Laugh More, but be respectful. Umm...also love your enemies if you have time.

Dear reader,

Jesus taught that you must use your talents if you plan on keeping them. I was four or five when I learned to ride a bike. My mother deceived me into learning. It was the whole I promise to keep my hand on the back of the bike seat trick. Mom said she would hold me steady and not let me wreck. I had no reason to distrust her, besides I really needed to learn to ride. All the cool kids on the block knew how. I started peddling with way too much rookie zeal (go big or go home) and before I knew it the bike was steady and a smooth ride ensued. Elated over my new accomplishment, I noticed that my current rate of travel was probably too fast for my mom to keep up. I will never forget the terror. Looking back, I got a glimpse of moms waving hand and proud look, then I hit the curb and flipped over the handle bars.

It didn't matter. I love my mom even more to this day for deceiving me into it. I have become a person who doesn't care how my personal results are achieved as long as they are achieved. Deceive me, lie to me, it's okay so long as the ends justify the means. I'm reminded of a wrestling coach who told me I was most likely going to get killed in my championship match at a tournament. Terrified, I beat the kid 7-2. Interesting...

Back to talents... since that fateful day in Sunnyvale California with the curb at age five or four, I have always been able to ride a bike. Recently I have been using my brothers bike to get myself to the library weather permitting. My brother was nice enough to let me use it since he has no need for it in active duty in the Armed Forces. So, I use my talent fairly often. Recently i haven't been on the bike as much as I should. Taking the car or whatever is the easiest route. Being lazy. I don't know if it was something in the air or hormones or what but I decided to take the bike. I went out to get it and discovered that it was missing, lock and all. Did i lock it up last week? No idea. When I further inspected my hiding place behind the apartment mailboxes, I found a heavily used, pink barbie razor scooter in place of my brothers $250 mountain bike. Like an idiot, I did the usual glancing around for the culprit. I suppose it was possible that I could have seen someone small enough to enjoy a barbie razor scooter, yet big enough to steal the bike, but unlikely. The images made me laugh out loud and at least the thief was thoughtful enough to leave me an alternate mode of transportation. I maintained my dignity, and walked to the library.

I have noticed that laughing tends to make things easier for me. Indeed the syphoning of our car is also against the law. Much like mountain bike theft. I remember the days when my troubled teenage friends decided to obtain free gas by syphoning. Taking no part in the process I noticed that every time they went to do steal gas, they would always get incredibly dizzy in the process and have to quit early. Something about how sucking on gas fumes gets you high. The national drug intelligence center calls this process of substance abuse, "huffing" consequently, so do the at risk youth drug addicts that I work with. So now my mind is visualizing some fuel desperate, economically deprived, late teens to early twenties hooligans, falling on the ground beside my car and having to quit early due to the fumes, all for a lousy 1/4 tank of my 85 octane fuel. I'm seriously crying right now with laughter! Of course, they probably had trouble remembering how to get home and probably spilled a little of the fuel while trying to keep equilibrium! They had to have huffed the gas since the pump syphons are much too loud and would wake one of the many sleeping people in our apartment complex. Someone please do something about the gas prices! For the sake of all drug addicts with empty gas tanks! They may be stealing my gas today, but AA substance abuse treatment doesn't come cheap. Plus, the more drug addicts there are, the more employment I have. Laugh more people! Karma is a very powerful principle. :-)

Oh yeah, I noticed this morning, the barbie razor scooter has been stolen.

LOL!

Nathan