day

It's as if a nearby flour factory exploded and resulted in a great spillage of tons and tons of powdery white stuff all throughout the city. Except it's really, really cold.
Interesting weekend. Two birthday parties and lots of heart-to-hearts. My feet are numb and my mind is like the slush on the streets.

Sarcasm

I'm in a complicated relationship with Sarcasm. Biting your tongue is really difficult when you have that "perfect" quip / comeback line rushing from your brain to your lips.

Don't just tame my tongue. Tame my mind, tame my heart. Make them like Yours.

Mute

She always has what looks to be a scowl on her face.
There are some interesting characters on staff in the Tepper Finance Office, and she's definitely one of them. My first interaction with her involved a lesson in copy-machine etiquette; I was making copies before her and neglected to reset the settings after I finished. As I started to walk away, she called after me -- I don't remember how, exactly, but I remember being slightly taken aback. She beckoned me over, had me look at the screen on the copier, and then pushed the reset button. "Oh, I understand," I said, feeling slightly embarrassed that I had never thought of doing such a thing whenever I made copies. But, hey, now I always do.
I walked by her in the hallway yesterday, and I smiled at her. Maybe I'm just really ignorant or something, but it didn't occur to me to say anything. She looked at me for a moment, with the same look she always has whenever I see her, and suddenly smiled back. It was a nice smile.

I wonder how she got this job. I wonder how her interview went. I wonder if she writes poetry.

ENTPs Are Special

For my Conflict & Dispute Resolution class (don't ask), I had to take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. A career counselor gave each student in the class a folder containing packets and sheets with our results and other MBTI-related information - "DISCOVERING AND EXPLORING YOU!", one packet read - to help us, uh, discover and explore ourselves.
My result was ENTP, which wasn't very surprising to me (well, I guess MBTI test results aren't supposed to be surprising if done correctly). What I found interesting, however, was the profile for ENTPs in a packet that was meant to be an aid in "choosing a job or changing a career":

SELF REPORT
The following is based on data given by people with ENTP type preferences who have attended a workshop of the 16 types. They responded to a question about what makes a job or career interesting and satisfying.

Summary:
ENTPs look for careers that provide variety, flexibility, autonomy, freedom, change, and that require creativity. Look for challenges. Want meaning in work -- want an "idea-filled" environment that gives lots of people involvement.

Quotes:
It doesn't matter much -- we can do anything.
Anything that interests us.
Anything you can do, I can.
We like occupations that provide challenges, diversity, change and purpose. We like minimum routine.

Etcetera, etcetera (wow, ENTPs sound snooty!). But the best part is the section titled "Specific Careers Selected by ENTPs". Underneath that heading was a parenthetical note: "ENTPs often didn't mention specific careers -- only listed qualities". The end.

So, um, how does this help me?

You guys have any career suggestions for an ENTP person?

Also, what's your MBTI type? Just curious.

Retreat

I saw an old man stick his hand out to stroke the length of a bush as he walked along it. I loved that. So I tried it and I quickly discovered a new, delightful sensation.
I love the feel of softness - my hair, my pillow - on my lips.
I love hearing people blowing their nose really, really hard. I love it when it sounds effective. None of that wimpy, polite nonsense. Just blow it out! Juicy! So satisfying!
I love the diversity of sounds. Heavy rain pattering against a windshield, turning pages of a book, typing, night time in an open field.
I love it when a boy tells me he loves me, and I know that he means it in a non-romantic way. I love being able to pray with my sisters and cry with each other over the things that break our hearts. I love being easily able to share my struggles with three guys I hardly know over the course of a long car ride, simply because they place their hopes in the same God as I do.
I love being alive in You. It's a quiet breathing right now, but oh, it's alive, and You make everything beautiful.

3AM

Why am I still awake. What the heck is wrong with me.

Today I sat on my bed and stared out the window for what may have been about an hour. Tonight I sat at my desk and stared at a blank word document for... I don't even know how long. I wasn't even procrastinating at that point. I just didn't know what to do with myself. God, I don't know what to do with myself.

You are the vine, I'm just a branch. Apart from You, I can do nothing. So help me find You. Lead me. Spur me. Hold me.

In the Spirit of MLKJ Day

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists...

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"