Et Tu, Brute?

Experience has taught me that God can sometimes be like an overly-caffeinated celebrity chef making his world famous--or maybe even just his newest--recipe for the first time on Live Television. Or maybe Gallagher at a Farmer's Market...but with the new Geico commercial, that's kind of cliche. I shake my fists at Geico; that would have been the best simile. Way better than the over-caffeinated celebrity chef. But I digress...

Let me back up a bit. I am extremely flattered that the Lord seems to think I can handle as much as he apparently does. He knows my level of patience, which anyone who knows me would be saying "What patience?" right about now. Still confused? Understandable. Well, about a month ago, I found out that my mom's heart condition is hereditary. After 40 years of smoking and to the point where she said she would never quit, she said that week that she wanted to quit. So I told her to pick a day and that I'd quit with her. She picked Black Friday. Thus, since November 23rd, 3:00 AM, I have not had a cigarette. It has been hell, let me say, but then again it has it's trade-offs. I still crave nicotine like there's no tomorrow...but I have willpower to not smoke, which is very new to me. 

Willpower...what is this concept?

Moving on...Hereditary Heart Disease, quitting smoking, ah yes. Black Friday we went to the in-laws to hang out. On the return trip home, just south of Mt. Calvary, a deer decided to attempt to take out my wife's 2008 Dodge Caliber. You think I'm joking. She (I know it was a doe) strode out from the south side of the road, crossing the eastbound lane and struck the driver's side headlight. Like it was an INCONVENIENCE, and MY car was in HER way!! Just BAM! head butts the thing, my 70 mph spun her around, she dents the driver's side wheel well, takes out my driver's side mirror completely (which has been held together with packing tape for the last 4 months), and DECIMATES the driver's side rear bumper. To the point where the sheriff I called to notify of said Altercation with the Doe, told me to safely continue my journey home I had to remove the bumper. Which I simply tore off from the crack...no comment.

Moving right along. Three more things happened that it is too soon to talk about. Two of them are on the negative side, one is pretty positive if I do say so myself and would qualify as the Positive Whipped Cream on top of this whole month. The other negative thing that I can and choose to talk about, I will do so after tomorrow. Because of this though, this blog exists. My Vlog will come into existence because of it. My Rooftop Leap List has come into being because of it, and a whole new attitude on things is coming about. I'd like to put that in an entire post. 

The important thing to remember though, when it seems like God is watching you going "All right," rubbing his hands together, "Let's throw a little bit of this (negative thing) at him, and then maybe some of this, and that...and we'll see what happens." He stirs the pot a little bit and goes, "Mm-hmm, okay now let's throw on some of this, this, this and this. OH THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART!" and then throws on more, all the while with a maniacal smile on his face as he adds more and stirs...whoa. Tangent. Crazy Adderall-induced Tangent.

The Title "Et Tu Brute" is dual-faceted. Don't get me wrong, I will never choose to give up my faith or Question God and his intentions, but there came a point where I basically said this...almost like a "Really?" "What Next?" "For real?" It also, as of late, has a personal connection to my life besides the events of the last month. I haven't figured out a way to Code this yet, so that I can divulge what happened without making the guilty party known...but when I do, I'll post it too. And who knows, maybe by then I'll have a whole new mindset on it, and it'll be nothing more than an overreaction on my part (which is entirely inside the realm of possibility)

What I can say is this. God is in control. He always will be. That is a constant. That being said, do not let what people want you to be, or more importantly, what people think of you, run you, run your life, run your decisions, or make you be someone you do not want to be. It took me to find out...what I found out last week...to figure that out, but the important thing is that I have. I have come across a few pertinent quotes yesterday, that you'll find below.

George Washington said, "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." Very Important for Anyone to remember. You don't just give all your trust to one person or a few people, at the drop of a hat, they have to earn it, and you in turn have to earn theirs.

The other one is from Dee Hock, founder and CEO of the Visa Credit Card Association (though this kills me to put a quote from such a guy on here, the quote is a good one and pertinent at that): "The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it."

This Blog--more specifically, this entry, and possibly a few more like it, is me doing just that. Cleaning out a corner of my mind so that Creativity will instantly fill it. But i figured I might as well share with others, so that I in return may get satisfaction of entertaining others and not only that, so that I could quite possibly get some encouragement from you, my readers...as I go about my day as an Attention-deficient, Nicotine-starved Aspy with an Oversized Left Ventricle, trying to find his voice in the Deafening Silence of the World.

So...Final Summation...Be You. Be You Regardless of anyone or anything else. As long as your focus is on the Lord, everything else will fall into place. My English IV Teacher told me that...well actually he said it in an interview for the Reporter. I paraphrase here, of course. It HAS been almost a decade, you realize. As much as it will pain me, and it quite possibly will...I've got to take my own advice. Bill Cosby said "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." 

"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much." - Dale Carnegie

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all. In which case, you've failed by default." - J.K. Rowling