Judging by Appearances

²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. ³If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2-4)

This actually happened to me a few weeks ago and I've thought often of blogging about it, but I'm just getting around to it now. I'm not certain why it's been hanging about my brain so long, but here it is:

I was filling up the gas tank one fine morning at a station at the bottom of the hill. I'm always a little edgy at that particular station because people asking for change are pretty common—last time, I mentioned to the guy asking for money for gas to get home that it must be some kind of black hole in the area, because so many people end up out of gas just at that particular station. (For the record, he replied to this with the observation, "Yeah, and it sucks.") I've got that underlying suspicion of such folk, unfair as that may be (though our talks with our police officer friend this weekend reinforced some of my worries), and I'd rather avoid such conscience-poking confrontations if I can.

On this particular morning, I spied a shabby-looking fellow who I immediately knew was going to ask me for change: shabby, a stained green canvas coat on his back, a watch cap pulled down low over his wild-bearded head, several bags of various kinds hanging from his shoulders. So I went about pumping my gas, waiting for him to come over.

Someone did approach, but when I turned it wasn't my trash-sorter: it was a younger man with long hair. He needed to get to work, said he, and needed gas to get there. He offered to sell me a beat-up old power saw in order to get the cash. Now this was novel, at least for me: I'd not been offered a chance to buy merchandise for change. My suspicion is that this guy does this to everyone, knowing pretty well that most folks will just give him a few dollars because (a) they feel sorry for him being so selfless; (b) they don't carry enough cash to make a decent offer on a power saw that they wouldn't feel guilty about; and (c) they wouldn't rob him of his future potential livelihood. (There was an episode of Corner Gas kind of like that, in which Brent kept offering to pay for everything with a $100 bill which people either couldn't break or were suspicious was forged, so everyone just let him keep his money.)

Meanwhile, the worn-out fellow in the green coat had come up on us to poke through the trash bin between the pumps. Upon hearing the younger man's story, he dug into his pocket and held forth about 6¢ in an open palm to offer to the supplicant. We both looked at the older man, and the younger waved him away. Meanwhile, I nodded to the collector, who returned the nod and moved on to the next trash can.

It was a brilliant moment. It reminded me just a bit of the gospel incident of the widow's mite, and was a wee reminder of the difference between poor and poor in spirit.

Make of it what you will.

ps—I want to say a big "Huzzah!" to the folks at Blogger who instituted that handy "automatic save" function. I had accidentally closed the tab with this post when I was about 5/6^ths of the way through and nearly wept at the thought of having to do it over again. But it was all savéd! Kudos to you, Blogger techno-geeks!

Procrastination? What Is That?

Here I am, grading papers half-heartedly, feeling very blah about just about everything in life, and I come across a student paper that is mostly plagiarized. I'm busy tracking down the sources for the paper when I come across an article about procrastination. I read a bit further, mostly about things I've heard before, and none of them really seem to speak to me: my procrastination must just be the result of laziness, think I. And then I find this paragraph for one of the lesser-known reasons for procrastination, and my head comes off:

Because we expect ourselves to be perfect.

Procrastination and perfectionism often go hand in hand. Perfectionists tend to procrastinate because they expect so much of themselves, and they are scared about whether or not they can meet those high standards. Perfectionists sometimes think that it is better to give a half-hearted effort and maintain the belief that they could have written a great paper, than to give a full effort and risk writing a mediocre paper. Procrastinating guarantees failure, but it helps perfectionists maintain their belief that they could have excelled if they had tried harder. Another pitfall for perfectionists is that they tend to ignore progress toward a goal. As long as the writing project is incomplete, they feel as though they aren't getting anywhere, rather than recognizing that each paragraph moves them closer to a finished product.

Yikes. There are about 20 projects I'm wanting to undertake, and of course I'm getting nowhere serious with any of them, and suddenly this seems to point out why.

Argh. Well, at least now I know, and, if G.I. Joe is to be believed, knowing is half the battle. Now where has that other half gotten off to?

One of those things, though, is posting to this blog, which hasn't been going all that well. But now that we have wireless at the house (huzzah and hurrah!), I should have a bit more opportunity. So help me out here by poking me about this thing, okay? I'm reaching out to you, O blog community. The life you save may be your own. Or mine. Or something. Whatever.

Men? Men Are Weak.

Normally I wouldn't put up a whole post on this wee quiz Devin and Marilyn put me on to, but so delighted was I with the results that I figured I'd make a bigger deal out of it.

I Am A: Lawful Good Elf Monk/Cleric (2nd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-13

Constitution-14

Intelligence-16

Wisdom-12

Charisma-13

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:
Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.

Primary Class:
Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.

Secondary Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Take that, flimsy humans!

Anyway, this was easier than putting up a real blog post, at which I clearly fail. I will attempt to do so soon, since the guilt has been eating at me. Though I am happy to report that my other New Year's resolutions are being fulfilled much more successfully.