my careless contagion

I like these kids. Justin and Claire (formerly Spivey) Duggar . I like kinda following what they're doing, and what they did recently was get married. If you don't know who the Duggars are, you are forgiven. They aren't Hollywood famous. For me, they seem the antithesis of a lot of the crap out there. They're young. They're adorable. They have their whole lives ahead of them. (What I wouldn't give to go back and do it again.) They typically hew to traditional, Christian standards of living. They are Baptist, though a different brand of Baptist from me. They're famous because there are so many of them (19 Kids and Counting was the show). They are TV famous. All that. But I don't care about that. I just like the fact that these two kids are gonna give it a try. In this very cynical world that is endlessly divided and increasingly turned against tradition and Christianity, they are going against the grain. Got married. Probably love God and all that. How pu...

The author with a full-blown case of the Blatz circa 1978. You can tell when you're talking to a real alcoholic because they'll identify themselves as one, even after going years without drinking. The mechanisms that make them an alcoholic were there before they started drinking, as well. I consider myself an alcoholic who doesn't drink. My father was an alcoholic. Well, he still is. But he stopped drinking many moons ago. It's been said that people use alcohol as an excuse to do and say what they want to do and say; it's okay because they were drunk or buzzed and didn't mean it. It's like kids saying mean things on the playground and then, "Just kidding," making it even worse because why are you crying when I was just kidding? It's a one-two punch. Well, my dad was a womanizer, too. Swore like I've heard no one else swear. In fact, I've never seen anyone get as angry as my father. I thought he was going to kill one of my ...

Change is inevitable. It's what I need at this moment, even though I've been through piles of it in the last few years. In the last five years, I've changed jobs, moved four times, had a child, gotten a divorce, and am staring at my hands wondering if they're even capable of whatever the next step entails. Change can come from two sources — from someone outside of yourself or from the inside (you). I've realized that the change I need probably won't come from either source, which leaves me with a few possible scenarios. One of the easiest things I can do is to continue on and consider this as good as it gets. I would have to accept everything about myself that needs to change and leave it at that. The next solution would be difficult for me because of my love affair with the truth. I would have to change my state of mind and consider myself free of defects. I wouldn't need change if I was flawless, after all. The last solution is that ...