If I'm clean when I get out of the shower, why does my bath towel have to be laundered?

Question: If the national budget runs a deficit, and it has done so for something like seven years, how does the govt. come up with $700 billion for a financial bailout? Do they just print it? Borrow it from the Chinese?
However they do it, I hope they share the method because I could use that info!

Why is it that the cops here will give you a ticket for not wearing your seat belt but people can legally ride in the back of a pickup?

There's a McDonalds at about the 30-mile point on my Saturday route where I stop to refill my water bottles. As I was getting back on the road I got passed by a guy riding what looked to be a very expensive tri- bike, and he was flying. He said hello as he went by.
Have you ever watched yourself doing something stupid, knowing it was stupid and that you'd regret it later, but doing it anyway?
I spent the next 7 miles trying to catch up with him.
I hurt.

We have a Praying Mantis living in our garage. I decided to name him Elijah.

Did you watch any of the Ryder Cup today? I caught a little bit before my ride and bits and pieces of the afternoon matches. We're still leading going into tomorrow's final round. So, if it's still on when we get home from church, Ryder Cup or football??

They call it "target fixation."
When riding a motorcycle you'll always go where you look. Imagine a rider heading into a left-hand curve on a twisty mountain road with a guard rail on the right and on the other side of that guard rail a 200' drop down the mountainside. Half way into the curve he realizes he's got too much speed. As a result he can't keep the bike in toward the center line; he's drifting steadily toward the guard rail.
His powerful instinct is to look at, fixate on the guard rail as he tries to avoid it. But by looking at the rail he's almost guaranteed to hit it. Happens all the time.
A few months ago a motorcyclist here went over the 3' cement wall that formed the outside of the spiral drive up into the airport's parking garage. He died from the injuries he sustained in the fall. As soon as I heard that story I thought, "target fixation." He got scared, focused on that outside wall and it was all over.
They taught us in class that we MUST fight the instinct to look at where we don't want to go. Look where you DO want to go. The more critical the situation the more critical that you do that. So on the mountain road, pick a line that keeps you well inside the guard rail and your body will automatically do what's necessary to go there. You'll lean further over, adopt a better riding position, and ride on through. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but I also know it works. (DAMHIK.) Part of that dynamic is because a rider is rarely riding beyond the ability to pull it back if proper technique is employed. But target fixation destroys proper technique.

There's a flip side to target fixation.
I used to ride a bicycle path near where we lived in Michigan. It was an old railroad track that had been paved over, and every mile it crossed an east/west street. To keep vehicles off the bike path they put up four, 4' steel posts at the opening to the path on either side of the cross street. These posts were about 3' apart - plenty of room for a bike to get through, but not a motorcycle, etc.
Most people riding a bicycle along the trail and approaching that row of posts will look at the posts, not the spaces in between. That raises dramatically the chances that they'll hit one of the posts. Far less critical than a motorcycle on a mountain road, but a boo-boo in the making, nonetheless. So the community group in charge of the trails painted a bright red line in between and perpendicular to the middle two posts. As a rider comes up to the posts he/she sees that red line midway between the posts and...rides right over it. Pretty clever!
I try to remember that principle when I'm out on a bike ride. I often see things ahead of me that need to be avoided - large rocks, junk jetisoned from vehicles, broken glass. The natural thing is to look at that object that I have to avoid. The necessary thing is to look where I want my wheel to go in order to avoid that object.

Why did I go through all of that?
I thought about target fixation on my ride this morning because of a large rock I spotted just before it was too late. Past the rock I thought about how the principle applies to life.
Paul said, "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworth - think about such things" (Phil. 4:8). Fixate on the right things and, like the red line, you'll hit them. Spend your time thinking about the wrong stuff and be prepared to go over the side. You'll hit the target you focus on, for good or evil.

I should make that into a sermon sometime. Ya' think?