- Not The Only One!
- Post #90
- 27 Jul 23
- “Reverse order or Inverse Order”
- Howdy,
- I’m so grateful for you guys being there and checking in from time to time. I have never truly felt comfortable calling or referring to myself as a writer. I told you guys way back in the beginning, if it helped you to make sense of me, then to just think of it as therapy for me. It’s an outlet that sometimes keeps me from putting my fist through drywall ☺️☺️. At other times it is a cry from my heart to maybe, just maybe to sound an alarm and to get us to wake up from being asleep behind the wheel, or to challenge a thought process or some prevailing trend, such as there are more than two genders, but not chasing that one today ☺️☺️. I remember all the way back in high school that one of the first rules of writing is to write what you know, and today on some level, I’m going to be challenging that idea, and we will get there in a second. I know or have some knowledge about many things, some of them even technical. As, I have said a few times before, when I started this I did do research on what would make or goes into a successful blog, and I chose to go another way. So, here goes, I’m going to talk about a movie that I never saw, and to be honest, it just didn’t move the meter for me, but this morning it’s going to be a reference point. Back in 2008, there was a movie called ” The Strange Case for Benjamin Buttons”. If I understand it correctly it was about a man who was born old and aged in reverse order. Any way it was a twist on a real life, rare genetic disorder called progeria, in which it makes kids age rapidly, not going to explain past that, feel free to Google. I’m not pointing specifically to this example, or this movie, but I was thinking about how God has such a sense of humor. I sometimes imagine God sitting on His thrown and having a good chuckle watching us and some of our self proclaimed wisdom that often leads to bone head decisions. When I think about us whom in habit the planet, I can certainly see why King Solomon said that there was nothing new under the sun. If we look all the way back in the book of Genesis, we encounter this couple who felt as if they needed to help God out, because obviously He had forgotten that He had made a promise, that He had not kept. He had promised them a son, and since they were both very old and pass the child bearing years, that He obviously needed a hand. Thousands of years later, we still see the results of their actions still playing out today, with all of its ramifications. I, mean like I get it, I’m the same and definitely can relate. You give it to God, lay it at His feet and we can’t or don’t see any action or movement on that prayer request, so we go back to His feet pick it back up and just run with it, been there many, many times, ok, let’s just say countless and leave it at that ☺️☺️. I do believe that God is always working, even when we can’t see it, feel it or believing in the process. Sometimes I think that we are just comic relief for God with some of our choices and many times clearly against things that He has spoken directly to, and yes that is another place that I’m intimately familiar with ☺️☺️. If we don’t get there on our own , there are just pit falls, after booby traps, after snares, after land mines, after, well, you get the point. Let’s just say that life has a way of keeping things interesting, while all along the way providing what my kids like to call” Teachable Moments “. Now!, my kids absolutely detest Teachable Moments, because they can often leave you feeling, let’s just say a little less than intelligent and it is often accompanied by a smirk that says, You should have known better! or an I told you so!! , and if neither of those, most definitely the hindsight of “what the hell was I thinking “.☺️☺️ Let’s start with this one, just because it’s one of the most obvious, ” Are You Serious “? How and why are men and women sex’s drives on the totally different ends of the spectrum. Men’s best times for drive is usually between the teen years until their mid twenties, and a lot of times women are just hitting their stride somewhere after their forties. It’s almost as if our sex drives synced up, that is all we would do is hump like bunnies☺️☺️. Would we just never leave the boudoir? Would we be less focused than we already are?, I mean like what gives with that one? . I’m not fully sure if there is some difference between reverse order and inverse order, is it a preference, or is it something that I’m loosing in translation.?. Ok, let’s try this one on for size. I don’t know about you, but as I’ve gotten older, I think that I’m more patient, or at least I care less about certain things. As a grandparent, I’m way more patient then I ever was as a parent. I’m not proud of it, but I surely remember raising my voice with my kids as they were growing up, but as a grandparent, it’s a mute point and completely nonexistent. Well, when I give closer consideration to this one, if we have kids later in life when we become more patient, we probably wouldn’t have the energy to keep up with them. ☺️☺️. Maybe there is a connection between kids draining all of the energy out of us, where we have no option but to be more patient, because everything else has just been exhausted. I believe that most people’s lives resembles a bell curve, and we are usually somewhere near the top of that curve from early thirties to our mid fifties. These are the years when are firing on all cylinders, before the decline of self. We are the most active, having the most success in our careers, making the most money. These are also often the years of parenting children in the home. These are often the years of building and acquisitions. It could be building and establishing a home, a business, friendship , wealth ,or a number of other things. So I talked about sex drives and patience levels, how about wisdom? Why do we have to live through a bunch of dumb and not so smart life choices to get to wisdom.? Shouldn’t we just be born with enough intelligence to know not to touch the stove because it’s hot? , then having to acquire that information through a nasty burn as a reminder? Now ,I’m making allowances of those of us who can only learn by life applications. I apparently come from a long line of those folks☺️☺️. It’s like as we become older, we become theses wisdom juggernauts.. I mean I really could have seriously used a whole heap of wisdom and understanding when I was much younger. Now, there is also this thing about birth order, which we have completely no control over. So being the oldest ,kind of made me the trail blazer, so if by my poor choices and lack of wisdom demonstrated to my younger siblings that the things that I did, didn’t really work out that well for me, was that some how me imparting wisdom to them? I think that it was and that is a win, and I’m going to take it☺️☺️. They were like, nope!!, I’m not doing that! ☺️ . And again, there are those who can watch a train wreck or an implosion and still choose to follow suit, well they are the people that we were talking about in the last post ,who should be seeking professional counseling or advice. Let’s continue on, we work our whole lives to save enough to travel and or to retire. I guess the question is then, are we in a place of enjoyment? A friend recently sent me a meme that said enjoy them while you have them and it wasn’t taking about your kids, but your hips and knees☺️☺️. Now , that is funny, but it is also true . And I’m not implying that you shouldn’t enjoy your kids, .. well…that could be a split decision now days. Many times when they get out on their own, they are just gone, but now….more and more often they seem to be hanging around, or maybe you will get one of each ☺️☺️. I think it was the comic Sinbad, who said if You want to get unwanted adult children out of the house to just start having sex all over the house, and still there are some that will not be made to feel uncomfortable by even if they knew that you and mom had just done it on the table ,where they are now eating their bowl of cereal ☺️☺️..I know gross, no comments needed ☺️☺️. I mentioned earlier about the decline of self. This is where your body decides that it really doesn’t like you that much, or it decides to starts voicing it complaints over how you have taken care of it up to this point. I know for myself, it was a straight up mutiny. It started off with me becoming lactose intolerant. It was like my body was trying to punish me by taking away the things that I loved most….ie, cheese and ice cream, I’m like really? ,Do you ever notice how you body never makes you give up broccoli ☺️☺️, or some other vegetable that may appear on the least desirable list of foods, maybe it’s spinach. Didn’t start wearing glasses until I was forty. It’s just the beginning of the decline, and if you haven’t gotten there just yet, hold on there is an orthopedic surgeon some where down the road just dying to meet your acquaintance.☺️☺️ This next one is really like, come on God!!, do we really have to do this one? I don’t know what Your take is on hormones. They seem to be things that we clash with in life. In the younger years they make you super horny, where you just have this lustful desire to anytime, anywhere, and unfortunately sometimes with just anybody ☺️☺️. Well , on the other end of the spectrum they wreak havoc with us as well. It turns out that our hormone levels, have the benefits of keeping many of life’s hard realities of aging at bay. And as we get older they decrease and we become subject to certain things, such as brittle bones, loss of muscle mass , weight gain , lack of desire, brain fog, and a whole host of other things, such as diseases that No one is running out and saying, just sign me up for that one☺️☺️. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, nature wants to encourage you off to the grave. There is this roll reversal where men’s body’s produce more estrogen and women’s body’s produce more testosterone. I don’t want to sound so glum, but its like you clear all of these hurdles in life to end up here. Where is here exactly? It’s where men become so sensitive that they can cry at the birth of a grandchild or even a hard earned victory of their favorite football team. Talking about getting moist and all mistyped eyed, like really? , yes really. And while the women are enjoying and laughing at our new found sensitivity, they are growing facial hair at an alarming rate ☺️☺️. If you are ever out and about , trust me, they have a pair of tweezers in that purse to snag that long one on the chin, that has made itself at home , quite comfortable and is encouraging family members to make an appearance as well ☺️☺️. I mean like on some level it makes sense for women to get stronger as us men folk become sniveling pansies. They out live us, on average by eight to ten years and they usually end up taking care of us as we become more decrepit. There is a lot more science there with the hormones swap, and it may be worth you doing a little research, especially if you have hereditary stuff going on, or have been diagnosed with low T . I sometimes think of the hormone thing as some cruel joke. I mean who in their right minds looks forward to hot flashes and night sweats, oh yeah, sign me right up for that, not so much!. I’ve even heard of people who have to get up and change the sheets ,from the drenching of night sweats. Just think about having to prepare going to bed with a life preserver ☺️☺️, sounds like some kind of horror story. Ok, it’s time to land the plane. This has been about reversals , and as much as it about being up on top one day, we are all familiar with the what goes up ,must eventually return to ground zero, even the international space station has its limits. I may have struck a cord or made fun of something that is not funny to you because it’s your life or reality. God is not some sick puppet master , and He definitely doesn’t take any pleasure in our difficulties in life. Ok, so here is the kicker or the big idea!, just like I have big ideas☺️☺️ . It’s about the same thing, not a different thing, that God steps into and works through. The things that sometimes brings us pain and discomfort, can be the same thing that brings us immense joy. Some years ago your daughter came home from college or whatever, pregnant and no father in the picture, and you felt as if it was one of the worse days ever. Some years down the road, you can’t even imagine your life without that grandchild and all of the joy and memories that you cherish and will take to the grave with you. This is and was God’s formula from long ago. If you can just imagine yourself walking with the Christ for over three years and all of the things that You saw Him do and say. The meals together, the laughs that must have been shared. The miracles, the life lessons, and all at once it was snuffed out on a Roman cross, the most brutal death in all of history, just gone! Wiped out and erased as if it never had happened. Imagine what must have been incredible grief and despair. There was this darkness that just consumed them and a fear that they would experience the same fate as there friend . The point is the same thing that was the cause of such misery and sorrow, anguish and agony, became the same thing that became an incredible and uncontrollable joy and reason for celebration, “The Resurrection”. So , whatever your lot in life is right now, change your focus and look for the good, or the lesson that is coming from something that is bringing you discomfort or displeasure. It’s not a magic genie in a bottle ,, but a change in perspective and to remember that often our complaints in life are actually blessings in disguise.
- Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
- P.S. Post Script Someone challenged me on the point I made in my last post about people not loving you anymore, and me saying that they never did. I will stand by my comment. Love is not something that you turn off and on. People can say a lot of things ,such as ,I don’t want to be with you anymore, I don’t like you anymore, but if they can say that they don’t love you anymore, then they never did! It may not be romantic love, but it shouldn’t be the complete absence of it either!
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