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{"id":9478,"date":"2019-02-21T09:21:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T13:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?p=9478"},"modified":"2019-02-21T09:21:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T13:21:28","slug":"thursday-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/21\/thursday-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

The<\/strong> First<\/strong> Thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facebook reinstated<\/a> Faith McDonnell\u2019s account. Which is Fantastic, and thank heaven, and all the loud complaining on every platform available. Glad to see a moment of sanity catching its breath in all the turgid waters of our new social order. Meanwhile, I need to go find one of those old disk things to put all my pictures on\u2026or maybe I should print them out? Can\u2019t remember how it goes. What do you do with real actual pictures? Shove them in the cupboard I guess.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/strong> Second<\/strong> Thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is Thursday, as you probably know, and you might be looking for inspiration. I know I am. So here\u2019s some from twitter.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I love that there\u2019s \u00a0a rainbow over one edge of this blue, serene inanity. I \u2018thought\u2019 it would be fun to not worry about how things were \u2018going to work out\u2019 so I tried it for thirty seconds. I\u2019ll just lie here, \u2018thought,\u2019 even thought I\u2019ve already overslept and I have to figure out what to make for lunch and how to get the little girls through their school, and manage the anxiety of an older one who has an in class essay, and by \u2018manage the anxiety,\u2019 I only mean that I have to stand near her reminding her how many more minutes she has and that it\u2019s going to be fine whatever happens, and I also need to figure out \u2018how,\u2019 by which I mean \u2018when,\u2019 to take a shower\u2026<\/p>\n

Maybe I have the wrong definition for the word \u2018worry.\u2019 Worry for me means trying to figure out \u2018how things are going to work out,\u2019 which is actually the bulk of my daily existence. I am that<\/i> person. I figure out \u2018how things are going to work out.\u2019 When I stop doing that, as I tried this week, the whole order of our lives comes crashing down. And yeah, it is a \u2018worry,\u2019 because there are a lot of things to figure out, and like jenga, if you make a wrong move, everything comes crashing down and you have to pick up all the pieces and start over again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the meme maker means something in a more cosmic sense\u2014don\u2019t worry about how things will work out ultimately<\/i>, like when it\u2019s time for death. But this also strikes me as insane. Of course you should \u2018worry,\u2019 as in \u2018think about ahead of time,\u2019 about \u2018how things are going to work out\u2019 ultimately. Spend some time considering what happens after you die so that you\u2019re not completely surprised and unhappy when it sneaks up on you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or maybe we\u2019re just supposed to think about the bigger things that are just shy of death. Also a bad idea. Make a plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or rather, take the trouble to consider the theology of the thing. Who is God? Who are you? How ought you to live in the light of these two important considerations? Maybe you don\u2019t need a \u2018plan\u2019 but you also don\u2019t need to trust to twitter at the end of the day. Hashtag Rainbow.<\/p>\n

Is it me, or is it actually weird to bring \u2018belief\u2019 into the realm of not worrying how it\u2019s all \u2018going to work out.\u2019 Who is making it work out? Either it\u2019s you bringing it about, or it\u2019s some karmic energy force which to me seems particularly worrying. Worse still, it could be some powerful being who I would be very anxious to aquaint myself with in the face of death, let alone in the ordinary trouble of trying to figure out when and how to take a shower. Why wouldn\u2019t you want to know the true nature of either the energy or the being? What if those things were against you? Seems an awfully foolish assumption to expect or believe that they, whoever they are, were working everything out in a good way rather than a malign one. Oh my word, now I\u2019m worried about the poor twitterer who is making actual life decisions based on this meme.<\/p>\n

I had a third thought for Thursday but I have to go make lunch. Maybe I\u2019ll get to it tomorrow. Depends on whether or not it will work out.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"