Worthless and Weak

Yes folks, I'm back. I'm definately back, and I should get back to a regular posting schedule sometime soon. But, I've got a lot to say, so let me get down to it.

25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[3] ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[4] "
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[5] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." -Luke 10:25-37

"Won't you be my neighbor"
-Mr. Rogers

If you're my age, chances are you have a 2 second attention span. There is a simple reason for this. Seasame street. Look at it for five seconds. You now know the alphabet, and can count to ten. Flash-flash flashy-flashy-bang! C! Cake! Cook! Cookie! Cabinet starts with "C"! No wonder why people my age can't hold a thought for more than three seconds, or pay attention in class. Now, there was another show on kids PBS, one that I always liked more. Mister Roger's neighborhood. This was a nice, slow paced show, that let you relfect on whats been said. I heard the other day the best description of it, which I'll paraphrase: Every other kids programming is a show. Mister Roger's Neighborhood was one person interacting with children, and it just happened to be on TV. There were so many good things that happened on that show, so many ideas that just won't fly today. One important one, which I didn't realize before, was the transition from Mr. Rogers, to the neighborhood of makebelieve. Rogers wanted to separate imagination from reality, and only the trolly would connect the two. I don't think any other kids shows do that. Now, there are a hundred things that I could write about, but they've all been written elsewhere, so go look for them. I just want to say two more things. First, Mr. Rogers is one of the kindest, gentlest people who have ever lived. He serves as an example that we can all live up to. Secondly, and most importantly, if you're reading this somewhere, Mr. Rogers, you've made an impact on my life. As a child, watching your show, and perhaps more, today, looking at you as an example to lead my life by. So, to anyone who's keeping track, you've been my neighbor, Mr. Rogers, and you've inspired me to be other people's neighbors. Thank you, and God bless you.

Anyway, now that I've gotten that taken care of, I'll say a little something about my exploits of friday night/saturday morning. Well now, if you're a sox fan, you know that one of the most famous landmarks in Baseball is the left field wall at Fenway Park. And you further might know that they're building seats on top of it this season, to accomodate a few more people. And finally, you will know that tickets went on sale this Saturday, at 9 am.

Now, if you're dedicated, you might realize that one should go at say, 4am, to get a good spot. And that 6:30 is much too late to start. But, none-the-less, I got in line, in the cold, at about 6:30 or so. Nobody really knows, but I'm not here to be accurate. So there I was, and I was the enemy of everyone ahead of me in the line. All 664 of them. So after a few minutes, I get bored, and start talking to the people behind me. So, we're talking, mainly about baseball, and about how long we have to wait, and what are chances are of getting any tickets at all. So eventually the line starts moving, moves down a few hundred feet, then stops. Then, after another 30 minutes, people come out and give wristbands to everyone, to cement our number in line. I was number 665. The guy behind me goes "hey, I don't want to be 666." But such is life. After another half hour, we go inside fenway park, because they actually want to keep us warm. So, they give us free coffee, sell muffins, and bring in some low level entertainment. Which consisted of Red Sox trivia. Now, who better to answer a question than trivia master and red sox lunatic than your's truly, champion of the "Who wants to be a millionaire" attraction at Disney MGM studios in Orlando, Florida? Actually, I'm sure half the people in the room, who got up at 3 am to stand in the cold to buy sox tix know a bit more about the team than I do. But anyway, so I was there, leaning against a wall, wearing my blue jacket, trying to draw attention to myself by not drawing attention to myself. But anyway, I got the question, which was "Where did the Sox play before they played at Fenway Park." The answer of course is the Huntington Ave grounds, the current day home of Northeastern University. Wow, I think I lucked out on that one. So, I got myself a small bat. Which, I later got signed by two random retired sox players. Woo-yah! But anyway, the rest of the day was spent speculating what the chances of my getting tickets was, and it went up, went down, and went sideways with each new announcement by the ticket guy. Again, such is life. Anyway, by the time it was nearing, it was clear that I wasn't even going to get standing room tickets to a Yankees game. However... They were advertising a nice package, where you buy a pack of four tickets to different games, one of which is a Yankee game, fun! So, I bought two of those, one for me, and one for four differnet friends. So I'm seeing them play Tampa, St. Louis, New York, and Chicago. Not a bad four games. Except Tampa Bay, but hey, I even got 10% off. So, I achieved a mixed victory. Then, I went to bed, where I should go right now.

Well, night all, see you in the big parade that will be held in Boston this October. See ya!