Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy Birthday and Delaying the Inevitable

Today is my birthday, my 23rd in fact. To celebrate, I'll be taking a Statistics test and working. Potentially those fun-filled activities are to be followed up with a little trip to IHOP and some philosophical discussion. So I was thinking about the whole birthday practice and I'm asking that gifts be given to me in the form of quotes. No books of them, no long lists, just one or two quotes with something of weight to consider. Something like "Selfishness is self-destruction in slow motion." Got to love that Maxwell. In all honesty I'm writing now because I am delaying my stats test and work just a little longer. It's my birthday I get to be a little lazy right? That would beg the question "What's my excuse for the rest of the year?" but I'll just gloss over that.

On a more serious note, the last month or so has been more or less torturous to me to one degree or another. I've been trying desperately to figure out what the problem was. Finally, last night as I was praying one of those look,-I-know-you-know-what-you're-doing-but-I-don't-know-what-you're-doing prayers and things became clear. I was reminded of the importance of our thoughts. I really believe that there is no other way to truly be happy in life short of focusing our thoughts and consequently our actions on the things of eternity. For me right now, that mainly means thinking more about other people than myself. I hope that doesn't come across as cliché, but either way the principle holds true. Martin Luther King Jr. said "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" Guess that means I need to leave my ivory tower a bit more often.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

7 comments:

frogkisser said...

Happy Birthday A-Ron.
I am craving an omlet again:)

Heidi said...

Happy Birthday you lucky duck. Getting to be born on St. Patrick's Day.

Kim said...

Aaron...thanks for your thoughts. You are awesome. Hope you have a happy birthday!

Something McSomethingkins said...

Quotes like "soft words butter no parsnips"? But seriously, you'll have to give me time to fufill your birthday request.

Brett said...

Happy birthday, kiddo. And, I already gave you your gift, so no fancy quote from me (like I know any anyways :) (And, I'm still amazed that you did that black diamond flawless for not having gone in years. bravo!)

Russ said...

Gratulere med dagen. Here's my personal favorite Maxwell:

"Like goldfish in a bowl, some are mindless of who changes the water and puts in the pellets, or, like a kindergarten child whose retrieving parent seems a little late, concluding, "Man is alone in the universe."

Aaron said...

That reminds me of the days of feeding half-conscious flys to your goldfish in Skien. Ahh memories.