“What? No way. You’re just trying to get me to open up.”
“Nope. I’m serious.”
I then laid down, because I was starting to crash coming down from the rush of adrenalin and sobering up to the reality of the trouble I was going to be in when my parents got home. So I closed my eyes and hoped that when I woke up, it would have all been a dream.
When I was a kid, I was described as “having lots of energy”. I was energetic, emotional, gregarious, and on occasion, known to be angry. Now let me state, I was the instigator of most of the chaos and typical scuffles between me and my brothers. I liked to poke the bear and get attention. Also, my older brother, who is much more cool, calm, and collected than I ever was or will ever be seemed to like to watch me spiral out.
The other day I had a situation where a bird ended up in The Chapel. We had left the door open for an extended period of time and it seized the opportunity to just waltz right in.
Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to catch a bird in a 4 story open air chapel…but it is nearly impossible. I am sure we could have hired a professional bird catcher…but I am not one to quit easily.
Unfortunately, the bird kept flying towards light. So he kept trying to escape through the vast amount of windows. I was starting to wonder if this place was actually designed to keep birds trapped in.
I tried for awhile, then gave up and went back to work.
Next thing I knew, the bird walked into my office. Like, I was on a zoom call and he just came walking right in. I had an in-person meeting right after my call, so I had limited time to catch this bird.
I very casually got up, closed the door and trapped the bird in my small office.
The other day my son Keating came home from school and asked,
“Dad, who is your favorite prisoner held at Alcatraz?”
You know…I don’t know. I have not once in my life given any meaningful thought about the prisoners once held there, let alone which one is my favorite. I know vaguely that a few escaped and may have drowned…maybe…or may have lived the rest of their lives in secrecy and hiding…but I couldn’t tell you their names.
I knew that likely some infamous people in history ended up serving time there…but who they are, and who my favorite is out of all of them? Zero idea.
For years I described myself as a coffee lover. I would put it in my bio, I would talk about it when I met people, I would ask people about great local coffee shops, and I would buy lots of different coffee accessories for my at home coffee setup.
And by coffee accessories, I mean syrups and stir sticks, a milk frother and collectible coffee cups.
As time went on, I kept on consuming copious amounts of coffee, but when I would start to visit with others who also said they loved coffee…I realized they knew way more than I did.
They could identify flavors and notes.
They would go to great lengths to buy fancy beans from exotic locations.
They would pick up subtleties in the unique coffee that I just couldn’t identify.
I thought I loved coffee…but I just really liked coffee and caffeine. I was a young dad, working full time, and in seminary. Coffee was more about survival than enjoyment.
There is a sushi restaurant I really like that was recommended by a friend of mine. When we went my friend started ordering things that weren’t on the menu and asking about other things that weren’t listed. Now, I am super outgoing and can make conversation with a chair, but I also hate to inconvenience someone by asking unnecessary things. I never want to be…”that guy”…I just let him ask all the questions and sat back.
When the rolls he ordered showed up, the food my friend ordered was unbelievable.
